another newbie...

[omgshelley]

Hi. My name is Shelley and I'm 26 years old. At 16 I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Depression. Since I've gotten older, these problems have largely gone away. But since January of this year, I've been experiencing a lot of weird symptoms that I've been told are panic attack / panic disorder symptoms. I'm worried I'm becoming a total hypochondriac, because I just don't believe that these symptoms are *just* anxiety.

So I need some help, and some advice.

These are my symptoms:
In the last year...

• Dizziness

• Nausea

• Fatigue

• Feeling like I can't exhale (difficulty breathing - lasts sometimes for days without relief)

• Racing heart

• Heart palpitations (anything from a weird beat to feeling like my heart jumped into my throat)

• Constant need to burp / near constant stomach issues

• Pain, in both legs and both arms (sharp, stabby pains, most frequently in calves, wrists, and ankles)

• Numbness or tingling in hands and feet

• Joint pain

• Tingly, numb sensation on side of face/head

• Itching

• Chest Pain

Now, most of these symptoms lasts for hours or days on end, usually with no relief. The only symptom I can really relate to anxiety is the racing-heart once I feel another symptom, and I start to panic over it. So yes, I know I'm panicking over something happening, but it's always like this:

Suddenly really nauseated + dizzy = Me freaking out, giving myself a racing heart and chest pain.
Can't breathe for hours on end = Me freaking out, though now I have just grown used to it.
Face tingling and numbness out of nowhere, lasting for hours = Me freaking out, etc etc.

You get the idea?

I had blood work done and an EKG and have had my breathing monitored (from multiple trips to the E.R) and everything came back normal, aside from there being some really slight abnormal results to my C-Reactive Protein test (for inflammation). BP, breathing rates, blood sugar, cholesterol (on the high end of normal), thyroid, all your basic E.R blood tests and G.P tests came back normal.

So please, what I want to know is... Are my doctors just writing it off as anxiety because I'm anxious over my symptoms? Or are all these things (remember, they last for HOURS to days at a time, not a "10-20 minute panic attack") usual of a moderate to severe anxiety disorder?

Every reply helps, thank you so much for being here!
<3Shelley