PDA

View Full Version : Is anxiety really this powerful



Aussiejim
11-09-2012, 02:05 AM
HI GUYS,
I am a Health Anxiety sufferer. My latest and worst fear is early onset dementia at 36. This after my mother has been struck down 2 years ago. Although she was 70 before it got bad. Maybe early signs by 66, 67.
I can't read hardly at all anymore and I was a sharp reader. Reading the same sentence 3 times to make sense, reading outloud i jumble words. I jumble words in speech. I have blurred vision. I forget what i was saying mid sentence and don't make sense sometimes. I drop things, fumble with keys. forget what i went into a room for. even been into the wrong room a few times. I also wake up disorienteted at first and then recognise my surroundings. Same with my long distance vision. Is it a bus? no it's a pickup truck with a trailer. The most scary is I wrote a customer name on a box at work at the height of my worst stress days. Instead of ST JOHNS AMBULANCE I wrote ST JNS ABSONE. I found it an hour later. I was thinking about my symptoms at the time but is that and excuse. I get flashes like my brain got unplugged and then rebooted. I think night and write knight. I took ages to write this as I had a million typos. I saw a cat in the front yard and no it was a black bucket in the corner of my eye. Have I got dementia?? I'm Terrified. Can anxiety cause all this. Severe anxiety?

Any help will be much appreciated.

JIMMY

dazza
11-09-2012, 02:17 AM
Hi Jim

Without doubt, severe anxiety can completely and utterly screw up day-to-day functions.

Consider fight or flight mode - a state of ultimate fear to danger.
Imagine a real situation of fear, such as cornered by a pack of hyenas. Seriously... IMAGINE it.

Do you reckon that, in this state, you'd be able to write a letter? or even a word?

I doubt it.

Also, anxiety tends to play on your biggest fear, which in your case is dementia.
Fearing it will mean you are focusing on the symptoms of it... which in turn will have you questioning EVERYTHING related to it.

I had health anxiety - in particular heart attack anxiety.
I couldn't walk up stairs... every pain, no matter where it was, I immediately associated with the heart.
Fuck, I couldn't even take a shower without the water hitting my chest feeling like it's a heart issue.

Mind tricks... severe and terrifying mind tricks.

That all said, it is always prudent to go get yourself checked... for reassurance more than anything.