Afraid this may not be anxiety...

[Nicolenz]

I've been dealing with anxiety for about two months now, in the beginning it was pretty bad and I was getting panic attacks but now the attacks have stopped and I just feel I have a high anxiety about my health all the time. Any symptoms I have I always manage to think it's linked to some serious illness. I've gotten used to thinking this way and I'm trying to cope but sometimes it really does take a tol on me. For the past few days now I've been having pressure headaches that can get kind of bad, slight nausea from time to time and then I noticed in my left eye that it became the slightest bit blurry when it comes to reading things at a distance. I can't help thinking I have a brain tumor as these symptoms can be the symptoms of one. I know that many things can cause these symptoms but I just feel that it will end up being the worst possible case..
I have had my blood taken and been to my doctors and everything came back fine and I've been told I'm healthy and I shouldn't worry but I cannot help it..
I've felt so stressed and scared and I just don't know what to do

[raggamuffin]

I was the same way for many years. i had a few panic attacks to begin with them started getting symptoms. Chest pains to begin with so of course I feared a heart attack. Pretty soon chest pains developed into palps. So now I had 2 symptoms bouncing around day in day out. The more I fretted about my health and heart I started getting left arm and shoulder pain. Of course I was convinced I was building up evidence that I really was having heart problems and not realizing that I was firing off my fight or flight response with all this stress and worry 24/7 that my body was simply mimicking what I was fearing.

I went to the Dr's like you did and every test came back fine. But, like you currently feel, I felt they missed something. i was convinced I was dying and that I was in danger. The fight or flight response triggers more adrenaline and other chemicals to go round our body. This makes us more tense, provokes more symptoms and makes us feel more anxious. So you see it's a vicious circle. The reason why you feel so bad is because you're making yourself feel bad with your fears and worries. You are feeding your anxiety.

Convincing yourself it's not anxiety means your mind still thinks it's in danger of some hidden disease or that death is around the corner. So you live like this day in day out, which means you live off your fight or flight response day in day out. In turn this means you get symptoms day in day out and panic attacks. You see now how your fight or flight chemicals are just ramping up and up in your body?

The doctors are right, you are healthy. But you can't see that because you're not thinking logically. You're responding to everything with paranoia because you're letting the anxiety control you.

You need to realize that you can actually control your anxiety. If you didn't feed it with fear and worry and false beliefs day in day out it wouldn't be as strong as it feels now. Take it from me I had 5 years of symptoms. I'm talking wall too wall symptoms. I'd get one and fixate on it and make it worse. Often for hours or days at a time. Then something new would come along and I'd fixate on that. Wasn't for a long time that I realized when I fixated on a new symptom the old one lessened or disappeared entirely.

So when you have a symptom, don't enable your anxiety. Allow the symptom to come or go. You need to avoid responding to a symptom emotionally - because these symptoms came about because of anxiety. Responding with more anxiety is like trying to fight a fire with a can of gasoline - you're just going to make things much worse.

Accepting anxiety is hard, it took me a long time. But if you read up about anxiety more you'll understand it. Avoid Dr Google and Googling symptoms because you'll read a lot of scary stuff. But Google can be your friend. If you Googled chest pain you'd wind up reading about heart issues, angina, heart attacks etc. That's what I did to begin with and it sent my anxiety into red alert. Instead if you Googled "Chest pain, anxiety symptom" you'd find forums such as this with literally thousands of people describing symptoms that you yourself have.

Like I said, it took me a long time to realize this, even with friendly forum members on sites such as this telling me it's ok and it's just anxiety I was still convincing myself it wasn't. I was responding emotionally and not listening to logical facts and TRUTHS.

If you can let a symptom come and go you're half way there.

Next up look at diet - try and cut out processed food. Manmade junk is chock full of chemicals and nonsense that might aggrovate your symptoms. When I started feeling less symptoms etc I then encorporated a better diet and the symptoms I did still get dropped significantly. you'll find new found energy and it'll really help.

Also you need to face your fears. Now trust me, to begin with this can be hard. When my anxiety was at it's worst I barely made it to work each day, my social life went down the toilet and I felt extreme symptoms when I was outside of my comfort zones of home and work. But you have toi expose yourself to situations that make you feel anxious. You need to realize that practicing safety behaviour empowers anxiety and weakens you. To begin with it's not nice going to places that make you feel anxious. But it's not the locations fault, the fear and anxiety is within you. Gradually over time the more you expose yourself to anxiety the less of a grip it'll have on you.

Rationalizing is key too. See at the moment I feel dizzy - it's lasted a few hours but it's nothing new. When it was new I was terrified. I assumed I had a tumour or MS or all manner of horrid illogical things. Now the symptom isn't nice, but responding with panic just makes me feel worse and makes me feel incapable. So i rationalize the situation, I make sure I drink enough water and eat correctly. I'm putting it down to the fact I'm starting a new job tomorrow and I haven't been in work in just over 400 days. So it's natural that I would be stressed.

So finally we come to what I just said above - stress. It's natural for all of us to feel stressed. Problem is when you live in a high stressed state for long enough your body doesn't respond well to more of it. In fact you often become rater sensitized to stress and it can provoke panic or symptoms. But rationalizing situations is of paramount importance. Don't assume the worst or respond emotionally.

I think they're the key first steps to help you understand anxiety more and help reduce your symptoms. There's a wealth of information about anxiety out there. Just remember that medication, diet, therapy and such like are helpful for people. But at the end of the day the changes and self improvement come from within you. The road to recovery isn't an overnight affair, but it's a worthwhile journey to take and you will be stronger as a person once you see the other side.

Ed

[prouddad]

I've been dealing with anxiety for about two months now, in the beginning it was pretty bad and I was getting panic attacks but now the attacks have stopped and I just feel I have a high anxiety about my health all the time. Any symptoms I have I always manage to think it's linked to some serious illness. I've gotten used to thinking this way and I'm trying to cope but sometimes it really does take a tol on me. For the past few days now I've been having pressure headaches that can get kind of bad, slight nausea from time to time and then I noticed in my left eye that it became the slightest bit blurry when it comes to reading things at a distance. I can't help thinking I have a brain tumor as these symptoms can be the symptoms of one. I know that many things can cause these symptoms but I just feel that it will end up being the worst possible case..
I have had my blood taken and been to my doctors and everything came back fine and I've been told I'm healthy and I shouldn't worry but I cannot help it..
I've felt so stressed and scared and I just don't know what to do

I have been fortunate enough to have had a break from my anxiety for several months. Odly not sure why but all of my symptoms such as the jittery feal ing were gone. At the height of my issues I woke up in the middle of the night with blood pressure around 180/120, pulse of 120ish. I woke my wife and was sure I was having a heart attack. The chest pains, the blur vision, cold sweats, dizzyness, etc... are all very real symptoms of anxiety. When you feel them it's very difficult to talk yourself down, get breathing under control. But, once you do you will feel better and I hope you can convince yourself it's only anxiety. I tried all the herbal concoctions, yoga, exercise diet. It all helps, none of it is a cure. You have to realize it's in your mind and your mind manifests the physical symptoms.
The last week or so I have had the symptoms again. That's why I'm back on here now. I need that reassurance and hearing stories like yours helps me to put things in perspective.
I wish you well on your journey to beating this horrible condition. When the symptoms go away it's an amazing feeling.

[Rbm]

i fear it's something else too, because i get soooo confused sometimes...i feel fine, not anxious and the i get brainfog, can't keep it together...i think today is wednesday ,for eg, but only LATER realise that i had a certain something to do on wednesday, things just don't come together.i had to congratulate someone on their bday , i remembered the day BEFORE and the day AFTER but not when i needed...i am so afraid...i am depressed, some say, but i feel fine for the most of times and yet...

[suziefresh]

Hey, is anyone still suffering from Health Anxiety?

[Estelle2008]

Hey, I do suffer from health anxiety! I have stopped watching medical shows because I feared I had everything on there :( I am terrible about my blood pressure, always checking it!!
I hope you find a way to feel better about it...and if you do please share :(