Hello everyone

[tx1986]

Hi, I'm a 30 years old male and recently how come across some anxiety that has lasted much longer than anything I've had it before. It would fall under anxiety about health. To start off I have episodes similar to what has happened to me over the past 5 weeks but on a much smaller scale. It started a few years ago when I got really sick and I just really freaked out and thought the worst. I googled(which I know is bad) and was convinced I had something really terrible. I had terrible anxiety and stress for a couple of weeks. Went to the doctors and said I was ok, but knowing that I hardly ever get sick and to get to sick like I did just scared me. I finally settled down after a few weeks and was ok.

Every since then I have always critiqued everything little thing about my body. Little pains here and there, making sure I wasn't losing any weight constantly, marks on my skin, etc. I never thought too much of it just felt that I was being extra cautious. Fast forward to my recent experience, I remember being with a couple of friends on a cold day and on of my friends mentioned her mom had cancer. I don't know what happened but at the moment I almost went into panic mode thinking oh crap I'm having body aches this morning. That was the start of my recent mental breakdown. My body aches got really excruciating like I had the flu, but I wasn't sick with anything else I felt ok. From reading online which I shouldn't have I thought I had something bad. Went to the doctor after a week, he suggested maybe I was fighting a viral infection. Took my cbc and metabolic panel and everything came out normal. So thinking that was would relieve me but it didn't. I also noticed that I started to have mushy like bowel movement(sorry for too much info) so then this started a whole new worry. Now I was worried about having something else bad. My bowel movements then went out of wack from soft, to constipated and terrible bloating to small bowel movements. Around the same time I noticed my bowel movements, my sleep went downhill. I could go to sleep easily but would wake up constantly throughout the night. A few nights I woke up breathing hard from a bad dream and sweating. I also felt depressed during the past 5 weeks I didn't want to go anywhere and do anything. Also have had really back cold sweaty feet and hands. I've had really bad loss of focus even my depth perception was off for a couple of days. It has been a mess..Went back to doctor finally a few days ago and expressed my concerned for everything and if this was all possibly due to anxiety. He said yes and explained how it can affect my body physically. He prescribed me some meds. Just not sure if I should take them. Anyone have any helpful thoughts for me on my situation? Thanks!

[Forrestnlp@G]

Stress is a powerful thing, it can give us all kinds of stress, I would like to speak with you more in reference to this, I see this alot, in my cognitive behavioral work, message me, I can give you some exercises to help you, but I need a little bit of detail in the form of regression

[Basketball]

Ive been in very similar situations as you and it is a very scary thing. You should definitely trust what your doctor says and at least try out the medicine to see how it affects your body. What helped me was self hypnosis/meditation, the mind is an extrmely powerful thing, while it can make you seem sick it can also make you feel better. You can go to a psychiatrist to help you learn about hypnosis. I know the word hypnosis can seem scary but its not what you think, its basically learning to have your brain communicate with your body. Basically you sit there in a room meditating, just slowly focus on your breathing while you take long slow breaths. All you want to do is focus on the inside of your body and any pain and ailments you feel, once you feel that you want to tell your brain to tell your body that everything is fine and to focus on removing any pain that you feel. Thats the basics of it, im sure theres plenty info out there if you search online, if you have any questions feel free to ask me, im glad to help out. Like I said the brain is an extremely powerful thing, people used it during surgeries without any anestisia or medicine and did fine and recovered faster than patients who got put under. The doctors would tell the patients every step of the surgery beforehand and they would just mentally prepare themselves before hand and tell there bodies that all the incisions from the surgery were actually good for them & when the doctors made the surgical cuts the patients who used self hypnosis didnt bleed out when they were cut into. Very incredible stuff, the brain is extremely powerful and can do amazing things if you can get it to focus on your pain and ailments. Goodluck with everything, hope I helped you out a little bit, hope you feel better soon

[deep panic]

I am really struggling I cant get out of the panic . breathing is staying out of control. I don't know what to do. I want to try without medication but not working.

[tx1986]

Ive been in very similar situations as you and it is a very scary thing. You should definitely trust what your doctor says and at least try out the medicine to see how it affects your body. What helped me was self hypnosis/meditation, the mind is an extrmely powerful thing, while it can make you seem sick it can also make you feel better. You can go to a psychiatrist to help you learn about hypnosis. I know the word hypnosis can seem scary but its not what you think, its basically learning to have your brain communicate with your body. Basically you sit there in a room meditating, just slowly focus on your breathing while you take long slow breaths. All you want to do is focus on the inside of your body and any pain and ailments you feel, once you feel that you want to tell your brain to tell your body that everything is fine and to focus on removing any pain that you feel. Thats the basics of it, im sure theres plenty info out there if you search online, if you have any questions feel free to ask me, im glad to help out. Like I said the brain is an extremely powerful thing, people used it during surgeries without any anestisia or medicine and did fine and recovered faster than patients who got put under. The doctors would tell the patients every step of the surgery beforehand and they would just mentally prepare themselves before hand and tell there bodies that all the incisions from the surgery were actually good for them & when the doctors made the surgical cuts the patients who used self hypnosis didnt bleed out when they were cut into. Very incredible stuff, the brain is extremely powerful and can do amazing things if you can get it to focus on your pain and ailments. Goodluck with everything, hope I helped you out a little bit, hope you feel better soon
Thanks for the input!
I will start taking my medication tomorrow, I felt a little better the past couple of days but today I got the ugly feelings again. I really do want to try the mediation, my gf has been trying to convince me to do it as well. She does it to relax and help with her anxiety as well. The hypnosis is interesting I need to look into this, Ive never heard much about it.

[tx1986]

I know IBS goes hand in hand with anxiety. I need some input with people that have had problems with their bowel movements. It's been about 5 weeks of weird bowel movements. I have gone from mushy stool to a constipation for a few dayys and terrible bloating and gas. I got prescribed lactulose which relieved some pressure and Dr. just shrugged it off as part of my anxiety. Of course my anxiety was thinking something is wrong with my stomach now.Then after that passed when I go my stool is just much smaller than what is the norm for me. These past couple of days I have been having to go multiple times a day. Is this normal for anxiety ?

[Basketball]

Np man I wish you the best of luck. I have a book on it, I'll get the title of it for you when I get home. Im the same way, very reluctant to try new medications. Ive tried a lot of different medications with not much luck. I suffer from anxiety depression and addiction to opiates, its all linked together and hard to work on fixing all 3. The self hypnosis is the only thing that really helped me a little bit, you have to work at it every day. All you need is a few seconds every hour, just take long deep breathes and concentrate on how your body feels and how you would like to feel and what you can do to help accomplish feeling right. Unfortunately Im not sure about your stomach and anxiety, mines been messed up for so long from the opiates, Ive gone weeks without going to the bathroom. But if you're on any pain medications or opiates that could be whats messing up your stomach. Hope that helps you out a little bit man

[Basketball]

The book is called "Discovering the Power of Self-Hypnosis" The simple, natural mind-body approach to change and healing. By Stanley Fisher Ph.D.