Can anxiety really make you feel so ill?

[Reading15]

So recently my anxiety is proper on one! I’m struggling so bad, my brain never want to shut off and give me a break. I’m so anxious that my body feels like it’s on fire a strange sensation that makes me panic even more, the worst thing about it is that I don’t even know what I’m so worried about. I feel like I’m losing control mentally! I can’t shut off, can’t breath, ect I feel like I’m going to die or have a heart attack or something. I’m battling so so hard without any medication but today my doctor gave me 40mg of propranolol! Is anybody else as crazy as me? Can’t think straight, feel like I’m so tense that sometimes I get brain fog ect, HELP

[rajdeepmahajanstallone101998]

Hi there! I am suffering through the same thing out here... The only difference is that I firmly convinced myself that I have three different forms of cancer. My mind is at a constant rattle, it just makes me mad at certain time, eventually so much that I wanted to commit suicide... Though I didn't allow such thoughts to overwhelm me. But here is the thing, you need to control your mind or else I am telling you, you really gonna suffer a lot. I took my meds, yeah it worked but it didn't cure me... You need to do that... Stop googling symptoms and don't indulge in feeling those sensations over and over again. My sympathies with you...

[rajdeepmahajanstallone101998]

Hi there! I am suffering through the same thing out here... The only difference is that I firmly convinced myself that I have three different forms of cancer. My mind is at a constant rattle, it just makes me mad at certain time, eventually so much that I wanted to commit suicide... Though I didn't allow such thoughts to overwhelm me. But here is the thing, you need to control your mind or else I am telling you, you really gonna suffer a lot. I took my meds, yeah it worked but it didn't cure me... You need to do that... Stop googling symptoms and don't indulge in feeling those sensations over and over again. My sympathies with you...

[SassyLassie]

Hello, you are welcome to go to my page and read my blog, https://www.medhelp.org/posts/Anxiety/Can-anxiety-really-make-you-feel-so-ill-/show/3057490.  It is amazing how many symptoms anxiety can cause. I hate the dizziness and chest pain and heart skips the most. I hope you feel better soon.

[SassyLassie]

Hmmm, looks like the link doesn't work, but anyway, you can go to my page and read it. You will be amazed.

[Paxiled]

It sounds like you went to your regular doc rather than a specialist, which would be a psychologist for therapy and a psychiatrist for medication.  I say this because I'm not sure the med you were put on is going to be of much help.  This med helps folks who have heart rhythm problems.  It has been used for a couple types of anxiety, mainly social anxiety, but you don't describe that.  What you are describing is called GAD, or generalized anxiety disorder.  Taking a med for a heart problem can be a problem if you don't have one.  I think if you need medication, and I can't know that from here, there are ones that work better than that one -- it's an odd one to start off with.  The first problem you have to face is whether this is a mental problem or a physiological one.  You don't mention if the doctor you saw gave you a battery of tests to see if there's something going on that creates anxiety but isn't, such as thyroid problems, blood sugar problems, nutritional deficiencies, etc.  You won't do any good treating an anxiety problem if it's a different physiological problem.  You also don't say if this has sprung up suddenly or has been there for awhile and has been getting progressively worse or if it's been there and has recently exploded.  If it is an anxiety problem, did anything happen before it started that might have triggered it?  I personally prefer that if you've never sought treatment to start by seeing a psychologist who specializes in anxiety treatment, and if they think you need medication they will refer you to a psychiatrist they work with and trust, but you're reporting pretty significant difficulty and you might need medication quickly to tamp it down.  Again, not something anyone can tell from afar, but you probably can.  Do know that while anxiety has been tied to a lot of physical symptoms, anxiety sufferers are not immune from all the physical problems everyone else gets, which is why it's a good thing to rule out physiological causes before concluding you have a mental disorder.  But assuming that's what you have, again, therapy can fix it though there's no guarantee it will but it takes time and work, and medication can tame the symptoms but can't cure it, but other meds such as antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds might help you more than what you have been prescribed.  Good luck.

[Paxiled]

Oh, and let me add, how bad anxiety makes a person feel symptomatically depends a lot on the person and their lifestyle.  Anxiety itself is a disease of thinking anxious thoughts on a chronic basis.  That's what causes the rest of it.  Some people only have the thoughts.  Some have a host of physical symptoms.  Some have a couple.  It really differs a ton by the person.

[Prologx]

Reading 15,

I’ve had the same thing happened to me. I went to the doctor after doctor taking blood test, more blood test,chest x-rays, heart monitor, ekg, ecg. Etc. Turns out it was nothing and I should have listen to my doctor the first time. He told me I had anxiety, and panic attacks.

How I managed my anxiety was using the Dare anxiety program look at it on amazon search for “dare anxiety”.

Basically there’s 4 steps
1. Diffuse the situation. Start by telling yourself anxiety is safe, it does not do any harm to your body. It’s just a natural reaction, tell yourself there is nothing wrong with you.

2. Identify how you are feeling. Close your eyes & Listen to your body. Is your heart beating faster, is your arms getting numb, is your body getting numb. This step you should identify everything that your feeling.

3. Run to it. This step you must face your fear. Allow yourself to run to that feeling, tell yourself give me more of that anxiety feeling. After it comes on, tell yourself “is that all you got, I want more”, even though your body is numb or your heart is beating faster tell yourself “you want more”.

Step 3 is my fav step because you will finally see that ... that’s all anxiety really is, is you and your body scared of the unknown, but once you ask for the worst of what anxiety can give you, you realize it’s nothing harmful, it’s actually harmless.

4. Engage in something else that will require your full attention. So I tell myself after step 3. “Anyhow what I was doing before this... ah planting gardens or watching a movie.

You will have to repeat these steps over and over. I had such bad anxiety that I refused to fly, or leave the house. And now I can do all that. It takes time and practice, until you can finally tell yourself that you had the worst anxiety and it’s harmless.

[Paxiled]

I would only say, it takes preparation before undertaking a cognitive behavioral approach to the point of flooding, which is when you try to do the things you are panicked by.  There are tools that you need to learn first,. and usually some relaxation techniques to learn that can be used during that period.  Otherwise, trying without proper prep can lead some people to a much worse problem.