Anxiety or Something Else??

[sharetty]

I've had terrible symptoms of what my doctor claims to be anxiety for over a year, that include chest pains, shortness of breath every day, nausea, palpitations, seeing heartbeat in my eyes, neck throbbing and pain, cold feeling in my heart, weakness/EXTREME fatigue (feeling like my body's just going to shut down) and overall a constant, nervous-sick feeling right over where my heart is...it feels like it's dying... I've had an echocardiogram stress test and a CT scan of the heart done and the docs (2 different cardiologists) say nothing appears to be wrong.
I have been treating it for anxiety, which include lots of exercise, better diet, relaxing activities (yoga or stretching) and I've tried:
-propranolol (made me feel like i was going into heart failure),
-paxil (made symptoms worse, including severe jaw clenching)
-buspar (no change besides disturbing thoughts and dreams)
-various natural supplements
-xanax (only took when symptoms were abnormally severe, and worked; made me feel normal, which is VERY rare)
- I want to TRY gabapentin, because I'm hoping it's a neurological problem...but I'm scared because I usually have bad reactions to meds.

For the record I have also had a brain MRI and CT angiogram of my head which also seem normal.
Got my thyroid checked out and did some other blood tests a while back when I first started having symptoms, which also were all normal.

I want to believe it is a problem with my nervous system, as I also get dizzy and disorientated easily, and my eyes ache sometimes and I get spotty vision...I abused a LOT of drugs when I was a teenager, and I even had a couple of close calls (overdosing) on amphetamines... I also smoked a lot of what is called "spice" (a synthetic drug that was later found out to be quite dangerous)...
but right now I'm really afraid it's my heart, because I feel it right there!
Any advice?? I feel like I don't know where to turn...

[dolphin8808]

Have you worn a holter monitor to record your hearts activity when you are feeling these sensations in your chest?  With all the tests done it sounds like your heart is very normal... which is great news! This truly could be anxiety.

How long did you try the Paxil for?  You have to remember that those drugs take weeks to kick in and often times make you feel worse before you feel better.

[MYoungAtHeart]

A lot of us folks with anxiety really wish it was only trouble with our hearts, brains, breathing, lungs or circulation system....A lot of us folks want a magic bullet to make the symptoms of anxiety go away and we go from drug to drug trying to chase the fear and physical symptoms out of our lives.

It sounds like you have not found any relief from the outside use of the medical drugs that might help people who have real physical maladies.
It is because anxiety comes from the inside , from our thinking, from our ruminating about our problems and life, from our constant depression and from our ability to deny that the problems are not of the physical nature even though the symptoms are physical feelings..

Most of us who are addicted to amphetamines are later diagnosed as depressed.  The deeper the depression, the more dependence on the amphetamines and coming off the amphetamines drops us even deeper into the depression.  It is a vicious cycle and one that doesn't lead to a real healthy place.

If you have a doctor, and it sounds like you do, you can tell him or her that you think you are suffering from anxiety and would like some help.  He may be able to point you to a good therapist or group where you will work on your depression and with continued therapy, someday may be able to learn how to talk to your symptoms and hear back from them about what is really going on in your life....

Good luck to you....

M