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Labels and not sure anymore

I've been labelled an anxiety sufferer from the medical professionnnal. I see a therapist don't want the medications. I do feel anxious most times but for no reason more then being surprised I get hard palpitation and irrigular heart beat that makes me wonder if it's soemthing else. I go to the doctor to make sure that it is just anxiety and without much of a check up more just talk they immediately tell me it's just anxiety. Like I'm walking around with a huge label on top of me.

Now I had a huge episode last week and since then I'm feeling over all more anxious and I don't think I'm that anxious over something and then I get huge palpitations and faster then usual but stronger heart beats. I can hear that they sound louder in the stetoscope. I get light headed with those too. Some last long and others not. Seems anything will set them off. I'm feeling stupid when I go to the doctor to get rechecked to make sure but I'm so unsure that this is normal to feel this way and have all those palpitations. I don't feel like I'm taken seriously and am afraid that it may end up that I'm hurting my heart because they are not looking into why I'm getting this.

Seeing the therapist is helping some but we haven't yet touched the reason for those or it's something else.

anyone else going through that?
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Avatar universal
I've had life-long issues with anxiety due to having that condition called fibromyalgia.    It disrupted the ability to get refreshing sleep my whole life.    That in turn made me a very anxious person (due to lack of proper sleep).     Anyway,  I made many trips to the ER during my lifetime and of course I was labeled as having anxiety.    Unfortunately,  when doctors prescribed benzos,  that disrupted my sleep pattern even more resulting in continued trips to the ER and other doctors.    I had just about every test known to the medical profession.    There comes a time when you have to say to yourself that nothing was found to be medically wrong so its definitely anxiety and panic attacks.    Also,  getting upset about stuff such as being labeled or getting nervous about your physical condition simply contributes to keeping the cycle going.     The cycle of anxiety,  symptoms,  more anxiety,  more bodily symptoms that scare you.    

Medications help but have some bad side effects.     Talk therapy is definitely a must.    Good luck and best wishes.  
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Avatar universal
Thanks everyone.

I really appreciate your input on this. I know that I'm not alone in this and am saddened to see how many people around me suffer from this. I never knew it was so wide spread until I started talking with people and being told oh yeah I got that too.

I'm much better then I was when I started dealing with anxiety and am getting tools with the therapist. It's the darn fear to vanquish that we are still working on. Fear feeds anxiety as a feast does to our bodies.

I'l talk to my doctor when I go for my annual in a bit about the adrenal fatigue and see if it makes sense.
Helpful - 0
1118884 tn?1338592850
Hey, It is my turn. *jumps up on that soap box..wishes legs weren't so short*

As you can see from all of us with an anxiety disorder, being given a label by personal physician or anyone other than a psychiatrist, is annoying, but not life threatening...LOL.  When it comes to mental problems, many doctors just don't have the training or patience to deal with it other than slap a label on chart as Greenlydia  has said.

Do get the physical stuff checked out by a specialist. Then off to a psychiatrist and therapist for coping skills.  You are so not alone!

I'll add to Mr G's body/mind experience: I've had a seriously sore throat and what feels like sinus problems for over a week.  At first I got anxious and thought I should see doc: then relaxed.  This is chronic condition, and the pollen count is probably up.  I'll get over it, and I have.  Fine today.

A few years ago,  I glanced at my bill as I left exam room and saw 'neurotic' in upper part of bill.  We all know I am not in the least neurotic...:).

If I had not studied the effects of labeling while getting my sociology degree, might be upset.   I ignore any diagnosis, (label) except the one given me by psychiatrist.

You can come back to this thread when ready and start following the steps to coping with anxiety.  They do work.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I think that doctors are just that. Doctors. There to hand out scripts and see a string of patients. I have even seen some open up a book to look up symptoms. Now that really makes you feel great. That they need to look it up in a bloody book. Bit like getting on a plane and the pliot walks buy with a manual on how to fly a plane in his hand. I seriously don't see doctors as understanding full conditions. They never trained for that kind of work at all. Whereby a shrink trained to understand the mind and also had a bit of person training. How to deal with human emotions and the likes. Once you are put on the anxiety list by a doctor that is that. No matter what you go to him with the anxiety answer will always come up first. Just had a mental image of walking into a doctor's office holding both my hands, telling him they got chopped off, and him telling me it is only anxiety. It'll get better. I do think, at times, if we are ever feeling bad, the best place to go is ER, and don't even mention anxiety. Let them work things out. Just one mention of the A word and you have doomed yourself.

As for symptoms and fears. We bring them all on. But I think we are fully aware of that. It is like a bad chain reaction. Begins with the mood. Then we have a thought as to why our mood is at it is. Then we react to that thought. How we react brings about our symptoms. They are all linked. But it shows the power of the mind. But if it can work against us, it can also work for us. Just to even change the thought or the reaction can change the symptoms. This is theraphy 101. A good therapist would go through things like this with you. A doctor wouldn't have a bloody clue about any of it at all. Again it all boils down to different kinds of training.

But when you feel the pinch in your leg or arm, the worst thing you can do is focus on it. We do tend to do that a lot. Focus on things and make them much worse. Just last night had a bad pain in my lower back area. I seriously gave it no attention at all. Been around the block long enough with anxiety to know what would have happened if I began to focus on it. I just lay down. Put on the radio. The pain vanished. So like I said in the paragraph above, it boiled down to my reaction. Had I of reacted in a negative way it could have become a lot worse. Just takes a bit of training. Good shrink or councilor. To teach you how to cope when you need it most of all. There is always a road back. But it means a lot of work on our part. Facing up to things we might fear most of all. But it is well worth it.

* Gets down off the soap box and passes it over to the next poster *
Helpful - 0
757137 tn?1347196453
Adrenal problems are a common cause of anxiety. Have you ever been tested for adrenal insufficiency?
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Avatar universal
I'm not really fretting as much over the labelling of anxiety more frustrated about it. It's when for no reason I'm no longer as able to do exercise cause I get chest pinch or that I'm pulling the wagon with the kids in it while out for a walk at a festival, enjoying myself without thinking much about anything and then get the pinchy feeling. I question.: ok, am I anxious over somthing, did I see something anxious, did I think something anxious or see,hear, though of something that could have brought on a quick anxiety. Sometimes yes is the answer to some or all so I deal with the anxiety and use the tools given to me but sometimes, the answer to all is no so that's when I start wondering if I should go get checked out again, how can I tell them how I'm feeling the symptoms so they understand that to me this isn't normal and I can't find the trigger if it is anxiety so I want to make sure it's nothing else. I'm at a point where I feel ashamed of my anxiety making me wanting to go get checked out every so often. I feel stupid going to the doctor again but I prefer to feel stupid and ashammed and know for sure it's not my heart and just anxiety.

A doctor once told me this is normal that to you this doesn't feel normal. You beleive you feel a pinch, it may be a muscle, but you do physically feel a pinch. You think your having palpitations and you will that's anxiety. Still you don't feel understood and doctors no matter how many patient they have seen that day with anxiety should regardless be talked to patiently and gently to make them feel like they came and have anxiety but not make them feel more anxious about being there by being rough and dry with them. Sure it's not easy to understand what anxiety sufferers feel if you haven't experienced it but be sensitive to them understanding is what we crave.

Our fears are real are symptoms are too, we get scarred and just don't know where to turn at times so we go where we beleive people will be able to help...
Helpful - 0
370181 tn?1595629445
Not only have I gone through what you're both going through, being "labeled," many years ago as an "Anxious Annie," or "Nervous Nellie," and quite possibly a "drug seeker," it can be horribly frustrating AND frightening to keep being blown off by medical professionals. I worked for quite a few years in the ER dept. and there we many people who came in with the same symptoms you both describe, and which I also can relate to, and across the top of their chart, in red, would be written "AX." This stood for "anxiety." I saw it happen so many times that the doctor would go in, listen to their hearts and breathing, look at their elevated BP and send them home with some Xanax or Ativan so they could calm down. Very seldom did I see any of them order an EKG or bloodwork to rule out something more serious.
While I'm pretty sure you are both suffering with anxiety/panic,  I'm not a doctor and I'm especially not a cardiologist. If you both want definate answers to the condition of your heart and reassurance that the dx of anxiety is most likely correct, I recommend you see a cardio and have a work up done. Then you will know for certain what you're dealing with.
It's a sad fact of life these days that we must be very pro-active in our own health care, but if you both seriously believe you are being shoved out the door with the wrong dx, then take it upon yoursleves to go to the doctor who CAN give you the correct dx.
I wish you both the best and hope you let us know how you're doing.
Peace
Greenlydia        
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Avatar universal
i'M 29 and this started nearly a year ago. They did an ecg and an EKG but of course nothing happened during the tests, I also had bloodwork. Sometimes I feel like if I could get the test done more often they'd get it but it's not happening. I'm doing all I can to get my heart healthy taking multi vitamine, Omegas, garlic pills,  the palps are still there and the symptoms. I once fell on something that claimed to clean up your whole blood system for just 400$. Well as much as I'd like to beleive and try miracle cures I don't have that money and that's not even to say if it would do anything.
Helpful - 0
1282225 tn?1272140188
i feel the same way. My moms a nurse and she thinks ive been labled. I have heart palps and faster than normal hb, and i get dizzy and feel horrible. I keep going to the doctor bc i dont want them to tell me its anxiety when it may not be. Like that is the easiest answer that they can give and send you on your way. Im only 27, in great shape, i eat well and dont drink or smoke. So what is my problem, if i say i dont feel good then something is wrong. Like i want them to exhaust every test available and send me to every specialist, i just want to know the answer. So of course i have anxiety, but only bc i have all these symptoms, and ive been healthy and with no problems for years, so why now. Its very frustrating, i just demand tests and to be sent to different docs.
Helpful - 0
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