Aa
i think i have health anxiety
i am a 29 yo f and new to this forum.
ive suffered with heart palpitations for a little over a year.i have had all the tests done and they are supposedly benign.they have sent me into numerous panic attacks, which usually subside with ativan.
lately, even though the palpitations are under control, i find myself worried that my heart will stop all the time. i constantly take my blood pressure and pulse, and am afraid when it is low, like just now it was 96/55 and my pulse is 62(not really that low i know) or when its high i freak out too.i feel like i can feel every beat.
why can't i just believe my dr. when he said my heart was normal?but it has been a year since the tests maybe something has changed?
i have tried zoloft, prozac and lexapro and all have increased the palpitations so an antidepressant is OUT.what else is there?it is to the point where i dont want to talk to anyone or even leave my bedroom.i am afraid that this anxiety is going to ruin my relationship, my job, and my life.im so scared!im more afraid of my inability to put the thoughts out of my mind than i am of actually keeling over! i just want someone to tell me theyve been through this and survived i guess!thanks for listening.
ive suffered with heart palpitations for a little over a year.i have had all the tests done and they are supposedly benign.they have sent me into numerous panic attacks, which usually subside with ativan.
lately, even though the palpitations are under control, i find myself worried that my heart will stop all the time. i constantly take my blood pressure and pulse, and am afraid when it is low, like just now it was 96/55 and my pulse is 62(not really that low i know) or when its high i freak out too.i feel like i can feel every beat.
why can't i just believe my dr. when he said my heart was normal?but it has been a year since the tests maybe something has changed?
i have tried zoloft, prozac and lexapro and all have increased the palpitations so an antidepressant is OUT.what else is there?it is to the point where i dont want to talk to anyone or even leave my bedroom.i am afraid that this anxiety is going to ruin my relationship, my job, and my life.im so scared!im more afraid of my inability to put the thoughts out of my mind than i am of actually keeling over! i just want someone to tell me theyve been through this and survived i guess!thanks for listening.
hey, im 17, The Same thing Has happened to me, Its Scary i no, I still belive that they is somthin wroung with me and the doctor dont want to help me because im always going there saying things are up with me.
but when you look up things like this it realy helps me cos i know im not the only one, and if there was anythin actually wroung with me, it wouldf show up on tests, every test iv had have came back fine, just live yourr life, you could live for 60year moree, or could get run over 2moro, LIVE IT UP, easyer to sayy thenn doo x
but when you look up things like this it realy helps me cos i know im not the only one, and if there was anythin actually wroung with me, it wouldf show up on tests, every test iv had have came back fine, just live yourr life, you could live for 60year moree, or could get run over 2moro, LIVE IT UP, easyer to sayy thenn doo x
Hi,if ur not feeling dizzy or lightheaded at BP of 96/55 and pulse 62 then its normal..i used to have 90/70 and i felt so lightheaded at the doctor office.It depends some people have low BP but do not have any symptoms..but if ur BP is lower..then u have dizziness then u should mentioned this to ur doctor where they can run some test from complete blood count and thyroid.
Hey, I've been there, in my own hell of anxiety, developing overwhelming phobias that drowned out everything else in life, but mostly became paranoid and withheld in fearing the physical symptoms of anxiety, i was convinced i was dying and was harassing doctors every day with something new. The symptoms of feeling like there is something wrong with your heart, lungs or chest, are extremely common for anxiety, and horribly terrifying.
Anxiety can be the most terrifying thing because it does mimic scary medical symptoms. It feels so real, that most times people with anxiety are in the same boat, they think they are dying or having a heart attack, or they think there is something fatally wrong with their body.
We usually become terrified of health factors because of the symptoms of anxiety and how real they feel, but most times there is usually an underlying factor causing the anxiety, which is important to understand and look into if we want to overcome it. Sometimes it stems from something traumatic in childhood which just comes up later on, or sometimes it's stress related from every day life, and i'm pretty sure the list could go on.
The main thing which helped me, personally, (this is only my experience, as i am not a professional) overcome anxiety attacks or paranoias over physical symptoms, as real as i thought they were, i simply told myself it wasn't real, that it was just my mind, as many times as i had to. Of course i didn't believe it at first, but it worked. I would do deep breathing exercises, relax myself, keep my mind away from focusing on the physical symptom, and it did eventually go away. I used to have heart palpitations too, although they were really just what the anxiety induced, nothing truly wrong with my heart, but it felt real, until i stopped letting my mind induce fear. Yes, i too went through millions of medical tests that came back saying nothing was wrong.
I can even remember scary episodes where i would become completely deaf and it felt like my head was exploding. I also felt, weak, dizzy, almost like a real dangerous physical time in my past where i had low potassium, it mimicked it exactly. I even tested it, because i was sick and tired of people telling me it was all in my head, so i became fearless to a point, where i decided to look death in the eyes to prove it wasn't real. If it was a low potassium attack i would have died without getting something to eat with potassium in it. So i denied myself to eat during the episode to see if it was real or not. On top of all of that, i knew i was due to die, because my history of health is not the greatest so i was sure after all i had put my body through i was up for something horrendous.
But instead i continued to walk around and push my body to a point it felt like my head was going to burst, and my heart was going to erupt, then i just lay down on the couch and decided to see if i would actually die. At some point, the fear left me. Nothing happened, especially once i began realizing it was all in my mind. I began testing all the physical symptoms i had, just like that. It sounds simpler than it really is though.
Because there are times we do have physical symptoms, but our anxiety increases them to huge amounts.
It was scary, but it was the way i overcame my fears personally. I became convinced it was all in my mind, once i realized telling myself it was just in my mind, made it all go away.
Of course that was just part of the action plan, to deal with anxiety, there sometimes needs to be proper care and treatment, such as therapy. For me, personally, i had to work on trauma issues with my therapist, which we decided was the cause of my anxiety.
I also had to quit ALL of the stressful activities in my life. It was hard to escape, but vigorous and stressful activities, even extreme physical activities were NOT good for me during that time of recovery, thus i had to put off lots of things until i was relaxed and well enough to get back to them.
I can now live my life free of anxiety after a long while of coping, however i still always have to make sure i decrease my stress levels.
Hopefully that helps a bit.
Anxiety can be the most terrifying thing because it does mimic scary medical symptoms. It feels so real, that most times people with anxiety are in the same boat, they think they are dying or having a heart attack, or they think there is something fatally wrong with their body.
We usually become terrified of health factors because of the symptoms of anxiety and how real they feel, but most times there is usually an underlying factor causing the anxiety, which is important to understand and look into if we want to overcome it. Sometimes it stems from something traumatic in childhood which just comes up later on, or sometimes it's stress related from every day life, and i'm pretty sure the list could go on.
The main thing which helped me, personally, (this is only my experience, as i am not a professional) overcome anxiety attacks or paranoias over physical symptoms, as real as i thought they were, i simply told myself it wasn't real, that it was just my mind, as many times as i had to. Of course i didn't believe it at first, but it worked. I would do deep breathing exercises, relax myself, keep my mind away from focusing on the physical symptom, and it did eventually go away. I used to have heart palpitations too, although they were really just what the anxiety induced, nothing truly wrong with my heart, but it felt real, until i stopped letting my mind induce fear. Yes, i too went through millions of medical tests that came back saying nothing was wrong.
I can even remember scary episodes where i would become completely deaf and it felt like my head was exploding. I also felt, weak, dizzy, almost like a real dangerous physical time in my past where i had low potassium, it mimicked it exactly. I even tested it, because i was sick and tired of people telling me it was all in my head, so i became fearless to a point, where i decided to look death in the eyes to prove it wasn't real. If it was a low potassium attack i would have died without getting something to eat with potassium in it. So i denied myself to eat during the episode to see if it was real or not. On top of all of that, i knew i was due to die, because my history of health is not the greatest so i was sure after all i had put my body through i was up for something horrendous.
But instead i continued to walk around and push my body to a point it felt like my head was going to burst, and my heart was going to erupt, then i just lay down on the couch and decided to see if i would actually die. At some point, the fear left me. Nothing happened, especially once i began realizing it was all in my mind. I began testing all the physical symptoms i had, just like that. It sounds simpler than it really is though.
Because there are times we do have physical symptoms, but our anxiety increases them to huge amounts.
It was scary, but it was the way i overcame my fears personally. I became convinced it was all in my mind, once i realized telling myself it was just in my mind, made it all go away.
Of course that was just part of the action plan, to deal with anxiety, there sometimes needs to be proper care and treatment, such as therapy. For me, personally, i had to work on trauma issues with my therapist, which we decided was the cause of my anxiety.
I also had to quit ALL of the stressful activities in my life. It was hard to escape, but vigorous and stressful activities, even extreme physical activities were NOT good for me during that time of recovery, thus i had to put off lots of things until i was relaxed and well enough to get back to them.
I can now live my life free of anxiety after a long while of coping, however i still always have to make sure i decrease my stress levels.
Hopefully that helps a bit.
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