Anxiety Support Group

Anxiety is a physical condition marked by intense and persistent feelings of distress, fear, angst or dread. General anxiety caused by routine day-to-day stresses usually passes quickly and is experienced by almost everyone at one time or another. However, such feelings that linger over time and are very difficult to cope with, and which lack a clear cause, may indicate...

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Anxiety: Phyiscal symptoms and stress.

michiev
michiev
So i'm stuck in a cycle of stress and anxiety.. I get anxious about having diarrhea because of the attack i had two weeks ago where i had a slight bout of it.. (No, thats a lie, i only went once.. But i've always kind of connected Diarrhea to food poisioning or something equally unhealthy) I've been having anxiety/panic attacks on and off which cause me to feel physical symptoms (stomach ache, diarrhea) I know it's the stress thats causing it.. But tonight i went online to research ways to lessen stress induced diarrhea.. It caused me to THINK about it. and then I had diarrhea.. I did not have a panic/anxiety attack because of it though.. I'm also on my period, which isn't making things any easier..

So the stress/anxiety causes my phyiscal symptoms like diarrhea, But if i go searching for ways to lessen this.. I think about it more and then boom, I'll have it.

I guess i'm worried about the extreme cases, Like people posted stuff about having blood in their stools, losing extreme amounts of weight, not being able to leave the house, always constantly worrying.. Thats the extreme side of it all.. And i guess it's getting to me.. I mean what if i loose weight, what if all of this happens to me? I know i'm being a hypocondriac here but I don't know how to help this if every time i go looking for remedies for this, I'll have the panic/anxiety or physical reactions.

Anyone have any advice?
deleted_user
deleted_user
Maybe it would help to write down the symptoms you are having on one side of paper and then on the other, write down the symptoms that scare you. Then you can see in front of you that you are not having the scarier "what if" symptoms.

I also had stomach pain and diarrhea for a couple weeks and when I finally went to the doctor and was told it was most likely from stress, I almost immediately started to get better. Would it help for you to see your doctor or keep telling yourself that it's from anxiety and nothing else?
michiev
michiev
Well i mostly know it's from stress and anxiety but then i can't help but think that it could become something worse.. like IBS or chronic diarrhea. I'm also worried about constant diarrhea + weightloss, which i read a lot about.
deleted_user
deleted_user
anxiety can do some really crazy things. it can result in any kind of condition from heartburn to migranes. thats the problem, its hard to know where the problem has originated from. i know i have bad anxiety, so that alot of my health issues come from anxiety. and im like you where ill freak out about it the more i think about it. I like Ellafly comment of writing it down. i think that would help. just getting it out of your mind i think may help easen the anxiety
deleted_user
deleted_user
I know reading about symptoms on the internet is pretty much the worst thing for me to do if I'm worried about a symptom. Is there anyone you trust who could look up the info you need (i.e. remedies) but who won't tell you about all the other scary stuff? Hope that helps
Pandylove
Pandylove
I like what ellafly said...Last year around this time i was looking up about my phobia and doing a lot of research, but i was just making things worse, so now i stay away from that stuff, and if i have an important question i ask a doc or my parents for advice- or to look it up for me.
michiev
michiev
I also think i fear eating certain foods or under certain circumstances, I feel like if i eat that i will have cramps or i will have diarrhea and i'll loose weight and look sickly. I know i'm worrying too much.. I know i am, But i don't know how to stop it.. and i need to look up ways to help me get out of this negative cycle. I don't know when it's too much on the research front, It's not like i'm going to web MD and looking up rare diseases, I'm just googling things i know i can relate to.
deleted_user
deleted_user
Here is a trick I use if I become anxious about my health. It isn't a regular problem for me but once in a while something will trigger it. I tell myself that, if I am really sick, it is okay to die. I ask God for forgiveness and to accept me into Heaven (whatever that means) and I just "go with the flow". I tell myself "what will be will be". Then I am able to let it go. If I die--I die. Lord knows I have thought that dying might be easier than living sometimes! I just leave it in the hands of fate (God?) and accept it. Hope this helps.
---Gemstone