Ive been where you are. My anxiety ruled my life inturrupted my work ability. My panic attacks were so bad i thought i was having a heart attack. I drove myself crazy wound up in the hospital twice for suicide attampts. I had to quit my job of 9 years because it was so bad.

But... It does get better. Once you can understand your symptoms and what your triggers are you can handle it better. I kept a journal of all my panic attacks what i thought caused them how long they lasted and what calmed me down.

Finding out what your coping skills is also a great thing. I found music and journaling and gardening are the best copying skills for me.

Are you on any meds to help? Do you have a therapist?

Wow everything you have just mentioned is exactly what I am going through right now. I feel like I am losing my mind once again. I have struggled with anxiety and panic attacks since I was 11 years old and I will be 29 next month. I have my good times and bad times. I swear it's like a roller coaster. Right now for the past 3 weeks I have been going down. On Tuesday I actually went to the er for the first time ever due to anxiety because I convinced myself that something bad was going on with my body. I was just standing in my bathroom doing my makeup and all of a sudden I got a bad sick feeling and extremely lightheaded to the point of feeling like I was going to pass out. I made my mom come and get me to take me to the er and had my fianc leave work early to meet me there. I've noticed that I have become a hypochondriac and convince myself that at any moment I am going to have a stroke or seizure or something. I came back onto this website in order to get encouragement or advice. Something to help calm my anxiety back down. I haven't held an actual job ever for longer than a few months. I will be obtaining my bachelors degree next week and was hoping to be able to utilize it and finally have a career. However, after this weeks episode I am doubting myself yet again and feel like I will always be a prisoner not only in my own home but in my body. I hope that you find relief soon!

I had really bad anxiety from the time I was about 3 years old. We lived around the world and I kept seeing doctors but no one could help. They tried valium and even phenobarbitol. Since stomach issues always accompanied my anxiety so they put me on a medicine to control that.

Anyway, I had anxiety several times a day and developed OCD to try to control it. I missed half of 9th grade. Prom, football games, theater productions - even going to a friend's house was sheer torture. A good day was when I could have my anxiety in the relative comfort of home. It was awful.

This continued all the way through age 50 - it ebbed and flowed. And I got better about handling it. But my life was limited to home, a couple other nearby places where I felt comfy - and on good days, the grocery or Target. But the idea of a vacation or even a day trip filled me with dread.

I started getting dizziness and went to the doctor for it. She asked a couple of other questions - do I have anxiety, depression, stomach issues? Have people in my family had heart attacks, Alheimer's, miscarriages, other mental health issues. I didn't say yes to all of it, but enough fit that she suspected a gene mutation - which was news to me.

I got the blood test and sure enough - I have it. It's the MTHFR gene mutation and all it means is that I can't properly convert the folic acid from food into the folate my body needs. The treatment is an inexpensive methylized folate.

So...that was about 2 years ago. I have not had ONE anxiety attack. And I've gone on a few day trips, a couple overnights, into busy cities, crowded conferences and a bunch of different things that would've driven me out of my mind before. I was even able to get a surgery I needed. I was terrified, but not anxious. Who thought abject terror would be less scary than anxiety?

Not only that, but my stomach has totally cleared up. No more IBS.
I still have to avoid certain foods, but it's really given me freedom to have more of a life.

Not many doctors are familiar with this test, but it's cheap and easy to do. Mayo Clinic doctors are beginning to use this test more regularly now.

If your doctor won't do it, you can get the test on 23andme for $199. That test will also tell you a ton about your health and ancestry so it's pretty cool. http://bit.ly/229ZBh4

If you need folate, this is the one I use, but it's likely best to get your folate level checked so you take the right amount: Designs for Health L-5-MTHF Capsules. You can get them on Amazon.

Keep in mind that when they do blood tests and say "your levels are normal" that means you have enough of specific vitamins to avoid serious illness but not to be in optimum health.

You might also want to pick up a copy of "Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom" by Dr. Christiane Northrup. She REALLY helped me work on my hypochondriac-ness.

Best of luck!

Omg thank u so much for your replies. I'm going to definitely look into the gene mutation testing. What u wrote is exactly the things that I have experienced, missing out on life events. It's been such a struggle to do simple things.