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...
I am just beyond frusturated! I have major health anxiety and its driving me nuts! I constantly think something is wrong with my heart or I have some horrible disease. I am googling my symptoms almost all day which is getting really old. I recently went out and bought a oxygen monitor because I sometimes feel like I cant breathe then I've noticed my blood pressure has been elevated so I check that at least 10 times a day and tonight made my husband go out with me to look for a new bp monitor just in case this one is not working right. I get horrible anxiety even thinking about walking into my doctors office so I'm doing everything I can not to have to go there. My teeth have been bugging me bad lately but had a major panic attack last time I went to the dentist so I refuse to go back. I've had this pain in the left side of my neck for awhile now and I of course think I have a bad infection from my teeth or because my best friend is in the hospital right now with blood clots in her lungs I now think I have one in my neck. Why can't I just be a normal person who can just walk into a doctors office or dentist and peacefully walk right back out. I use to be! This is he first year my husbnd and kids have been gone all day everyday (youngest child just started preschool) and I cant even enjoy getting out by myself or taking care of business while my husbands at work instead of making him do everything for me when he gets done working like running to he store, taking kids to appointments or even taking me to appointments. Poor guy! I feel like this health anxiety is a horrible addiction! I cant go long without checking my bp and even when I do my anxiety gets worse because I see its higher then it should be! Ugh will his ever end??? Well I could go on and on but I dont want to make this any longer. I'd love to tell this all to my therapist but cant even gt myself to make a appointment with her and especially not walk into her office! Well thanks for listening guys! Hope everyone has a good night :)
I agree with lemonade - let it happen. This may be one of the most difficult things for you to do but try to relax all of your muscles and say "Go ahead and do whatever it is you are going to do. If you are going to kill me then go ahead and kill me". It won't happen. What you will notice is your anxiety reducing - if only for a second. With practice the relaxation response become quicker and it lasts longer.
I also have a phobia about the dentist. This past winter I went once a month for 5 months straight. I was in pain so I had to go. I was a wreck. My husband has to go with me and sit with me the entire time - sometimes for up to 6 hours! I take klonopin before going and I have to be sedated when I get there. One time, in front of the dentist, I said to my husband "He isn't going to kill me right?" I'm sure the dentist was shocked to hear that. But, at the time I was working through some really serious stuff from my childhood (sexual abuse), and I really did think he would kill me. And if he didn't kill me then I thought for sure he would purposely hurt me so I would be in pain. It was awful. I'm sure it was awful for the dentist too. Then, one day, my husband said to me "I can't believe you are able to go when you are so scared. I don't know how you do it." That meant a lot to me. I work very hard to face my fears because, like the relaxation mentioned above, if you want the anxiety to go away you have to do all the things you are afraid to do. The more exposure you have to them the less afraid you become. So, if picking up the kids at school is scary, you need to go pick the kids up at school. The more often you do it the less afraid you will be. I promise.
Here is a website you can check out if you want. It has some good explanations and ideas to help with anxiety www.anxietycoach.com
I hope you feel better very soon. No one should have to be so afraid all the time like you are now. I feel for you.
Take care
I am sorry that you are struggling; life can be really tough sometimes, and you have been dealing with it, and that makes you very strong. To answer your question, I think this can absolutely end with the right tools. I am not a big fan of medication in all circumstances, but I believe that antidepressants especially are amazing at creating some space between us and our negative feelings, so that we can work on fixing the root problems. Is there a way that your husband could take you to an appointment with a doctor? As well, you mentioned that your hormones could be at fault. I understand that the thyroid's function can upset the balance of some hormones, and it can often cause anxiety.
As the others have mentioned, one of the most effective things in this case can be facing your fear of death. I think it helps to do this both directly and indirectly. When your fear trickles and you feel the compulsion to protect yourself by performing a ritual, take deep breaths and surrender to what you think it is you fear. It can be a blood clot, or a heart attack.
Indirectly, work on understanding the cycle of life a little better. I used to think of death as the fall from a cliff, so to say. I've developed a much more loving concept since.
I understand that your family is gone for the day. Is there somebody you can call to speak with during your times of fear? Your husband perhaps or another family member? You may even opt to have several confidantes, instead of one person. I found that when I felt the need to go to the hospital, or be driven to the pharmacy or doctor's because I felt imminent danger for my life, speaking about it to a family member who could stop me or convince me otherwise was good help. It did not always work, but sometimes it did put a stop to the behaviour associated with my fears. Eventually, the fears dissipated for the most part.
Ive had panic attacks on and off for many years, usually of the what if I lose control in public variety.
A few months ago I started getting high levels of anxiety connected to perceived health problems. For me, what has been helping is remembering that almost the defining symptom of anxiety is that it makes us feel that it isnt just anxiety, but something more serious. (By saying just anxiety Im not downplaying the feelings it causes, I mean only that its not harmful or life-threatening.) Anxiety is our bodies natural response to a life threatening situation and so we mistakenly but reasonably think that when we feel anxious our life is being threatened. Theres nothing in our external environment that could represent this threat, so it must be something within ourselves; we must be about to have a heart-attack, we must have cancer, we must have whatever it is that weve most recently googled.
Ive been doing CBT for the last few months. Unlike on occasions in the past, this time Ive really been doing it! I complete mood logs, analyse negative thinking patterns, make exposure ladders grading my levels of fear to certain situations, and put myself in those situations and stay there until the panic subsides, which it always does. I also keep a daily happiness diary, which causes me to focus on all the small daily pleasures of life. Its hard work, its not smooth-sailing, and I wish I didnt have to do it, but it has helped me enormously.
Theres no magic fix to get rid of these horrible feelings, but there are well-known and well-tested ways and they do work. Do them and theyll work for you, and you will feel better.
My biggest fear was being crazy and had been to psyche wards before. So as long as I was afraid of my crazy thinking it kept getting worse. As soon as I was willing to loose control,go ahead and go crazy and end up in the nut ward again the fear went away and I haven't been to one since.