Hello everyone, I'm new to this site, as a matter of fact I'm new to this whole support group thing and it's been really difficult for me to accept I have a problem like this. I'm 40 years old and my upbringing truly stigmatized psychology, mental health issues, and all things alike.

I've been struggling really bad with my symptoms, you see, it all went to hell when I got sick back in February with a common cold which I left unattended and got worse up to the point where I was already suffering hypoxia. I've always had allergies and asthma and it made me even more paranoid because this whole thing happened right when our country started with the COVID-19 crisis and measures.

So a few months ago, I think it was late March, things just wouldn't get better, I couldn't breathe, my back ached so bad, I had chills and one morning I just ended up in the ER because right when I woke up, my heart was beating so fast, I couldn't breathe right and my legs were tingling and going numb all the way up to my knees. My arms also went from tingling from the tips of the fingers to numb right up to my elbows. I thought I was going to die as I'd already had acute pneumonia and was afraid this was it too.

When the ER doctors saw me, they told me it was anxiety, sent me home as I had no fever and later on my pulmonologist confirmed that diagnosis. He said I had lots of symptoms that were coherent with anxiety. He even showed me my oximeter reading which was at 98% and he asked me if I felt better when I was using a facemask and when I started to think about it, it was true.

About 8 months before that, he had already told me I had anxiety and prescribed some Xanax but back then I thought he didn't know what he was talking about... I wasn't crazy! 

So here I am, it's already July, it's been almost 4 months since that horrible morning and I'm struggling so much with anxiety. It has been refreshing to read your posts, to understand that my symptoms are not caused by some horrible disease but just plain and simple anxiety. Believe me, I've thought of the worst scenario for each of the weird things I feel in my body... starting from lung cancer, heart disease, blood clots, stomach cancer... I mean this thing is just unreal how it will mess everything up.

What's been really hard is to distinguish between my asthma flaring up or just having a tight chest because of anxiety. Does anyone else feel hoarseness in their voice when super anxious? There are times I feel that chest tightness and my voice sounds like I have an incredibly sore throat.

I've decided that I don't want to go on anxiety medication, I was taking clonazepam and Xanax but it just made me too groggy and it really messed up with my mood so I decided to slowly quit those things. Therefore, I'm now working on a routine that includes about 40min of cardio, 30 min yoga, 15 min meditation and 15 min breathing exercises (trying out the Wim Hof Method) including cold showers. I've never in my life been a disciplined exercise person but the way this thing makes me feel scares me so much, that it's enough for me to get up early and get it on. It's been 41 days since I've implemented this routine and although I can't say it's changed my life, I do know that if I skip it, I will for sure feel terrible. I tried that one day and it wasn't pretty.

I have noticed though, that as I'm weaning off the last medication (Xanax) I do get sort of withdrawal attacks where my anxiety gets much worse... I guess this is to be expected. Anyone else experienced this?

I've been trying to think why this has gotten so bad and I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that this whole shut down and confinement situation is driving me insane. I used to be a super active person, never at home, always on the run and I do believe it's ironic that I had always wished I could spend more time at home, yet now that I can do that it's just harder and harder to be locked down one more day. 

The way I know that this is all probably anxiety and not any other illness is because when I do get to go out for groceries about once a week, my symptoms nearly vanish... Why is this? I just can't believe myself...

Do you guys feel this confinement thing is messing with you too? Were you already suffering from this before the Covid thing or did you, like me, start feeling bad with this pandemic?