I totally agree with you. What helped me with the anxiety during PE recovery was just to start accepting that it's happening. I just recognized it as anxiety and let it come and go. Seemed the more I just stayed in the moment the easier it got to deal with and the less anxious I became. I also saw a therapist for a couple of months after the PE too which was very helpful to me.

It's easy to give anxiety power, because it feels so powerful but it doesn't have to be. I mean I still, years later, have moments of feeling anxious about getting another clot and I think, REALLY?? I just let the feeling pass. As far as meds, I don't think they're always necessary. I think they're just one of many ways to deal with it. I found a really good website about anxiety that I'm going to post here because there are a lot of good tips for recognizing and dealing with anxiety.

I did anxiety meds for two years after my PE. I probably could have come off them sooner, but I wound up having two surgeries in the year after my PE and I thought I might need the extra mental support.

Since then, I still have bouts with anxiety, where something kicks up and I know *why* I'm having symptoms but it still tickles my panic button and I fret for a few days. At this point, I can usually recognize it, I tell my hubby that I'll probably be feeling a little anxious for a few days and then I got on with life. It's like waving hello to an acquaintance that you really don't want to stop and get into a full conversation with.

Yeah, I let my husband know there's a small storm brewing in my brain and to be on alert lol. I have that fear of the anxiety thing going on to. Way to shoot yourself in the foot!

Right, it's like you are having anxiety about the coming anxiety. That's funny you guys warn your husbands; I do the same thing. I'll find myself just kind babbling about something to him and feeling all snakey, and then I just say, that's my anxiety kicking up and at least once I say it out loud, it kind of evaporates.

Trying to deal with new anxieties on top of existing ones is hell. I'm somehow working my way through them but I'm down to one day at a time once again and sometimes 1 hour at a time. I keep telling myself (when i remember) This to will pass.
Hugs
Ferr

soooo, you have anxiety after the PE which is NORMAL. Your doc gave you anxiety meds and you're anxious that they might not work.

I have been taking anxiety meds for a number of years. They work. I did not want to take them at first as I did not have severe anxiety like on the scrip label. Then I found an anxiety test on the web, I tink it was the Beck or Hamilton Scale for anxiety. I popped as having severe anxiety.

That's when I started to take it. My first day, my distress level went from like a 13/10 to a 2. I was able to sit and watch TV for the evening for the first time in months.

As for the anxiety about it happening again, well, yes, you could have another PE. You have the existing risk. It could happen. But that does not mean IT WILL happen. If you don't have genetic factors, the odds are kind of low. If it does happen, well, now you're an expert. You know what it feels like, how you present, how it's treated, etc. You know how to do the heparin shots, so that's not a big deal. You know what your therapeutic dose of warfarin is. you know what recovery looks like. See, an expert, which means that emotionally and mentally it should be easier next time. Physically it might be worse, but the other stuff you've got figured out.

And since you know all of this,you might catch it sooner, like as a DVT instead of PE, or a single lobe PE instead of a saddleback, whatever.

If the anxiety is cyclical, track it against your menstrual cycle for a bit, to see if there's a tie. If not, track the triggers, as that might help.....like OH, everytime I see someone on TV with chest pain, my anxiety stops.....I don't need to watch those types of show for now.

AAnxiety starts, not stops with the TV chest pain scene.

Can't type.

I'm not really anxiety-ridden about another PE. I'm not hyper-vigilant about aches and pains and SOB. I know what the symptoms feel like. The problem I have is that I have a bunch of new phobias associated with the event itself. I fell asleep in the recliner chair in the living room that night, woke up about 5am and walked back toward my bedroom and bath at the other end of the trailer. *Boom* PE. It was dark and I was alone in that whole end of the house. I managed to get back to my mom's end of the house and wake her. But now I can't sleep in my room or even go back that end of the house after dark. I can't be alone. I can't fall asleep without passing out from exhaustion because it's too much like when I thought I was dying and everything was fading away before my eyes. I have a hard time driving, because it means being not only alone but out of touch with others. So I wonder if that sort of thing is also common. I always loved my privacy and alone time, my job requires me to do a lot of independent work behind closed doors, and driving used to be my get-away and therapy. Now I feel like a lot of what made me me has been taken away. I hope I can get it back.

I had a pretty rough go with anxiety right after I was dx with the PE's and DVT's. All I wanted to do was stay in bed and cry all day long. Everything seemed to put me into tears no matter how hard I tried not to cry. I finally went and saw my doctor and he put me on a daily medicine as well as one for those occasions when it seems to strike out of the blue and I need a little extra help.

I am happy to say that a year later, I am doing better but still take the daily medicine. The other script of 15 pills now last me up to 3-4 months at a time or longer! I don't know if I would need the daily medicine as much if I weren't raising grand daughters.....6 yrs & 1 yr old. I am also a "single" parent these days as my husband has gone to driving OTR to support us. So those two things cause a whole new set of anxiety issues for me.

I try to keep my cell phone with me at all times, especially if it is just the 1 yr old and myself at home. That way in case something would happen, hopefully I could call for help! The 6 yr old could run and get help if needed. That is kind of my main fear or anxiety right now....but I try not to let it over take my life.

Life does get better or more "normal" in time. I am trying to live life the best I can every day.

ljhcnmt, I think I may have mentioned this to you but maybe not, but I had a similar situation in that when I collapsed, I was outside walking and collapsed about 3 houses from my house and no one was around (it was very early in the morning on the way to the bus stop to go to work). And I thought too I was actually dying when I passed out because everything was fading away and it was all very peaceful... until I came to again and somehow managed to stagger home to get help.

So I understand a bit, like the first time I had to walk past the house where I collapsed... I just felt sick to my stomach with anxiety about it. But I just made myself do it and each time I did that, it got easier. At one point, I stopped to see if my glasses were laying in the grass in front of this house, because somehow, between the time I collapsed and the time I was in the ER, I lost my glasses. So as I was looking I actually stopped and sat on the steps going up to this house, where I had collapsed, where my head lay as lost consciousness, just to prove to myself it had no hold on me, even though inside if felt completely opposite. Even the day I got home from the hospital, my living room felt weird because it's where the paramedics worked on me before taking me to the ER. But in the end, these are just things: a couch, a room, cement steps, a house, a side walk. They only take on more meaning because we assign them more meaning.

So don't just hope you can get it back. TAKE IT BACK. It's within in you. Face it and address it with someone if needed (I saw a therapist for a bit and it really helped me)

So the anxiety can be used as the impetus for putting an action plan in place.....

Like the grandma with the 1 and 6 yo.....can you role play the 6 yo calling 911 if grandma can't breath, talk or won't wake up? we did this with my kids for different reasons, and it did put some fears to rest.

Like the poster who does not want to be alone....can you get a dog to be with you? Can you get an intercom in the house so that you can talk to others quickly? Can you put together an action plan?

I've had to do this at various times.....I have an action plan for my asthma, I have an action plan for anxiety, in the past, hubs and son would go on Amtrack to visit grandma every Wednesday.....I had visions of a train wreck and finally had to have him call me if the train ran late or when he got there.....I also had to learn to refocus from the worst case scenario and identify the best case scenario, acknowledging that reality would be somewhere in the middle.

Sometimes we can problem solve to relieve anxiety. Sometimes we need to rearrange our furniture so that the room where something happened looks different.

I've had panic disorder for 25 years - true panic disorder. We were taught then that if we felt *better* upon exertion (that is, anxiety symptoms eased) then we probably weren't experiencing a heart attack.

Of course, this scenario did not cover PEs, in which case exertion really can cause SOB even if one doesn't have a new PE. What I do is check my pulse ox. I used to check my breathing with a peak flow meter and I may go back to that. Because I'm a long-term panic patient, I have Xanax on hand and if that doesn't settle things down, I'd be off to the ER.

Anxiety causes the *feeling* of being SOB by causing hyperventilation and your CO2 to rise. This can be partially remedied by breathing in and out of a paper bag.

I agree that having a plan for situations is good, and sticking with that plan gives you something to focus on.