Rheumatoid Arthritis Support Group
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, inflammatory, multisystem, autoimmune disorder. It is a disabling and painful condition which can lead to substantial loss of mobility due to pain and joint destruction. The disease is also systemic in that it often also affects many extra-articular tissues throughout the body including the skin, blood vessels, heart, lungs, and...
Just curious if anyone here deals with health anxiety along with their Ra. I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis in July of 2014 and started treatment. I have been a luckily healthy man for the first 39 years of my life. I am now 42 and feel that my ra is currently under control and seem to be doing well with my current treatment. I'm currently on 300mg allopurinol for gout, and plaquenil 200mg once a day, and Humira injection biweekly 40mg. I currently am doing things as I want to as far as work and all the other things go. I feel that a lot of my problem is mental right now and it's affecting me in horrible way and even having affects on my physical health. I have always been a hypochondriac ever since I can remember. I have never had treatment or anything diagnosed for it. Even when I was young I would constantly worry over my health. Every little bump or illness I always went straight to the worse case scenario. Would get this stuck in my head and worry over it until it resolved itself, and then on to the next thing that comes up. I think a lot of the time obsessing over the pain would make it hurt more than it actually was. Back when ra first struck me I had no idea what was happening to my body. I had about 3 months to sit in pain and worry about everything and the unknown waiting to get into see a rheumatologist. It got to a point where I went and seen my gp and told him that I could use something for stress or to take the edge off until I could find out what was going on. I was depressed over my health and the unknown which I felt was very reasonable considering my current situation at the time. To make a long story a little short he prescribed an Ssri Celexa. After a week of taking the med it must have made my condition worse. Spent 2 days in the hospital due to a panic attack that I thought was a heart attack. First one I had ever had and haven't had one since and that's been over 2 years ago.
This brings me to my current situation. Back around the end of December I found a small lump in my underarm. It wasn't red, discolored or sore. So I'm thinking right off the bat it's a lymph node. It was about the size of a pencil eraser. It slowly resolved over about 2 weeks and has been completely gone now for over a month. I have had these things happen like this over the years even before ra and it never turned out to be anything. Now for about a week I have been having the night sweats on and off while sleeping at night. Now I'm automatically worried that I have lymphoma since I've been on Humira now for 8 months. I cannot get this extreme worry off my mind and it's driving me crazy. I hate to keep calling my rheumy over every little thing inbetween visits. He knows me fairly well and I hate to have them think of me as a basket case. For all I know it could be the extreme stress and anxiety I'm doing to myself causing the sweats. Lol. I know the chances are very slim for developing lymphoma from the biologics but my mind don't want to hear and comprehend that. I havent had any other symptoms other than i have mentioned. No weight loss or anything like that. I'm a very happen person when I'm feeling 100 percent healthy, but let's be honest how often do people my age with ra feel a 100 percent. I think I will soon seek out some therapy for the mental side of things. I would love to hear from any of you that have expierenced stress, anxiety, or depression along with your disease. It's usually the constant pain of a flare or not being able to do things I want to do that gets me down but this time it's more of a side effect fear thats got me down. This forum has been a great place for me over the last couple years. All advice and opinions are welcome. Always good to get feedback from others that suffer alike. I don't mind people being foward with their opinions. I fully understand nobody here is my doctor and anything I learn or hear from anyone is just personal experience or opinions. Thanks for letting me vent and get some of this outta me. Have a great day.
I believe that no doctor except board certified psychiatrists and neurologist should have the ability to prescribe psychotropics drugs.
Find a cognitive behaviorist PhD or PsyD to help you learn coping strategies and irradicate irrational beliefs.
Everyone suffers some level of anxiety, but I've observed that once you have a chronic disease you tend to cope a lot better with other added medical issues.
That was the end of my hypochondria. I did not get the attention I should have, which probably was a good thing in retrospect. Hypochondria is not just about worry, but also about attention. Plus, I realized that I really didn't want to be sick or in pain.
I would have thought your hypochondria would have stopped with an RA diagnosis, but we are all different. As far as mental problems, I was not treated agressively and I had severe RA. I was in constant agony. My life was over, or so I thought. I became hopeless and depressed. For 2 years, I turned away from God, and I refused to do anything.
I was treated for mental illness and anxiety, although really, the anxiety had nothing to do with RA, I realized later. When I figured out what was making me anxious, (driving my daughter to figure skating daily on a back road, in the snow, with ditches filled with snow, so you couldn't tell where the road was, and where the ditch was, in -30 C weather.) I just snapped out of it, never to return. Lucky me.
It sounds like you have GAD or Generalize Anxiety Disorder. It is not related to RA, since you have had it long before RA. BUT, RA can and will make it worse. Coping with anything does require strategies.
You do need to see a psychiatrist or therapist or both. So many people are afraid of the stigma of mental illness. Don't let it hold you back from getting the help you need.
I am not an anxious person by nature, but you are. There are many things to do to work through this. You might want to join the Depression Forum or the Bipolar Forum. Many people in those groups are dealing with severe anxiety, and they may have some good tips for you. You don't have to have diagnosed bipolar disorder or depression to join! They are very accepting and welcome all.
Not sure if this addresses your rant. Maybe we can speak more together in pms if you want? Send me a pm, and we can go into more details about how you are suffering mentally and emotionally. And it doesn't have to have anything to do with RA.
I read a book that I have already mentioned on here before so I am apologizing up front for redundancy. Atul Gawande's "being mortal." I am trying to focus on living in joy with debilitation or having lemons and making lemonade not to be a pollyanna but to improve the quality of my life to what I do better now that I have had ra so long. (Like I give rambling stupid book reviews better laughing)
be kind to you
and ask your primary if a dermatologist should look at any lumps would be my best thought. I get body mapped once a year by a dermatologist, anyway, for being on biologics, this could be like your body map appointment and you could ask a skin pro what the lump is maybe?
I think enbrel and humira are closing in on 20 years so maybe the stats will get better on the black box warnings in the years ahead so we can get a better statistical picture? But in general I think it is good to question to review and to ask. Ask your rheumatologist if there are any studies that govern her scripting on this.
good for you thinking of going to therapy. why not. a good place to weed the garden of RA and other things.
we are here to support YOU where YOU are
buddha thanks for bringing up the reminder for us to be plain old vanilla support folks and not diagnosticians. I think that needed to be said. In appreciation.
PW stand strong and hang in there.
depotblue
Anyhow, I have found EMDR therapy very effective.
Read this: http://www.psychotherapist.net/emdr-faq.html
My guess sis that anxiety such as you describe and having had it all of your life, would likely require the RIGHT medication in combination with talk therapy and EMDR.
Best of luck to you. I am glad you are on a cocktail of meds that is helping your RA and gout.
And yes, even much older people than you can feel 100% well with RA. I am 72!!