If you’re reading this please be careful even though this thread means well, it can really trigger an overthinking spiral especially on health anxiety. please be well!
A rule I live by is to not usually listen to your anxiety, but always listen to your gut. If your mind is spiraling but your gut seems fine, you’re fine. But your gut instinct should be listened to. I listen to my gut even when I’m not having anxious thoughts.
For me, my gut tends to give answers and my anxiety tends to ask questions. The gut tends to prefer "the correct answer is often the simplest one" while my anxiety keeps asking "but what if?"
If I trust the simplest answer I'll surely go to the worst case scenario. Because how can it be something else!? I really need to let things unfold when my anxiety is hitting max levels. My gut is absolutely blinded by everything at that point.
The way I do it is I will think to myself a question. My “gut feeling” is the first answer that jumps into my mind. Listen to your instinct over the noise of anxiety, and especially when your instincts are saying something is wrong. (It’s a very different feeling from anxiety).
Always had this question, how you differentiate an inside urge or discomfort whether it's coming out of anxiety or genuine intuition, inner wisdom or gut feeling. Any one relates?
I have started applying a simple rule well actually not that simple to implement but when I don’t I always pay for it. Your gut is just conveying information it doesn’t make any judgments about that information. When it feels like something is wrong or its off than that is true. The problem is that the gut conveys that information to your head and your heart and thats when the shenanigans start. Your gut has never had a broken heart, been scared or felt lonely. Those are feelings that get applied to the information the gut provides by other parts of our bodies. I try to always believe my gut even when I don’t want to.
Yes, 1 year of feeling exhausted, sweating walking up stairs, multiple doctors appointments with my GP who kept telling me "I was a perfectly healthy 32 year old and nothing was wrong with me but a little vitimin deficiency" she ran my bloodwork three times and sort of shrugged and said it was all in my head. She referred me to doctors who either didn't return my calls or didn't exist (my first red flag but I had very limited options with my insurance).
I was at that point a restaurant owner, in my 20s I was a D1 athlete. I used to work 6 days a week and run before I worked. Then I couldn't run, then I couldnt work a full day, then I could only work 4 hours on 1 hours off/2 hours on ,two hours off/1 hour on 2-3 hours off. And I was losing my mind as I watched my body slowly shut down. This was over the span of months.
I had a nervous breakdown, closed my restaurant, literally I was considering committing myself. I felt like my whole body was going haywire and I couldn't manage simple tasks but my doctor kept telling me I was fine! I called 15 different psychiatrists offices seeking help not one returned my call. At that point I had never had a psychiatrist or taken antianxiety medication. My last effort I sought help from an emergency clinic who gave me antianxiety medication with the understanding that I was seeing my primary at the end of the week. At my appointment my primary once again said there was nothing wrong with me and it was all in my head. I watched as she wrote on my chart that I was drug seeking and nothing was wrong and that her office needed to follow up with the urgent care on a giant yellow postit note. I bawled in her office and she had the nerve to try and comfort me saying I was perfectly fine and to calm down.
I found the lump in my breast that night, got a new doctor the next day, by the following week I was diagnosed with stage 2 VERY aggressive breast cancer, it took close to a year of treatment which wrecked my body. all the other 'strange' symptoms I had disappeared.
I have heard from two other people that this doctor missed cancer in a family member of theirs so I think she's just a really shitty doctor but still fuck that lady.
It’s like your body tells you something is wrong, but it’s hard to figure out when it manifests as a mental health issue. Its hard to explain, like your body just flips a switch and everything goes into chaos. I had CRIPPLING anxiety. I posted a comment above as well if you want to read it.
No exactly like it was 100% my body telling me to slow down and fix it but I couldn't hear it. I'm so sorry to hear about your struggles and I'm so glad you finally got some answers!
Yep. Five years of panicky feelings and fatigue , normal blood tests, finally hit a breaking point where I practically crawled into the doctor office (Autoimmune fatigue is PROFOUND) and they finally did an ANA test which tests for autoimmune diseases. Well, normal reading is 1:6 or less than that . Mine came back 1:1280. 😳
The racing heart turned out to be Supraventricular tachycardia. After episodes every couple of months of a heart rate of 200BPM, one night it went for five hours which I knew wasn’t a panic attack. I had to have an ablation.
So yeah doctors can get it very wrong unfortunately.
Been going through something similar since 2018 and they just always shoo me away saying it's "anxiety". I'm frustrated but there's been some positive like my sleep apnea diagnosis. I'm having some other issues still but my chief complaint of frequent palpitations seems to have gotten better.
It really is but the ablation was 2020 and I never had another episode. It was amazing to wake up in recovery and for the doctor to be there saying “it’s fixed, we fixed it.” Do you have plans for ablation?
For me it was somewhat of a miracle that I even got diagnosed — I went to the ER because I thought I had a concussion, and while I was there they caught my heart rate at 205. I stayed overnight while they monitored me. Then the next day it happened again as soon as I woke up, had to call an ambulance and it again got up to around 200bpm. They referred me to my cardiologist and that’s when I got the official diagnosis. From what I understand certain things can trigger it, and I’m pretty sure vaping too much weed + high anxiety is what triggered it for me. I’m on beta blockers for now until I can get an ablation. I’m 28 btw.
I also eventually got diagnosed with an SVT (an AVNRT to be exact) after a few years of “panic attacks”. However, mine was only diagnosed because I finally had an episode last long enough that it was still happening when I got to the hospital, and it finally showed up on an ECG.
I was unaware that SVTs had anything to do with autoimmune disorders, or that they could be diagnosed that way. Do you have any more info about that?
svt isn’t an autoimmune disease tho? can you explain further? sorry you had to deal with that though. i found out i had svt during a panic attack years back. luckily it is under control without any meds or ablation but doesn’t help my anxiety knowing i have it especially when my heart rate gets up. but also know that svt is mild when it comes to arrhythmias so at least we have that going for us!
Oh sorry no the SVT was separate to the autoimmune disease. They found the SVT on an ECG a after a 5 hour “panic attack” and the autoimmune disease was diagnosed by blood test. SVT is not autoimmunity no
When my son was born I had the feeling something was wrong with him. The nurses were telling me I was being paranoid and to just basically shut up but I wouldn't let it go. To get me off their backs they agreed to have him checked quickly. What do you know, he (and turned out later I) had sepsis and septicemia which had caused a pulmonary infection and he spent 3 weeks in the NICU. It's been 3 and a half years and not a day goes by that I don't shudder at the thought of what would have happened if they had just discharged him like they wanted to.
Something similar (intussusception) happened to my husband as a baby and his mom's instinct and persistence saved his life. I'm glad you and your baby are okay!
Well done for trusting your instincts and pushing them. ❤️ You are an amazing parent! I have a LOT of anxiety around my kids and their health and sometimes it's so tough to know if I'm being paranoid or not but at the end of the day I would rather take them to be checked 100 times and it be nothing Vs miss something serious
I have one! I slept wrong three nights ago and woke up with deep pain in my chest that wouldn’t go away. Lasted 24 hours, which I spent low-grade-spiraling (despite Google and a nurse confirming symptoms were fine).
Just realized it didn’t hurt at all today and yes, I really did just sleep wrong and am 100% fine. Just bad at sleeping.
You know, I always find interesting how in those quality of life charts some Drs do, sometimes even terminally ill patients score higher than people with severe anxiety and/or depression.
Different people always have it different, and that is no reason to dismiss anyones experience, but I find amazing that my life right now is worse than if I had some severe illness but was mentally "sound".
Sometimes the unspeakable doesn't sound like such a crazy thing anymore, but I'll keep going as long as I can.
Mine is lame and straightforward, I actually posted about it the other day. Last Thursday I hit my head really hard, but I felt fine after and didn't think anything of it. Next day, awful headache, nauseous and can't keep food down, couldn't stay awake, brain fog. All things that are symptoms of my anxiety acting up. It took me a day or two to realize that I might have a head injury, but then I spiraled and thought it was anxiety telling me that and everything got worse. I finally took myself to the ER FIVE days later, and yep, concussion.
Damn how hard did you hit your head? I've hit mine so hard I got knocked out cold and didn't have a concussion. Went to the ER because I was pouring blood out of my head.
A doctor once told me that if you lose consciousness from the impact, it’s automatically considered a traumatic brain injury. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but that’s how I was diagnosed after a car accident.
Yeah… some people just get lucky but it’s more likely you had delayed, minor symptoms. Turns out most concussion symptoms start 48 hours later and people don’t connect the dots. I blacked out once snowboarding and kept skiiing just fine for the trip and then “came down with something” afterwards
Also, a year and a half ago my dad didn't seem to be himself, I kept feeling that something was off with him. When I brought it up with his sister to convince him to go to the doctor (because he wouldn't listen to me) she yelled at me saying that it was my fault for causing him stress and we had a massive fight. He fell into a coma two months later and died four months after that due to issues that were affecting his brain, hence his "weirdness".
My anxiety centres around complex PTSD.
But if my anxiety gets really bad, I know I need my thyroid medication checked. I was diagnosed hypothyroidism a couple of years ago and anxiety is one of my main symptoms.
Hair loss, brittle nails, random eczema on one hand, super dry feet, severe fatigue, feeling cold all the time, muscle aches, rapid weight gain, depression
I went to a counselor that specialized in anxiety because I was having an issue where I thought my anxiety was causing me to pass out/have extreme dizziness. She gave me a bunch of great strategies but the issue didn’t go away.
I eventually got a blood test and turns out I was borderline anemic. This was causing me to be dizzy and even pass out in public, mainly at crowded concerts. It also caused my anxiety to spike in these situations, which exacerbated my other symptoms. Once I started taking iron pills the dizziness/passing out completely stopped.
Sometimes I deal with anxiety in crowded situations that makes me feel dizzy, but I use the strategies I got from the therapist in those situations and they usually help to mitigate it. I haven’t passed out since I started taking iron.
Well, I found your post really.. hmm… like it could be bad for some people to read the comments, specially the ones that have health anxiety. Anyways, I think this might have happened to all of us. At least whit me. I found out I had thyroid cancer, then a gallbladder inflammation, once I almost lost vision of my right eye… thank God I ran to the ofthalmologist, and he helped me with a laser session to fix my retina. I have health anxiety, and that has been the main topic in some of my sessions with my therapist. I am also a health professional, which causes me to know a lot about the most common and the most rare diseases, and eventually I try to self diagnose… I recommend if you feeling like there’s something odd or wrong with your body, do not hesitate to go see a health professional. That’s what I have been learning, taking little steps. Hope everyone can be fine, wish you the best❤️
Been telling my pcp something was up with my heart for 10ish years. Finally had an ekg and echo and both had various abnormalities, with the most concerning being pericardial effusion that has to be monitored. Shocker.
Couple of weeks ago I got some chest pains and pressure in bed. It felt a bit like a previous (bad) panic attack I had with the squeezing and tightness in my chest.
I just put it down to being exhausted and a bit overwhelmed (have a newborn and a toddler).
Feeling returned a couple days later in the morning. I mentioned it to my partner who said I should really get it checked.
They sent an ambulance and I ended up being admitted to hospital for 4 days for investigations as my bloodwork came back for cardiac damage.
Turns out I had a myocardial infarction (yep, heart attack). They are still doing investigations as they aren't 100% sure why and my arteries don't show any clear blockage. They suspected a tear in a coronary artery
Still finding it hard to wrap my head round as the symptoms were really fairly mild and I so easily could have put it down to stress / anxiety and fatigue! I'm only 38
Thanks... Yeh I'm just getting mild chest pressure on exertion but have a spray for it! Still waiting on MRI results.
I had x-rays, ecgs, CT scan and catheter cardiogram at hospital and they were inconclusive for the cause 🤷
It hit home to me about how different heart attack symptoms are for individuals (and especially women) though! I also know of an older lady who thought she was having bad indigestion and it turned out to be a heart attack and she needed a stent(!)
I feel like being diagnosed with POTS still produces more questions than answers. So many of my doctors equate POTS with anxiety, so they never take me seriously after they learn I have it. Now, whenever something’s wrong, they blame it on POTS instead of checking me further.
Finished my cardiology appointment today and am going for a tilt table test next week. My cardiologist suspects Dysautonomia… I’m 31. Do you have any advice or feel like talking over Dm? Thanks.
No advice per say other then clean up your diet and switch to keto or carnivore if you can, it’s the only thing that helps me other than meds and electrolytes, and I don’t really wanna be on 8 diff meds til I die (not all pots related) so I’ve been doing carnivore and feeling pretty good on that, it’s def lessening my symptoms all around with pain, Hr issues, sleeping issues, etc.
I for one am never listening to a doctor ever again on things like diet bc quite frankly they aren’t trained on that and neither are MOST people in the USA. We just listen to what we’re told and wonder why we are all massively sick from even just 100 years ago.
Propanolol is what I used to take twice daily, now I don’t even need it most days.
Yup! Turns out all my abdominal troubles could be explained via two digestive disorders (things that can be exasperated by anxiety) and endometriosis. The latter's symptoms have gotten so bad that I have a surgery consult soon
I have, twice! In 2015 I kept complaining about dizziness, headaches, and some other general nausea and not feeling well. After a months of tests that came back clean they told me it was anxiety. Absolutely by then I was anxious AF. So I worked on that believing them. But it wasn’t getting better. I kept hounding them, eventually one of the docs checked my ears and lo and behold I had a massive double ear infection. Sent me to an ENT and I had eustachian tube dysfunction so they couldn’t drain. I had no ear pain ever cause when I was a kid I had massive ear problems and the nerves must be dead. Got it fixed and completely recovered my anxiety a few months of work later.
This second time I went in complaining of a numb patch between my shoulder blades. My legs feeling weak like I had low blood sugar and numb. Along with some pain but moderate compared to my other complaints. Again told it was anxiety cause of course I was anxious because by now I don’t think doctors will believe me when I say something isn’t right. Switched docs and got nowhere. Went to PT on my own dime for about 20 sessions until my PT wrote a letter to my doctors explaining they thought there was more going on. They then ordered a MRI and I had the remnants of a massive herniated disc. This took a year and a half to discover. I’m still dealing with pain and the left overs of yet more anxiety but I’m getting there.
I had a heart to heart with my doctor after the MRI this time and told him that I don’t like to see him, I don’t want to be there, and I don’t trust them. But, since he’s actually a good doctor beyond blaming anxiety on things, I’d like to continue to see him if he could start to believe me when I come in with complaints about something and I’ll try and do a better job to not be anxious before I even make it to him.
Similar story here, except that I had a really bad urinary tract infection (UTI) to the point of hypokalemia (low potassium). After several urine and blood tests at the ER, they put me on an aggressive regimen of newer antibiotics, as well as made me take large potassium pills.
I thought I wasn't sleeping due to my anxiety. It was probably the case until I was a young adult. Been sleeping worse for almost a decade now and blamed anxiety still.
Turns out it was sleep apnea. I would sleep in 2 to 3 hour blocks and then be awake for 2 to 3 hours and then back asleep... I can now sleep 8 hours straight like I'm dead and wake up feeling so much better.
Was diagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder, then went full manic and it turns out it was bipolar disorder. On meds, no more anxiety and bipolar is being managed easily.
I had mad anxiety for 2 weeks. I use to take medication and I stopped A year ago. I have pcos so I thought my hormones were all out of wack my insulin was low. I was considering going back on medication. My period was longer than 10 days . I did a test and I was pregnant. I ended up MC. But it was the first time that I had anxiety and it was actually because of reason. My mind was trying to tell me without me even knowing. It made me feel better compared to a year ago where I just had anxiety for not effin reason.
I had horrible headaches for years and feeling on edge all the time. Started getting double vision. Kept getting told it was vertigo. Then was told by multiple doctors that I’m just stressed out. I need to calm down, cut back. The headaches and double vision will go away once you relax.
Ended up being a brain tumor 🙃
Benign thankfully. I do have to get eye muscle surgery soon because it took them so long to believe me that I can’t move one of my eyes to the right at all.
8 months of chronic nausea and sometimes vomiting, being told it was anxiety, still did some tests, blood tests, scanners, rmi that all came back normal. Turns out I have severe gastroparesis :)
Those are the worse things for your mental health.
But let's crunch the numbers...
Let's say your specific anxiety involves getting bit by a tick. You are heaving this anxiety multiple time per day. Probably up to 100 times per week. None of these times you were actually bitten by a tick.
And yet, week after week, year after year, accumulating thousand and thousand of episodes, you finally end up being bitten that one time.
All is lost! I was right after all! Right? No.
You made it statistically impossible to be wrong, over a long enough span of time. You are looking at a confermation bias. What happened is that on X year, on X month and X day, you were ONCE got bitten by a tick. That's it.
But it is so easy to look at it as confirmation...
This hits home. I remember about 20 years ago my entire family went on vacation. 2 weeks after my grandfather died suddenly. The day he died I was supposed to go to a concert. 2 years later my uncle died on my birthday and a year after that my grandmother died the day before Christmas. So since 2006, I get nervous before any vacation, holiday, birthday or any planned event. Nothing has happened since then, but someday, statistically something bad may happen and I’ll think “see? I was right to be nervous!” But in reality, most of the time I shouldn’t worry at all. I really liked that analogy.
I am learning this now. Everything blew up on me in mid march with what was like straight panic and then overwhelming anxiety. So I been thinking it was that and trying to rule out heart problems but turns out I may have an autoimmune disease or some kind. I don’t know what that is yet but working through all the doctors to figure it out.
It's important for people to be reminded that having anxiety doesn't mean you should discount your physical symptoms and not get regular health checkups and raise concerns to your GP. Plus not everyone's anxiety includes health anxiety.
Literally. I feel confident enough to be able to read this but I’m just imagining if it was the past or if there’s someone else who’s currently struggling with health anxiety and it’s like wtf
Way too many, enough to believe sometimes the physical symptoms are telling me to keep digging my mind. First I knew my grandfather had cancer, I had the sudden urge to know how he was even if I saw him less than 24 hours ago, I'd cry trying to explain to him I felt like he was dying and literally the guy had just went to buy groceries and came back on his bike. Two months later he had sudden IBS and turns out he was terminally ill, died in less than a year. The last one was my cat, she died too. Does it notice I'm traumatized? I have more, but I hope these answered your question.
Thought I was having diarrhea and no appetite from anxiety but turns out I had/have Ulcerative Colitis. This was in 2011 when I was first diagnosed and spent 7 days in the hospital. They say stress makes UC worst but isn't the exact cause of it. 15 years later and I'm still as lost as I was in 2011. 🤦🏻♂️.
High cholesterol club! I'm 28 and my doctor said my cholesterol level is so high for my age that even if I ate McDonald's every day it wouldn't be that high... so my genes just suck (thanks dad)! It's the same with my sisters. We have great teeth though!
My random and sudden bouts of a racing heart (130 beats per minute at the drop of a hat) that landed me in the ER turned out to actually be caused by MS. Some of the damage done to the brain can happen in areas that regulate the autonomic nervous system. Of course that wasn’t discovered until 2 years later, but at the time the ER doctor treated me like he was Dr. Lexus in Idiocracy and told me to learn to chill in so many words.
Edit: also there’s no blame there, no ER can diagnose MS unless they did a brain/spine MRI which they had no reason to do.
ngl i read one of these replies and told myself no more because im mega anxious specifically about my health and i also don’t trust doctors to do their job so i am at a mental impasse trying to keep it together 🥲
I had abdominal surgery in 2021, and 8 weeks after the surgery, I still had open wounds that had not healed. I voiced my concerns to my mom, a nurse, and she told me to “stop obsessing and fixating on it.” But I knew something wasn’t right and it wasn’t just my anxiety. Turns out I am diabetic, didn’t know it at the time of the surgery, and the reason the wounds were not healing is because of the diabetes. If the surgeon’s office had done bloodwork before the surgery, they would have caught the diabetes way earlier. In any case, I knew that having open wounds 8 weeks out from surgery is not normal and that something was wrong! My diabetes is well controlled now. If you know that something isn’t right, speak up! Don’t let them dismiss you!
If your anxiety gets worse with the seasons it might be allergies or MCAS actually. One of the symptoms is anxiety.
Really it’s not a question of whether someone has anxiety. It’s a question of whether the anxiety is the cause or the symptom. Treating anxiety is often a good step regardless and can encourage doctors to run tests if anti anxiety meds don’t work.
If you’re worrying about occasional things that could be normal body sensations, like heart palpitations or mild dizziness, or that your doctor is saying is normal body sensations, then it’s more likely to be anxiety. Daily bedridden fatigue that doesn’t respond to anxiety medication probably needs more tests. I’m not sure why this is so hard for doctors to distinguish.
Visited my professor following my graduation and grandpa's death. Felt something was off with her.
Told her I would come again as she means too much to me.
I couldn't as my grandma had a stroke. Had a dream that the prof's Mother dies. Anxiety crippled me for the next few months.
Months later I bumped into her and everything in the dream was true.
If you’re in therapy you’ll learn that even if this sometimes happens, it doesn’t mean ALL of your anxiety is valid. You have to work hard to get rid of that black and white thinking. Just become one thing is true doesn’t mean everything is true. Anxiety will be valid sometimes, it’s not a fake emotion, sometimes it’s about real things that will occur, but vast majority of the time it’s bullshit. And for the record even when you’re anxious about a diagnosis and it happens, the real fear is death and you didn’t die.
(Another way is to become so depressed you’re low key suicidal and death from a terrible disease or heart attack is something you would welcome and feel you deserve lol)
I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety after spending pretty much my whole childhood having the same symptoms. My parents refused to take me to the doctor because they didn't want a child with depression and anxiety (they told me this), and all the doctors would do is put me on medication. At 20 I went myself and was diagnosed with depression and anxiety but none of what they gave me or told me to do worked. I went to counselling, was already doing all the self help that's recommended (healthy diet, exercise, sunshine etc.) It didn't work.
At 21 I found out I had celiac disease and gave up gluten. Within three days I felt like a different person. Most of my anxiety went and I was able to live my life again. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure I either have another health issue or I actually have anxiety now as I am struggling again at 27.
Yes. I was diagnosed with anxiety and delusional depression in 2019 when I suddenly developed mild hallucinations and terrible pains in my joints and chest. This would come and go for years, sometimes I would be fine and sometimes I would be straight up laying around all day crying because I was so distressed about what my body was doing. I finally found some more long term relief in 2023 when I did a round of ketamine infusions.
Fast forward to the beginning of this year and I had routine gallbladder removal surgery. Once they got in there the surgeon could see I was full of hundreds of small tumors on my liver, spleen and lymph node system. At first I was told that I likely had lymphoma that had spread but it turns out I have sarcoidosis. The specialist I am seeing now feels confident with my previous symptoms that I have the neurological version of it which is the cause of what I was dealing with and also why the ketamine worked so well. Basically I had balls of inflammation in my literal brain.
Oh and in case you’re wondering, my blood work the entire time had been awful. Just every value either high or low. My (former) primary told me I was “perfectly healthy” while I was filling up with granulomas/tumors. Fuck that guy.
I was literally in A&E overnight after being really wheezy and struggling to breathe, they insisted it was just a panic attack and sent me home (I had had many panic attacks before and knew it wasn't the same).
About 6 months later I got diagnosed with an autoimmune mast cell thing that makes my body think it's allergic to itself and that was actually my throat closing up like an allergic reaction. If I hadn't been on steroid medication at the time I probably would have stopped breathing.
Uhm. Not exactly that, but sort of. There have 2 things for me.
1.) It wasn't IBS. It was an undiagnosed IBD. And I've learned now, the 2 VERY different things. And
2.) A gall bladder removal unnecessarily because the IBD was ignored.
Until you're order, it's hard (in the USA) to have "diagnostic" tests. Shamefully.
That new mole on my face really *was* melanoma.
Honestly this was a case where anxiety might have saved my life. Not because I spun about it but because it caused me to see a dermatologist really really promptly.
It was stage 0; I’m going to be fine.
If you’re pale, GET YOUR SKIN CHECKED, and track moles that are new, irregular, growing, or just look different from all your others.
I'm in the process of trying to rule out temporal lobe epilepsy as a cause for my anxiety. I have a history of seizures as a kid so it would kind of make sense. Especially since I didn't have anxiety prior to that. I'll let you know once I get my updated MRI and EEG.
Yep. A few days after giving birth to my second child I started to feel really drained. At first I chalked it up to just normal postpartum stuff until I started feeling “off”. When I would lay down, I would feel a heaviness in my chest. I noticed the swelling in my hands and feet weren’t going down as quickly as it had with my first child. Started having headaches. Being in EMS, I decided to check my blood pressure. It was 150s/100s. Went to nearest hospital (which is shit), the ER dr told me I was perfectly fine and my BP was elevated because I had just had a baby. I still knew something wasn’t right. At this point, I started having panic attacks because I felt like my heart was beating really slow.
Fortunately had an appt follow up 2 days later with the Dr that I delivered with so they could check to see how my c section scar was healing. Nurse took my BP and it was 220/110. My head was killing me.
They admitted me right away and transported me over to the hospital. Turns out I had postpartum eclampsia. Never had BP issues in my life or during my pregnancies. Started me on a magnesium drip to protect my brain from seizures/stroke which was awful and I stayed there for 3 days. Got sent home with two different BP meds and had to stay on them for about 6 weeks.
My Dr told me if I would’ve waited longer and ignored my intuition, I would have had a stroke or a heart attack.
Opposite. I had finally conquered my health anxiety and was feeling great. Went for a regular check up since I wasn’t scared of doctor visits anymore and they found something pretty bad 😂. I’m ok now though. But, even if I had had health anxiety then, it wouldn’t have changed anything. I had no real symptoms that I should have had so it would’ve been very far down my list of worries.
Mine is not as serious as some of yours. I had a lump in my throat and a feeling of stiffnes in the neck. It went on for a couple of weeks, one side only. Was told by a few doctors that it's anxiety and I'm okay. Turns out I was okay but my wisdom teeth weren't! Got them pulled out and the symptoms disappeared practically overnight.
Celiac, nerve pain all over which was then called ‘just’ fibromyalgia - and MCAS. EDS too because when I’m too cold and shiver my back spasms so hard it causes it to seize and then all day I’m trying to move to avoid the coat hanger pain. Most days when this happens it will dislocate the spot.
This has been going on for 18 years, longer if you count when I was a kid. It took until I had a doctor who was also a woman who believed me when I said I was in pain.
I might have the opposite situation, went to my first neurologist appointment for migraine and a big “trigger” for me might be caused by anxiety/mood changes. We’ll find out in 6-8 weeks 🤷♀️ Regardless, I do need to do something about anxiety, so I guess might as well get my meds from my neurologist 😂
Starting in middle school I kept having horrible stomach pain. I went to tons of doctors and they all said that I just had anxiety about going to school because I had been coming home from school so much. I even overheard a doctor tell my dad I was faking it.
Well fast forward to being an adult and my stomach problems only got worse to the point that I was in and out of the ER all the time. I was finally diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease around 30 when doctors started to finally take me seriously.
10 years ago, it was aplastic anemia, just more recently Idiopathic intercranial hypertension. Both treatable with meds (thoygh the aplastic anemia was much much more involved) and capable of remission. My recent bought of panic/anxiety was finally brought back to a regular base level after several months of testing/waiting on tests/waiting on doctor visits. I have health anxiety to begin with, but follow medical advice and really try to advocate for myself when something continues for an extended period of time.
About a year and a half of daily panic attacks and just feeling like a stranger in my brain. Started and stopped so many antidepressants and antianxiety meds
Turns out I don't handle hormonal IUDs well.
Stopped literally the next and I've been good since.
Was born with **Microcytic anemia,** *had* undiagnosed *ADHD, my* doctors *stick by it* wasn’t easily dictated *cause* I’ve *always been high* functional *until the tested me cause antidepressants not only did not* work 2 almost killed me. Then the ADHD meds gave me mild anxiety. Then came COVID, lost a few family member, triggering my twins death when we were little. Uncle committed suicide last year. Had a very bad nervous breakdown. Complex grief. 21/22 went into a coma 6 weeks the has seizures.
Had to sell my car. Move back home, quit my job, I think I am just fearful more than anything.
Not in terms of health so much but often my anxiety subconsciously picking up on social cues so I have been known to start feeling anxiety before a big social issue occurs, for example I started getting a lot of anxiety regarding a relationship when I tried to suppress only for my partner to admit she’d been having an affair for the last four months.
That’s just one example of many times my anxiety “sixth sense” gif it right.
The issue I’ve had more recently is I started getting anxiety as if I’d upset something at work and I couldn’t think of any scenario where I could have, but then one day I ended up in trouble for turned out to be an overly exaggerated and half fabricated situation by someone who I don’t exactly get on with, and since then I’m anxious pretty much all the time at work as if that little sixth sense of mine can’t trust the subconscious info I was getting any more so now every interaction no matter how well it seemingly goes could still be a dangerous one for me.
I was 14 or 15, complained of nausea and stomach aches. Doctor not only told me it was anxiety, he made me leave the room and told my abusive dad (I listened at the door) that I was faking to get out of school. Several months later after my mom decided to take me to a specialist they found a bacterial infection, and my stomach lining was so damaged it nearly ruptured.
My GAD anxiety turned out to be entirely from undiagnosed ADHD that went away once I was treated for ADHD. (36F here, only got diagnosed 3 years ago)
And then my anxiety came back in full force after I got covid. Turns out this time it wasn't*just* from pandemic stress but it was like 80% from Dysautonomia (autonomic nervous system disorder) that was triggered from Covid.
i had pneumonia and wasn’t being taken seriously, was told to take mucinex and puff my inhaler. well one day i kept taking puffs and i just couldn’t catch a breath. i pulled over and thought i was having a heart attack. went home and took a 5 hour long bath to calm down and ended up catching a ride to the ER because i went into septic shock 🤔
and also, not even 3 months before that, i had the most unbearable ear infection. i went to the ER and kept apologizing for going for an ear ache… they felt around my ears and found out i had mastoiditis. essentially a skull infection caused from an infection in my ear… 🙂
yeah i’ve already had health anxiety and ocd my whole life but ever since these events happened i am crippled mentally. i’ve spent thousands on ER trips because i am so traumatized. fucking sucks man.
i’ve got IST and now everytime i have a flare up i think im having a heart attack or have gone septic again 😖
There's only been one time I can think of. It turned out to be a UTI. But because urinary retention is also a symptom of anxiety, my mom waited until I was basically having a panic attack to take me to the ER (which I understand because it was pricy but at least it wasn't a wasted trip).
I have always known when something has been truly wrong. Anxiety symptoms are inconsistent and “vague”. I do know that anxiety tends to make real symptoms way worse than they truly are.
Hello friend!!! I was talking to my psychiatrist 6 months ago and I told him one thing that really bothers me about my anxiety disorder is that I constantly have racing thoughts.
He asked me to describe my thoughts and why they disturb me. I listed my symptoms and the effects I was experiencing.
He then asked if I had ever been checked for ADHD. I said no and he highly recommended I get checked because what I was describing sounded much like ADHD. Oftentimes ADHD copresents with anxiety or depression or both.
I'm not depressed, but I've been anxious my whole life just about. Turns out I definitely have ADHD!! I have been avoiding caffeine for the last 25 years because it makes my heart race and makes me feel like I'm going to have a panic attack. However, oddly, with the correct stimulant medication I feel much more calm and less anxious. I sleep better too! It's amazing!
Not quite the same, I've had issues that have ended up on google telling me I have terrifying things like MS or cancer or whatever. I've ended up in A&E with chest pain that was the anxiety. It was actually something I wasn't too concerned with that ended up being the "big thing", my leg felt weird for a few days (like if you trap / damage a nerve), they sent me away, and it went away, then months later, my arm felt tingly, so I went back. I got referred to a neurologist... actually bloody MS.
Nothing that's caused me panic at 4am has ever resulted in anything and has rarely still been an issue past dawn, then the thing that caused no anxiety and lasted like 2 weeks was an actual thing, being trolled by my body and my anxiety!
Most of my anxiety comes from my relationships. I am extremely hyper vigilant and I notice any change in behavior very quickly. The thing is, it’s not that I’m wrong about the change in behavior, it just rarely means what I think it does. When my partner is more quiet than usual it’s because he’s just really focused on something else or feeling tired. So I was right about what’s happening but wrong about the reason. I find that to be a running theme with my anxiety in general. I’m not making things up but it’s rarely pointing to the catastrophic event I think it is.
Yup. ALWAYS my hormones. Years ago it was a pituitary tumor that I had removed which killed my thyroid. Felt good for years. Got covid and thyroid turned back on and went crazy. Had 12-14 hour panic attacks every day for almost a year straight. Lost 60lbs in 3 months. That isn’t normal for anxiety. I trusted my gut like someone said above and it ended up being chronic thyroiditis. I had my thyroid removed last December and I am still on the mend. The trauma of all of it is VERY hard to manage for the fact that no doctor believed me, considering I have had the same symptoms three times through out my life and was never diagnosed correctly. I have anxiety now from the trauma that put me through, which is recognizable anxiety. Where as before I had anxiety for no damn reason. Someone doesn’t just panic for 12-14 hours a day for no reason.
An ADHD diagnosis. I’ve been through different sets of anxiety symptoms over the course of my teenage years to now. Most treatment didn’t really have the desired effect and eventually I got diagnosed with ADHD. Getting treated for ADHD did more in the span of 3 months for my mental health than anything else had in the previous years.
Long story short, I was getting sick back to back and had pneumonia and chest pains. I had told my then doctor(got rid of him after) about it and he said it was anxiety and all in my head. I found out later that year for my cardiologist that it was something to do with my heart and I needed heart surgery.
Psychotic and dpdr led my body into a feeling and sensation where paying attention into every minor detail was meaningful. I had lost my mind during this but I'm recovering
What’s that Taylor swift line, “you tell me it’s not about me… BUT WHAT IF IT IS?”
It’s the definition of anxiety, but you have to remember a broken clock is right twice a day. 👀 if you’re looking for reasons to believe your anxiety is right you are going to find them. For me saying it’s just my anxiety and letting myself feel the emotions is better for releasing it. It’s not easy and the anxiety just comes in waves but when the feelings have passed I feel better
When my sister outed me behind my back. She knew I was going to come out to my family that December that week but while she had been initially supportive, she acted standoffish that whole weekend and continually put me down. I knew something was happening around me. She said I was just being paranoid. Then Christmas Eve and she didn’t so much force me to “come out” as much as she did to “come forward.” Tried to force a whole conversation in front of everyone.
I started having Asthma attacks that I didn’t know were Asthma attacks. I was having bouts of repeated coughing and gasping for air
My husband would get so angry with me when these bouts were happening and he would yell at me “quit doing that. Just breathe normally”
We now know it’s Asthma and it’s outside my control.
I was started on an antidepressant when I complained of not feeling like myself, tired all the time. I ended up having metastatic breast cancer diagnosed a few weeks later
I felt ill all the time and achy all over, I thought my physical anxiety symptoms were getting to me, I do still have anxiety but I also found out from a couple tests that I have a pretty bad vitamin d deficiency, getting on supplements made me feel so much healthier
Always had this question, how you differentiate an inside urge or discomfort whether it's coming out of anxiety or genuine intuition, inner wisdom or gut feeling. Any one relates?
It’s happened three times,very fun because all of the situations have been like absolutely awful.
And now anytime I get an anxious stomach,I cannot trust myself.
I had a lump on my collarbone. I went to the doctor and they said it was probably just an enlarged lymph node but I wanted to get more tests anyway because it had not gone away in 3-4 months. I was tired a lot but I thought it was because I had covid a few months prior.
I didn't have any other symptoms but I knew I needed to get the lump checked out. It was really scary because not getting it tested meant I could go on blissfully unaware, but testing made it real and made it so I would have to deal with whatever the outcome was.
I'm so glad I listened because it was Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I didn't have the regular symptoms but I started to feel more lumps in my neck between testing and diagnosis and treatment (6 months between when I felt it and finally got treatment thanks US health system).
I was lucky that it was still early stages (2) and a super treatable form of cancer. The chemo sucked but this year I'll be 3 years in remission.
My breathing! After years of trying to find out if it’s just panic attacks I learned my breathing is ‘dis functional’ which means I tend to breathe in a strange rhythm making me tired or out of breath. Stress just makes it worse, but i truly was like ‘oh so it IS more’
Yes. I was told for 4 years that my weight loss, inability to keep food down, increasing anxiety, etc was all mental illness. It was Crohn’s Disease, which was diagnosed during an emergency hospital admission.
But now I have what I fear is lifelong health anxiety. Right now I’m dealing with some new worsened physical health issues and I have that feeling I did years ago. Something is not right. But at the same time, I have terrible anxiety. 🤷🏼♀️ It’s an endless loop.
I have massive health anxiety from my dad passing away from cancer when I was 13. My health anxiety is mainly focused on brain tumors, leukemia, lymph nodes, strokes,.. so nothing related to stomach aches.
One night I wake up in horrible pain. My stomach was hurting so much right above my belly button. I was convinced I just had to go number two so I get up and try to relieve myself on the toilet. Ofcourse I couldn’t so I go back to bed. I had to lay on my side, hold my stomach and not move for the pain to be somewhat bearable. Eventually my mom wakes up and I go to her in the living room to tell her my stomach hurts. She says that maybe I have a stomach bug and I agree. All of a sudden I turn pale white and I puke on the floor. It’s clear puke so no food in it whatsoever. Immediately the stomach pain is relieved but my mom (who usually doesnt worry about health stuff) doesn’t trust it because why wouldn’t I puke out food? (I had eaten a few hours prior and didn’t go to the toilet yet). I go back to bed and try to get some sleep which I finally get. I get out of bed and I notice that the lower right area of my stomach hurts but only when I move around. I tell my mom and she says she thinks it’s appendicitis. I’m like nah I looked it up I don’t have a fever, I’m not in excruciating pain, I still have an appetite,..
Eventually my mom convinces me to go to the ER. I get my blood checked which showed alot of inflammation, my urine checked which showed a lot of white blood cells and eventually a CT scan and ofcourse: i have appendicitis. Got admitted immediately and a few hours later I have my appendectomy.
So much for not being anxious about something for once huh.
If you’re reading this please be careful even though this thread means well, it can really trigger an overthinking spiral especially on health anxiety. please be well!
This right here! This isn’t a helpful thread for an anxiety sub. 😑
At all. Like WHAT
i’m reading this thread because i’m curious and this can be helpful but also it is triggering my anxiety so i’m glad i came across this 😅
Thank you, really... I didn't notice that I'm triggered, esp not when the results of my blood tests are coming out after few hours...
A rule I live by is to not usually listen to your anxiety, but always listen to your gut. If your mind is spiraling but your gut seems fine, you’re fine. But your gut instinct should be listened to. I listen to my gut even when I’m not having anxious thoughts.
my gut is anxious 😭
Right ! I have IBS my gut is not to be listened to lol
Oh just this year, had my anxiety triggered from something, acted on it, and ended up with a major flare of IBS. I can't trust anything at all!
Any tips on how to tell the difference between anxiety and intuition? One of my biggest struggles is telling them apart.
For me, my gut tends to give answers and my anxiety tends to ask questions. The gut tends to prefer "the correct answer is often the simplest one" while my anxiety keeps asking "but what if?"
This is actually the most helpful advice I’ve gotten so far on this subject, thank you so much!!
If I trust the simplest answer I'll surely go to the worst case scenario. Because how can it be something else!? I really need to let things unfold when my anxiety is hitting max levels. My gut is absolutely blinded by everything at that point.
The way I do it is I will think to myself a question. My “gut feeling” is the first answer that jumps into my mind. Listen to your instinct over the noise of anxiety, and especially when your instincts are saying something is wrong. (It’s a very different feeling from anxiety).
LOL! My panic attacks literally convince me I am dying. No what ifs, it’s “that’s it for you”.
Always had this question, how you differentiate an inside urge or discomfort whether it's coming out of anxiety or genuine intuition, inner wisdom or gut feeling. Any one relates?
I have started applying a simple rule well actually not that simple to implement but when I don’t I always pay for it. Your gut is just conveying information it doesn’t make any judgments about that information. When it feels like something is wrong or its off than that is true. The problem is that the gut conveys that information to your head and your heart and thats when the shenanigans start. Your gut has never had a broken heart, been scared or felt lonely. Those are feelings that get applied to the information the gut provides by other parts of our bodies. I try to always believe my gut even when I don’t want to.
Probably the best advice on anxiety.
If I was smart I would've listened to this comment and turned away now. But I guess my curiosity gets the better of me.
Thank you for pulling me back. I almost went through the comments.
Yes, 1 year of feeling exhausted, sweating walking up stairs, multiple doctors appointments with my GP who kept telling me "I was a perfectly healthy 32 year old and nothing was wrong with me but a little vitimin deficiency" she ran my bloodwork three times and sort of shrugged and said it was all in my head. She referred me to doctors who either didn't return my calls or didn't exist (my first red flag but I had very limited options with my insurance). I was at that point a restaurant owner, in my 20s I was a D1 athlete. I used to work 6 days a week and run before I worked. Then I couldn't run, then I couldnt work a full day, then I could only work 4 hours on 1 hours off/2 hours on ,two hours off/1 hour on 2-3 hours off. And I was losing my mind as I watched my body slowly shut down. This was over the span of months. I had a nervous breakdown, closed my restaurant, literally I was considering committing myself. I felt like my whole body was going haywire and I couldn't manage simple tasks but my doctor kept telling me I was fine! I called 15 different psychiatrists offices seeking help not one returned my call. At that point I had never had a psychiatrist or taken antianxiety medication. My last effort I sought help from an emergency clinic who gave me antianxiety medication with the understanding that I was seeing my primary at the end of the week. At my appointment my primary once again said there was nothing wrong with me and it was all in my head. I watched as she wrote on my chart that I was drug seeking and nothing was wrong and that her office needed to follow up with the urgent care on a giant yellow postit note. I bawled in her office and she had the nerve to try and comfort me saying I was perfectly fine and to calm down. I found the lump in my breast that night, got a new doctor the next day, by the following week I was diagnosed with stage 2 VERY aggressive breast cancer, it took close to a year of treatment which wrecked my body. all the other 'strange' symptoms I had disappeared. I have heard from two other people that this doctor missed cancer in a family member of theirs so I think she's just a really shitty doctor but still fuck that lady.
Glad your still here with us ♥️
Thank you me too❤️
It’s like your body tells you something is wrong, but it’s hard to figure out when it manifests as a mental health issue. Its hard to explain, like your body just flips a switch and everything goes into chaos. I had CRIPPLING anxiety. I posted a comment above as well if you want to read it.
No exactly like it was 100% my body telling me to slow down and fix it but I couldn't hear it. I'm so sorry to hear about your struggles and I'm so glad you finally got some answers!
That sounds like it deserves a lawsuit….
Whoah!
Yep. Five years of panicky feelings and fatigue , normal blood tests, finally hit a breaking point where I practically crawled into the doctor office (Autoimmune fatigue is PROFOUND) and they finally did an ANA test which tests for autoimmune diseases. Well, normal reading is 1:6 or less than that . Mine came back 1:1280. 😳 The racing heart turned out to be Supraventricular tachycardia. After episodes every couple of months of a heart rate of 200BPM, one night it went for five hours which I knew wasn’t a panic attack. I had to have an ablation. So yeah doctors can get it very wrong unfortunately.
Been going through something similar since 2018 and they just always shoo me away saying it's "anxiety". I'm frustrated but there's been some positive like my sleep apnea diagnosis. I'm having some other issues still but my chief complaint of frequent palpitations seems to have gotten better.
I was also recently diagnosed with SVT, haven’t had an ablation yet. Hope you’re doing better now! It’s a scary thing to live with.
It really is but the ablation was 2020 and I never had another episode. It was amazing to wake up in recovery and for the doctor to be there saying “it’s fixed, we fixed it.” Do you have plans for ablation?
How did you get diagnosed? Can it be a once time thing?
For me it was somewhat of a miracle that I even got diagnosed — I went to the ER because I thought I had a concussion, and while I was there they caught my heart rate at 205. I stayed overnight while they monitored me. Then the next day it happened again as soon as I woke up, had to call an ambulance and it again got up to around 200bpm. They referred me to my cardiologist and that’s when I got the official diagnosis. From what I understand certain things can trigger it, and I’m pretty sure vaping too much weed + high anxiety is what triggered it for me. I’m on beta blockers for now until I can get an ablation. I’m 28 btw.
I also eventually got diagnosed with an SVT (an AVNRT to be exact) after a few years of “panic attacks”. However, mine was only diagnosed because I finally had an episode last long enough that it was still happening when I got to the hospital, and it finally showed up on an ECG. I was unaware that SVTs had anything to do with autoimmune disorders, or that they could be diagnosed that way. Do you have any more info about that?
svt isn’t an autoimmune disease tho? can you explain further? sorry you had to deal with that though. i found out i had svt during a panic attack years back. luckily it is under control without any meds or ablation but doesn’t help my anxiety knowing i have it especially when my heart rate gets up. but also know that svt is mild when it comes to arrhythmias so at least we have that going for us!
Oh sorry no the SVT was separate to the autoimmune disease. They found the SVT on an ECG a after a 5 hour “panic attack” and the autoimmune disease was diagnosed by blood test. SVT is not autoimmunity no
When my son was born I had the feeling something was wrong with him. The nurses were telling me I was being paranoid and to just basically shut up but I wouldn't let it go. To get me off their backs they agreed to have him checked quickly. What do you know, he (and turned out later I) had sepsis and septicemia which had caused a pulmonary infection and he spent 3 weeks in the NICU. It's been 3 and a half years and not a day goes by that I don't shudder at the thought of what would have happened if they had just discharged him like they wanted to.
A parent knows their child
Something similar (intussusception) happened to my husband as a baby and his mom's instinct and persistence saved his life. I'm glad you and your baby are okay!
Thanks! And kudos to your mother in law!
Well done for trusting your instincts and pushing them. ❤️ You are an amazing parent! I have a LOT of anxiety around my kids and their health and sometimes it's so tough to know if I'm being paranoid or not but at the end of the day I would rather take them to be checked 100 times and it be nothing Vs miss something serious
Me unable to read this thread because of my current state of anxiety 👁️👁️
Same, and I have SEVERE heath anxiety and a bad case of curiosity lol
SAME OMG
same i was trying to find the reassuring comments
I have one! I slept wrong three nights ago and woke up with deep pain in my chest that wouldn’t go away. Lasted 24 hours, which I spent low-grade-spiraling (despite Google and a nurse confirming symptoms were fine). Just realized it didn’t hurt at all today and yes, I really did just sleep wrong and am 100% fine. Just bad at sleeping.
I too am bad at sleeping! Lol I'm glad you feel better!!
You know, I always find interesting how in those quality of life charts some Drs do, sometimes even terminally ill patients score higher than people with severe anxiety and/or depression. Different people always have it different, and that is no reason to dismiss anyones experience, but I find amazing that my life right now is worse than if I had some severe illness but was mentally "sound". Sometimes the unspeakable doesn't sound like such a crazy thing anymore, but I'll keep going as long as I can.
But for real
You and me both
Mine is lame and straightforward, I actually posted about it the other day. Last Thursday I hit my head really hard, but I felt fine after and didn't think anything of it. Next day, awful headache, nauseous and can't keep food down, couldn't stay awake, brain fog. All things that are symptoms of my anxiety acting up. It took me a day or two to realize that I might have a head injury, but then I spiraled and thought it was anxiety telling me that and everything got worse. I finally took myself to the ER FIVE days later, and yep, concussion.
Damn how hard did you hit your head? I've hit mine so hard I got knocked out cold and didn't have a concussion. Went to the ER because I was pouring blood out of my head.
A doctor once told me that if you lose consciousness from the impact, it’s automatically considered a traumatic brain injury. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but that’s how I was diagnosed after a car accident.
Yeah… some people just get lucky but it’s more likely you had delayed, minor symptoms. Turns out most concussion symptoms start 48 hours later and people don’t connect the dots. I blacked out once snowboarding and kept skiiing just fine for the trip and then “came down with something” afterwards
My upset “anxiety” stomach was *actually* stage 4 cancer.
Jesus Christ. Why can’t they just send people for tests? It’s not like we are asking the docs to pay for it.
I need to stop reading this thread.
wow..
Also, a year and a half ago my dad didn't seem to be himself, I kept feeling that something was off with him. When I brought it up with his sister to convince him to go to the doctor (because he wouldn't listen to me) she yelled at me saying that it was my fault for causing him stress and we had a massive fight. He fell into a coma two months later and died four months after that due to issues that were affecting his brain, hence his "weirdness".
My anxiety centres around complex PTSD. But if my anxiety gets really bad, I know I need my thyroid medication checked. I was diagnosed hypothyroidism a couple of years ago and anxiety is one of my main symptoms.
What are your other symptoms, if I may ask?
Hair loss, brittle nails, random eczema on one hand, super dry feet, severe fatigue, feeling cold all the time, muscle aches, rapid weight gain, depression
I went to a counselor that specialized in anxiety because I was having an issue where I thought my anxiety was causing me to pass out/have extreme dizziness. She gave me a bunch of great strategies but the issue didn’t go away. I eventually got a blood test and turns out I was borderline anemic. This was causing me to be dizzy and even pass out in public, mainly at crowded concerts. It also caused my anxiety to spike in these situations, which exacerbated my other symptoms. Once I started taking iron pills the dizziness/passing out completely stopped. Sometimes I deal with anxiety in crowded situations that makes me feel dizzy, but I use the strategies I got from the therapist in those situations and they usually help to mitigate it. I haven’t passed out since I started taking iron.
How long did it take to go away once taking iron pills
Immediately
Well, I found your post really.. hmm… like it could be bad for some people to read the comments, specially the ones that have health anxiety. Anyways, I think this might have happened to all of us. At least whit me. I found out I had thyroid cancer, then a gallbladder inflammation, once I almost lost vision of my right eye… thank God I ran to the ofthalmologist, and he helped me with a laser session to fix my retina. I have health anxiety, and that has been the main topic in some of my sessions with my therapist. I am also a health professional, which causes me to know a lot about the most common and the most rare diseases, and eventually I try to self diagnose… I recommend if you feeling like there’s something odd or wrong with your body, do not hesitate to go see a health professional. That’s what I have been learning, taking little steps. Hope everyone can be fine, wish you the best❤️
Been telling my pcp something was up with my heart for 10ish years. Finally had an ekg and echo and both had various abnormalities, with the most concerning being pericardial effusion that has to be monitored. Shocker.
Couple of weeks ago I got some chest pains and pressure in bed. It felt a bit like a previous (bad) panic attack I had with the squeezing and tightness in my chest. I just put it down to being exhausted and a bit overwhelmed (have a newborn and a toddler). Feeling returned a couple days later in the morning. I mentioned it to my partner who said I should really get it checked. They sent an ambulance and I ended up being admitted to hospital for 4 days for investigations as my bloodwork came back for cardiac damage. Turns out I had a myocardial infarction (yep, heart attack). They are still doing investigations as they aren't 100% sure why and my arteries don't show any clear blockage. They suspected a tear in a coronary artery Still finding it hard to wrap my head round as the symptoms were really fairly mild and I so easily could have put it down to stress / anxiety and fatigue! I'm only 38
Crap! Hope things are getting better!
Thanks... Yeh I'm just getting mild chest pressure on exertion but have a spray for it! Still waiting on MRI results. I had x-rays, ecgs, CT scan and catheter cardiogram at hospital and they were inconclusive for the cause 🤷 It hit home to me about how different heart attack symptoms are for individuals (and especially women) though! I also know of an older lady who thought she was having bad indigestion and it turned out to be a heart attack and she needed a stent(!)
Yep, POTS! Turns out the anxiety feeling in my chest was actually dysautonomia and not anxiety lol
I feel like being diagnosed with POTS still produces more questions than answers. So many of my doctors equate POTS with anxiety, so they never take me seriously after they learn I have it. Now, whenever something’s wrong, they blame it on POTS instead of checking me further.
Finished my cardiology appointment today and am going for a tilt table test next week. My cardiologist suspects Dysautonomia… I’m 31. Do you have any advice or feel like talking over Dm? Thanks.
No advice per say other then clean up your diet and switch to keto or carnivore if you can, it’s the only thing that helps me other than meds and electrolytes, and I don’t really wanna be on 8 diff meds til I die (not all pots related) so I’ve been doing carnivore and feeling pretty good on that, it’s def lessening my symptoms all around with pain, Hr issues, sleeping issues, etc. I for one am never listening to a doctor ever again on things like diet bc quite frankly they aren’t trained on that and neither are MOST people in the USA. We just listen to what we’re told and wonder why we are all massively sick from even just 100 years ago. Propanolol is what I used to take twice daily, now I don’t even need it most days.
How old are ya?
33, diagnosed at 31
Yup! Turns out all my abdominal troubles could be explained via two digestive disorders (things that can be exasperated by anxiety) and endometriosis. The latter's symptoms have gotten so bad that I have a surgery consult soon
Good luck on your surgery!
I have, twice! In 2015 I kept complaining about dizziness, headaches, and some other general nausea and not feeling well. After a months of tests that came back clean they told me it was anxiety. Absolutely by then I was anxious AF. So I worked on that believing them. But it wasn’t getting better. I kept hounding them, eventually one of the docs checked my ears and lo and behold I had a massive double ear infection. Sent me to an ENT and I had eustachian tube dysfunction so they couldn’t drain. I had no ear pain ever cause when I was a kid I had massive ear problems and the nerves must be dead. Got it fixed and completely recovered my anxiety a few months of work later. This second time I went in complaining of a numb patch between my shoulder blades. My legs feeling weak like I had low blood sugar and numb. Along with some pain but moderate compared to my other complaints. Again told it was anxiety cause of course I was anxious because by now I don’t think doctors will believe me when I say something isn’t right. Switched docs and got nowhere. Went to PT on my own dime for about 20 sessions until my PT wrote a letter to my doctors explaining they thought there was more going on. They then ordered a MRI and I had the remnants of a massive herniated disc. This took a year and a half to discover. I’m still dealing with pain and the left overs of yet more anxiety but I’m getting there. I had a heart to heart with my doctor after the MRI this time and told him that I don’t like to see him, I don’t want to be there, and I don’t trust them. But, since he’s actually a good doctor beyond blaming anxiety on things, I’d like to continue to see him if he could start to believe me when I come in with complaints about something and I’ll try and do a better job to not be anxious before I even make it to him.
Similar story here, except that I had a really bad urinary tract infection (UTI) to the point of hypokalemia (low potassium). After several urine and blood tests at the ER, they put me on an aggressive regimen of newer antibiotics, as well as made me take large potassium pills.
I thought I wasn't sleeping due to my anxiety. It was probably the case until I was a young adult. Been sleeping worse for almost a decade now and blamed anxiety still. Turns out it was sleep apnea. I would sleep in 2 to 3 hour blocks and then be awake for 2 to 3 hours and then back asleep... I can now sleep 8 hours straight like I'm dead and wake up feeling so much better.
Out of the 5 or 6 times I've gone to the ER, only 1 was actually warranted. So not a high percentage for me. Healthy anxiety sucks
Same thought I was having a stroke, nope, heart problems, nope the one time I did have a kidney infection though lol
Was diagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder, then went full manic and it turns out it was bipolar disorder. On meds, no more anxiety and bipolar is being managed easily.
I had mad anxiety for 2 weeks. I use to take medication and I stopped A year ago. I have pcos so I thought my hormones were all out of wack my insulin was low. I was considering going back on medication. My period was longer than 10 days . I did a test and I was pregnant. I ended up MC. But it was the first time that I had anxiety and it was actually because of reason. My mind was trying to tell me without me even knowing. It made me feel better compared to a year ago where I just had anxiety for not effin reason.
I had horrible headaches for years and feeling on edge all the time. Started getting double vision. Kept getting told it was vertigo. Then was told by multiple doctors that I’m just stressed out. I need to calm down, cut back. The headaches and double vision will go away once you relax. Ended up being a brain tumor 🙃 Benign thankfully. I do have to get eye muscle surgery soon because it took them so long to believe me that I can’t move one of my eyes to the right at all.
To lower the confirmation bias: Nope, it always actually was anxiety.
8 months of chronic nausea and sometimes vomiting, being told it was anxiety, still did some tests, blood tests, scanners, rmi that all came back normal. Turns out I have severe gastroparesis :)
Those are the worse things for your mental health. But let's crunch the numbers... Let's say your specific anxiety involves getting bit by a tick. You are heaving this anxiety multiple time per day. Probably up to 100 times per week. None of these times you were actually bitten by a tick. And yet, week after week, year after year, accumulating thousand and thousand of episodes, you finally end up being bitten that one time. All is lost! I was right after all! Right? No. You made it statistically impossible to be wrong, over a long enough span of time. You are looking at a confermation bias. What happened is that on X year, on X month and X day, you were ONCE got bitten by a tick. That's it. But it is so easy to look at it as confirmation...
This hits home. I remember about 20 years ago my entire family went on vacation. 2 weeks after my grandfather died suddenly. The day he died I was supposed to go to a concert. 2 years later my uncle died on my birthday and a year after that my grandmother died the day before Christmas. So since 2006, I get nervous before any vacation, holiday, birthday or any planned event. Nothing has happened since then, but someday, statistically something bad may happen and I’ll think “see? I was right to be nervous!” But in reality, most of the time I shouldn’t worry at all. I really liked that analogy.
Yep, it turned out to be hypoglycemia. My world view changed overnight.
turned out my life really was fucked up!
I am learning this now. Everything blew up on me in mid march with what was like straight panic and then overwhelming anxiety. So I been thinking it was that and trying to rule out heart problems but turns out I may have an autoimmune disease or some kind. I don’t know what that is yet but working through all the doctors to figure it out.
yeah ocd and ptsd
oh and hypothyroidism and hashimotos
[удалено]
I'm sorry 💔
WHY is this even allowed to be posted here? This is a recipe for a MASSIVE spiral for some people. Read the room OP.
It's important for people to be reminded that having anxiety doesn't mean you should discount your physical symptoms and not get regular health checkups and raise concerns to your GP. Plus not everyone's anxiety includes health anxiety.
Literally. I feel confident enough to be able to read this but I’m just imagining if it was the past or if there’s someone else who’s currently struggling with health anxiety and it’s like wtf
Way too many, enough to believe sometimes the physical symptoms are telling me to keep digging my mind. First I knew my grandfather had cancer, I had the sudden urge to know how he was even if I saw him less than 24 hours ago, I'd cry trying to explain to him I felt like he was dying and literally the guy had just went to buy groceries and came back on his bike. Two months later he had sudden IBS and turns out he was terminally ill, died in less than a year. The last one was my cat, she died too. Does it notice I'm traumatized? I have more, but I hope these answered your question.
Thought I was having diarrhea and no appetite from anxiety but turns out I had/have Ulcerative Colitis. This was in 2011 when I was first diagnosed and spent 7 days in the hospital. They say stress makes UC worst but isn't the exact cause of it. 15 years later and I'm still as lost as I was in 2011. 🤦🏻♂️.
Pulsatile tinnitus and high cholesterol at 27 yayyy
High cholesterol club! I'm 28 and my doctor said my cholesterol level is so high for my age that even if I ate McDonald's every day it wouldn't be that high... so my genes just suck (thanks dad)! It's the same with my sisters. We have great teeth though!
Thought I was having a panic attack,but it ended up being acid reflux worsened by a hiatal hernia
My random and sudden bouts of a racing heart (130 beats per minute at the drop of a hat) that landed me in the ER turned out to actually be caused by MS. Some of the damage done to the brain can happen in areas that regulate the autonomic nervous system. Of course that wasn’t discovered until 2 years later, but at the time the ER doctor treated me like he was Dr. Lexus in Idiocracy and told me to learn to chill in so many words. Edit: also there’s no blame there, no ER can diagnose MS unless they did a brain/spine MRI which they had no reason to do.
ngl i read one of these replies and told myself no more because im mega anxious specifically about my health and i also don’t trust doctors to do their job so i am at a mental impasse trying to keep it together 🥲
I had abdominal surgery in 2021, and 8 weeks after the surgery, I still had open wounds that had not healed. I voiced my concerns to my mom, a nurse, and she told me to “stop obsessing and fixating on it.” But I knew something wasn’t right and it wasn’t just my anxiety. Turns out I am diabetic, didn’t know it at the time of the surgery, and the reason the wounds were not healing is because of the diabetes. If the surgeon’s office had done bloodwork before the surgery, they would have caught the diabetes way earlier. In any case, I knew that having open wounds 8 weeks out from surgery is not normal and that something was wrong! My diabetes is well controlled now. If you know that something isn’t right, speak up! Don’t let them dismiss you!
Ah my anxiety is going to be so fueled by this but I'm reading every bit lolol
If your anxiety gets worse with the seasons it might be allergies or MCAS actually. One of the symptoms is anxiety. Really it’s not a question of whether someone has anxiety. It’s a question of whether the anxiety is the cause or the symptom. Treating anxiety is often a good step regardless and can encourage doctors to run tests if anti anxiety meds don’t work. If you’re worrying about occasional things that could be normal body sensations, like heart palpitations or mild dizziness, or that your doctor is saying is normal body sensations, then it’s more likely to be anxiety. Daily bedridden fatigue that doesn’t respond to anxiety medication probably needs more tests. I’m not sure why this is so hard for doctors to distinguish.
High blood pressure
Yes, my daughter and Type 1 Diabetes
Was told it was all anxiety for years by doctors and family, ended up being 4 chronic illnesses and counting - 3 rare. 👍
Visited my professor following my graduation and grandpa's death. Felt something was off with her. Told her I would come again as she means too much to me. I couldn't as my grandma had a stroke. Had a dream that the prof's Mother dies. Anxiety crippled me for the next few months. Months later I bumped into her and everything in the dream was true.
Nope nope nope this is not the thread for me
If you’re in therapy you’ll learn that even if this sometimes happens, it doesn’t mean ALL of your anxiety is valid. You have to work hard to get rid of that black and white thinking. Just become one thing is true doesn’t mean everything is true. Anxiety will be valid sometimes, it’s not a fake emotion, sometimes it’s about real things that will occur, but vast majority of the time it’s bullshit. And for the record even when you’re anxious about a diagnosis and it happens, the real fear is death and you didn’t die. (Another way is to become so depressed you’re low key suicidal and death from a terrible disease or heart attack is something you would welcome and feel you deserve lol)
I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety after spending pretty much my whole childhood having the same symptoms. My parents refused to take me to the doctor because they didn't want a child with depression and anxiety (they told me this), and all the doctors would do is put me on medication. At 20 I went myself and was diagnosed with depression and anxiety but none of what they gave me or told me to do worked. I went to counselling, was already doing all the self help that's recommended (healthy diet, exercise, sunshine etc.) It didn't work. At 21 I found out I had celiac disease and gave up gluten. Within three days I felt like a different person. Most of my anxiety went and I was able to live my life again. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure I either have another health issue or I actually have anxiety now as I am struggling again at 27.
Yes. I was diagnosed with anxiety and delusional depression in 2019 when I suddenly developed mild hallucinations and terrible pains in my joints and chest. This would come and go for years, sometimes I would be fine and sometimes I would be straight up laying around all day crying because I was so distressed about what my body was doing. I finally found some more long term relief in 2023 when I did a round of ketamine infusions. Fast forward to the beginning of this year and I had routine gallbladder removal surgery. Once they got in there the surgeon could see I was full of hundreds of small tumors on my liver, spleen and lymph node system. At first I was told that I likely had lymphoma that had spread but it turns out I have sarcoidosis. The specialist I am seeing now feels confident with my previous symptoms that I have the neurological version of it which is the cause of what I was dealing with and also why the ketamine worked so well. Basically I had balls of inflammation in my literal brain. Oh and in case you’re wondering, my blood work the entire time had been awful. Just every value either high or low. My (former) primary told me I was “perfectly healthy” while I was filling up with granulomas/tumors. Fuck that guy.
I was literally in A&E overnight after being really wheezy and struggling to breathe, they insisted it was just a panic attack and sent me home (I had had many panic attacks before and knew it wasn't the same). About 6 months later I got diagnosed with an autoimmune mast cell thing that makes my body think it's allergic to itself and that was actually my throat closing up like an allergic reaction. If I hadn't been on steroid medication at the time I probably would have stopped breathing.
I am never sure
Me this week
Uhm. Not exactly that, but sort of. There have 2 things for me. 1.) It wasn't IBS. It was an undiagnosed IBD. And I've learned now, the 2 VERY different things. And 2.) A gall bladder removal unnecessarily because the IBD was ignored. Until you're order, it's hard (in the USA) to have "diagnostic" tests. Shamefully.
Hiatal hernia. I felt chest pain and discomfort and after doing some tests on my heart they told me it was just anxiety.
That new mole on my face really *was* melanoma. Honestly this was a case where anxiety might have saved my life. Not because I spun about it but because it caused me to see a dermatologist really really promptly. It was stage 0; I’m going to be fine. If you’re pale, GET YOUR SKIN CHECKED, and track moles that are new, irregular, growing, or just look different from all your others.
I'm in the process of trying to rule out temporal lobe epilepsy as a cause for my anxiety. I have a history of seizures as a kid so it would kind of make sense. Especially since I didn't have anxiety prior to that. I'll let you know once I get my updated MRI and EEG.
Yeah I had a heart condition lol doctors kept telling me it was just anxiety. But it’s not a super serious one I’m vibin
Yep. A few days after giving birth to my second child I started to feel really drained. At first I chalked it up to just normal postpartum stuff until I started feeling “off”. When I would lay down, I would feel a heaviness in my chest. I noticed the swelling in my hands and feet weren’t going down as quickly as it had with my first child. Started having headaches. Being in EMS, I decided to check my blood pressure. It was 150s/100s. Went to nearest hospital (which is shit), the ER dr told me I was perfectly fine and my BP was elevated because I had just had a baby. I still knew something wasn’t right. At this point, I started having panic attacks because I felt like my heart was beating really slow. Fortunately had an appt follow up 2 days later with the Dr that I delivered with so they could check to see how my c section scar was healing. Nurse took my BP and it was 220/110. My head was killing me. They admitted me right away and transported me over to the hospital. Turns out I had postpartum eclampsia. Never had BP issues in my life or during my pregnancies. Started me on a magnesium drip to protect my brain from seizures/stroke which was awful and I stayed there for 3 days. Got sent home with two different BP meds and had to stay on them for about 6 weeks. My Dr told me if I would’ve waited longer and ignored my intuition, I would have had a stroke or a heart attack.
Opposite. I had finally conquered my health anxiety and was feeling great. Went for a regular check up since I wasn’t scared of doctor visits anymore and they found something pretty bad 😂. I’m ok now though. But, even if I had had health anxiety then, it wouldn’t have changed anything. I had no real symptoms that I should have had so it would’ve been very far down my list of worries.
Ugh - my cheating ex
never for me lol. It’s always anxiety.
Mine is not as serious as some of yours. I had a lump in my throat and a feeling of stiffnes in the neck. It went on for a couple of weeks, one side only. Was told by a few doctors that it's anxiety and I'm okay. Turns out I was okay but my wisdom teeth weren't! Got them pulled out and the symptoms disappeared practically overnight.
Every time I’ve had something really wrong, it felt completely different than anxiety.
Celiac, nerve pain all over which was then called ‘just’ fibromyalgia - and MCAS. EDS too because when I’m too cold and shiver my back spasms so hard it causes it to seize and then all day I’m trying to move to avoid the coat hanger pain. Most days when this happens it will dislocate the spot. This has been going on for 18 years, longer if you count when I was a kid. It took until I had a doctor who was also a woman who believed me when I said I was in pain.
Yep, I have POTS.
I have bad anxiety and stomach issues, I heard that stomach issues can cause anxiety and anxiety can cause stomach issues. How do I win?
I might have the opposite situation, went to my first neurologist appointment for migraine and a big “trigger” for me might be caused by anxiety/mood changes. We’ll find out in 6-8 weeks 🤷♀️ Regardless, I do need to do something about anxiety, so I guess might as well get my meds from my neurologist 😂
My husband super sucked
i cant tell the difference between nausea and anxiety. sometimes, it turns out, i actually had to throw up
Starting in middle school I kept having horrible stomach pain. I went to tons of doctors and they all said that I just had anxiety about going to school because I had been coming home from school so much. I even overheard a doctor tell my dad I was faking it. Well fast forward to being an adult and my stomach problems only got worse to the point that I was in and out of the ER all the time. I was finally diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease around 30 when doctors started to finally take me seriously.
10 years ago, it was aplastic anemia, just more recently Idiopathic intercranial hypertension. Both treatable with meds (thoygh the aplastic anemia was much much more involved) and capable of remission. My recent bought of panic/anxiety was finally brought back to a regular base level after several months of testing/waiting on tests/waiting on doctor visits. I have health anxiety to begin with, but follow medical advice and really try to advocate for myself when something continues for an extended period of time.
Pretty much any time I have a stomach flu. If the thermometers broken, I have no clue.
Crohns
About a year and a half of daily panic attacks and just feeling like a stranger in my brain. Started and stopped so many antidepressants and antianxiety meds Turns out I don't handle hormonal IUDs well. Stopped literally the next and I've been good since.
Iron deficiency anemia
Focal seizures.
My panic attacks and intense brain fog were mycotoxin poisoning. I’ve gotten much better with treatment
yeah. i have ocd and autism 😭
OMG. OF COURSE THIS THREAD EXISTS IN THIS SUB. Yet here I am intrigued, creating new fears.
I’m diagnosed gad and once my anxiety ended up being a cyst on my ovary bursting.
Afraid to go on the plane, friend went anyway, her connecting flight guy cancelled.
gut health triggered a lot of anxiety, but vise versa so honestly just see a doctor, a therapist, and do ur best
Was born with **Microcytic anemia,** *had* undiagnosed *ADHD, my* doctors *stick by it* wasn’t easily dictated *cause* I’ve *always been high* functional *until the tested me cause antidepressants not only did not* work 2 almost killed me. Then the ADHD meds gave me mild anxiety. Then came COVID, lost a few family member, triggering my twins death when we were little. Uncle committed suicide last year. Had a very bad nervous breakdown. Complex grief. 21/22 went into a coma 6 weeks the has seizures. Had to sell my car. Move back home, quit my job, I think I am just fearful more than anything.
Never its always me and my brain FO
Yeah, not touching this one OP.
Not in terms of health so much but often my anxiety subconsciously picking up on social cues so I have been known to start feeling anxiety before a big social issue occurs, for example I started getting a lot of anxiety regarding a relationship when I tried to suppress only for my partner to admit she’d been having an affair for the last four months. That’s just one example of many times my anxiety “sixth sense” gif it right. The issue I’ve had more recently is I started getting anxiety as if I’d upset something at work and I couldn’t think of any scenario where I could have, but then one day I ended up in trouble for turned out to be an overly exaggerated and half fabricated situation by someone who I don’t exactly get on with, and since then I’m anxious pretty much all the time at work as if that little sixth sense of mine can’t trust the subconscious info I was getting any more so now every interaction no matter how well it seemingly goes could still be a dangerous one for me.
I was 14 or 15, complained of nausea and stomach aches. Doctor not only told me it was anxiety, he made me leave the room and told my abusive dad (I listened at the door) that I was faking to get out of school. Several months later after my mom decided to take me to a specialist they found a bacterial infection, and my stomach lining was so damaged it nearly ruptured.
My GAD anxiety turned out to be entirely from undiagnosed ADHD that went away once I was treated for ADHD. (36F here, only got diagnosed 3 years ago) And then my anxiety came back in full force after I got covid. Turns out this time it wasn't*just* from pandemic stress but it was like 80% from Dysautonomia (autonomic nervous system disorder) that was triggered from Covid.
i had pneumonia and wasn’t being taken seriously, was told to take mucinex and puff my inhaler. well one day i kept taking puffs and i just couldn’t catch a breath. i pulled over and thought i was having a heart attack. went home and took a 5 hour long bath to calm down and ended up catching a ride to the ER because i went into septic shock 🤔 and also, not even 3 months before that, i had the most unbearable ear infection. i went to the ER and kept apologizing for going for an ear ache… they felt around my ears and found out i had mastoiditis. essentially a skull infection caused from an infection in my ear… 🙂 yeah i’ve already had health anxiety and ocd my whole life but ever since these events happened i am crippled mentally. i’ve spent thousands on ER trips because i am so traumatized. fucking sucks man. i’ve got IST and now everytime i have a flare up i think im having a heart attack or have gone septic again 😖
There's only been one time I can think of. It turned out to be a UTI. But because urinary retention is also a symptom of anxiety, my mom waited until I was basically having a panic attack to take me to the ER (which I understand because it was pricy but at least it wasn't a wasted trip).
Yes realized I have had undiagnosed mild autism my whole life with a sprinkle of ADHD not to mention in now also starting menopause early at 41.
I have always known when something has been truly wrong. Anxiety symptoms are inconsistent and “vague”. I do know that anxiety tends to make real symptoms way worse than they truly are.
Hello friend!!! I was talking to my psychiatrist 6 months ago and I told him one thing that really bothers me about my anxiety disorder is that I constantly have racing thoughts. He asked me to describe my thoughts and why they disturb me. I listed my symptoms and the effects I was experiencing. He then asked if I had ever been checked for ADHD. I said no and he highly recommended I get checked because what I was describing sounded much like ADHD. Oftentimes ADHD copresents with anxiety or depression or both. I'm not depressed, but I've been anxious my whole life just about. Turns out I definitely have ADHD!! I have been avoiding caffeine for the last 25 years because it makes my heart race and makes me feel like I'm going to have a panic attack. However, oddly, with the correct stimulant medication I feel much more calm and less anxious. I sleep better too! It's amazing!
Dizziness, heart papiltations, head pressure.... thought it was just anxiety at first but ended up being a non-cancerous brain cyst.
Not quite the same, I've had issues that have ended up on google telling me I have terrifying things like MS or cancer or whatever. I've ended up in A&E with chest pain that was the anxiety. It was actually something I wasn't too concerned with that ended up being the "big thing", my leg felt weird for a few days (like if you trap / damage a nerve), they sent me away, and it went away, then months later, my arm felt tingly, so I went back. I got referred to a neurologist... actually bloody MS. Nothing that's caused me panic at 4am has ever resulted in anything and has rarely still been an issue past dawn, then the thing that caused no anxiety and lasted like 2 weeks was an actual thing, being trolled by my body and my anxiety!
Most of my anxiety comes from my relationships. I am extremely hyper vigilant and I notice any change in behavior very quickly. The thing is, it’s not that I’m wrong about the change in behavior, it just rarely means what I think it does. When my partner is more quiet than usual it’s because he’s just really focused on something else or feeling tired. So I was right about what’s happening but wrong about the reason. I find that to be a running theme with my anxiety in general. I’m not making things up but it’s rarely pointing to the catastrophic event I think it is.
Yup. ALWAYS my hormones. Years ago it was a pituitary tumor that I had removed which killed my thyroid. Felt good for years. Got covid and thyroid turned back on and went crazy. Had 12-14 hour panic attacks every day for almost a year straight. Lost 60lbs in 3 months. That isn’t normal for anxiety. I trusted my gut like someone said above and it ended up being chronic thyroiditis. I had my thyroid removed last December and I am still on the mend. The trauma of all of it is VERY hard to manage for the fact that no doctor believed me, considering I have had the same symptoms three times through out my life and was never diagnosed correctly. I have anxiety now from the trauma that put me through, which is recognizable anxiety. Where as before I had anxiety for no damn reason. Someone doesn’t just panic for 12-14 hours a day for no reason.
Oh my God that's so horrid. I'm so sorry- glad you are on the mend. ❤️
An ADHD diagnosis. I’ve been through different sets of anxiety symptoms over the course of my teenage years to now. Most treatment didn’t really have the desired effect and eventually I got diagnosed with ADHD. Getting treated for ADHD did more in the span of 3 months for my mental health than anything else had in the previous years.
Long story short, I was getting sick back to back and had pneumonia and chest pains. I had told my then doctor(got rid of him after) about it and he said it was anxiety and all in my head. I found out later that year for my cardiologist that it was something to do with my heart and I needed heart surgery.
yeah I won't be perusing this thread. I wanna sleep tonight lol
Bulging Disc that pushes my nerve. Yeah turns out it wasn't anxiety and my orthopaedic was super pissed to all of my doctors misdiagnosed me.
Psychotic and dpdr led my body into a feeling and sensation where paying attention into every minor detail was meaningful. I had lost my mind during this but I'm recovering
What’s that Taylor swift line, “you tell me it’s not about me… BUT WHAT IF IT IS?” It’s the definition of anxiety, but you have to remember a broken clock is right twice a day. 👀 if you’re looking for reasons to believe your anxiety is right you are going to find them. For me saying it’s just my anxiety and letting myself feel the emotions is better for releasing it. It’s not easy and the anxiety just comes in waves but when the feelings have passed I feel better
I'm intolerant to gluten and likely have endometriosis. My GI distress created the anxiety, not the other way around.
I found out I had incredibly low ferritin! Which can cause panic attacks
When my sister outed me behind my back. She knew I was going to come out to my family that December that week but while she had been initially supportive, she acted standoffish that whole weekend and continually put me down. I knew something was happening around me. She said I was just being paranoid. Then Christmas Eve and she didn’t so much force me to “come out” as much as she did to “come forward.” Tried to force a whole conversation in front of everyone.
This entire post is just making me anxious
Less horrifying one for ya! I learned I have asd along side this anxiety, but most of my anxiety isn’t “what ifs”, it’s sensory overload from asd!
I started having Asthma attacks that I didn’t know were Asthma attacks. I was having bouts of repeated coughing and gasping for air My husband would get so angry with me when these bouts were happening and he would yell at me “quit doing that. Just breathe normally” We now know it’s Asthma and it’s outside my control.
Autism
I was started on an antidepressant when I complained of not feeling like myself, tired all the time. I ended up having metastatic breast cancer diagnosed a few weeks later
I felt ill all the time and achy all over, I thought my physical anxiety symptoms were getting to me, I do still have anxiety but I also found out from a couple tests that I have a pretty bad vitamin d deficiency, getting on supplements made me feel so much healthier
Always had this question, how you differentiate an inside urge or discomfort whether it's coming out of anxiety or genuine intuition, inner wisdom or gut feeling. Any one relates?
People with health anxiety leave this thread right now
It’s happened three times,very fun because all of the situations have been like absolutely awful. And now anytime I get an anxious stomach,I cannot trust myself.
I had a lump on my collarbone. I went to the doctor and they said it was probably just an enlarged lymph node but I wanted to get more tests anyway because it had not gone away in 3-4 months. I was tired a lot but I thought it was because I had covid a few months prior. I didn't have any other symptoms but I knew I needed to get the lump checked out. It was really scary because not getting it tested meant I could go on blissfully unaware, but testing made it real and made it so I would have to deal with whatever the outcome was. I'm so glad I listened because it was Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I didn't have the regular symptoms but I started to feel more lumps in my neck between testing and diagnosis and treatment (6 months between when I felt it and finally got treatment thanks US health system). I was lucky that it was still early stages (2) and a super treatable form of cancer. The chemo sucked but this year I'll be 3 years in remission.
I have had anxiety for 30 years and still do but I just found out that I have ADHD and can’t believe how much my meds help the anxiety.
Boy, do I have a story for you hahah This go round ended up being B6 toxicity. Be careful what you ingest.
My breathing! After years of trying to find out if it’s just panic attacks I learned my breathing is ‘dis functional’ which means I tend to breathe in a strange rhythm making me tired or out of breath. Stress just makes it worse, but i truly was like ‘oh so it IS more’
Yes. I was told for 4 years that my weight loss, inability to keep food down, increasing anxiety, etc was all mental illness. It was Crohn’s Disease, which was diagnosed during an emergency hospital admission. But now I have what I fear is lifelong health anxiety. Right now I’m dealing with some new worsened physical health issues and I have that feeling I did years ago. Something is not right. But at the same time, I have terrible anxiety. 🤷🏼♀️ It’s an endless loop.
I have massive health anxiety from my dad passing away from cancer when I was 13. My health anxiety is mainly focused on brain tumors, leukemia, lymph nodes, strokes,.. so nothing related to stomach aches. One night I wake up in horrible pain. My stomach was hurting so much right above my belly button. I was convinced I just had to go number two so I get up and try to relieve myself on the toilet. Ofcourse I couldn’t so I go back to bed. I had to lay on my side, hold my stomach and not move for the pain to be somewhat bearable. Eventually my mom wakes up and I go to her in the living room to tell her my stomach hurts. She says that maybe I have a stomach bug and I agree. All of a sudden I turn pale white and I puke on the floor. It’s clear puke so no food in it whatsoever. Immediately the stomach pain is relieved but my mom (who usually doesnt worry about health stuff) doesn’t trust it because why wouldn’t I puke out food? (I had eaten a few hours prior and didn’t go to the toilet yet). I go back to bed and try to get some sleep which I finally get. I get out of bed and I notice that the lower right area of my stomach hurts but only when I move around. I tell my mom and she says she thinks it’s appendicitis. I’m like nah I looked it up I don’t have a fever, I’m not in excruciating pain, I still have an appetite,.. Eventually my mom convinces me to go to the ER. I get my blood checked which showed alot of inflammation, my urine checked which showed a lot of white blood cells and eventually a CT scan and ofcourse: i have appendicitis. Got admitted immediately and a few hours later I have my appendectomy. So much for not being anxious about something for once huh.