TO DM1022- Your welcome for the advice I hope it helped. =)

And to clear up my previous post when I said "its all in our head" what I meant was there is something called psychosomatic which means we create the symptoms ourselves in our head. YES she did have something seriously wrong with her with the blood clot, but I wasnt referring to THAT as being all in her head. In her original post, she mentioned that she is a hypochondriac which means she spends alot of time thinking about her health and whats wrong with her. I am a hypochondriac myself since I was very young. I always looked stuff up on the internet and diagnosed myself which resulted in experiencing more symptoms. I have been to the DR...6 different DR's to be exact. I had alot of different opinions and ALOT of tests done Bloodwork, EKG's, Echocardiogram, Ultrasounds. Everything was negative. I put those symptoms there because Im a hypochondriac. Now that I am on Paxil, all of that Is gone. The pains, the thoughts, the worries. So maybe in my case it was bad case of hypochondriac which lead to my anxieties. With all of that said, Im not doubting that there are people out there who feel pain and are really sick. But if you admit that you are a hypochondriac and constantly look stuff up and diagnose yourself, then your mind takes over and actually gives you the symptoms psychosomatically.

To Hityty- I also agree with hating being told "your fine theres nothing wrong with you" I was told that by alot of DR's before I found one that actually cared and did all the tests to prove to me there wasnt anything wrong. They realized I did have something wrong with me - that I thought about my health too much and created everything myself. Well thank God she put me on this medicine because if it wasnt for it, i would still be curled up in a ball in my bed. I went through a really tough time in my life being a hypochondriac. All these years, im 24 now and had a bad breakdown 2 months ago. My mind was overloaded with thoughts of something being wrong with me. It gave up and couldnt take it anymore. I went into severe panic attacks for months. I didnt want to do anything I couldnt leave my house. I dont even know how I left to go to the DR's. I felt soooo sick I really thought i was just going to die. The mind is soo powerful I cant stand it sometimes! So in my case, sometimes even if we dont have a "REAL" disease like Lupus or MS, Anxiety could be a debilitating disease all in its own. It can cause just as much pain and mental distress as can a "REAL" disease...

Good luck to everyone out there with undiagnosed symptoms. You will get your releif one day....   =)  God bless...

Funny - i work in at a children's cancer hospital and after reading their charts and hearing their stories i go look up things.  Just like you said - my 'symptoms' are worse when i look things up.

Like with the zocor, i know there is a side effect that is VERY RARE and affects like .01 percent of the people taking it - where it affects your liver - well, the way i get gas, i feel all full and bloated on my right side in the AM and have myself convinced it's a liver problem.  I know i do it and i can't stop - it's amazing.  I do pretty good and try to hide it from my boyfriend but every now and then i'll be really quiet and press on my stomach or someplace and he goes "what are you dying from now".  He's very good about snapping me back into reality - but it's so hard.

Thanks again - nice to know i'm not alone out here.  We need a support group - i have this sytmpome ... somebody else will email back with all the LOGICAL reasons as to why you have it. LOL

Later gaters

Thankss so much!  I am going to make a drs appt and go see if i can beat this thing!!  I guess i failed to mention that we also just moved 1000 miles away from friends and family for my boyfriends job and i think my anxiety has gotten worse since then b/c i have nothing else here to do but obsess over my health ;)

A note to Hityty - i mentioned that i have become a hypochondriac since the drs found the blood clot and having the CVA in July.  I thought i was just having headaches due to stress associated with working fulltime and going to nursing school, never in a million years did I think anything was wrong.  Since finding that, i have become very aware of what is going on with my body and have found I obsess over what i assume are every day aches and pains - fear that they are cancer or MS or something since those simple headaches turned out to be something.  Hope that makes sense and clears up why i associated my anxiety with a real medical condition.  In July they ran every possible blood test, did an MRI, did a CT, hooked me up to a heart monitor for 26 hours - everything was normal - now, i get indegeistion so bad from the zocor they gave me (to keep my veins patent to 'discourage' more clots from forming) that everytime i get a chest pain or gas, i think i'm having a heart attack!  When i know that three months ago everything was normal and fine!  Ugh!

To everyone else - thank you so much.  It's amazing the power of the mind!!!!!

Have a great day everyone.

Sure we can create our symptoms, but I'm just not following this thread! Blood clots, stroke, meningitis, inflammation, etc.... I think we can "create" some symptoms, & anxiety can make us worse, but ..... these are real illnesses here, why would you say they're all in your head? I know we ALL can go overboard, & yeah, there's way then enough info on the net to start a good panic, but its not always just in our head. We should be balanced,yes, but at the same time I think if we ignore what our bodies are telling us, we could be making things worse. I just don't think we have to walk around feeling lousy, wanting to feel better, willing to do what is needed to feel better but settle for the "its all in your head" diagnosis. IMO There is nothing wrong with seeking a 2nd or 3rd opinion, or even doing our own research. Its not unusual for doctors to miss something. I'm not trying to start a debate, I've just been sick for 20 years, I even tried the whole "sucking it up" & ignore the symp's for many years, well.... It never helped me any, it made things worse, physically worse. I didn't cause these illnesses because I was worried about symptoms. My symptoms caused me to worry, & finally, they got me the medical attention I needed & should have received a long time ago. I'm not saying we should all be frantic & self-diagnosing, I'm just saying.... hey, sometimes we ARE sick, & sometimes we have to do our own research. I just hated being told I was fine, when I wasn't fine, there's just too much of that going on.

I had severe anxiety triggered by Viral Meningitis.  I can assure you that your mind is extremely powerful at convincing you that your body is falling apart.  I had a myriad of physical symptoms, nearly all caused by my own anxiety.  I was in hell for 2 months.

The Doc put me on Paxil (20mg) and Zyprexa (5mg), both low doses, but they helped very much.  In a short period of time, my mind stopped dwelling on illness, and I GOT MY LIFE BACK.

Go see your Doc and ask to be put on an anti-anxiety.

I am currently living your life of anxiety. Ironically I am a Nurse also for 20 years. I had my first anxiety and descent into depression after being thrown into menopause after a hysterectomy. I had a inflammation of my sternoclavicular joint 2 years ago of unknown etiology and have been diagnosing myself with every dreaded disease since. I have had ALS been tested 3 times and finally believe the results are negative and that i don't have it. I have had abdomeenal pain for months and am seeing a gasroeterologist with some testing normal already but may have to have a laporoscopy because they believe they are adhesions from surgeries. Now I have deeloped low back pain and convinced it is cancer from my abdomenal pain, I don't believe I can give myself these symptons but my husband does and is very disgusted with me. Its so hard to live like this and not feel well and have family and friends not understand it makes me want to just move away and live by myself but I have 3 children. Any suggestions? Can we create our symptons?

Your not alone.  You have had some true medical problems.  But I can also tell you from my experances that all medical students have diagnosed theirselves with the most horrific diseases. LOL.  Seem in the begining the more you learn the more you seem to have. lol.  This is absolutely normal.  Hang in there,  in the end you will be ok.

I have had anxiety disorder for years and I have thought the same things as for ms I have gotten multiple symptoms but this just started in the last 3years after my father was diagnosed with aml a type of cancer of the blood after he died last year I began obsessing on things face numb, twitching muscles , burning in hands and feet I work for a nuro dr that doesnt help things people come in all the time with my symptoms ever notice that problems are more noticed when you are start looking up stuff...I hope you can get treatment for your anxiety its a hard thing to grasp but hopefully we can ...Good luck and try to stop looking up your symptoms all the time...

Thanks Much!  I appreciate it.  I do the same thing here at work - i get a twitch in my chest and automatically look up heart disease symtpoms.  My left arm hurts, i try to connect the two.  I am a professional.  I have a great job, a great life (with the anxiety exception) and i'm in school to finish up my education.  I just don't get it!  Thank you so much though.  Maybe i just needed a little reassurance.  The worst part is that i'm finishing up my RN, BSN degree and should know a) better and b) to stay off the internet - LOL  

Have a nice day!  And thanks again!

Hey there...Im sorry to hear that you are going through this...But you are NOT alone!! I am probably the WORST hypochondriac there is out there..Your mind is so powerful you dont even realize it...In the past, I had convinced myself that I had Lyme Disease, a brain tumor, gallbladder problems, cancer..you name it and i made it happen...I obsessed over it for so long that I actually gave myself the symptoms that these diseases have...Anxiety is just a fear...Our fear is that there is something wrong with our body aka hypochondriac...In my case it was debilitating...I couldnt even sit at work because I would look up all my symptoms and constantly diagnose myself..I would wake up in the middle of the night in a severe panic attack because all the subconscious thoughts going on in my head while I sleep... Some ways to help anxiety naturally is to do things like yoga, meditations, and excersize is good. Me, I was just put on Zoloft and Xanax which seem to help. I only been on it for 2 weeks but it was a big help with my anxiety attacks. I would check with your DR first if you decide to take something because of your past medical problem. I hope you put an end to it and dont forget to tell yourself your ok and its all in your head. There is nothing wrong with you!! Good luck...