Well, I have been relatively anxiety and panic free for about 2 years now and overall it has been great. I have still struggled with health anxiety issues over that time frame, but nothing major. Well, Friday kinda brought it all back (or at least, as funny as it sounds, I hope that is what it is, otherwise, it is an actual problem). It was a normal day, and in fact just the day prior, I was feeling really good. Anyway, Friday was going okay and I had just ordered lunch to be delivered, as I was sitting there writing, I had for some reason started thinking about how it has been a while since I ate and was feeling kinda shaky. But then I sort of passed that off as my anxiety (I have always had a problem with anxiously worrying about passing out bc I did one time a long time ago when I was 19 and never went to the Hospital and never found out why. But I haven't since then. So basically, passing out is one of my biggest causes of anxiety.
So as I was writing and thinking about this, the door opened in the office and I got up to see who was in there and immediately felt kinda like I was going to pass out, though it was not so much as the blackness coming in, as it was feeling dizzy and lightheaded and everything was blurry. I immediately walked outside to my car and began to calm down and felt better pretty quickly after that. Though, for the rest of the day, I was quite anxious and on the verge of a panic attack for the rest of the night, pretty much. I have had issues before of standing up and getting lightheaded plently before and am pretty sure it is just normal, but this seemed kinda different at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I was pretty sure it was just related to my anxiety. I told myself that if it happened again then I would get it checked out. I do not have insurance right now, so I cannot just up and go to the doctor whenever.
Anyway, I slept fine that night and yesterday morning I had fallen back to sleep after my wife had gotten up for work at about 9:00 AM. Well, at about 9:30 AM, I was sort of startled awake by my cell phone, but I was confused as to which one it was (I have an on-call cell phone for work in addition to my personal cell). So I sat up quickly, and then realized that the phone was in my pants on the floor and still while laying in the bed, bent down to get the phone and sat up quickly and when I did that I felt like I couldn't breathe and that I was going to pass out - I laid back and my heart was pounding, but I could feel it start to slow down as I was laying there. Then I was too scared to try to sit back up again for a while though!.
So I ended up going to the ER. I felt okay I guess, save some mild anxiety, restlessness, inability to concentrate, etc. They basically did two things - an ECG, which they said was fine, and a lying, sitting, standing BP test. Again fine. They basically said that they did not think that it was tied to any sort of cardiac event (which in and of itself struck me, bc I am 30 and was not even thinking it could have been!). But that if I had another episode like this, then I would probably want to get a holter test.
Since then I have been very concerned with my heart and health (though the tests were fine - I just cannot get over thinking that they were too short or wrong or missed something). To top that off, a guy at our church passed away at the same hospital I was in (small town) and was only 2 years older than me. He actually passed out 4 times within a 10 minute span, so it seems as though it was heart related. This ALL has me freaking out, but I am unsure of what to do. I do have motivation now to stop smoking completely, and eliminate caffeine (I drink a LOT of Dr. Pepper and have switched to Caffeine Free). I feel like I want to have more tests, but then again I do know I DO have GAD w/Panic and have had it since 2001 - so is it just that? Can anyone else relate to this experience and give me some advice?
Mike