Constant anxiety and stomach issues

[Riss223]

I've had ongoing anxiety for about 2 years now. I had small panic atracks before hand that would pop up in stressful situations, but these past two years have been on and off really bad anxiety. I know (and have) the common symptoms for anxiety like racing heart, shortness of breath, tingly arms, and feeling out of reality. However, after I turned 16 (a month ago) I immedietly had a bunch or stress and anxiety about growing up and my new responsibilities along with the normal worry about the future and getting hurt or somthing. About three weeks ago my anxiety got so bad and I was having panic attacks like each day for a week. I woke up the day after my first day at school, and boom, my stomach hurt and felt awful. I felt fullness, pressure, bloating, loss of appetite, heartburn ect. The next day I went to a virtual doc online and she said I had acute gastritis with gerd brought on by stress. She perscribed prilosec which I took for 10 days, clearing up my symptoms.  A few days after I felt great until i got a bad virus a few days back. Got basically a sinus infection and now im still coughing. Ever since i've had alot more gas, pressure in my upper abdomen, and just stomach discomfort. I now also have tightness in my shoulders and upper back pain and each time i google my symptoms its scary like a heart attack or disease! I keep stressing over my symptoms cause I dont know if i should be worried or just relax! Does anxiety cause all this! Should I spend money on tests to check everything out? All this has me confused and worried about my health.

[Riss223]

Thanks for commenting, my symptoms usually get a lot better whenever im doing something like work or school. I think its just my anxiety and mind making it worse. Hopefully I will find ways to stop it from happening

[Paxiled]

First, stay away from Google unless you already have a diagnosis and are unsure your doctor is doing the right thing.  Symptoms go along with millions of things, so just googling them does you no good.  Second, a doctor on-line diagnosed you?  How?  GERD is a collection of symptoms but the only way to truly know it's that is to do tests.  Can't do that on-line.  What you have most likely is an anxious stomach.  When you take prilosec, it works temporarily, but if you take it regularly it just suppresses stomach acid which your body will just make more of because you need it to digest protein and minerals.  Are you in therapy at all so you can see why you've gotten so frightened by life?  I think that's the next step.

[Paxiled]

Oh, and sinus infections, even if you have one, are usually not treated -- they go away on their own the vast majority of the time.  

[Riss223]

Thanks. I wasnt diagnosed with a sinus infection, my cold just felt similar to one which I knew anxiety didnt start. Anyway all the coughing caused more tension in my stomach. Things get better when I start to relax, but I have upper back tightness still and have the constant need to check my pulse and I always try to google all my symptoms. I wish I didnt worry so much, but im always scared for my health

[AnxiousNoMore]

You are self-diagnosing using google. Googling is the way to unnecessarily increase anxiety, so unless you are able to find a way to accept that, the results will be the same.
It is natural to be more anxious when you are sick as you want it to end but thinking you are sick when you aren't is what happens when you over-analyze your body.

[AnxiousNoMore]

Did your doc diagnose you with a sinus infection, or is it just your guess?
Anyone can get gastritis and a sinus infection but since they are unrelated to a heart issue, likely it is just your anxiety nerves that worry you about the heart. 16 is young to have that kind of issue but I am not a doc so you have to make the decision if you want it analyzed.
Googling diseases are guaranteed to give you reason to believe you possibly have one, so it is best to avoid stressing yourself looking for a health problem considering you have no medical training, when a doctor can do a proper diagnosis instead. Someone somewhere got a rare disease that has symptoms similar to just about anything you can think of (including your present ones) so googling will never make you feel safe and will never let you relax - there is always the "What if?" to worry about when you use Google.

I once went to ER worried about my "symptoms" and the doc said if I had a heart issue enough to make those symptoms I would have been dead in hours, so I knew right then I was safe and the symptoms disappeared since I stopped worrying then. If you see a doc about your heart and she says no problem exists, try to accept that diagnosis and relax because that is the only way to make the anxiety and symptoms disappear.