Aa
Help me please?
I am 29 yrs old and have always been pretty healthy. Lately (within the last week) I've noticed some odd symptoms. Before I post them I want to also say that I have extreme anxiety, I have always been a "worrier". I am on an anti- anxiety medication, Ativan. It seems to take the edge off but I do still get myself worked up at times by my worrying. I've always been scared of dying, since my dad passed away when I was 13. That just left my mom and I, so I always want to be around for her. I know if something happened to me, she wouldn't be able to go on herself. When I have the slightest ache or pain, I rush to the computer and spend hours "researching", all that does really is scare me more. You always find the worst of the worst when you do that, but still I do it.
Now, all these symptoms have started after I became very anxious one night, (I think I might have had an anxiety attack)...but since then, this has been on my mind constantly...
At first. I was being treated for insomnia...stress and a full class/ work schedule will do that. So the doctor first put me on Zopiclone...I didn't take well to this at all...I sleep the entire day after and had a major headache. Then in typical "me" fashion, I began to worry again..."What if it's something else?" So I went to google obsessing over it and spent hours....
So since then I have had no real appetite,,,,I find this is more so during the day when my mind is racing and I am worrying. At night, when I am more calm (after the Activan), I find that I do have a bit of an appetite and I can eat.
At first, I did feel nausea when I would think about eating (although I didn't vomit) , the idea of eating turned my stomach. My diet was HORRIBLE too...not as bad as some I am sure, but not good by any standards either. I was tired and just wanted to sleep. I noticed a bit of constipation during this time but after a few days had a BM. (I hadn't been eating much at this time).
What was weird is that when I was laying on the couch, I could feel hunger pains, that gnawing sensation and gurgling that came with it, That happened a lot. My anxiety was at it's highest then too. I noticed that my heartburn and reflux seemed to come around more during this time, but my guess that it was because of the anxierty and not eating much. I could eat and hold it in just fine when I had to, but it was like I just didn't want to because I knew my stomach would become "sour"...which I am pretty sure it was anxiety related- noone feels like eating when they are constantly worried or scared.
Eventually, I became worried about my eating, because if I did, I knew it would be followed my discomfort (churning, bloated feeling along with hiccups and reflux)...so I think I made myself sick by worrying about it.
*side note - around this time my dentist had me on tylenol 3, (which I would take 2-4 a day of)- which could have counted for some of the constipation?
So after a few days, I decided to pick myself up, calm down and if it was truly something bad, I am going to fight it every step of the way. I cut out all fast food, soda, sweets etc. I also took up walking for exercise as well (have to start small- had knee surgery just awhile ago- but since then I had let myself get out of shape, it hurt to exercise and due to the fact I didn't change my eating habits,. I gained about 25 lbs since my whole knee ordeal started.)
Well, as of a week ago, I have changed my diet significantly. As I said, no fast food, sweets. soda etc. I do feel better but at the same time, I have noticed some not so great "side effects".
Here's an example of my diet:
breakfast: rasin bran cereal (medium bowl) with 1% milk.and a banana.
lunch: chopped veggies (green peppers, carrots for example) with 500 ml of water.
snack; 1 medium sized apple and banana with more water.
dinner: more veggies , some grapes or melon slices and 500 ml of water.
snack: Activa yogurt with fresh fruit mixed in & 500 ml of water.
This an example of one day, but it doesn't vary from this by much. I am also talking one vitamin B 75 complex a day along with a Fibre supplement tablet (one of the chewable kinds).
I noticed that my stool has changed a lot...so I am wondering if it's related to my new diet or something else....
When I finished my round of amoxicillan, I also stopped the tylenol 3 (from dental work). BM came but I noticed that they weren't as much and kinda dry and sticky if that makes sense.
So this was around the time, my new diet came into play. My first day, I overloaded on fibre I think because my stools when from what I described above to normal size (still formed), watery and yellow and light brown. My guess it was due to all the milk and bananas I had consumed (that morning I had a good sized glass of milk and 2 bananas for breakfast).
So my BM are kinda weird now, I am having them about 4- 5 times a day now and they always seem to be diaherra until towards the end of the evening when sometimes they are brown (most of the time)/tan/yellowish (different times different colors) and thinner...they aren't always what's called "pencil thin" either and are sometimes a bit bigger, but they are always smaller than what I remember my BM being from before. I have no blood in them, no signs of black/tarry / coffee grind or bright red,marroon etc- none of that). There's no real abdominal pain unless it's right after I eat or feel a BM coming. Lately, I have been having "to go" after I eat within 15-20min of that,
I went to my doctor and he said that he thinks it is a combo of things....first of all, my anxiety, he says that can play havoc on one's stomach and cause what I am experiencing symptom wise, He also said my new diet has sent my body into "shock" and it will need a few weeks to catch up to the new changes in my diet. He said that I was also taking in too much fibre right now. He told me to lay off the fibre tablet and add a few low fibre foods to my diet like white bread.....He said just about everything I was eating contained fibre...so he kinda chuckled and said "no wonder you have diaherra like you do". He said that our stomachs react off our moods...that when I am anxious, it can speed up digestion, giving me the yellowish color sometimes. He said that me being overly anxious and taking note of every bowel movement could cause my muscles to tense up and give me the thinner stool,
He seems confident that all my bowel/ stool changes are due to my change in diet with my terrible anxiety. All of my troubles did start to happen after I started to constantly worry. He thinks I could have IBS too possibly and said that IBS and anxiety kind of feed off of eachother.
Still the worry wart in me wonders "What if he's mistake and I am truly sick?" Of course, when I googled symptoms, I got results like colon cancer etc, which really doesn't help my anxiety at all.
What do you think ? Should I wait a week or two to see if my diet finally balances things out or should I go for a second opinion? As far as I know there isn't a family history of colon cancers etc...I know this for a fact on my mom's side and my biological dad is 56 and is still in good health as are the other close members of his family.
Now, all these symptoms have started after I became very anxious one night, (I think I might have had an anxiety attack)...but since then, this has been on my mind constantly...
At first. I was being treated for insomnia...stress and a full class/ work schedule will do that. So the doctor first put me on Zopiclone...I didn't take well to this at all...I sleep the entire day after and had a major headache. Then in typical "me" fashion, I began to worry again..."What if it's something else?" So I went to google obsessing over it and spent hours....
So since then I have had no real appetite,,,,I find this is more so during the day when my mind is racing and I am worrying. At night, when I am more calm (after the Activan), I find that I do have a bit of an appetite and I can eat.
At first, I did feel nausea when I would think about eating (although I didn't vomit) , the idea of eating turned my stomach. My diet was HORRIBLE too...not as bad as some I am sure, but not good by any standards either. I was tired and just wanted to sleep. I noticed a bit of constipation during this time but after a few days had a BM. (I hadn't been eating much at this time).
What was weird is that when I was laying on the couch, I could feel hunger pains, that gnawing sensation and gurgling that came with it, That happened a lot. My anxiety was at it's highest then too. I noticed that my heartburn and reflux seemed to come around more during this time, but my guess that it was because of the anxierty and not eating much. I could eat and hold it in just fine when I had to, but it was like I just didn't want to because I knew my stomach would become "sour"...which I am pretty sure it was anxiety related- noone feels like eating when they are constantly worried or scared.
Eventually, I became worried about my eating, because if I did, I knew it would be followed my discomfort (churning, bloated feeling along with hiccups and reflux)...so I think I made myself sick by worrying about it.
*side note - around this time my dentist had me on tylenol 3, (which I would take 2-4 a day of)- which could have counted for some of the constipation?
So after a few days, I decided to pick myself up, calm down and if it was truly something bad, I am going to fight it every step of the way. I cut out all fast food, soda, sweets etc. I also took up walking for exercise as well (have to start small- had knee surgery just awhile ago- but since then I had let myself get out of shape, it hurt to exercise and due to the fact I didn't change my eating habits,. I gained about 25 lbs since my whole knee ordeal started.)
Well, as of a week ago, I have changed my diet significantly. As I said, no fast food, sweets. soda etc. I do feel better but at the same time, I have noticed some not so great "side effects".
Here's an example of my diet:
breakfast: rasin bran cereal (medium bowl) with 1% milk.and a banana.
lunch: chopped veggies (green peppers, carrots for example) with 500 ml of water.
snack; 1 medium sized apple and banana with more water.
dinner: more veggies , some grapes or melon slices and 500 ml of water.
snack: Activa yogurt with fresh fruit mixed in & 500 ml of water.
This an example of one day, but it doesn't vary from this by much. I am also talking one vitamin B 75 complex a day along with a Fibre supplement tablet (one of the chewable kinds).
I noticed that my stool has changed a lot...so I am wondering if it's related to my new diet or something else....
When I finished my round of amoxicillan, I also stopped the tylenol 3 (from dental work). BM came but I noticed that they weren't as much and kinda dry and sticky if that makes sense.
So this was around the time, my new diet came into play. My first day, I overloaded on fibre I think because my stools when from what I described above to normal size (still formed), watery and yellow and light brown. My guess it was due to all the milk and bananas I had consumed (that morning I had a good sized glass of milk and 2 bananas for breakfast).
So my BM are kinda weird now, I am having them about 4- 5 times a day now and they always seem to be diaherra until towards the end of the evening when sometimes they are brown (most of the time)/tan/yellowish (different times different colors) and thinner...they aren't always what's called "pencil thin" either and are sometimes a bit bigger, but they are always smaller than what I remember my BM being from before. I have no blood in them, no signs of black/tarry / coffee grind or bright red,marroon etc- none of that). There's no real abdominal pain unless it's right after I eat or feel a BM coming. Lately, I have been having "to go" after I eat within 15-20min of that,
I went to my doctor and he said that he thinks it is a combo of things....first of all, my anxiety, he says that can play havoc on one's stomach and cause what I am experiencing symptom wise, He also said my new diet has sent my body into "shock" and it will need a few weeks to catch up to the new changes in my diet. He said that I was also taking in too much fibre right now. He told me to lay off the fibre tablet and add a few low fibre foods to my diet like white bread.....He said just about everything I was eating contained fibre...so he kinda chuckled and said "no wonder you have diaherra like you do". He said that our stomachs react off our moods...that when I am anxious, it can speed up digestion, giving me the yellowish color sometimes. He said that me being overly anxious and taking note of every bowel movement could cause my muscles to tense up and give me the thinner stool,
He seems confident that all my bowel/ stool changes are due to my change in diet with my terrible anxiety. All of my troubles did start to happen after I started to constantly worry. He thinks I could have IBS too possibly and said that IBS and anxiety kind of feed off of eachother.
Still the worry wart in me wonders "What if he's mistake and I am truly sick?" Of course, when I googled symptoms, I got results like colon cancer etc, which really doesn't help my anxiety at all.
What do you think ? Should I wait a week or two to see if my diet finally balances things out or should I go for a second opinion? As far as I know there isn't a family history of colon cancers etc...I know this for a fact on my mom's side and my biological dad is 56 and is still in good health as are the other close members of his family.
Also, bought some Metamucil 3 days ago, it's helping and is adding bulk to the stool (sorry for the TMI) so I am thinking that there's likely not a bowel obstruction/tumor etc since the stools are of normal size and are passing easily.
Thank you all for the kind words and advice. I don't feel so crazy or alone now...lol My doctor is very nice and helpful but I don't feel like he "gets"where I am coming from. I did get a referral to see a psychologist on the 25th of March. I am hoping to see where that can help. I am also speaking to one of the other mental health couselors on the 5th. So I am hoping to get some help from them. I am so tired of feeling this way. Believe me, I feel foolish at times, but that still doesn't stop me when I get worked up again.
I had a lot of stress going on already before this, and I even remember saying to myself "How long before you snap?" Shortly after, I did. I am feeling better, not as tired etc...but I think I might be finally used to the medication Activan. At times I get headaches because I find myself clinching my jaw. It's another habit I will have to break because of this I guess.
I get frustrated at my doctor because his advice for me is to take more Activan, when I start to feel anxious. There has to be a better way than that, I am anxious constantly! Even when I am calmed down on the Activan, I am still thinking about what worries me...the only difference is I don't feel so anxious at the time, but I am still thinking of what bothers /worries me just the same. I feel like the Activan is a bandaid and while it helps, I need something that will stabilize me like suzi-q mentioned all day...that with proper counseling, I think will have me in the right direction to getting better.
Still wondering if I should get a 2nd opinion on the IBS, I feel like it was diagnosed too quickly, I understand that I have all the classic signs BUT other diseases mimic it too. I just don't want to be one of those people who get the words "If we had caught it sooner, we could have cured you." you know?
I had no tests done to confirm IBS, the doctor just listened to what I told him symptom wise and said I had IBS without a doubt. I did feel better at first, but then I was like "wait a minute, how can he be totally sure?"
What do you guys think?
I had a lot of stress going on already before this, and I even remember saying to myself "How long before you snap?" Shortly after, I did. I am feeling better, not as tired etc...but I think I might be finally used to the medication Activan. At times I get headaches because I find myself clinching my jaw. It's another habit I will have to break because of this I guess.
I get frustrated at my doctor because his advice for me is to take more Activan, when I start to feel anxious. There has to be a better way than that, I am anxious constantly! Even when I am calmed down on the Activan, I am still thinking about what worries me...the only difference is I don't feel so anxious at the time, but I am still thinking of what bothers /worries me just the same. I feel like the Activan is a bandaid and while it helps, I need something that will stabilize me like suzi-q mentioned all day...that with proper counseling, I think will have me in the right direction to getting better.
Still wondering if I should get a 2nd opinion on the IBS, I feel like it was diagnosed too quickly, I understand that I have all the classic signs BUT other diseases mimic it too. I just don't want to be one of those people who get the words "If we had caught it sooner, we could have cured you." you know?
I had no tests done to confirm IBS, the doctor just listened to what I told him symptom wise and said I had IBS without a doubt. I did feel better at first, but then I was like "wait a minute, how can he be totally sure?"
What do you guys think?
I am 41 and have suffered with depression and anxiety since the age of 28. Here is what I think..I AM NOT A DOCTOR but have experience with how you feel.
1. My therapist at the time told me that women in their late 20's are the usual age of her patients...this seems to be a big time in their lives to go through "a depression/anxiety period".
2. I noticed that your diet contains MANY veggies and fruit. Where is the protein? You need to get protein into your system...without it, your stools will be off as well as your stomach!
3. You seem to also be suffering from depression also. Even though you may not feel depressed, your obsession with your health can be more than health anxiety related. Are you still interested in other things besides your health? Do you still enjoy the things you always have? Keep an eye on that. If you answer no, you may also be suffering from depression.
4. When you are feeling that constant gnawing in your stomach and anxiety about EVERYTHING that will effect your stools even if you are having a balanced diet. I had the "runs" for like 6 months straight when I had "my time".
5. Also ask your doctor about klonopin. It is an anti-anxiety medication that is taken 2 times a day and has a 12 hour life span...so you are "covered" all day. It keeps you at a steady state unlike ativan which only lasts a few hours.
6. Get off the computer and go for a walk instead! EVERYTHING THAT YOU WILL GOOGLE WILL LEAD TO CANCER NO MATTER WHAT IT IS!! How do I know this? I was a googleaholic myself! Have you heard the new buzz word "CYBERCONDRIAC"? That is for all of us who google every symptom looking for illnesses...STOP IT!!
Hope this has helped!
1. My therapist at the time told me that women in their late 20's are the usual age of her patients...this seems to be a big time in their lives to go through "a depression/anxiety period".
2. I noticed that your diet contains MANY veggies and fruit. Where is the protein? You need to get protein into your system...without it, your stools will be off as well as your stomach!
3. You seem to also be suffering from depression also. Even though you may not feel depressed, your obsession with your health can be more than health anxiety related. Are you still interested in other things besides your health? Do you still enjoy the things you always have? Keep an eye on that. If you answer no, you may also be suffering from depression.
4. When you are feeling that constant gnawing in your stomach and anxiety about EVERYTHING that will effect your stools even if you are having a balanced diet. I had the "runs" for like 6 months straight when I had "my time".
5. Also ask your doctor about klonopin. It is an anti-anxiety medication that is taken 2 times a day and has a 12 hour life span...so you are "covered" all day. It keeps you at a steady state unlike ativan which only lasts a few hours.
6. Get off the computer and go for a walk instead! EVERYTHING THAT YOU WILL GOOGLE WILL LEAD TO CANCER NO MATTER WHAT IT IS!! How do I know this? I was a googleaholic myself! Have you heard the new buzz word "CYBERCONDRIAC"? That is for all of us who google every symptom looking for illnesses...STOP IT!!
Hope this has helped!
Lol phoenix.. u and I are the same..
When I worry too much or depressed, I always surf in google to see what might caused this.. and when I know its anxiety, I searched about it in google for like hours until I feel better.
Some of the best ways to cure anxiety = be with people that understand our disorder and are positive about it, positive that it can be cured and we can be free from it (AND IT IS THE FACT, 99% people with Anxiety disorder can be cured or recovered by doing therapy or medics) if I'm not mistaken (I looked for it in google).
Yeah u can feel very sleepy and not wanting to eat (same like me.. I just eat once a day.. but I got over it and I forced myself to eat)
Don't worry.. ur gonna be ABSOLUTELY PERFECTLY fine.
When I worry too much or depressed, I always surf in google to see what might caused this.. and when I know its anxiety, I searched about it in google for like hours until I feel better.
Some of the best ways to cure anxiety = be with people that understand our disorder and are positive about it, positive that it can be cured and we can be free from it (AND IT IS THE FACT, 99% people with Anxiety disorder can be cured or recovered by doing therapy or medics) if I'm not mistaken (I looked for it in google).
Yeah u can feel very sleepy and not wanting to eat (same like me.. I just eat once a day.. but I got over it and I forced myself to eat)
Don't worry.. ur gonna be ABSOLUTELY PERFECTLY fine.
Much like you and CJ I tend to "overworry" regarding health issues. When I was in a full blown anxiety cycle my stomach was a mess and I was feeling the same things you are and having similar symptoms.
Trust in what your doctor says and see if everything quiets down as you become calmer. The one thing I can tell you is activa upset my digestive system terribly so I stopped eating it and things went back to normal.
keep us posted and good luck
Trust in what your doctor says and see if everything quiets down as you become calmer. The one thing I can tell you is activa upset my digestive system terribly so I stopped eating it and things went back to normal.
keep us posted and good luck
You did the right thing about working through it with your doctor. I can relate to a few things you were describing. I have a lot of 'what if?' thinking despite reassurances from the doctor. I tend to catastrophisize every bodily sensation, and it really adds to my anxiety. I constantly have an upset stomach and many other pains and yes diet and anxiety can cause many changes.
Have you talked to a counsleor about this? This can help tremendously and get to the root of why one worries so much.
Have you talked to a counsleor about this? This can help tremendously and get to the root of why one worries so much.
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