Aa
I always think I'm dying! !
So I always think I'm dying! does anyone else have this problem>? and if so, hoe do you overcome it?
I was on zoloft and ativan for 2 years (loved the ativan) but now I'm on nothing.. can't afford the doctor!! so how do you convince yourself your not dying?? any responce would help, just put my mind at ease please!! I don't want to be alone!!
I was on zoloft and ativan for 2 years (loved the ativan) but now I'm on nothing.. can't afford the doctor!! so how do you convince yourself your not dying?? any responce would help, just put my mind at ease please!! I don't want to be alone!!
This is my story:
I was a normal 21 year old, married already and moved out with my wonderful husband. Had NO worries in my life except for the minor stresses of work/college. Then one day I was at work and had a very sharp pain in my chest (VERY obvious that something was wrong....I couldn't breath). It turned out that it was a spontaneous collapsed lung. I was in the hospital for an entire month...6 chest tubes and 2 surgeries. (Trying to sum it up). And basically it was the WORST time of my entire life. I honestly, honestly thought I was going to die in there. When I was finally released, the anxiety hit. Every ache, every pain, anything....and I was running to the doctor thinking that something else was wrong with me. "what if, what if, what if!" ....I live every day in fear that my opposite lung is going to collapse as well...I was having very bad heart palpitations and assumed I had heart failure....I have lumps in my breast and now I think I have cancer. It honestly is SO exhausting. The depression, the FEAR of death and the unknown. I wanted all of you to know that you are not alone! I tried counseling and basically when it comes down to it...YOU have to have the POWER in yourself to think more positively about life. I know that the terrible thoughts of sickness and death keep coming...and when they come, try to replace them with positive things! Our problem is that our brains focus SO hard on the negative...that we don't see the positive. MAKE yourself see the positive. I have found from listening to my counselor and from reading many thing online that you honestly have to work at this. It's not like you will just wake up one day and your mind won't be running a marathon saying you have cancer, you have heart failure, you're DYING. You have to tell your brain WHO is BOSS. I know it is extremely difficult to change the way that you think...trust me I know...but you have to weigh the pros/cons. If you live your life in constant fear of death....are you really living?
Find your purpose...meditate...be kind...smile when you don't want to...have faith...focus on the positive...and LIVE the life you have.
Best Wishes
I was a normal 21 year old, married already and moved out with my wonderful husband. Had NO worries in my life except for the minor stresses of work/college. Then one day I was at work and had a very sharp pain in my chest (VERY obvious that something was wrong....I couldn't breath). It turned out that it was a spontaneous collapsed lung. I was in the hospital for an entire month...6 chest tubes and 2 surgeries. (Trying to sum it up). And basically it was the WORST time of my entire life. I honestly, honestly thought I was going to die in there. When I was finally released, the anxiety hit. Every ache, every pain, anything....and I was running to the doctor thinking that something else was wrong with me. "what if, what if, what if!" ....I live every day in fear that my opposite lung is going to collapse as well...I was having very bad heart palpitations and assumed I had heart failure....I have lumps in my breast and now I think I have cancer. It honestly is SO exhausting. The depression, the FEAR of death and the unknown. I wanted all of you to know that you are not alone! I tried counseling and basically when it comes down to it...YOU have to have the POWER in yourself to think more positively about life. I know that the terrible thoughts of sickness and death keep coming...and when they come, try to replace them with positive things! Our problem is that our brains focus SO hard on the negative...that we don't see the positive. MAKE yourself see the positive. I have found from listening to my counselor and from reading many thing online that you honestly have to work at this. It's not like you will just wake up one day and your mind won't be running a marathon saying you have cancer, you have heart failure, you're DYING. You have to tell your brain WHO is BOSS. I know it is extremely difficult to change the way that you think...trust me I know...but you have to weigh the pros/cons. If you live your life in constant fear of death....are you really living?
Find your purpose...meditate...be kind...smile when you don't want to...have faith...focus on the positive...and LIVE the life you have.
Best Wishes
I know exactly how you are all feeling I too have felt like it for as long as I can remember, I have spouts of being ok for months then it will happen again just thinking every little thing is going to finish me off right now I am convinced I either have ovarian cancer cervical cancer or a brain tumor and am waiting for a brain scan and ultrasound just had a smear - I main concern is the brain tumour I'm convinced I have real symptoms and think to myself what if I tell myself it's my anxiety but this time it actually isn't ?? .. its life destroying - even after all the years I still don't understand it one minute your fine and the next out of the blue it takes over...I think my health anxiety steams from losing my dad when I was 10 out of the blue .. since then I have a fear of being ill and dying I think since having my own children in some ways it's got worse because I don't want my kids to go through what I went through so young.. I hope we all work out our own way to cope and enjoy our time on this totally crazy but beautiful world
It really does feel good to hear that I am not alone, but at the same time I realize that extreme or chronic anxiety goes for the most part untreated in the USA because like someone said on a earlier post nobody understands it unless they have it or experience it. It's not like a physical disease, you can't see it. For 15 years lived in my brain. It started with just a few attacks a month to everyday. I am now 35 and haven't went to the doctor since I was 20 when I was diagnosed with GAD. I'm too afraid I will have a brain tumor, cardiomyothipa, heart problems, stroke, aneurysm, brain infection, or once I even thought I had mad cow disease. I worry about when my next attack will be. I've learned to talk myself out of them sometimes but sometimes the physical symptoms take over and away we go! I'm afraid now that all my stress and chronic anxiety for the last 15 years has now actually done REAL damage to brain or especially my heart!! So I guess I will be a prisoner in my own brain because I am too afraid to go to the doctor. I would like to workout like I did in high school but I think my heart is too unhealthy!! I hate living like this!!!!
Dear pattig
I had exactly the same symptoms. Tell her to ask about 'vestibular rehabilitation exercises'. very simple exercises that you can do at home, at work, on the bus involving 'retraining' the eyes and brain to work together again. I expect you will have to have a qualified physio recommend specific exercises for her but they really did work for me. I panicked a bit myself when I had the spinning effects and the 'heavy head' symptoms, but I sorted it and all will be well for your daughter I'm sure. One thing that will DEFINITELY improve the symptoms is to readjust your neck posture, imagine holding a bowling ball at arms length....heavy? you bet. Thats the same sort of pressure your neck is under when your head is held too far forward, a bit like the bowling ball at arms length (same weight as a person's head).Posture training and the vestibular exercises have really sorted me out. Actually, good posture is a cure for many ailments including 'pressure head' feelings. All the best and I hope that your lass gets well soon.
I had exactly the same symptoms. Tell her to ask about 'vestibular rehabilitation exercises'. very simple exercises that you can do at home, at work, on the bus involving 'retraining' the eyes and brain to work together again. I expect you will have to have a qualified physio recommend specific exercises for her but they really did work for me. I panicked a bit myself when I had the spinning effects and the 'heavy head' symptoms, but I sorted it and all will be well for your daughter I'm sure. One thing that will DEFINITELY improve the symptoms is to readjust your neck posture, imagine holding a bowling ball at arms length....heavy? you bet. Thats the same sort of pressure your neck is under when your head is held too far forward, a bit like the bowling ball at arms length (same weight as a person's head).Posture training and the vestibular exercises have really sorted me out. Actually, good posture is a cure for many ailments including 'pressure head' feelings. All the best and I hope that your lass gets well soon.
I have been going through this for 8 years now. I didn't think I would make it 6 months but now when I am "Sane" I look back and realize I have made it. It is horrible that your brain plays these tricks on you to make you think the worst and that you are dying. I have been to lots of doctors and paid so many bills that, that is what should make me have anxiety... I know when it first came on with me 8 years ago it was all of the sudden and daily. I lost 23 pounds and just cried for months daily. My family thought I was having a nervous breakdown and didn't know what to do to help. I went to doc and had every test know ran--all came back fine.
I do have a heart issue; mitral valve regurgitation and my heart doc says people with this heart issue are known to have anxiety. But I have had this heart issue my entire life and the anxiety waited until I was 41 to kick in...that didn't seem like the issue. About 5 years into the anxiety I found a hormone specialist and she has helped me so much. I still have anxiety and still suffer the dread that I am dying but not as often as I did. I am now starting to get some of my life back. For me I am taking hormones (natural compounded) and Thyroid medication (Armour). I can't say this has made my dread and anxiety go away because it hasn't but it is less. Whether it was the meds or just time for it to slow down, I don't know.
You are not alone, and you will be ok. The way I look at it now is; if I calm myself down and the symptom goes away in 20 minutes then I am ok but if the symptom last after 20 minutes of me being calm then I need to go to the ER. 99% of the time I am good after 20 minutes.
Take care and try to just breath. It is hard at times but you can do this!
I do have a heart issue; mitral valve regurgitation and my heart doc says people with this heart issue are known to have anxiety. But I have had this heart issue my entire life and the anxiety waited until I was 41 to kick in...that didn't seem like the issue. About 5 years into the anxiety I found a hormone specialist and she has helped me so much. I still have anxiety and still suffer the dread that I am dying but not as often as I did. I am now starting to get some of my life back. For me I am taking hormones (natural compounded) and Thyroid medication (Armour). I can't say this has made my dread and anxiety go away because it hasn't but it is less. Whether it was the meds or just time for it to slow down, I don't know.
You are not alone, and you will be ok. The way I look at it now is; if I calm myself down and the symptom goes away in 20 minutes then I am ok but if the symptom last after 20 minutes of me being calm then I need to go to the ER. 99% of the time I am good after 20 minutes.
Take care and try to just breath. It is hard at times but you can do this!
I feel just like you. I am here at work and starting to feel nauseated - could this be a heart attack coming on? I have been having horrible headaches for almost a week, w/blurry vision in the afternoon, brain aneurysm? I am always worried; my husband is not a good parent - he loves our son, but he just doesn't have parenting skills. What would happen if I died - I feel guilty, but still feel that it is imminent.
Scared to live and Scared to die
Scared to live and Scared to die
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