Panic Attacks with Agoraphobia and Hypochondria?

[VindictiveBunny]

I have searched everywhere for a place that I can find information on my problems.  Webmd doesn't have the easy-readable, organized blogs anymore.  I have been to several doctors in the past 8 years, to 2 hospitals, and a neurologist.  Both hospitals did an EKG (8 years ago) and found nothing out of the ordinary with my heart, when I had already passed out from my chest discomfort and came to.  The Neurologist had me on a portable heart monitor thing for 24 hours and my heart was perfect, but I never had an episode with it on.  He prescribed me zoloft that I took for 3 months and took myself off of it since the side effects were really worse than the symptoms.  The first 2 doctors were from the same office and they only gave me a dissolvable tab to put under my tongue for dizziness and said if it doesn't help then I'm fine and it's nothing.  The next doctor was from a different office and said that my symptoms seemed "out of my head" and that what he heard with his stethoscope my heart sounded very healthy and my blood pressure was fine.  The 4th doctor was from the neighboring city and she said that my heart and blood pressure is fine, but the symptoms sounded like panic or anxiety attacks.  She prescribed me prozac, but I have always feared taking medicine, because my mother and father always gave me medicine for something.  For example, I would annoyed my mother enough that she would give me tylenol, because it made me sleepy.  My father thinks it's ok to give me half of one of his herpe medicine when I had a cold sore or fever blister.  Anyway, I didn't take the prozac.  I went back to her, since she gave me an idea of what could be wrong with me, for these spasms I have been experiencing in my chest.  When she examined me again she listened to my stomach since I wasn't having pain with the spasms.  She said that it may be esophagus spasms.  How do I know if it's just panic attacks that have caused me to develope esophagus spasms.  I think it could be those 2 together causing me more problems.  If you think about it, anxiety causes my stomach to get upset and when it gets upset it causes me to get indigestion and can cause me to experience these spasms in my esophagus... When I went back to the 3rd doctor since he was closer and I told him what the 4th doctor thought and he prescribed me zoloft again and I told him that I didn't want to take any medications again and that I wanted more info on my problems so I can try to fix them without being drugged up.  He said I can either take the medication to help my problem or I can just go on with life like this.  He said it's one or the other.  He was kind of rude about it and it sort of made me feel worthless and crazy or something.  Since he was the one that said it's something "out of my head".  I felt un-normal.  If that's even a word.

My mother has an esophagus hernia which cannot be fixed, but recently found out that she has G.E.R.D. on top of that.  She has to take prilosec everyday, plus she is on a very strict diet.  She asked her doctor and he said that the hernia and GERD is hereditary.  So it is possible for me to have symptoms of GERD and/or the esophagus problems.  I do know that when I get the spasm or discomfort in my chest I will shortly get a bitter/acid/funky taste at the back of my throat.  After that I get nauseated and sometimes the discomfort is so bad it makes me panic thinking it's my heart making the discomfort and spasms.  Also, to make matters worse my father has a heart condition that he was born with.  I'm not sure what it's called, but one of his nerves is over-active and gets out of rhythm with the main nerve and causes his whole heart to spasm out of control and he doesn't have pain with it.  His doctor tried to kill that nerve but it's attached to one of the main nerves and he has to live with it.  

So, is this possible that every symptom I am having is just Panic Attacks with Esophagial Spasms and then thinking everything that everyone else has is my health problem too?

[Paxiled]

Just read the news today.  Astazeneca just settled a lawsuit about seroquel.  It's only been approved by the FDA for two things, but now you'll see so many people on it for everything.  That's because the company advertised it for everything, including unapproved uses, and paid doctors to wrote testimonials and to advocate using it for unapproved uses.  So yes, docs are definitely paid to promote these products.  The FDA passed a rule a while ago to prevent docs with financial ties to pharma from serving on review panels.  Guess what?  Couldn't find enough docs with good reputations to fill out the panels, they were all getting paid by pharma.  

[VindictiveBunny]

Yeah I think some of these doctors are crazy.  That's why I went to several of them trying to figure out why I was having these episodes.  I believe some doctors get a bonus if they prescribe so many people to these meds.  I could be way wrong but it's funny how they all think the same med would help even if it's for something entirely different.  I'll try your advice for my stomach issues.  I believe the spasms could be my esophagus instead of my heart.  I never had problems out of my stomach until I had my daughter 5 years ago.  My esophagus could be set to the left a little making it feel like my heart spasming.  Anyway, I will try your advice too and see if I get any good results out of it.  Thank you both for the advice and help.

[Paxiled]

So the doc said meds or nothing?  Where do these people come from?  Julie is absolutely right, therapy is what you need.  Don't know what kind, it's hit or miss, but it sounds like you've got some issues to work out.  As for GERD, how can they know it's hereditary?  It didn't even have a name until some pharmaceutical companies invented one a few years ago.  Used to call it heartburn.  All it means is that you're digestive system isn't working properly, either because your diet isn't right for you or the anxiety is making you eat too quickly or whatever.  Prilosec isn't necessarily something one has to take for this; because it suppresses acid production, the stomach just has to make more since in order to digest protein the stomach needs an acidic environment.  What you can try before you get to that point are digestive enzymes and drinking some aloe vera juice every day and DGL when you get the symptoms and see if you can't deal with it that way -- those remedies don't suppress acid, so they don't get you into the endless feedback loop medication does.  Sometimes medication is necessary for things, but it doesn't have to be a first resort.  That's up to you.  As Julie said, meditation and relaxation exercises can really help the body even when they don't help the mind.  I had a bleeding ulcer when I was a bit younger than you and my doc recommended meditation.  Solved that problem, and the remedies I mentioned keep the poor digestion my anxiety causes in check.  Not perfect, but not a big problem.  So you do have options.  Good luck whatever you decide to try.

[VindictiveBunny]

I'm 25 now.  I figured I would add that in so you'd know.   Thanks for that idea.  I will try to check into it tomorrow.

[VindictiveBunny]

That may help.  I actually had to talk with a therapist when my parents were splitting up to help me with my stress levels when I was about 13.  I only went once for him to give me a stress test and to evaluate me.  He never really talked to me about any of the problems I had.  He first had to send off my stress test before I could see him again.  I recieved a call (he left a message on the answering machine about how he'd love to speak with me again and to do a few more tests) and I even got a letter from his office saying that it would be best if I were re-evaluated and that my parents needed to make another appointment for me to come back in.  My mom and dad were living seperately at this time and I was living with my father.  He heard the message and deleted it.  He told me that I went for the required part and that I didn't need to come back and he threw away the letter from the therapist also.  Maybe that therapist seen something about me that my parents didn't.  How could I find out if my insurance would cover something like that or if I have to pay out of pocket for it?  BCBS kinda ***** now.  lol.. Last time I had to call them I talked to an automated system for 15 minutes.

[Julie359]

There is a few things you can do, has any of the doc's discussed CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) with you?  This therapy will change your resonse to anxiety n panic attacks through understanding and gentle exposure.  The therapist will take you through issues you have that has lead to your health anxiety like your parents medicating you all the time and how to oversome this.  It isn't a quick fix, i know as i'm currently having CBT, but in the long term it will bare it's weight in Gold as you will learn how to change your negative thoughts and control your panic/agoraphobia/etc....

Also i do recommend meditation and relaxation as a daily tool to help bring down anxiety levels, it can make a huge differnce to how you feel.