anxiety vs chronic pain

[shelly197138]

i am a 38 yr old female that had to have a full hysterecotmy by the time i was 34 since that time i have had surgery for bilateral kidney stones 34 of them and 2 others for scar tissue my obgyn put me on twice the normal dose of hormones but i still have the pain, my obgyn did another surgery in Jan of 2009 for excesive scar tissue but this still has not fixed the pain, i am under alot of stress and i have experianced a few panic attacks could my chronic pain be caused by anxiety? i have told my obgyn that the pain is still there and now he wants me to see another obgyn because i have already seen my PCP and had several test done as well as going through physical therapy although i don't know why. i have endured ct scans xrays ultrasounds and no one can seem to find what it is. i am really tired of being sent from doctor to doctor and being told the same thing that they don't know what it is they can't see anything wrong my insurance does not cover all of medical bills and i cannot afford to keep doing this i just want and answer as to what is going on.

[jenmarin]

Hi Shelly,
I have generalized anxiety disorder, and have been medicated, mostly on Prozac, for almost 15 years now. I have had chronic pain for 6 years. My medical provider is Kaiser (not sure if you have that where you live). I was finally referred from physical therapy to their chronic pain department, which is really a division of the psychiatric hospital. I was able to try acupuncture, relaxation techniques, guided imagery, etc. It was great, but in all honestly, I still had pain. I got off pain meds, but I was still in pain. My back hurt so badly that I felt like I couldn't breathe. I am working through the fear, sadness and responsibility to others that I carry (on my back), but until the day that I can finally release those hurts, it will be there. My body, like yours, is telling you that you need to work on something. Since you were so young when you had a total hysterectomy, I wonder if it's a sadness about not being able to ever have children? Did you have therapy before/after the surgery? I will tell you that my new psychiatrist has just prescribed Lyrica for my anxiety and pain. It is FDA-approved in the US for fibromyalgia only, but widely used in Europe for anxiety. It took my pain away the night I started using it. I know that it's working on my anxiety enough to control the pain, but that the underlying issues are still there. I know how real the pain is, even though it's being caused by something intangible. It's so frustrating. I am trying to make life decisions now which are true to myself...might **** off the little family that I have left...but I need to learn to please myself. That's the root of my issues. Do you think you might have identified any for yourself? Hope this helps, and maybe ask your Dr. about Lyrica. (wow, that sounded like a commercial). Promise, I don't work for them or anything. ;)
Jennie