Aa
Help!!!
Ok. I am 22 years old and I've had anxiety/panic attacks since I was 16 years old. I know what panic attacks are and I seem to be doing a little better at times with them. This past year I learned that I had Hypothyroidism and I am now on levothyroxine and I take Metoprolol because my heart rate jumps high at times. However, there's times that I feel like my hearts hurting.. and then it throws me in panic mode and I automatically think i'm having a heart attack or something is wrong with my heart. I have chest pain all the time.. but I also worry about everything, all the time. It's so frustrating and hard to explain unless you are dealt with it. I have had EKGs and an echo (sp?) done and everything looked great! However, I was suppose to go back and get a heart monitor and wear it for 24 hours and my insurance ran out, so I haven't been able to do that. I also haven't been able to go back to the doctor to get my thyroid levels checked out either. I just wonder if my chest/heart is bothering me like I think it is, like if something is wrong with me or if I just stay in anxiety mode so much? I mean I have horrible anxiety. I don't even get out of the house most days. I freak out if I am just a few miles past my home. I feel like my home is my safe haven. It's really hard to understand unless you've had panic/anxiety attacks before.. but I feel like they take over my life! I have 2 children and I feel like I can't go places with them because everytime I start to go somewhere, I automatically start thinking "well what if this happens?"... It's so frustrating.
Thank you all so much for the replies! I will definitely get my levels checked again and I am even considering the counseling. Anxiety holds me back from doing so much, so i'm gonna do like you said and just make myself go whether it be to the grocery store or whatever. I actually done that last week. We were getting ready to go to my sisters house, I started panicing and I made myself go and once I got there, I was fine!
I am working on my master's in health psychology, but also worked pretty far into my degree in counseling. My focus of research is anxiety and hypothyroidism. I eventually want to write my dissertation on this topic, and I hope to conduct actual studies on it. What I have learned is peer reviewed research shows that there is an equal occurrence of anxiety in both hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism.
On a personal level, I had hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism that led to the eventual removal of my thyroid. I also suffer from panic attacks whenever my thyroid is out of whack (whether it be hypo or hyper). I take a beta blocker which helps a lot.
I highly recommend cognitive behavior therapy. Part of what I have studied is the conditioned effect we have from anxiety. Lets say your anxiety started from a purely organic reason (for example hypothyroidism). Your body becomes conditioned to the fear response. This is similar to classical conditioning (if you have ever learned anything about Pavlov's experiments). This is what therapy will help. It helps break the harmful patterns.
If your thyroid is not at an ideal range however, you might continue to experience anxiety issues. My hunch is that even when your thyroid is normalized (if it isn't now), you will still have anxiety due to the effect I mentioned above. Personally, I have huge panic attacks at any non-normal level of my thyroid. When it is normal, I tend to go normal, but it takes a while to re-condition myself to handling things without panic. If I have a month of "good" thyroid days, I then get used to the good feelings and I don't thinks about the "what if this happens". I am then used to it not happening. If it is happening a lot, that thought is ALWAYS in my mind.
One helpful technique is to NOT let conditioning happen. If you are having bad panic and you are afraid to go to the grocery store, go anyway. If you don't, your mind begins to accept not going as normal. You then have created a fear construct in your mind. If you can't make yourself do full shopping, just walk in the door and stay for a few minutes. The point is NOT to let the fear win in your mind. Do a little more each time. What will happen is you will begin to see that nothing happened, and you will be okay.
As Barb said, get your TSH, free t3 and free t4 tested. If it is not YOUR personal norm, work on getting it there. That in combination with the therapy might just prove to be very beneficial.
I completely understand what you are going through! Good Luck.
On a personal level, I had hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism that led to the eventual removal of my thyroid. I also suffer from panic attacks whenever my thyroid is out of whack (whether it be hypo or hyper). I take a beta blocker which helps a lot.
I highly recommend cognitive behavior therapy. Part of what I have studied is the conditioned effect we have from anxiety. Lets say your anxiety started from a purely organic reason (for example hypothyroidism). Your body becomes conditioned to the fear response. This is similar to classical conditioning (if you have ever learned anything about Pavlov's experiments). This is what therapy will help. It helps break the harmful patterns.
If your thyroid is not at an ideal range however, you might continue to experience anxiety issues. My hunch is that even when your thyroid is normalized (if it isn't now), you will still have anxiety due to the effect I mentioned above. Personally, I have huge panic attacks at any non-normal level of my thyroid. When it is normal, I tend to go normal, but it takes a while to re-condition myself to handling things without panic. If I have a month of "good" thyroid days, I then get used to the good feelings and I don't thinks about the "what if this happens". I am then used to it not happening. If it is happening a lot, that thought is ALWAYS in my mind.
One helpful technique is to NOT let conditioning happen. If you are having bad panic and you are afraid to go to the grocery store, go anyway. If you don't, your mind begins to accept not going as normal. You then have created a fear construct in your mind. If you can't make yourself do full shopping, just walk in the door and stay for a few minutes. The point is NOT to let the fear win in your mind. Do a little more each time. What will happen is you will begin to see that nothing happened, and you will be okay.
As Barb said, get your TSH, free t3 and free t4 tested. If it is not YOUR personal norm, work on getting it there. That in combination with the therapy might just prove to be very beneficial.
I completely understand what you are going through! Good Luck.
COMMUNITY LEADER
Most likely your heart issues are not really anything to do with your, but caused by the anxiety. I've been there, done that.
You might want to seek counseling of some type; often it helps to talk things out with someone who would be understanding and not judgmental. Another option, would be to try a mild anti-anxiety med (buspirone comes to mind), until you get the anxiety under control.
Be aware though, that you really need to keep track of your thyroid levels, because thyroid CAN cause anxiety, so if your levels are off, you might be able to correct the anxiety by properly adjusting your thyroid med. Since you have no insurance, you might try going to a County Health Dept or other type of clinic where you can get free tests/treatment or pay on a sliding scale.
It could also be that your current dose of thyroid med is too high and you've gone hyper. The only way to know, however, is with proper blood tests - TSH, Free T3 and Free T4. You can actually order these tests online from several different sites. One I've used with success is healthcheckusa. You order the tests - TSH, FT3 and FT4 costs $85; they e-mail you lab order, you go to the lab they specify to get the blood drawn, and in a couple days, they e-mail you the results. This can be much less expensive than going through your doctor AND it lets you pick the tests being done, so you can get more than just TSH, which is what a lot of doctors stop at.
You might want to seek counseling of some type; often it helps to talk things out with someone who would be understanding and not judgmental. Another option, would be to try a mild anti-anxiety med (buspirone comes to mind), until you get the anxiety under control.
Be aware though, that you really need to keep track of your thyroid levels, because thyroid CAN cause anxiety, so if your levels are off, you might be able to correct the anxiety by properly adjusting your thyroid med. Since you have no insurance, you might try going to a County Health Dept or other type of clinic where you can get free tests/treatment or pay on a sliding scale.
It could also be that your current dose of thyroid med is too high and you've gone hyper. The only way to know, however, is with proper blood tests - TSH, Free T3 and Free T4. You can actually order these tests online from several different sites. One I've used with success is healthcheckusa. You order the tests - TSH, FT3 and FT4 costs $85; they e-mail you lab order, you go to the lab they specify to get the blood drawn, and in a couple days, they e-mail you the results. This can be much less expensive than going through your doctor AND it lets you pick the tests being done, so you can get more than just TSH, which is what a lot of doctors stop at.
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