Do I really have Anxiety?

[fastasian79]

Prior i got sick, i was on adderal for 3 months and I only took 1-2 times a week but I stopped a week or two before I felt sick.

One doctor said that I intake too much stimulant stuff like...redbulls, cigarettes and coffee.
Another doctor said that I have Anxiety b/c I told  him that I have
                                      shortness of breath
                                      dizzinesss (i guess it's lightheadedness)
                                      heart races
Therefore they prescribed me some Buspirone.  Whenever the symptoms occur, i take the med and the symptoms go away with 24hours.  I dont take it everyday, only when i really needed.  These symptoms tend to come back every few days or every week.  It seems like whenever I eat or drink anything that has caffeine i will get one of the symptoms above.

If i move around too much ( like sitting up, running) I will get lightheadedness and a little bit tired.

So my question is do I really have Anxiety or not?  If no, what do you think it is? What  should you suggest me to do? Stress test?, MRI my head?

Thank you very much.

[fastasian79]

Last week, I didnt know if it was okay for me to eat some M&M or not;  I ate some anyway.....and all the symptoms come back within a few minutes so i ended up taking 1/2 a Buspirone.

My symptoms seem to lessen tremendously since i started working out and eating healthy.  I stay away from all the fast food, cheese, chips, candies, and soda.

I stopped taking Adderall that's why I have a hard time studying now :(

I'm just wondering if any of you have tried Electro Accupunture? I heard it works and I'm planning to try it sometimes in the near futre.

[cw1330]

Do you still take Adderall or Ritalin?  They are stimulants - maybe you are not ADD or ADHD and you don't need them. If you stop the caffiene and red bulls and still have the same symptoms maybe it is anxiety.

[Mark TX]

Caffeine definitely triggers anxiety symptoms.  No doubt.  Try to cut it out completely then evaluate your symptoms stimulant free.  Are they still severe enough that you need a medication to control them?  Is your anxiety manageable without the stimulants?

After I gave up alcohol I started drinking diet coke when I went out.  For a short period I even drank Red Bull.  I'd get so high-strung that I'd end up popping a benzo to bring myself back down.  I was on a self-induced roller-coaster.  Dumb dumb dumb.

mark

[nastursim]

I agree with the others, anxiety, Your symptoms may be exacerbated by the caffeine in the drinks you are drinking because people with anxiety, and without, can be sensitive to too much caffeiene.

[OneScaredBuckeye]

Sounds like classic anxiety syndrome to me.  Good luck.

[be still my beating heart 13]

You sound just like me and are experiencing what so many others experience with anxiety.  It took me a LONG time too to accept that what I was going through really was an anxiety disorder.  Not accepting what my doctors were telling me ("you're fine, you just have anxiety") only caused me to delay my recovery process.  I clung to my belief that there was something medically wrong with me and in turn postponed embracing my anxiety disorder, and learning how to deal with it properly.  My best advice to you is to take comfort in the fact that you have sought help from your doctors for your  symptoms and been told that you are fine, just experiencing some anxiety, and now you can begin the process of learning more about anxiety, what triggers anxiety/panic, and how to begin to control it.  Please do a google search for "anxiety/adrenaline" and "anxiety/amygdala".  It explains to how's and why's of anxiety and it's resulting symptoms.  The information I gained from this reasearch helped calm me so much so that I have not had a panic attack since I read it!  I hope this info helps you too and that you felt well today!

Cori