How do you deal with your symptoms

[MartineMoreau]

Hi, I've been dealing with anxiety for just under a year.  I've had chest pain, stabbing pain, pressure pain mostly on the left side  but sometimes in the middle and the right side. I've had various headack, chest compression feeling, dizzyness, floating, brain fog, detachment feeling and what is bugging more most of all extrasystoles.

I'm dealing with the anxiety better then when it started, I rarely get panic attacks anymore but always have the lingering anxiety all the time. Sometimes I feel normal for a bit then I subconsiously check in and then get one or more symptoms. I feel dizzy nearly all the time and have throughout the day the chest discomforts and occasionnal headackes. When I do exercise I worry about getting extrasystoles so of course I get them. They don't last as long as before but they still come.

I think my last step to get out of the vicious circle is to convince myself that if I do have a serious desease or illness that the symptomes will be different and that I will know. I keep hearing myself say, oh this hurts, must be cancer of  this or my chest is hurting, has to be my heart. What if I don't live long, I want to see my kids grow up. Maybe the dizzyness is a tumor in my brain. I don't bring those thoughts on they are just there lingering in the back of my mind.

I've had medical tests showing that my heart is fine, my bloodwork came back fine and deep down I know I don't need a head scan. So I know it's all in my head but find it hard to get over this constant fear that I am ill and will die young and that if something happens I'm at home with the kids who I can't rely will do what is needed in case.

So with all this how do you deal with your symptomes and not let them get the best of you and pursue with your life. I can't believe that this is the kind of life I'm going to have for the rest of my life.

[Paxiled]

When I first started getting anxiety attacks I felt dizzy a lot.  Ended up in the ER a couple of times, as most of us on here have done.  After awhile, you just recognize it as anxiety.  Doesn't mean it isn't bothersome, but it did get easier to accept over time.  I've never had the heart stuff so many feel, but I think that's because I was already meditating when it started and exercised a lot, too.  I think that helps with some of the physiological symptoms.

[djkyosti]

I have been dealing with anxiety symptoms on and off for over ten years.  In fact, I can literally go years between bouts, and then it will hit me out of the blue although it really is not out of the blue since in hindsight there is always a trigger such as a stressful life event whether a negative or positive one.  In my experience the only way to deal with the symptoms when they are present is to find  the answer within yourself.  You need to live your life, engage in everyday activities as hard as it may be to do so, and not succumb to feeling sick and avoiding people and places.  I know it is harder said than done, but depression and anxiety get worse when you give in.  Exercise and diet are crucial.  Yoga is great.  Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is effective.  And sometimes there is no alternative but medicine.  Ideally you will be doing all or most of these things which is very time consuming and hard at first, but taking action is the first step to feeling better.  That is just my two cents.  And I am having problems the past couple weeks, so I know it is not easy to even put my own advice to work for myself.

[cj29]

Not a problem.  The good thing is that you are doing something to confront this.  When I first went through this, I refused to accept any of it as anxiety for months.  Accepting it is a huge part in confronting it...please feel free to ask as many questions as you like.  We are definitely all in this together!

[MartineMoreau]

Some comes and goes and I try not to think about them but  it's the lingering ones. the constant feeling of being on the edge of my seat that I find bothersome.

I'm on a waiting list for night session at the local health center to see someone about this but there is still a bit of time  before I can see her. So in the meantime I'm trying to deal with this on my own.

thanks for your reply.

[cj29]

My original experience with anxiety came from concerns about heart health.  I too had multiple tests confirming I was ok, but I knew the doctors must be missing something.  I felt every skipped beat, pain, etc.  In my opinion, when we worry about this constantly, we become overly sensitized  to our 'symptoms,' and can misinterpret what they mean.  For example, there are days when I get dizzy, or have a really bad headache...what is the worst case scenario?  Probably a tumor, but the most likely 'diagnosis' is I just have a headache.  The worst case scenerio is also overwhelmingly the least likely, but that doesn't stop us from worrying.

For me, the most important step I took was to seek counseling.  Knowledge is power in dealing with this.  I agree 100%, it is a vicious cycle, but you can break free from it.  I still feel every little palpatation, but I have learned it really isn't that big a deal.  In fact, I probably noticed them before all of this happend; I just didn't pay any attention to it until I believed it was a problem.  Keep us posted!