Can someone explain to me what the HELL happened to me last night?

[christineyvette]

So around midnight i was just anxious and not feeling well. I was feeling nauseous and had burning pains in my lower abdomen. I thought it was my IBS cause i had a iced coffee which don't agree with me. So I went to the bathroom and a while later the nausea was so bad i started dry heaving. It went on for a hour. I didn't puke. My anxiety level was THROUGH THE ROOF. All i kept thinking was i have the stomach flu, or colon cancer or something like that and all i was thinking about was puking. My mom was convinced my anxiety was so bad it was tricking my mind and made the dry heaving worse cause i was afraid of puking. (I'm a SEVERE emotophobic) I'm worried cause this came out of NOWHERE. I haven't been around anyone sick that I know of? And now I'm convinced their is something wrong with me. Like seriously wrong with me. I even burned myself with a lighter (goodbye 200 days self harm free) because my anxiety was SO bad. Now it's 7am and I'm afraid to sleep in fear that I don't wake up or I choke on my vomit if i DO throw up. This anxiety is so bad i literally would ask for death then feel this way. What happened to me? What's wrong with me?

[christineyvette]

Yes I do think it was anxiety. It's amazing what anxiety can do to your body. I have been seeing a psychiatrist since January and things are going alright. I'm just now starting to get along with her. At my appointment yesterday she gave me charts to fill in when my anxiety is high and and the situation I'm in ect. To realize what I need to work on. Thank you for your response.

[nursegirl6572]

I agree with your Mom...I think anxiety was the main culprit.  Could be that the iced coffee didn't agree with you (why don't you skip those if you know they are a no no for you, btw?)...and you experienced the symptoms which triggered the panic response.  Of course, severe anxiety and panic will cause GI disturbances, like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea.

You know the drill.  The best thing you can do here is to NOT give this event any attention or power.  The more you do that, the worse you will feel.

Remind me again what you're doing to treat the anxiety?  Are you in therapy?  Have you ever tried CBT?  You need to start working on those anxiety responses.