Health Anxiety

Anxiety
#1

Hi~

I’m new to the board and so need someone to talk to you. I am a 39 year old female, married w/ two children (7 and 9 months). In November on 2006 I began having chest pains. I have been in the ER 4 times since January. I have had EKG’s, Lung Scan (for clots), Head CT (dizziness), two stress tests, heart monitor, ultrasound of entire stomach (kidney, liver,pancreas, etc) Cardiac MRI and numerous blood tests for various diseases. All came back negative! I have been to two cardiologists and both tell me I’m a healthy 39 year old woman and to RELAX. Well I can’t. I started seeing a therapist when I was pregant w/ my second child.

I have chest pain on and off. I have left arm pain. I think of the chest pain and things esculate from there. I want to run to the ER all the time. I keep this secret from so many people. I have being alone w/ my sons b/c I’m afraid they will find me dead. I am convinced its my heart. Does anyone have health anxiety? I’m currently reading the Worry Cure by Leahy and use it as a bible. I can not take meds at this time b/c I am nursing.

Any suggestions, comments. I am so thankful to have found this board. Thank you for listening to me.

Christine

#2

thanks ellen

On 8/16/07, Ellen anxiety-cpt5487@lists.careplace.com wrote:

#3

i dont take anything. i am really leary about taking medications. so i am trying to just deal with it on my own. i think i am making some progress, but i think it will just take some time.

Reddogranch anxiety-cpt5487@lists.careplace.com wrote:

#4

Katrina,
Do you take any meds? Like SSRIs or something, or are you just learning to
deal with things on your own?
You are right, these thoughts of something being physically wrong are
irrational, but they can be so strong and persistent. Strong enough you make
you faint!
Dawn <><

#5

have you considered cognitive therapy?
seems to work for many people. the idea is to teach you to recognize anxiety
and the “anxious feelings”, and deal with them.
it has been very helpful for a few friends of mine.
since there are no drugs involved, it is a much more holistic approach.
good luck

On 8/6/07, Katrina anxiety-cpt5487@lists.careplace.com wrote:

#6

no i havent. have those been helpful??

Reddogranch anxiety-cpt5487@lists.careplace.com wrote:

#7

Could you explain cognitive therapy a little bit?
Someone on this chat list suggested a course by Lucinda Bassett. I checked
it out, and watched the demo. From what little I saw, it seemed like it was
stopping the negative thoughts and replacing them with good thoughts. The
person suggested getting it on ebay, so I went there, and I did put in a big
for it but don’t know if I get it yet. If not, I’ll bid on another one.
There were a lot of these sets available there.
Dawn <><

#8

I tried posting before…not sure if this came thru or not…

Cognative behavioral therapy helps you teach your mind to prevent the negative thoughts. Like replacing them with positive thoughts. It also teaches you to use positive self talk when your negative thoughts start storming in. You CAN train your mind to do these things…I’m grateful for this therapy…It doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen. If you can’t do therapy, there is a book called Coping with Anxiety you can buy at your local Borders…It helped me tremendously when I first started suffering from Anxiety.

#9

Katrina,
You have good reason to be leery of all the drugs out there. No one ever
told me how addictive Paxil is before I got on it. I am thankful for the
help it gave me though.
Have you tried any supplements like Fish oil/omega 3, or amino acids, or
anything like that?
Dawn <><

#10

Renee,
Those are good helpful idea, thanks. The Lucille Bassett CD set with
workbook appears to be cognitive behavior like you described. Are you doing
this with a therapist, or on your own?
Katrina, what where you asking if they helped?
Dawn <><

#11

I have been prone to being anxious since I was a child. But it turned into
GAD after my son was born 7 years ago.
After 6 mo. of it and not knowing what the heck was wrong with me, I saw a
doc that put me on Paxil, and that fixed me up.
I want to be off it now and be okay though.
I draw all my strength from faith in God, and I pray a lot.
I’m learning to turn over the worries to Him, and not rely on a pill. I
guess in a way, it’s a lot like cognitive behavior therapy.
Instead of thinking negative thoughts, I just say “That is not what God
said. I am fine, I am a child of God, etc.” Push out the negative with good.
Dawn <><

#12

Alot of people have told me they turned to faith to help with the anxiety…I think it’s being able to put it in someone else’s hands that does the trick.

For many GAD sufferers, it’s trying to be in control of everything that causes the anxiety. I’ve always been a worrier and wondered too much about the “what if’s” and that’s what did it! I’m slowly letting that go and it really does help. I also try to put my interests first. I never really had a hobby, just always took care of my son or ex-husband and I never had time for me.

I try to tell anxiety sufferers to do something (if that makes sense). Find a hobby, or volunteer at your local charity. It’s helped me…

renee

#13

Cognitive therapy does have its benefits, but I like to think that a deeper and wiser level of mind, heart and thought can be reached, which rather than training the mind, actually awakens it.  Some people call it being in touch with the Inner Self.  Others believe they are accessing the Divine through their hearts.  Regardless of what you want to call it, there is something within us that resonates when we hear or think about comforting truth. 

 

A lot of fear is based on "what if… this, that or something else terrible happens?"  Something terrible could happen, and we may disappear in a puff of smoke!  These fears all relate to possible future events.  Therefore, as we ruminate over those fears, we are letting the precious

present
moments of our lives dissolve away, and have nothing to show for it but somatic symptoms.  In ancient times, fear of the unknown kept us alive.  Now, to a great extent, fear can keep us from living.

 

If in some way, fear could extend our lives, would it be worth it?  Would we trade a year of anxious living for a week of having a faithful and loving heart, focused on making the best of each moment as it occurs? 

 

Interestingly, we tend to attract what we fear.  Anxiety states lead us to be afraid of the fear itself, and therefore we can “feed” or assign overwhelming power to fear or the object of fear.  If we choose to, we can find enough things to worry about to cause ourselves a total meltdown.  Those issues will exist, whether we worry about them or not.  We will live till we die, whether we worry about it or not. 

 

Neil Walsh wrote that there are two basic emotions from which all others are derived, love and fear.  This is the time to reconsider what is suggested in paragraph 1. 

 

When a small child is afraid, we never think twice about what to do.  We nurture and comfort.  We feel the love in our heart expressing as compassion.  We usually try to take the child's mind off of the frightening thing.  Or, we may explain why there is no need to be afraid.  As an adult who is experiencing anxiety, why not take the same approach?  Expressing love in the present overcomes fear of the future.  The last time you lovingly held a person, a child, a baby, or even a small animal, were you worried about the future?  Were you feeling anxious?  I suspect you were fully engaged in the present moment, loving and even feeling self-love.

 

I hope these thoughts are helpful, if only to simulate more thinking that can be useful.

 

Many hugs to those who would welcome them, Aaron

#14

i was just curious if taking supplements seemed to help.

Reddogranch anxiety-cpt5487@lists.careplace.com wrote:

#15

Hi Aaron,
I could not agree with you more and reading what you wrote is very helpful.
So why are you here on this list? Are you an anxiety survivor?
Dawn <><

#16

thanks so much for the info. i will look into that.

Reddogranch anxiety-cpt5487@lists.careplace.com wrote:

#17

I’m going through Paxil withdrawal. Has anyone had anything like this?Paxil
quit working for me in April, and I upped it from 20 to 30mg. That did not
work, so I went to 40 and things got worse. So now I am back down to 20.
It’s just not working, and I feel tense, panicky, moody, etc.
If your SSRI stops working, is it just like if you stopped taking it to your
body, like withdrawal? I want to get off this stuff, and I’m trying, but
it’s hard. I was reading online and it can take months so get past this. I
tried once before, and gave up after being off of it for 2 months.
Dawn <><

#18

I can’t live w/o supplement. Anytime I try to go off them bad things start
happening. Been this way for about 15 years or more. Could be my body is
addicted to them, at least dependant. I’m talking about vitamins and
minerals.
But there are some that are very helpful with giving the brain what it
needs to function normally, like Omega 3, which is in Fish oil, and amino
acids, found in meat/protein.
Try looking up The Road Back online, and they give a good outline of the
supplements you need to combat anxiety, and to get off SSRIs, etc.
Dawn <><

#19

Once I went off Paxil, and tried Zoloft. It did absolutely nothing for me.
<><

#20

I have been truly amazed at the power of the mind, to think symptoms on. I
have often told myself if I can think a symptom on, then I should be able to
thing is gone.
When I was 22, I got a divorce from my 1st husband. The whole ordeal was
extremely stressful, and I started having heart palpitation, and it got so
bad my chest hurt, and I was sure I was dying. It was ALL stress and
anxiety. There was nothing wrong with my heart, other than mitral valve
prolapse which most women and a lot of men have. It’s not lethal.
After I saw a cardiologist and was told I was okay, I slowly got over it.
I’m 44 now, and still alive and kicking.
You know, I don’t know if this is any comfort to you, but here goes. As a
Christian, I know that when I die I’m going straight to heaven. So to die is
not a bad thing at all, and to die by a heart attack is way preferable to
many other ways a person could die. Merciful even. That’s how I look at it.
<><