Chronic anxiety pain due to OCD or fibromyalgia

Mental health
1

Some background, I am suffering from OCD and health anxiety and GAD since 3 yrs. my first panic attack was during sept last year. then came on set if symptoms like numbness, headaches, blurry vision, twitching, ants crawling on skin feeling, burning, sharp jabs..fir 3 months. I was scared and had mire panic attacks. I thought I had MS. Then I met three neurologist s and brain scans to rule MS out.

Then in January I got well. But since February I started getting body pains in hips, biceps, knees and thoughts. I didn't give much attention to it. But the pain brought on more. So in April I met rheumatologist who ruled out autoimmune diseases. Since then in a month I was getting pain for 15 days. I didnt let it affect my work. Since then I started being happy, doing yoga. So my pain days gradually decreases and frequency reduced.I thou slowly I am going back to the good days. But today suddenly again I started getting pain in ribs,headaches,strong painful jabs, panic feeling that hurt everywhere. I didnt sleep well lastnight. I dont want to go back to the pain again. I wonder thus is all fibromyalgia symptoms. I have ocd intrusive thoughts which I obsess on feel guilty about. Can the fight in my mind to push the thoughts cause this pain and panic.

I want to live a normal pain free life.I love working. I am not able to date/ meet any one since an year as I feel I am not normal enough to be with some person and make him suffer because of me

2

Hi
Anxiety plays havoc with your mind and make you believe you have all sorts of illnesses. It can cause all the symptoms you describe. Are you having any treatment for anxiety?

3

Jayn,

I have been to psychologists for treat ment. I didn’t find them good enough. Currently I am doing self healing by keeping self motivation and yoga.

4

Anxiety can cause painful ribs, costochondritis. It’s inflammation of the cartilage. Being anxious makes it worse because anxiety causes inflammation in the body. NSAIDs should help.
Try to get enough rest and avoid any stimulants such as caffeine.

5

I am more worried about pain in limbs. As I cant take off from work frequently. worried as I am quite young how I would live with fibromyalgia if this is what it is

6

Three neurologists and one rheumatologist have ruled out MS and all autoimmune diseases, that’s terrific. I would have thought that if you had fibromyalgia your rheumatologist would have picked up on that. No doubt you have had blood tests done and these have been normal too.
Anxiety will take over your mind if you let it. It will drain you.
At the end of the day the only way you are going to get any peace of mind is by seeing your doctor again and perhaps arranging some CBT and applied relaxation techniques on the NHS (if you are in the UK).
All the best