Feel like I'm dying but doctors say it is anxiety

Mental health
1

Hi all, I haven't been feeling well for a long time now so please bear with me while I explain.....

Around February this year I started getting headaches daily and feeling exhausted all of the time. There didn't seem to be a pattern to the tiredness but I often noticed it seemed to correspond with a slow heart (around 55bpm) and a fluttery or heavy feeling in my chest. At this time I was just trying to ignore the symptoms and didn't let it get to me too much.

At some point in May, I started to get other symptoms such as a tight, choking feeling in my neck, light headedness and depersonalisation. I had an awful panic attack driving home one day where all of a sudden I just felt like I was going to die and nothing felt real. I wasn't hyperventilating and don't recall my heart beating particularly quickly. I then had another awful panic attack at work where I felt the choking feeling and was convinced I was going to die. It was so bad an ambulance was called and they sent me to hospital. I had blood tests and xrays which all came back clear.

I had a couple of days off work then and over the past few months I had a further week, two weeks and three weeks signed off with a couple of weeks actually at work in between.

Symptoms I have experienced during this time are:

- dizziness

- light headedness

- weight on chest

- headaches

- extreme fatigue.

- internal tremors

- neck discomfort below the base of my skull

- palpitations

- slow heart rate (lowest was 49bpm in bed)

- discomfort inside my throat at the back.

- tingling in my fingers

- feeling weak and wobbly on my feet

- feeling like I need to take a deep breath and yawn all the time

- occasional sleep disturbances

I know that many of these symptoms can be associated with anxiety, and I am desperately trying to believe there is nothing else wrong. I have had many blood tests and I do not have thyroid, anaemia or low nutrients. I have also had EGGs which were apparently normal.

I've been back at work this week and actually enjoyed myself but it's been so hard pretending I am ok when all the time I feel physically unwell.

The symptoms currently bothering me most are the extreme fatigue, feeling weak and wobbly and feeling the need (and often being unable) to take a deep breath.

I really am quite terrified as I genuinely feel like my body is becoming weaker and that I am going to die soon. I worry perhaps I may have cancer or I have a heart condition and my body is basically giving up. I try but can't believe it's all just anxiety, although I do accept I am feeling anxious. I feel like I can't plan my future because i don't believe I have one :-( I should also mention I'm a 31 year old female.

Please can anyone advise me what else could be wrong with me and if there are any other tests I could ask the doctor for?

2

Sounds just like me and mines a combination of anxiety and perimemopause is being treated with citalapram and HRT

3

Hello luv this sounds just like me & I am also 31 :-( it's awful ain't I feel dreadful everyday but yesterday was better than 2day, 2day is real bad :-(

I just wish it wud do 1 ad enough of it, hope u ok x

4

This sounds all like ANXIETY!!!I have been having anxiety for 4 years....and all of these symptoms r exactly the same!!!!I've had the ambulance at my house so many times & have been to the er numerous times,I am 32 & it's scary!!!I have 4 kids,so its harder for me!!!I've had tests done too & they tell me I'm healthy....it's just all in ur head!!!I took med.for 4 years and it helped me!!!got off in may cause I was so much better and did not want to take med.anymore,but my anxiety only came back stronger,now I'm back on it!!!!3 weeks in & I'm feeling a lil better,just gotta take it day by day!!!!if the doctor says ur good,then listen to them....it's hard to believe doctors when u have anxiety.....I don't believe what they tell me,but I'm trying!!!good luck...

5

It's rubbish ain't it lol ;p:-( I never suffered with it tbh only about 2month n it feels like years, I can't do anything put pushing myself, as I got 2boys aswell n I feel rubbish for them :-( I just can't wait for bed time everyday but I can't sleep then wen its bedtime, it's roll on morning :-( it's true wot u saying about the doctors as they told me same, it's all in our heads :-( but it's believing it, it is really hard, just wish it wud do 1 x

6

We have to be strong for our children!!it's so hard.....but they need us!!!good luck to u!!!

7

I also have all of this and have benn checked numerous times and also tell me nothing is wrong i feel awful i cant eat as it makes me sick lost 24 kilo under 3 months have slept close to 5 hours in 7 nights

8

Good luck 2 u & every 1 else suffering with it, we all can do it :-) x

9

How long u ad aniextt for kev ?, I wish I cud sleep I just lay awake hope 2nite  different, hope we all are a good nite sleep, I get sick n I lost just over 2stone, wish it wud just leave me alone x

10

     Do you have any updates to provide at this time?  I know this is an old post, but this sounds exactly how I feel right now!  I feel so weak, I can barely accomplish daily activities...I used to feel like I could climb mountains, as little as a few months ago.  I feel like my body is giving up, wich does cause mild (but reasonable, in my opinion) anxiety.   I feel that I am quite a rational person, and I can tell when my physical symptoms are caused by anxiety, or the reverse.  I have had anxiety a few times, triggered by certain life events, and it has a very predictable onset, and symptoms-and predictability of onset and symptoms equals a predictable response to a known treatment.  What I have been experiencing lately does not follow this pattern, at all.  

       

       Over the past 2 years, I have had 3 ablations for 3 separate arrhythmias, and an angiogram a few weeks ago that suggested micro vascular disease.  Every time I tell them there is still something wrong, I have to push them hard (I even had to try another Dr.) to get them to consider anything other than anxiety, but they always find “one more thing” to the point where one cardiologist called me a “pandora’s Box”.   It only seems they find answers when they see things from a new angle.  Why isn’t Dr. House not a real person?!  😂   

      I can’t, for the life of me, understand why I have to fight so hard, when I my every day life is so strongly affected.  My electrophysiologist even suggested that my issues were caused by “emotional trauma” from all of my heart issues.  🙄. Is the mental health issue push getting a little too strong?  I am a 33 year old female, so it seems the easy conclusion that all of my problems are due to “hysteria”, or anxiety in today’s terms.  Seems an awfully archaic notion to me.  

11

OMG!!!!   I was on another thread, looking for answers, and someone described POTS.  That explains all of my problems to a T!!!!  My cardiologist even suggested it at Mayo, but no follow through was made.  I am going to ask them to test me.  In this link, it even talks about all of the sufferers being passed off as having anxiety, because it is so hard to pinpoint.  I am going to get tested ASAP!!!  This is such a huge weight off my shoulders!!!!  I hope you can use this info, and it helps you!  😃😃😃

https://myheart.net/pots-syndrome/

12

I actually cried reading this because everything you’re describing I feel I have this weird feeling that I’m going to die soon and that something is internally wrong with me but that they can’t figure out what it is everything you’re describing I feel except I get A twitch in my chest and in my left arm I’ve been pill for like the past four days now but everything else I get the headaches the dizziness the feeling faint I feel like I can’t get up for more than five minutes of the passing out it’s really bad and it hasn’t gotten any better and doesn’t feel like it is I hope and wish you the best and this kind of gives me a little bit of hope that it is just anxiety and panic attacks

13

Sounds like what i'm going through at the moment. I have severe health anxiety, i keep google searching for every little symptoms and i'm convinced i've got some terminal illness inside me. It's crippling and tiring. I'm 33 and seems like quite a number of us here are in our 30's and experiencing these symptoms. Maybe our bodies are changing?

14

sounds exactly like what I've been going through. I've lived with anxiety since I was in my teens, since covid it has gotten significantly worse. my chest is tight almost every day, I spend way too much time looking at my symptoms online which makes me.think I'm dying even more. I recently went to the doctor bc my lymph nodes were swollen, I was told by 2 doctors it was tonsillitis, but for some.reason I do not believe them. I got a full blood work done, waiting on results from that. between the two doctors neither seemed concerned about anything I felt like was an issue. best advice that I don't listen to myself is stay off the internet . lol sounds silly but for real it just makes your anxiety worse. I'm waiting a few more days to finish out my antibiotics before I can finally get started back on my anxiety medication. do you or have you taken anything for it?

Edit: I'm a 33 year old female, 1 kid, cosmetologist so I'm on my feet and legs alot and constantly feel like something is wrong, you are not alone 🥰

15

health anxiety is real. it's scary and it sucks. I have the same issue lately I've been to multiple doctors and they all look at me like I'm crazy.. one finally asked if I wanted some anxiety medication. I'm 33, feel like maybe it could be premenopause, I've never felt like this before covid started. I have a 13 year old and panic daily about dying and leaving him here all alone.

16

I'm sorry but these are all classic symptoms of anxiety. I suffered for 30 years (you don't have to!) and now I am free of it. Endless visits to ER , endless blood tests and scans etc. all came back normal. There is nothing wrong with you (except overactive anxiety). Anxiety cannot harm you in any way. I know it feels horribly scary and you think you are going to die. But you're not! Also I get the not believing the doctors thing, I always though that they had missed something or that I was an exception. BUT doctors are very well trained in spotting illnesses, it's what they do. If they tell you it's anxiety, believe it. One of the problems with anxiety is that when your body goes into survival mode (which is what anxiety is) it reduces the functions of the frontal cortex so you can't think very rationally. This helps in a real emergency situation because you don't need to be thinking about the tiger coming for you, you just need to run! However you are not in a dangerous situation but your survival brain will keep looking for a danger because the alarm has gone off! It can't see any danger outside of yourself in your environment so it starts to look inside and comes up with all kinds of scary scenarios about the normal processes of your body. Plus your body gets flooded with adrenaline which causes unusual physical effects like tight muscles, headaches, shortness of breath, sweating, fast heart beat etc. You then freak out about these things, sending more danger signals to your brain, and the anxiety ramps up. What you are suffering from is nervous arousal, that's all. You are not going mad and you are not going to die. It just feels very, very uncomfortable. If you can accept and allow these anxious feelings and these anxious thoughts and just allow them to be there the anxiety will slowly dissolve because you are telling your brain that there is nothing to worry about. It sounds very counter-intuitive but , believe me, it works! Don't try to fight it or fix it. Allow the thoughts to happen but realise that they are not true. Anxiety is a big con. It tries to convince you that something terrible is going to happen, but it's not. You will definitely be okay and you will come out of it with no ill effects, no matter how awful you think this experience is. I repeat, you will not die and you will not go mad. It's just anxiety and it feels horrible but it can do you no harm whatsoever. Best wishes from one who has been there, done that. There is nothing wrong with you. Blessings xxx

17

omg! i just punched in my google "what if my blood tests are all fine but im not?" And this came up! its four am no cant sleep! i have everyone of those symptoms, doctors say im faking, that they can give me something for the pain in my tummy but cat do much else! I DONT WANT PAIN KILLERS I WANT A SOLUTION! i just starting sending my mom all this information. Here's the thing though, im 48! Pleasr dont tell me its anxiety bc of menopause im sick of hearing it! i have always had problems with my nervous system. EXTREMELY bad cold sores, which it herpes which lies in yr nervous system. I AM SO SICK OF DOCTORS TELLING ME ITS IN MY HEAD! When its them who have to update their knowledge! THANK YOU! OMG THANK YOU!

18

lets just say im in the EXACT same boat as you people around me think im crazy, i tell them to call 911 so many times but my husband says no your freaking yourself out too much and he never calls 911 i havnt been checked lately but i can assure you when i was pregnant with my first i was in the hospital everyday thinking i was dying since i was six i would tell my grandma i was having a heart attack and i know there is no such thing for a 6 year old to have a heart attack. I have had these thoughts your having for 25 years and im still alive by the way all of those symptoms you experience i have felt since i was little but the older i get the worst it gets im still alive is my point, i can help you thru this if you would like message me, i need as much help as you :)

19

I feel like i'm literally in the same boat ! I have always had anxiety but now it has been SO much worse since Covid . I feel sick everyday and feel as if i am going to pass out or my heart is going to stop and I am just going to collapse and die. I've seen my doctor too many times and I am assured there is nothing wrong with me, and that it is just anxiety. I am told to exercise and get plenty of sleep and drink water - but i do all these things. I eat healthy, i exercise everyday, i have cut back on drinking alcohol. All of my tests have been normal except for a slight vitamin B defeciency - which i have been taking supplements for months now. I feel so stupid that I keep going to get checked. Last week i went after spending nights without sleeping, feeling shaky and dizzy , having the WORST headaches ... and all they could suggest was that maybe i have allergies. but allergies would not make me sick to my stomach or keep me up all night surely? I just turned 26 and have always been fairly healthy so i am thinking it may be time to accept that this is mental and i need to push through it , but it is absolutely terrifying to think that this could be my new normal for the rest of my life? I did stop taking my anxiety medication because i felt it was doing nothing. i felt the same way on it as I do now. Which makes me constantly think that i have something wrong with my heart , or cancer. Has anyone been on anxiety medication that has worked for them?

20

I know this was posted awhile ago, but I just came across it and it sounds just like me. I am really struggling right now with anxiety (at least that's what I HOPE that it is!) But it is truly miserable. Started with a stomach ache / (bug?) and now I wake up sweaty, with a fast heart, and a knotted stomach. It comes and goes throughout the day and seems to be worst upon waking and at night. I can't sleep, eat, function. I have had a bunch of tests run - CT of abdomen/pelvis, 2 EKGs, several blood labs, 2 chest xrays ... I haven't felt this bad for like 10 years. It's draining.