General/health anxiety ruining my life, cannot function

Mental health
1

Hi everyone,

I'm 21 years old and have been suffering from anxiety for as long as I can remember. When I was younger it would only last a day or two when I was nervous about an event coming up. But in the last month it was like a switch got turned on and now I am anxious almost every single day all day. It is mostly health anxiety related now as I have lots of symptoms, many of which I'm not even sure are anxiety related. I've had heart palpitations, difficulty breathing, feeling lightheaded and dizzy, back pains, trouble sleeping due to feeling like I can't breathe, feeling hot and sweaty first thing in the morning, headaches, general pain in my head and recently it's been lots of tingles and twitches, mostly in my leg. I've seen my doctor and a nurse about my symptoms and they always do a very basic test like blood pressure or listen to my lungs but then chalk it up to anxiety and send me on my way. This doesn't help. I feel like I'm not being heard.

Because of this I spend all day feeling panicky wondering what kind of disease I have and overanalyzing every symptom I have every single ache and pain makes me worry. The only thing that makes me feel a little better is being around my parents or my boyfriends parents as I'm at his house a lot. It makes me feel secure and like I have someone that will help me if anything is actually wrong. However, this summer I am working across the country and will be unable to see them until the end of august. I am so nervous for what will happen to me while I am away from home, especially because I can't see my doctor anymore. I'll be with my boyfriend but he's a lot less understanding about my anxiety and can get annoyed since I seem to have a new symptom and concern every day, I don't blame him. I used to be so energetic and happy and now all I want to do is lay in bed every single day all day.

i am just wondering what I should do and what kinds of things were helpful to others. I am so scared of this ruining my life forever I am young and there are many things I feel like I might not be able to enjoy now.

Any help is appreciated!!

2

Hi.

Sorry you are feeling this way, it's truly awful. I've had similar symptoms to you and they are anxiety related. Firstly, stay away from Google as that will only make you feel worse. Some suggestions for distractions which I find helpful are listening to some upbeat music, do some housework, exercise, colouring books are pretty good for adults these days. Listen to some relaxation apps on your phone, watch a funny film on tv, reply to messages on this forum and practice deep breathing everyday so when you need it you will be able to do it successfully - breath in through your nose and hold it for a few seconds then breath out through your mouth, you have to breath so your belly rises and not your chest.

If you are able to get some counselling then that would probably be a useful tool for you as well.

I hope some of this is helpful for you.

Lucy

3

One thing I learn (mainly for my mental health state) is to believe in the doctor.

Right now I'm in a sitiation where a doctor was and didn't know how to handle me (and I have some of the same symptons as you) at first she said everything was alright but then she panicked for some reason and she made have (I'm sure she didn't to but) an axiety attack roght in her office.

If the doctor tells you yoir are fine, my advice is too believe it. Tell yourself you are fine...

Like other in this forum have told me: your mind is a powerfull thing. If you want pain it will give pain.

Tale deep breathes in and try and get yourself distracted by something else. To get your mind away from thinking about it.

I know how u feel and I know it's hard (I myself am struggling) but thats what I advice you to do..same thing they advice me...just breathe deep and think of something else...

Ana

Xx