Hey, I've always been kind of anxious, I think, and sometimes I would get upset stomaches or feel like I'm going to throw up, or feel a heavy chest. Recently, things have gone a little more crazy.
It started a few weeks ago. I got really severe pain in my abdomen right where my gal bladder would be (it was removed a few years back). I started freaking out and looking online for what it might be, which of course made me feel worse.
After a couple of days, I went to the hospital, and they checked everything and couldn't find a reason. They suspected a muscle strain or something, and gave me some iboprofen and some antacid.
After freaking myself out, I felt quite a bit better knowing at least I don't have any cancer or anything in my body organs. While I had some time off work, I had a little dental work done, and a couple days later my lips started going numb. So of course, I looked at symptoms for that, and saw horrible diseases, MS, brain tumors, etc. A couple days after that, the tip of my tongue started feeling numb. The next day, my lips stopped being numb, and the left side of my tongue started feeling numb. Then I started feeling numb in my face yesterday. It's gone away though.
Last night, I didn't sleep well, and today my hands really hurt and tingle. In the midst of all this, i still get abdomenal pain, and dizziness occassionally. However, since considering anxiety as a possible cause, I've gotten dizzy less often and I seem to be able to calm my way out of the bad feelings in my stomach.
It just seems like every time I look up a disease on the internet, within a couple of days, I feel like I'm noticing symptoms of this. I know all this points to anxiety, but I don't know what to do about it. I haven't had anything debilitating enough to tell a doctor about, and symptoms seem to come and go. Though, the tongue numbness remains, and now I feel like my taste is off a bit.
I'm trying to notice if my heart rate goes up much, and sometimes it will go up a bit, to maybe 120 BPM, but usually it doesn't go up much. The last few days, I'm feeling like I have a cold or a virus or something.
Anyway, I feel like I'm rambling a bit, it's the first time I've tried to express what is going on with me, and it's all over the place. I know that SOME of this is at least anxiety, maybe it all is... It's just, if I go to the doctor, I'm not sure how to get them to check what I need checked, since my symptoms are all over the place.
I've seen how terrible anxiety impacts some people, and my symptoms are nothing compared to that. I don't really worry too much in life, ONLY about my health. I think if I'm told that this is all anxiety, I can start to feel better, but it's hard to understand how the pain I feel in my hands and the fatigue I feel all throughout my body is just caused by what's going on in my head.
Right now, I'm just waiting for something debilitating enough that I can't work, so I have a reason to go see a doctor, but It's really frustrating me.
Also, the numbness I felt in my face, and my tongue and my lips isn't like total loss of feeling, it's just slight tingling. I still feel pain when I poke them with a toothpick, and I still can feel when I touch them. I'm not even sure how to classify this kind of "numbness". I guess just more of tingling.
I don't really know what I'm expecting as an answer, I just really wanted to put this stuff down because it's been eating at me so much for the past few weeks. I can barely eat. My sleep is not horrible, but some nights it's very sporatic. My mind is always occupied by this and it's distracting me from work, though I'm still able to complete my job functions.
Any advice would be appreciated. Also, if I decide to go to the doctor, how can I possibly explain these symptoms? Just open the flood gates like this? I don't want him just to assume this is all anxiety.