I browsed these forums for a little while, and it gave me some comfort knowing that a lot of you are experiencing the same things I have these past 4 weeks. I figured why not share what I’ve been going through?
Some basic info I’m 22 years old, 5’6" and a bmi of 23.7. I lived a mostly unemployed sedentary life style, I would spend most of my time on the computer either drawing, painting or doing 3D work. The rest of my time would be spent with friends or browsing the web.
I will start by going 6-7 months back. At this time I joined a site that basically logs all the creative work you did during the day, and you will have a streak and that was it. I would spend a minimum of 30 mins to an hour or more on something daily. fast forward 3 or 4 months and I began doing 3D work, I’ve been trying to learn 3D for the longest time and i finally managed to make progress with it. I became addicted to learning it. my sleep patterns changed too drastically, and that went on for 2 months or so. and within those 2 months I experienced some left sided discomfort that i have never felt before. I felt like my heart was too audible, I felt every beat and at the time I figured it was heart burn(although i did’t feel any burning sensation or acidic taste) since it went away with some quick remedy. Fast forward a few weeks and I started to experience pain on both my sides. The pain would come and go and the severity was moderate to painful.
Now within these 2 months the side pain would increase in frequency and would rotate from pain on my left; to pain on my right, and keep rotating but the pain was mild. within that month i started to experience loss of appetite and then just last month i began to feel drowsy/fatigued. It got to the point where I started to worry too much about it. My blood pressure went up and my heart started to race a little, I felt like feinting. I don’t get sick often and I am not known nor is my family history known for cardiac disease. I still couldn’t help myself but to assume the worst case scenario. I went to ER, prognosis was abdominal pain but nothing conclusive, EKG was fine, a quick physical exam revealed no tenderness in my abdomen. I was prescribed nexium and carafate; seeing as the only symptom at the time that was of concern was the pain on my left side and high BP, anxiety was the last thing on my mind.
The first hint I noticed to assume it was a mental problem, was on the ride home I started to feel better and i had not taken the meds prescribed until tomorrow. The only thing we did was talk. The next morning I felt pretty great I still felt some pain on my left but I did’t think too much of it. In that afternoon I experienced a panic attack. I was doing things as normal, I was just playing a game and then I started to feel nervous, then my heart started to race, I’ve never felt something so uncomfortable and it took me until tomorrow late at night to calm down. The following week I experienced another panic attack while walking with the same symptoms being rapid heart, feeling nervous, losing control and feeling detached. That episode did’t last nearly as long as the first one, I was able to calm down within a few minutes.
Within those weeks I continue to experience random/rotating chest pain, feeling overwhelmed/feinting, loss of appetite,shooting pain through my chest, occasional pain on the upper back and some other nuisances like belching a little more than usual but I did’t think too much of it, i would also feel the gas move around when I am stretching; I continue to experience all of these as I type this.
I went for a Doc visit later that week and I tried to explain what ive been experiencing, he concluded that it is all anxiety and that I don’t need the meds prescribed anymore, which is a big relief. Although I feel like what I explained went in one ear and out the other for him. Its not his fault however, I was a bit shaky when I arrived from the chest pain.
There was one question the Doc asked me that made me think a lot. He asked if I was depressed, and I sort of dodged it because I generally don’t get depressed, he asked again and I answered with a no. I will feel blue here and there, but I would never be depressed enough for it to affect my daily life, there is too much for me to do even with a sedentary life style. I do feel a lot more depressed than usual, but I assumed its the whole seasonal thing with it being summer’n all.
On a final note I feel like mental state is hyper responsive, the usual stimuli like playing games and getting aroused is too much for me, my heart shouldn’t be racing like it is and I shouldn’t feel like fainting. I will get some labs done soon, but I don’t think they will reveal anything, so as for now I just have to manage with all of this.