pain everywhere for 2 years

Hi all. I am happy to find this place, it is such a relief to discover that so many people share some of my symptoms, I have been experiencing a wide variety of symptoms for 2 years now. Each period of time of these two years were characterized by a specific nature. I am 26 years old , fit male . I was a regular smoker  for 6 years or so. Last two years I quit and come back, right now I smoke occasionally.

It all started with a bronchitis, a week after I had a heavy chest and upset stomach and I throw up, from that incident I started to have a constant right side lower chest pain with the fear that I had a cancer, I did not know how to manage anxiety that time because it was new thing for me. So I did all needed blood test and it turned out to be nothing.

I did not get things together for myself so things got worse, the following month I had a very depressing time with chest pain , insomnia, nausea  and fatigue and then I had my first panic attack which I thought it was a heart attack off course and I had a seconded attack after a week from the first one, so I had to take an SSRI( anti depressant ) because I started to develop a huge concern that hunted my mind that I have a heart disease , I always had aches cramps , pinching pains every where, heavy chest sometimes , I was checking my pulse so many times a day and I could not sleep well  also, in general that time was excruciating and ugly.

Things improved after SSRI ( I had a couple of attacks but they were mild )

After I traveled I stopped medication and I lived a relatively normal days for about a year  with minor  events (pains in the rib cage , left, right and back), I kept on doing 3 sessions of sport a week , I had an active life style but I kept on light smoking.

For the last ten months I started to develop exactly heart related symptoms, general chest  pain and chest tightness that radiates to the left arm , light headed and nausea and extreme anxiety. So I did on the course of 10 months  4 EKGs , 1 echo doublers and one stress test (endurance test EKG) I reached level 5 in that test , also I did 2 blood test , all came back to be normal , in addition I had an echo and an endoscopy for my stomach with good results. All doctors said go home you have nothing to worry about!! I am still not convinced because I am still having theses pains and they are making my life very difficult. I still smoke occasionally and I work out almost daily , still having depressing painful times lately especially during nighttime , mostly the pain comes at rest or when doing something easy , not when I am running or lifting , the pain comes when I am alone or with friends or in a  public place. It has a huge negative effect to my life.

I am trying relaxation methods like massage sessions and having cold showers. I think It is about time that I get back to anti depressants , any thoughts and ideas that can help me ?

Thanks for reading , hope you all the best.

Oh dear. I am so sorry that you are so bothered by all these symptoms, Antony.

It seems that the SSRI you took before made you feel better. I do think you should talk to your doctor about restarting it.

It's good that you exercise regularly and it's also good that you've come to this forum to share how you feel.

It sounds like you have health anxiety big-time. You are not alone. Many people here understand how you are feeling, and will identify with the constant need for reassurance with frequent visits to hospital for tests which show nothing is wrong.

However, health anxiety seems to be your problem and it is a big one. It helps to try to tell yourself that the sensations you feel which you think are symptoms of major health scares are caused by your anxiety.

Therapy and counselling also help. Have you tried this yet?

Dear Mac58, thanks for the reply , yesterday i took 25 mg of Zoloft tablet and all hell broke loose, i had the worst insomnia and mild but annoying multiple panic attacks, i am out of breath for the whole day today, i did ask a doctor and told me to try low dosage of sedative drugs (5 mg capsule a day) to test its efficiency. if it did the trick for me i will stay  a while on it, then quit it to see if my anxiety and it is related pains go away, i can quit it easily i already quit smoking and i am aware of withdrawal symptoms, if things do not workout after time i will go back to Flouxetine. it has very soft side effect on me.