Panic Attacks/Mainly Health Anxiety

[iluvstaffies1]

Hi everyone. I am 35 year's old, married with a teenage son. I have suffered from anxiety and panic attacks since I was a teenager but over the past few years this has become much worse.

I obsess over things, mainly health related. I have been browsing the forum on health anxiety and I can say that I am so relieved that I am not alone and that my feelings match a lot of people's on here!

I have been to see my GP on numerous occasions about how I feel and in 2008 I had group therapy, which was more a just sit and listen kind of group and this did help me for a while. I have been prescribed Fluoxetine in the past, which made my panic attacks much, much worse and I really could not tolerate it. I have also been prescribed Propranolol, but after my experience with Fluoxetine I am so scared to take anything at all. I can't explain how bad I felt.

I am due to see a counsellor next Tuesday for an assessment to see what kind of therapy maybe able to help me. To me this is my last hope as I seem to have tried everything else.

For the past ten days I have had major anxiety about a red "thing" that appeared under my arm. I went to see my GP the day after it appeared and he looked at it and straight away told me it was a boil and gave me some antibiotic cream. I left the surgery feeling relieved, but by that evening I had convinced myself that the GP had got it wrong and it is something more sinister. I have hardly eaten since as I am so anxious about it as it hasn't disappeared, it is not so red, but it is still there and I know that if I woke up one morning and it had disappeared that my anxiety would also disappear, until the next health issue I obsess about.

I don't know what to do but what I do know is that I can't spend the rest of my life feeling like this.

Sorry for the long post.

[diane07]

Hi iluvstaffies1

We just wanted to welcome you aboard to NMP. We hope you enjoy your stay here and get all the support and advice you need.

Please take some time to read the website articles on the left as well for loads of advice and tips.

[louis]

Dear friend,
Anyone who deals with this junk should be called a friend. Your anxiety is real do not worry that you are in someway mentally impared. you have learned a negative behavior. You can unlearn that behavior. I have had some of the exact same problems of health anxiety. My reason for being here is to reach out to others that have this aspect of panic disorder. I will tell you to trust your GP. they dont get a medical degree without knowing basic things. And learn all you can from your counselor on the physical aspects of panic attacks. for me and a lot of others knowledge is power over panic. The more you learn about why you have the feelings that are of a physical nature that bother you now, the easier it will be to overcome this ailment. I cant promise you that you will never have anxiety attacks or even panic attacks, but i can tell you that I have learned to manage the attacks and not let them manage me. If i can do it you can do it. send me an e-mail if you think I can be of help to you. And have a Happy Christmas.

[iluvstaffies1]

Hi there and thank you for your reply. It really does help me to know that there are others out there who suffer with this and it also helps me even more to know that there are people who have learned to manage these feelings.

Hopefully I may feel a little better when I have seen the counsellor on Tuesday and have some kind of plan of action, so to speak.

Thanks again for your post, it really does help me just to read this forum.