strange feelings, fears of cancer (long sorry)

[flatterycat]

Hello

I am in the midst of a bout of anxiety and thought I was getting through it after having a good couple of days. Then yesterday I had a strange experience and I am back to square 1!

Whilst I was painting the stairs I felt odd, then had what felt like a panic attack, but as I looked around the house I almost didn't recognise things. It was really scary and has left me feeling extremely anxious agin. I googled my symptoms and then terrified myself that it was a partial seizure! Lots of the symptoms matched mine! I went along to my (very caring) doctor who said that what I experienced was typical of anxiety and something that even 'normal' people get. The trouble is because I can't really explain the symptoms I get even more frightened. After the docs I just kept on crying and today my old fear that I have cancer in my spine have returned. I have been having lots of pain in my lower back/coccyics. The doctor did a load of blood tests saying that anything in my bones would show up. The results were all normal! But I still can't get my head around the fact that I may have cancer. I have also been having tests for blood in my urine (No infection or UTI), which is when all this started off. I was convinced I had kidney cancer. Anyway, I had an IVP xray done, an utrsound scan of kidneys and bladder and saw a urologist. He gave me an internal exam and said everything was normal, but he wants me to have a cystoscopy just to "cross the t's and dot the i's". But I keep thinking of bladder cancer now and that it's spread to my lower spine. My thoughts are SO irrational and I can't seem to get a hold of them. I'm really sorry this is so long winded, but I hope someone out there can help?

Sarah x

[honeybee3939]

Hi Sarah

It sounds very much like Depersonalization/ Derealization i get this too hun, its a very common sympton with anxiety. Please try not google i used to google all the time and believe me in my mind i had every illness there was.

Im sure if all your tests have come back normal you should just try and accept its anxiety thats causing this.

Try not to worry hun heres a hug too hope this helps reassure.

Depersonalization, Derealization, Feeling of unreality


What you feel:

Now for the Brain – the limbic system in the brain instigates this whole response and is responsible too for our emotions and behaviour One of the body symptoms that people hate most is the one when you feel all foggy, surreal, woozy or spacey. You may either feel that you are not real or that the earth is not real and you’re a time warp away. These are often the hardest symptoms to understand and its very common to deduce that you must be going mad which makes you panic even more. This is completely untrue and you are very safe.

You feel like you are not a part of what is going on, or that you feel like you are in a dream state or ‘out of touch with things’. Also, things around you may seem like they are shimmering, foggy, hazy or too bright.
What causes this:

As we learned in Understanding, the body and mind are tightly integrated. What affects one affects the other. This symptom is another example of how an over stimulated nervous system can cause us to experience odd and impaired feelings, emotions and perceptions. Much like how a psychoactive or recreational drug can alter one’s mental state, an over active nervous system can affect certain body chemistries thereby producing mind altering effects. The feeling of unreality or disassociation is one type of altered mental state that high levels of stress biology can produce.

It is not completely understood what goes here but it is generally thought that the limbic system in the brain decides there is too much going on and goes into a self protection mode and shuts out excess stimuli. As the adrenaline levels decrease and you calm down it clears. This can be several hours days or weeks.


D/Personalisation

derealisation/depersonlisation


love

Andrea
xxxxx