Is this general anxiety?? Sorry for long post

[mandylou28]

Hi guys

Im looking for some reassurance here, i joined the group last year when i was struggling with dizziness and general feeling of light headedness, i underwent every blood test, CT scan and MRI scan available all of which came back clear yet i felt so ill, eventually symptoms subsided and kind of got on with my life, yet now the feelings are back ive had them around 6 weeks now and i am goin back to ENT next week but last year they said i was fine so i expect the same result again. I used to suffer with panic attacks but i havent had one for a while i just generally dont feel right in myself, i dont really have any emotions anymore i just seem to muddle through life day by day and am relieved when bedtime arrives to hope that i will feel myself the next day. I do panic generally about daily things in life but nothing extreme if i go out or on holiday i spend all my time counting down the hours or days till i can go home. I am taking no medication at present i try and look after myself health wise but always worry, i have tried to ring my doctors 3 times this week and ended up putting the phone down as i know they will say there is nothing wrong with me, really my question is does this sound like general anxiety as i seem to feel generally unwell most of the time especially with the dizzy off balance sensations i just want the old me back that enjoyed life and new experiences now all i do is plod through life with the same feelings nothing excites me nothing really makes me mad i just tend to worry all day about how i feel and look forward to bedtime.
:shrug:
Mandy
xx

[theharvestmouse]

not sure, sounds like you could have general feelings of anxiety but it affects everyone differently. You should see your GP anyway and try to explain the symptoms.

[mandylou28]

thanks for the reply, ive been to the docs so many times and they just tell me im 100% healthy and they cant find anything wrong, its annoying that i keep telling them something is wrong but they say everythings fine and to ignore my symptoms and feelings and they will go away. im seriously considering moving doctors.

[baileys]

Hi guys

Im looking for some reassurance here, i joined the group last year when i was struggling with dizziness and general feeling of light headedness, i underwent every blood test, CT scan and MRI scan available all of which came back clear yet i felt so ill, eventually symptoms subsided and kind of got on with my life, yet now the feelings are back ive had them around 6 weeks now and i am goin back to ENT next week but last year they said i was fine so i expect the same result again. I used to suffer with panic attacks but i havent had one for a while i just generally dont feel right in myself, i dont really have any emotions anymore i just seem to muddle through life day by day and am relieved when bedtime arrives to hope that i will feel myself the next day. I do panic generally about daily things in life but nothing extreme if i go out or on holiday i spend all my time counting down the hours or days till i can go home. I am taking no medication at present i try and look after myself health wise but always worry, i have tried to ring my doctors 3 times this week and ended up putting the phone down as i know they will say there is nothing wrong with me, really my question is does this sound like general anxiety as i seem to feel generally unwell most of the time especially with the dizzy off balance sensations i just want the old me back that enjoyed life and new experiences now all i do is plod through life with the same feelings nothing excites me nothing really makes me mad i just tend to worry all day about how i feel and look forward to bedtime.
:shrug:
Mandy
xx
That felt really strange reading your post because it could of been written by me, that is exactually how i would have worded how i feel.
Ive felt this way for a long time. I sometimes wonder if its a lot of depression as well.
Ive been told that its GAD and it does seem to fit in with that but i dont worry about money or stuff like that, i worry about getting through the day.
Im fed up with feeling crap and constantly light headed and like you I wish the days away.

[mandylou28]

Hi Bailey

I know it sounds awful but it makes me feeling better that someone can relate to what im saying. im a bit like you i dont really worry about money or the big things in life that a lot of people stress about i tend to just worry about small things really well i dont feel that i worry about them that i know to i dont constantly think about things, its hard to explain really, my biggest worry is what is wrong with me and why no one can say yeh this is what you have you need antibiotics and you will be fine in a week, i look back at pictures of myself from a year ago and i think where has that carefree person gone yet nothing in my life has changed its all the same only thing thats changed really is me. im sure if i felt normal or how i knew normal to feel everything else would follow. Only reason i know that i worry more than i used to as an example my son who is 6 and husband both do motocross and i know people stand and worry incase their loved ones get hurt but i take it to the extreme with panicking about them and i know they can get hurt in this sport but i do go over the top yet theyve been doin this a while now and yes theyve both been hurt before so its not a new thing to me but still im not sure where all my worry has come from all of a sudden. Anyway sorry for ranting, lol. hope you are ok? and having a dizzy free day. xx

[Bill]

I've been looking back over your posts to see if I could piece together what's happened and these are my thoughts...

around 3 months ago started with constant dizziness all day especially when sat or stood still and started losing weight.

The above is part of what you posted around August last year I think. It isn't important but try and think back to when the symptoms started. You may not have been aware of anything specific that caused things to start but my guess is either something or various things were going on that tipped the balance. Perhaps it was just a very stressful day or it could have been a build up of worries but whichever it was your mind tried to tell it it had reached it's limit by causing anxious feelings to surface hence the dizziness.

What often happens is we can go about our every day lives looking after our partners, our children, the home, shopping, the school run etc etc until one day without us even being aware, our minds will try to tell us we can't take any more, and that's when anxiety symptoms will surface because the anxiety caused by our stresses will cause us to feel panicky.

Constant dizziness is often caused by shallow breathing when we take quick short breaths rather than long deep breaths. This happens as a result of panic.

In another post you state the following...

I just never feel hungry and have no appetite whatsoever. I feel constantly ill aches and pains feeling nervy and shaky most of the day,

When we feel panicky all day, our body will tense up. Often we feel we can't swallow because all our muscles go tense. Worry nearly always affects appetite so we never feel hungry. This in turn will cause us to lose weight. Remember the saying, "you'll worry yourself Sick?" Worry can cause us to "feel" ill because of all the symptoms anxiety causes such as aches and pains because our muscless are constantly tensed up. We put too much strain on them when we restrict them. Of course when we have no appetite, we're bound to lose weight simply because we stop eating enough.

In the following you describe exactly those types of symptoms...

i feel terrible all day every day, body aches joints keep cracking especially neck, feel off balance and spaced out, ears ringing, panic when stood trying to have a conversation cause i feel dizzy and think im goin to pass out, i also have no appetite and have lost a lot of weight in the last few weeks.

The doctor then offered you the following...

gave me Propranalol and told me to learn to relax

I don't know if the meds helped or not but over a year on you still appear to be struggling. I think the crucial part though is that I don't think you've been taught how to relax because learning how to relax would most probably eliminate all the symptoms you're still feeling.

The next part I think is worth highlighting...

I only take betablockers which apparently cause dizziness

I don't know if you're stil taking these or not but in the above you've described how you feel dizzy all day and you want them to stop and yet, you're taking betablockers which cause dizziness. It doesn't sound very logical, that's all. Often by taking meds they are a reminder to us that we suffer from anxiety. Although meds can help to ease symptoms, they can also be a reminder that can keep our anxiety alive. Anxiety goes away when we learn how to ignore it. Anyway, I do feel your "cure" is better sort after in other ways which I'll come to.

The following I think you must have posted a year ago...

this has been goin on 6months now and i think i need to, to help me get over it, every morning when i wake up i feel weak and my muscles ache and i dread the day ahead basically assessing myself all the time.

And then later you posted this...

i just tend to worry all day about how i feel and look forward to bedtime.

What has happened is whatever caused your symptoms surface, those dizzy symptoms etc frightened you. They frightened you SO much that since then every morning you've woken up you've immediately started "assessing yourself" to make sure you're ok because you're afraid of those symptoms returning.

However, this means that you're "worrying all day" about your health which is why you look forward to getting to sleep because only then do you allow your mind to switch off from worrying.

The next day though it doesn't stop because you start worrying all day again. The important thing to remember is that "worry" causes "anxiety". "Anxiety" causes "Anxious symptoms". In other words, because you keep worrying about your symptoms, your worrying then creates them because you're not allowing yourself to relax because you're too frightened to let your guard down in case they come back.

As your doctor says, if all the tests have been normal, you just need to learn to relax. I know it sounds simple when you feel so afraid but you will find the symptoms will stop IF you learn the right techniques such as how to relax all your muscles, how to breathe normally, how to accept that what you're feeling are just being caused by a natural reaction to fear. Another tip would be to try and find something you enjoy to help stop you thinking about how you're feeling all the time.:hugs:

[lucy devine]

i don't know whether this input is useful but have you been checked for an inner ear infection...when i was around 6/7 i had a severe inner ear infection which caused absolutely terrible dizziness and vertigo. This led to panic attacks and subsequent anxiety which has stayed with me since. I am convinced there is a link between inner ear infections such as labryinthitus and the onset of anxiety.
xxx

[mandylou28]

Hiya Bill and Lucy

Bill thank you so much for taking the time to write that reply, it has really put things in perspective and yes when i am doin things or i am busy i do tend to forget until i start thinking again. lol.

Lucy i went to ENT last year and they said they couldnt find anything i had a head MRI and a few hearing tests done which showed nothing, i am back there next wednesday so am going to ask for more balance tests etc and obviously if nothing at all shows up obviously its my little friend anxiety causing all of this, if this is the case i am going back to the GP to ask for referal to CBT, i dont really want to take meds id like to believe that the old me is a strong enough person to get through this on my own.

xx

[Christers]

Hi Mandylou! Like Bailey, your post could have been written by me! Last year i went through exactly the same. After my first REAL bout of anxiety and worry, i became dizzy: bit like being on a boat! I was like this for over 3 months...constantly! I, too, had full blood work done, saw an ENT and had a CAT scan. Everything seemed fine! The diagnosis: Anxiety! The dizziness subsided and, although i still suffered anxiety the dizziness stayed away..until now. Recently got married and was very stressed before it. Had a lot of health fears, aches and pains in my arms and shoulders and, although i had NO symptoms on my wedding day, my dizziness came back on my honeymoon and it's still here! I HATE the dizzziness, but it makes me even more anxious as i'm convinced something must be wrong. I've been having CBT, but it's not a cure-all. My therapist has told me that I have to do a lot of work to retrain my catastropic thinking and to learn how to relax. It ain't easy! Hope things are better with you all!

[petram]

exactly the same here with the omg how am i gonna get through tom ext and obsessing over it grrrrrrrr who would a on off buttom for ya worrying mind!!?? xxx least were all not alone :)

---------- Post added at 21:48 ---------- Previous post was at 21:41 ----------

by the way bill that was very kind of u totake the time out :) lovely xx

[Bill]

I just like to offer support where I think I can in the hope it helps someone.:hugs:

I HATE the dizzziness, but it makes me even more anxious as i'm convinced something must be wrong. I've been having CBT, but it's not a cure-all. My therapist has told me that I have to do a lot of work to retrain my catastropic thinking and to learn how to relax. It ain't easy!

I feel anxiety is very devious because it creates symptoms making us feel ill so that we can feed it with what it needs to keep the symptoms going. It then thrives and takes the enjoyment of living away from us.

I often compare anxiety with a ghost. If you can imagine standing in a room and a ghost suddenly appears, you can imagine how frightened you might feel. You start to panic and that dizziness overcomes you. You freeze with fright not being able to stop looking at the ghost. Eventually though the ghost decides its had enough fun and melts away but the next day you sit in that same room, the ghost comes back for more because it knows it can scare you so much that it can then feed off you because it knows you'll not be able to stop looking at it wondering when it will go or what it might do next.

Now imagine the ghost appears in the room but you're not frightened of it because you know it can't actually harm you. The ghost starves because it can't gain your attention and feed off your fear. It feels powerless so it disappears and never comes back because it knows it can't frighten you.

So, if you then think of that ghost as your anxiety, the more attention you give it, the more power it has over you because it can feed off your fear.

You see, anxiety is very devious because one day everything can feel right and you're enjoying yourself until suddenly you're feeling really dizzy. The ghost has appeared. This dizziness then frightens you so much making you think there must be something badly wrong. The ghost begins to feed. The more you worry, the more the ghost feeds until its had its fill.

If though you then see through the ghosts tricks and are then able to say to yourself it's just anxiety, the ghost, trying to get my attention and then ignore it, the ghost loses its power and the dizziness will disappear.

Of course there are weapons you can use against it to help you ignore it. I've been taught that deep breathing doesn't just rebalance your breathing to stop dizziness but it also helps to take away the power behind the frightening thoughts the ghost creates so that they don't feel as frightening. You can imagine that if you're feeling frightened by feelings, any "what if" frightening thoughts will feel even more real and intense. When we feel relaxed, we're more able to shrug off these thoughts.

Also, think of that "on/off button. A ghost appears and the button immediately gets pressed to start panic mode. Once panic starts, it just grows until you feel really ill. I sometimes think of one word - STOP. When that panic mode starts, it's much easier to keep relaxed rather than getting back to being relaxed. Anxiety wears us out by its constant need to be fed so by starving it from the beginning can be much less exhausting.

Try to turn your attention away from the ghost rather than sit there looking at it. It's what it wants you to do so try doing the opposite to what you feel you need to. Constantly thinking about "what if's" and looking for constant reassurance are what the ghost wants you to do so try not giving into it. It's like a bully.

Anxiety becomes a habit. A habitual way of thinking. The button gets pressed and off we go. CBT isn't a cure. It's a tool to help you learn how to use the off button when the ghost tries to appear. Once you learn, that ghost will still be there but you'll be the one bullying it.:hugs: