question about symptoms

[alex74alex]

I've posted here before and now I'm back with a question.
Is it common that anxiety symptoms are with me 24/7? And they\ve been with me for a couple of months now - changing from tim to time, but almost always present regardless of how relaxed or stressed out I think I am.
I have anything from headaches, to muscle aches, difficulty breathing and swallowing, pins and needles in my left arm and leg (not from hyperventilatng though) etc?
I have read quite a lot about anxiety, panic attacks, etc, and I still have a hard time accepting the fact that this is whatis wrong with me, but I also know I am facing quite a challenge in terms of overcoming tese symptoms which are quite possibly in myhead.
Needles to say that last night I had another attack and despite my attempts to manage it at home I got to the ER (the ativan i was prescribed and that I have been trying to stop using did not help at all as 3 hours after the attack started I was still shaking and hyperventilating, feeling like I'm about to faint etc).
I'd appreciate if someone who knows more about these kinds of situations would get back to me.

[Mr.Jitters]

A very interesting choice of words, saying that these symptoms are quite possibly in your head. The symptoms of anxiety are real. As real as they get. They're caused by behavioural problems (anxiety, panic) but they're certainly not imagined, or in anybody's head.

Symptom shifting is common. I had constant, chronic symptoms for over 7 years. Everything from dizziness to chronic diarrhoea, muscle weakness, pins and needles, numbness, migraines, you name it. I read that with panic attacks the symptoms subside quickly, or with generalized anxiety they're there often, but at a low level. I think everyone will agree that they're usually there at what seems like an incredibly intense level for what seems like all of the time, because our perception changes, and subsequently, we have lower thresholds for pain, we're exhausted, our immune systems are shot, we're literally running on nervous energy, and worrying about our symptoms is just wearing us out more. Even when I felt that I was relaxed, I now know that my mind was constantly on guard for the next symptom, the next anxious thought, the next panic attack.

It's entirely possible that medication can fail to stop a panic attack, especially when we're really wound up. It's happened to me many times with lorazepam and diazepam. Convinced that anxiolytics failing to stop the symptoms meant that it wasn't really anxiety lead me into a downward spiral.

But I'm better now, because I've proven to myself that it is anxiety. Until we make that leap of faith and trust in what we're told, we can't move forward. And moving forward proves that we're ok. It takes time for the symptoms to settle, sometimes more time than we'd hoped, or quicker than we'd imagined. But they do settle once you stop feeding the fire.

I hope you feel better soon, and have recovered from the trauma of your ER visit!

Kam :)

[donaldpeter12]

I have read quite a lot about anxiety, panic attacks, etc, and I still have a hard time accepting the fact that this is whatis wrong with me, but I also know I am facing quite a challenge in terms of overcoming tese symptoms which are quite possibly in myhead.