Very anxious over stomach pain woes

[trickletokyo]

So I live in Japan, just out of Tokyo. I am 29 years old. I was in Japan last year on March 11th and have continued living there ever since. My language ability is proficient but not native, thus expressing myself is not the easiest task.

For a while now, I have been having mild problems with my stomach and/or digestion. Last year, just before Christmas I was facing off against a stomach problem that I had convinced myself (thanks to Google) was untreatable and terminal.

Of course it wasn't. My wonderful doctor is a specialist in this area and his local clinic has all the tools needed to diagnose such a problem. His website emphasizes "early detection". He also doesn't charge me … he sees me as his foriegn son or something.

After running to his clinic multiple times, and finally given a blood and poop test (all free!) I was given some pills and told to not stress about it. Sure enough symptoms pretty much went away and I had a wonderful Christmas.

So, I am effectively living an isolated life in a remote country with a strange social culture. I have a few friends I can talk to and see on occasion. The relationship with my girlfriend has peaks and huge valleys. Large earthquakes continue to wake me from my sleep and there is the looming threat of radiation from Fukushima.

Hypochondriac style health anxieties should be a given.

Here I am again, utterly convinced that I will soon have to Skype my family with the horrible news that my latest bought of stomach problems are terminal and life halting.

Nausea, pressure, gurgling, wind coming from everywhere, hungry yet feel sick when I eat, occasional and painful acid reflux. Sounds like the end of the world, right?

No need to mention that last week I missed a night of sleep doing work and didn't catch up on my needed rest for a couple days due to an earthquake (survived off of coffee). Since then have had a couple parties that want till 3 AM (drank too much). Recently had a pretty good panic attack over radiation fears (shaking and everything). Behind it all constantly terrified of everything my body does (lymph nodes are scary little things!).

Of course my stomach problems are obviously caused by that C word and are terminal.

I told my doctor all my symptoms today and he sent me off with some medication. But of course he's wrong, right? It can't be that simple, right? It couldn't just be stress making the situation worse?

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

[snowwhite]

Hello ..... oh gosh, you sound like me...well, actually you sound like my son ...he is 2 yrs. younger than you, and recently he has developed some TERRIBLE abdominal pains..went to the ER twice last week, they did blood, urine, upper chest x-ray, and abdominal/pelvic CT scan and found nothing....I knew that would happen! Thank God it's nothing "serious"..and like yourself, both he and I are also very nervous about health issues .... but this mid central (down to lower central) pain is still with him, and a lot of nausea ... he cannot function! At the hosp. he was given morphine bec. the pain was BAD, but they also gave him Bentyl and Lortabs (for the pain) to take home....everytime he takes a Bentyl, he has different reactions .... this is crazy, and he is still in pain .............. now, the dr. at the ER told us, that it COULD be either a virus, or some kind of bacteria ...so, he's been taking colloidal silver, oil of oregano, lots of water, etc.....bec. we all thought that taking any form of antibiotic would be bad, that really messes you up and his intestines were already messed up apparently....but from what? That's when it hit me.....MAYBE THIS IS ALL ANXIETY related! He has a GREAT DEAL of anxiety (like me), he holds a lot in ... has a lot of deep seated anger and resentment issues towards my husband (his dad) and his younger brother.... he has been having troubles with his girlfriend over the past year or so as well ..... she has basically called their relationship off, but she keeps him hanging, if you know what I mean, and taht has put a GREAT DEAL of stress and anxiety in him.....................anyway, I'm going to post this now on the main SYMPTOMS forum, but I thought I'd tell you that you are not alone in this "stomach pain" thing...........by the way, how do you like Japan? Ironically, my son LOVES the Japanese culture, he has studied it for a long time now, and can even speak it! LOL ....

[Greenman50]

Op.....sounds just like over acid production from anxiety . It can be very painful :mad:

[trickletokyo]

Snowwhite, thank you for the response! Logic would would certainly seem to suggest that all these problems are self induced. I do hope your son finds relief, it's not a good place to be in.

My joy in Japan seems to rise and fall like waves. For sure, living in any foreign culture is going to be taxing and stressful for anybody. There are social norms here that are the total opposite to back home. Every moment of being in public, you are treated as some kind of celebrity, or special person. It's hard to blend in with a head a floppy blonde hair. Certainly, the event of this past year have not made life here very easy either. With all that said though, some of my greatest joys and life discoveries have come from this fascinating little country. I have no immediate plans to leave.


Hello Mel2! Yes, over acid production from anxiety would make sense. Thankfully (or not) my symptoms have moved from being acid pains, to being extremely gassy and upset stomach feeling very soon after eating anything.

I'm hoping this is par for the course of I.B.S. Anybody have this experience?

[Plysg]

I can relate to the symptoms you've experienced, particularly the hunger and acid. I tend to get a gurgling stomach and feel like I could eat and eat and eat, when in reality eating when my stomach is like that makes me very gassy and uncomfortable. It's a tricky cycle, I don't want to eat but my body;s so hungry. I eat and then feel worse...

The longer this goes on (I'm coming up to a year now) the more am sure it's IBS and anxiety related. I had a wonderful couple of months over the winter where I almost forgot I had stomach problems. A busy and stressful period in work has brought this back with a vengeance. This can't be purely coincidence.

My advice would be to really consider anxiety as the cause, and I mean saying to yourself 'for now, I'll rule out everything else, trust it's anxiety and see how it goes'. Leave the C word and any other possibilities to the doctors - for now you ca only control what you think, and hey it;s worth a shot isn't it? This helped me (although I'm feeling bad again now, this is part of the whole process). It's made me feel reassured hearing someone else talking about the acid/hunger pains, so I hope you feel reassured you're not on your own either :)

[Greenman50]

I can relate to the symptoms you've experienced, particularly the hunger and acid. I tend to get a gurgling stomach and feel like I could eat and eat and eat, when in reality eating when my stomach is like that makes me very gassy and uncomfortable. It's a tricky cycle, I don't want to eat but my body;s so hungry. I eat and then feel worse...

The longer this goes on (I'm coming up to a year now) the more am sure it's IBS and anxiety related. I had a wonderful couple of months over the winter where I almost forgot I had stomach problems. A busy and stressful period in work has brought this back with a vengeance. This can't be purely coincidence.

My advice would be to really consider anxiety as the cause, and I mean saying to yourself 'for now, I'll rule out everything else, trust it's anxiety and see how it goes'. Leave the C word and any other possibilities to the doctors - for now you ca only control what you think, and hey it;s worth a shot isn't it? This helped me (although I'm feeling bad again now, this is part of the whole process). It's made me feel reassured hearing someone else talking about the acid/hunger pains, so I hope you feel reassured you're not on your own either :)


Been the same for 18 months but ine comes and goes so i,m dodgeing a camera job at the moment . I, m on lansoprazole 30 mg and it really does help .

After 18 months i,ve decedided its not urgent and its just anxiety / over acid stomach .
If i had constant heartburn i would bite the bullet and have the camera but i don,t its just low down discomfort and i also have ibs (20 years of ) so i know that one sort of ovelaps the other so i don,t always know which is which .

[trickletokyo]

Plysg, that is some very good advice thank you. Unfortunately, I have trouble keeping that advice, especially on nights like this when I've spent the entire evening in a long session with Dr. Google.

Then my acid started acting up. Horrible thoughts start racing through my head. It later occurs to me that perhaps the acid is a result of drinking Peppermint tea :glare:

What is strangest to me, is that when I am feeling pretty good ... I start worrying about feeling good. Maybe I'm missing something ... perhaps the ant-acids I am taking are masking a more severe problem. Then my body catches up with my brain ... and we start over again.