Please read and help if you can!!!!

[BlueEyes28]

I am relatively new to the site but have been coming back daily as I am very anxious at the mo.
The thing is that I started to experience anxiety and it's symptoms 11 years ago but after numerous doctors visits and a few phsyc visits and 2 bad bouts of anxiety I was able to convince myself that the many symptoms I was experiencing were due to anxiety.
So I basically just got on with my life, the symptoms still showed themselves many times but as time went on and through constantly telling myself that it's just your anxiety!! I learnt t just ignore them and lived a relatively peaceful life. Now and again they would frighten me or i'd be afraid of an illness but not enough to take me back to that debilitating state that we all know.
I had a couple of near misses when my children were born due to illness on their part but once I knew for sure that they were fine I managed to move on again.
I did this for 9 years!!! This time I had a real health scare where i'd had a bad cough for 4 weeks and went to a walk in centre, the doc there listened to my chest and told me that I had COPD or enphacema!! and that I need to stop smoking straight away if I wanted to survive!!!
I was and still am terrified. I went to see my own GP as my mum used to be a nurse and told me that it can't be diagnosed through simply listening to my chest! So my own GP who listened to my chest and said that their were some smoking related noises going on and sent me for the CORRECT test and thank god it was negative in fact* the nurse pointed out that I have very good lung capacity. So on from that I wanted to know what in fact I did have and stupidly googled it, my sis had said that it sounded more like bronchitis so that's what I looked up.
It said that their are 2 types, acute not serious and chronic an on going sometimes debilitating* illness. I have given up smoking due to this which is about the only good thing to come of this but I am still terrified that I may go on to get chronic bronchitis.
So I can't see a way out of this one you see the anxiety symptoms don't really scare me any more I can deal with those although the panic attacks are still frightening. I see myself always waiting to get this illness and any time I get a cough I will be back to square one!!! Please if anyone has been through a similar situ or has some reassuring advice please comment, I've left a few comments on here but nobody really replies I'm so scared and i need of help and support, I can't cope with this, and as for my poor children!! please help if you can :weep:

[messianictalmud]

Sorry this sounds like a rollercoaster healthwise for you.
The hardest thing I guess is that we all need to put our trust in the medics.
If your GP has given you something for acute bronchitis then as long as you keep taking it even if you feel ok that itself should help to prevent it turning chronic.
Well done in giving up smoking that will be of tremendous help.
It's normal to be anxious about health and we should remind ourselves that our anxieties can blow things out of proportion.

[Worryguts]

Hello blue eyes.

I am in a simular situation. For a few years I have been having health anxiety thoughts then after the birth of my son... Tremendous birthing experience.... And then a underactive thyroid diagnosis. I went onto over drive focusing on every ache pain cough spasm.... So much show I was convinced I was about to get the worst news imaginable made me sick to the pit of my stomach and it spiralled. Since being on citalopam it has really helped I am still in early stages of recovery but already I am more relaxed and thinking straight and not going into meltdown every time I have 'a symptom' that could freak me out.
I don't know if I have any advice but didn't want you to think you may be alone in what your feeling.
X

[BlueEyes28]

(Messianictalmud) Thank you for your reply, I no longer have bronchitisand took my antibiotics course. However I'm still terrified that it will come back again and again :-( I know stopping smoking has made a massive difference, I only wish i'd never started in the first place.

(Worryguts) Thank you also, I've been on effexor for 9 yrs which has just been upped from 37.5 to 150 mh however I don't feel that it's helping enough, I'm going back to my GP tommorow so I think i'll ask to possibly change or mix. I am currently waiting to get an apt with the mental health team but until then i'm stuck like this! God i'm so scared :-(

[Worryguts]

Great plan going back to the gp. Maybe ask to change meds if you feel they aren't working. It is a scary place to be and has massive emotional and physical impact on us. Sometimes the brain needs a massive rest to help us recuperate. I really hope the gp is helpful tomorrow let us know how it goes. In the meantime maybe today try and plan some nice things to do with the children and focus on that. Every time you get a bad feeling or thought think NO not today I am focusing my energy on my children and that can wait until tomorrow at the doctors.( just a suggestion) I know it's easier writing this than doing this but I feel like if you maybe take control today and focus on getting fixed tomorrow at least you can try and have one day ( today) where you feel it won't beat you. Just remember nothing bad will happen to you today.... It didn't yesterday did it...... So it can always wait until tomorrow when you can pour it out at the docs.

Ok now I am just babbling and prob making no sense.... I blame the meds :wacko:

Big hug :hugs:

[BlueEyes28]

Thank you I will try, although like you said its easier said sometimes. I just hope I hear from the mental health team soon, I feel so alone and icolated I have my mum and sis at the end of the phone they try to help as much as pos, I also have a partner but he's not very supportive at all, he just doesn't get it, he says that I should just fight it and get on with life, he's recently been through some terrible stuff and he says it made him feel similar but he just fought it because of having a family to look after, I've tried to explain that its just not that easy I do try to fight it but it just keeps creeping back! I fear that he will leave me because of this and that terrifies me too, I've tried to tell him how I feel but he wont reassure me he just says "fight it", now im rambling, god this is hell I fear I will be this way forever my whole life is falling apart :hugs:

[Worryguts]

Some men ( not all there's some lovely men on here with the same anxieties as us that can relate and understand) but most will just want to offer help as a way of fixing a problem. So his 'fight it' comment he genuinly believes is his way of helping because it would fix the problem. Us women find that quite an unemotional response as we kind of need more reassurance. Ever read men are from mars.... Women are from Venus? This will explain that theory. If and when you feel better you should read this. So he is trying to be helpful in a man way. Really not trying to offend men on here :blush: but I am trying to say that your partner does believe that his solution will help you. But I agree that doesn't fix it at all and it needs more attention. That's def where the mental health team could help. Not always our families partners etc can help us as they cannot relate it doesn't mean that they leave us or dont love us :hugs: I know that's probably another anxiety creeping in. Try and stay strong! X

[BlueEyes28]

Thanks for your advice it helps a lot and makes total sense too, I will have to get that book it sounds very interesting. I can understand that it must be frustrating for both him and my family and I do try to get on with things as much as pos but I find it hard to do most normal things I do when I feel "normal" even going out is very hard for me I only really go to my mum's or the docs that's about it, I know my partner really hates that and just can't get it. Anyway il stop going on lol thank you again for taking the time to chat to me and im here if you want to discuss things :hugs:

[Worryguts]

Your not going on! It's good to get these things off your chest. (Another way of helping the anxiety...) Well I like to talk about it as it makes alot of sense written down and not like I am nuts :wacko: lol come chat here anytime will look out for you on here x

[BlueEyes28]

Lol true, how long have you suffered with anxiety? Do you have kids? :)