Aches & pains – IBS? Anxiety?

[popdisaster]

Hi all

Recently, the last few days in particular, my anxiety symptoms have got a lot worse. I can't quite pinpoint the cause... I think it may have something to do with the fact I've had hardly anything to do at work, so I end up just sitting there, with health worries going through my head and nothing to distract me, so it gets worse and worse...

Every day I have had very strong feeling of being 'spaced out' or 'not really there'. VERY hard to focus on any tasks, and generally a horrible feeling. Then at first I was getting shooting pains, very quickly, around my throat, so immediately I thought it was something serious there – thyroid cancer, or similar. So of course my throat felt 'swollen up' straight after, and I even convinced myself it was painful to swallow, when in reality it wasn't that bad at all.

Today, the throat seems fine, but I've had a lot of pains around my lower stomach / abdomen. Could this be IBS? I've never had it before. The main recurring pain is in a weird place... the best I can describe it is just next to my tail bone, but not in the middle, to the right. Basically the hip area. But it's not at the surface, like a muscular pain, but inside, somewhere. It's been coming and going all day.

I try to stay positive and think that it must be anxiety, but when it keeps coming then eventually I break down and give into the negative thoughts – 'it must be cancer, etc'.

Also I now have a constant dull pain in my left leg, below the knee.

Why oh why does anxiety do this to us?! Like I said, I'm trying to remain positive and convince myself that the symptoms are caused by anxiety. But I'm also scared that they must be something worse. I have a GP appointment on Tuesday but that seems far away right now...

Any advice welcomed

[ecila92]

I've been going through a pretty similar stage of anxiety myself and your post has given me reassurance. It all started out with a swollen gland that happened a month ago - convinced myself I had cancer, even though my blood test came back negative.

Have been feeling REALLY spaced out and strange aswel, had to leave work today because I couldn't handle the consistent worry. I went to the doctors he told me it sounds like anxiety and because I have IBS due to anxiety, he said he'll do a blood test invade I'm allergic to gluton which is what may be causing the issue.

I wouldn't worry about feeling spaced out dizzy etc because it is caused by anxiety. It happens when your brain is tired because of all the negative thoughts going on, apparently it's your bodies way of protecting itself.

As far as the stomach pains go. Have you noticed a change in your bowles? Because it could be IBS, IBS is so common among people who suffer with anxiety. Either way go to the doctors for reassurance, I'm sure you're fine though.

In the past month I've "had" - lymphoma, ovarian cancer, MS and an underlying illness I don't know about. This all happened because of my thinking pattern. Seriously anxiety can present you with any pain, twitch, strange sensation in your body and you'll soon come to terms with that when you realise there isn't anything wrong with you.

[popdisaster]

Hi, thanks for the reply. Always reassuring to hear of people going through the same thing.

I'm not so worried about the 'spaciness', I mean it is horrible at the time, but - to my mind at least - I can sort of understand, or at least comprehend, how it could be anxiety that is making me feel this way. What I find so hard to get a grip with is the physical symptoms. I try to stay rational, and remember all the things I've read about anxiety being able to 'create' physical symptoms... but if the pain is quite bad, then it just seems impossible to ignore. I can't conceive how it could be 'made up', and so immediately descend into worry that it is a real symptom. My thought pattern is then so negative that I automatically assume it is a symptom of something really bad, and visualise all the scenarios that could be (cancer, etc).

Getting back to the stomach pains, yes I am thinking it may be IBS. I have noticed a change with bowel movements recently. Just over a week ago I woke up one morning and was completely constipated. Which shocked and frightened me, as it came out of nowhere. No change my diet (healthy) or lifestyle, and no other symptoms of feeling ill. The full-on constipation only lasted about a day, but since then I have been very inconsistent. Some days I have to really strain to pass just a few hard 'rabbit pellets', other days I am going 3 or 4 times, and it can be runny or fairly normal.

Thanks again for the reply

[ecila92]

That defiantly sounds like IBS to me, I would suggest going to the doctor and they'll be able to assess you properly, if it is IBS you could ask for something to treat the pain that's what I did and when the pain went it made sense to me that it was IBS.

The most difficult thing with anxiety is the more you concentrate on the physical pain the worse it becomes. I think it's unlikely you have cancer, what you do have is anxiety and you know this. If it was anything worse you'd be very ill, blood in stools, unexplained weight loss etc. Don't worry! :)

Another thing -the symptoms your experiencing ARE real and not made up as such, you're not imagining them, they're there but there not physical symptoms of anything serious, just anxiety.

Take care