Health Anxiety Help

[mannik111]

Hi good evening to everyone
My name is Nik and i live in the south of England

I am suffering with extreme anxiety/health anxiety. I also have OCD since childhood, checking doors and windows are locked, taps are off.
It all started 4 years ago on a night out with friends, i wasnt drinking
as i had my car with me.
during the evening i started to become very hot like i was having flushes
and generally unwell so i decided to leave, on my way back to the car
i had my first extremly scary dizzy spell, id never had any thing like this
and it really scared me.
From then on the dizzyness/ light headedness happend every day then i started getting twinges in my chest to go with it, iv never been so scared! as you do i googled these symptoms and got the usual heart attack/ brain tumour
info.
I visited the doctor who checked my ears for ballence etc and had an ecg
with came back normal.
being an idiot i started drinking to get me through.

its now been 4 years of misery!, headache dizzyness chest pain, pains in my arms/legs, hot flushes, nausia, palpitations, diarrhea, constant fear of heart attack, waking up in the middle of the night with a racing heart beat.
iv had so many blood test/ ecgs/ an echocardiogram, all these come back normal.

I hate getting up in the morning as i get all these thing on a daily basis.
as i said i also have OCD recently broke the back door from tugging the handle making sure the door is locked.

im at my wits end, i recently went to a new doctor who has put me on sertraline 50mg, but after 2 and a half weeks dont feel any better.

im sitting here worrying that i have got this right and put down all the info i need too.

looking forward to hme helpful comments.
many thanks
Nik

[mannik111]

Any Advice/help gratefully recieved.

[Primula]

Well you've come to the right place for help. Take a look at the No more Panic articles on the left. There are articles about OCD, and anxiety. You may find your tablets take a while to work, but they will eventually. Whilst your waiting for them to work, read the articles, and maybe order a good book about ocd, one I can recommend is Overcoming OCD by David Veale, it's on Amazon. It's not an overnight cure, but little by little it will get better.

[mrsnobody]

keep posting on here. there are alot of very help people and lots of good advice. your not alone

[Bekzie]

Keep sharing your thoughts and feelings on here, it helps to know you are not alone in this.

[cattia]

Welcome! The great thing I have found about this forum is that it makes you feel less isolated. It's very hard for those people around us to understand this anxiety, so it's great to come here and offload to people who know what you're going through. I think with the medication, you do need to give it a chance. I don't know about that particular drug, is it an SSRI? If it is then you're unlikely to feel any better for at least four weeks on it. Another good book that I have read on OCD is called 'The Imp of the Mind'. I don't have OCD but I do have a lot of obsessive thoughts and I think HA is very much in the same family as OCD. I found that book really helped me.

[panickyme]

Oh boy, can I relate to you. I have health anxiety so bad, everything you said and more. It is not fun, and I truly feel your pain. I jump from one thing to another, and it has seriously taken over my life. I hope that with can both find some kind of help. Hope you feel better soon. :hugs:

[mannik111]

Thankyou so much for your comments, i have not talked about this with my family or friends as i know they wont understand, iv dealt with this on my own for 4 years.
its such a relief to know i can say how i feel on this site.
i myself feel like im a loser for bein this way.

[mannik111]

so today at work iv had a tight feeling in my chest also the flutter feeling, i was up all night with a racing heartbeat, to be honest scared to go to sleep,very tight chested at the minute dont think i will sleep tonight.

[panickyme]

Awww, I know how you feel, I go around like this most days, and nights. I can't stand it. I've had test but of course you only believe them for a day or two. I still think they are missing something. We just have to try to convince ourselves that we are alright, and that we bring on most of it ourselves, (I hope) by dwelling on it. I just haven't quite found a way yet, so it just consumes us. Grrrrrrrrr. Hope you get some sleep tonight. :hugs:

[mannik111]

Hi panickyme the more i try not to think about it, then the more i do, i cant get my head around it!!

[panickyme]

Meeeeeeeee toooooooooooooo!:) I try to ignore it, and then I get a pain in the chest area out of nowhere, then I start all over again. Never ends. One good thing is I am like 5-6 hours behind you, so if you can't sleep I will be up. :hugs: Debbi

[Lilharry]

It's impossible to not think of something, the only thing you can try and do is to change your thought patterns - so replace the anxious thoughts with positive ones. It's takes time to get into the habit of doing this, but it does get easier. It's important to try and separate negative thoughts from healthy thoughts because when you recognise something as irrational it's easier to let it go. CBT is very good for this. Try working through the modules on this online course. http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/resources/infopax.cfm?Info_ID=53

[mannik111]

again today dizzyness, headache, tight/heavy chest feeling, pains in my arms, across my shoulders, diarrhea! all while im at work.
this has been my dailly routine for 4 years, i have made appointment with doctor as sertraline 50mg hasnt done anything for me, so hopefully he will have some suggestions.

[panickyme]

Awww, sorry you still don't feel well .Let me know how you do Doctors. :hugs:

[mannik111]

Hi Debbi

I have been to the doctors, he has put me on sertraline 100mg so i will see if it helps!
how are you?
is anyone else on sertraline and how is it working and what dosage?