what started off your anxiety??

[leanne1980]

hi

i was just wondering what started off people anxiety, was it 1 thing or a long run of things,
mine started in 2000, when i lost my mum, very suddenly she was 41, then i lost my twins they were born at 24 weeks they survived 1 day and 12 days, then i got a dvt due to the caesarian then my dad got cancer, he is fine now by the way, since being pregnant with my son in 2004 i have been suffering with health anxiety, its funny though coz a baby was all i ever wanted and since then ive been like this, and since then nothing has gone wrong, my life is great. the dr said i should look at the positives in my life, but this dosnt help, she says its the twins that triggered this off but i thik because i wasnt like this at the time how can it be, dont get me wrong i was devastated but not like this all anxious all the time.

i so want this to end for me, but i cant see it. i even think maybe this website might make me worse but i cant seem to tear myself away.

i really go through phases, do u? im preety bad at the mo and was last like this in may/june,

its sad really but the only thing that keeps my mind off these pains is shopping and i cant afford to keep doing that.

leanne x

i just wanna feel normal

[reddevil]

Hi,

It started 5 years ago, in my office two people died from having headaches (Hemerage and a Tumour).

I then for some reason, had a 24/7 headache, which lasted just under 3 years but since then, I have had all the other symtoms, we all talk about on this forum.

Also, a gentleman (44) went to bed Friday night with a headache and did not wake up, so my anxiety has raised to the roof again.

Red

[leanne1980]

hi red

thats what happened to my mum.

leanne x

i just wanna feel normal

[susie]

hi there well i was phisically and mentaly abussed by my fammilly from an early age ,i was raped at 14 and i had a nervous breakdown when i was 17.since then its been an ongoing thing of anxiety , deppretion and agraphobia . but im 53 now i have a good hubby and 2 loverly sons .although its been hard ive learnt a lot from it . take care suexxx

[candie]

Hi guys,
Its interesting to read what started everyone off with their anxiety because with me i cant think of anything in particular,it just happened.

It just started very suddenly 15 years ago for no reason and its been on and off ever since....

Take care and keep smiling,Candie xx:D

[MissChampers]

Hi,

I also don't have a clue what started mine off. The very first panic attack I had was 16 years ago when I was 19 and to this day I don't know what triggered it. I went years without a panic attack although i've always felt anxious in certain situations, then this year they started again but I think it's because my sons both have health problems and have been in hospital.

[yorkylover]

Mine started about 10/12 years ago could be a bit more.It started after I started my first antidepressants for depression.I noticed my pupils were huge and WHAM my first major panic attack.:([V]:(


Ellen XX

[pinkpenny1uk]

mine only started last year and to this day i honestly do not know what triggered it off. my first panic attack just seemed to come on out of the blue.the health anxiety started in jan of this year and again i cannot think of a specific trigger..

since then i have been a terrible googler and have had nearly every illness or condition going.

i just want to feel like i did before all of this.

all the best
penny

[Hexia]

Mine started after I had been under tremendous stress at work for about 3 years. I had all the symptoms of stress, but managed to ignore them more or less.
One Christmas eve when all was quiet and there was nothing more to do, my first massive panic attack hit me.
I think of it as my bodys way of telling me that it meant business this time.
:D

"You can't yell loud enough to make me shut up."

[MissChampers]

My doctor said it's caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. :(

[janie]

Hi - my first panic attack was at the end of march this year. Was almost a year to the day I broke my leg in a skiing accident in Colorado. Had a really bad year but when everything was getting better ..... WHAM!! I went to bed and it hit. Everyone says it was out of the blue but with me I can see that the stress had been building and building and something just said enough is enough. I had a very traumatic accident, was let out of hospital so I could get married (which was why I went to Colorado), my family grew from me and my 3 children to new husband and new stepson (who is very difficult), our business was subjected to 2 tax investigations, my husband was taken into hospital with suspected heart attack (we'd only been married 6 months) and I had a further operation on my leg in November.

So i suppose when you see it all written down it's no wonder. I got frightened and health anxiety kicked in really quickly. I had never been ill before so this accident made my mortality very apparent. I suffer mainly from chest/heart pain - convinced (although I'm doing really well recently) I am going to drop down dead.

Interesting thread - this site helps loads - so many people with different stories but there is always that common denominator - Fear.

Love Janie xxx

[Dan21]

Mine started of when a member of my family was diagnosed with bowel cancer (she has since recovered), then being victimised at work by a particularly acidic woman and then the passing of my Dad (again, due to cancer). Although the anxiety seems to have eased, the symptoms remain. Ho hum.

-----------------------------
I want to go up to my anxiety, smile, put my arm around it and say to it caringly, 'Hey! How are you? How's your day been?'

Then, just as its about to answer me, I wanna throw a sack over it and give it a hiding within an inch of its life.

That would be nice.

[Lisa McB]

My anxiety has slowly been building and currently is a living hell.

I had my first son in 2003 and lost a lot of blood resulting in blood transfusions and a week long stay in hospital. Six months later I had to take anti-depressants as I suffered PTSD and also I went to see a Therapist.

My next son's birth in February 2006 wasn't quite as traumatic but currently I am really anxious, imagine every pain I feel will be my last. I have been told I've got high blood pressure and I'm only 34!

I would say I am depressed but am quite adamant I do not want to go down the anti-depressant route again as coming off them even after 12 months was quite horrendous.

I would like to try alternative therapies but feel I need to get this high blood pressure back to normal asaap.

[looking4answers]

<b id="quote">quote:</b id="quote"><table border="0" id="quote"><tr id="quote"><td class="quote" id="quote">hi

i was just wondering what started off people anxiety, was it 1 thing or a long run of things,
mine started in 2000, when i lost my mum, very suddenly she was 41, then i lost my twins they were born at 24 weeks they survived 1 day and 12 days, then i got a dvt due to the caesarian then my dad got cancer, he is fine now by the way, since being pregnant with my son in 2004 i have been suffering with health anxiety, its funny though coz a baby was all i ever wanted and since then ive been like this, and since then nothing has gone wrong, my life is great. the dr said i should look at the positives in my life, but this dosnt help, she says its the twins that triggered this off but i thik because i wasnt like this at the time how can it be, dont get me wrong i was devastated but not like this all anxious all the time.

i so want this to end for me, but i cant see it. i even think maybe this website might make me worse but i cant seem to tear myself away.

i really go through phases, do u? im preety bad at the mo and was last like this in may/june,

its sad really but the only thing that keeps my mind off these pains is shopping and i cant afford to keep doing that.

leanne x

i just wanna feel normal

<div align="right">Originally posted by leanne1980 - 26 October 2006 : 07:45:56</div id="right">
</td id="quote"></tr id="quote"></table id="quote">


Mine started as a child of a single mom that was afraid that something bad was going to happen to her son.I was told almost daily of what could happen to me and also reminded constantly by conversations between my mother and aunts about the most gruesome things going on from people having heart attacks to getting killed and their heads chopped off to the most bizarre things you can think of..some people just love to talk about the worst things you can imagine...By the time I got to the age that I could realize what was going on I was already past my teens and missed alot of fun things..Then in my twenties I married a verbally abusive woman that made me feel really bad about myself for a long time.Needless to say I worked two jobs to stay away but we ended up having kids putting more worry on me..Alot of it was needless worry and things that would never come to pass but was there anyway..Then as years progressed..I had a bout with tachocardia and dehydration that put a fear into me and caused me to be anxious..at that time they didn't know how to treat anxiet too much except theopy and drugs..I finally weened myself off of both and started letting go the anxiety ..My kids were finally growing up and distant and years had passed and then i divorced my first wife..Oh did I mention that during those years my 15 year old contracted terminal cancer.Needless to say we moved to Memphis..and she beat it..Although that is enough to make you anxious,thank God I was strong at that time.I then years later divorced and moved on and felt as though i had nothing to live for ...Lead a life of tempting death..and was in situtation after situtation for awhile that was very anxiety making but at that time i didnt care..Ok..well after awhile I started settling down..and can't believe that my anxiety didnt catch up with me then,but it held off,then i met a wonderful woman that had three children too and they seem to care very much for me ..Then I got grandkids..from my first set of chidren and then my new ones..Everything was right on track and I had more than i have ever had material and otherwise and more to live for..Then Katrina struck..and even though we left ahead of time and lost a lot of what we had..We did ok..Now our children were scattered all over...But still my life is very good..As a matter of fact disreguarding the fact that our children are all over the place I still feel very blessed and

[leanne1980]

hi guys

reading those posts makes me think that there is no wonder we all feel bad sometimes, its life i suppose, im suprised that a few of us arent off our rockers totally.

leanne xx

i just wanna feel normal

[Humly]

I think that I have always been quite anxious, even as a child but my first major wobble came about 16 years ago. This was the time that there was a big thing in the media about HIV and I got it into my head that perhaps I had it. So I had a major panic, got tested, everything was ok, great relief. Then I was pretty much ok for about 7 years, nothing apart from the odd minor thing that I can remember worrying about, then just as I was about to give birth to my first child I got bells palsy and that was it. I was quite traumatised by it and even though I made a full recovery, I was never the same again. Health anxiety becomes a major part of my life. And since then I have gone from one thing to another to be anxious about. Any bodily symptom slightly out of the ordinary is to me something to be scared of and I just wish that I could get myself out of it and start to fully enjoy life again.

[lass]

Leanne, your story is really sad, no wonder you are suffering. Sometimes I think when we go through bad times we are so busy getting through it that we don't actually see how it is affecting us. Then, when things are going well, we are too scared to enjoy it in case it all goes wrong again - kind of scared to tempt fate.

I think I have had a gradual build up to how I am now! I lost a friend to breast cancer 2 years ago (she was 32). The Christmas after she died, I thought about her a lot, wondering how her kids were getting on with Xmas without their Mum, etc. Then I got a lump stuck in my throat and convinced myself it was cancer of the oesophagus (my aunt died from this). My GP at the time was useless; I realise now it was my first bout of anxiety but he obviously didn't, just sent me away saying there is no way of looking at the area I was describing and to come back in 2 weeks if no better. Then I had a bad tummy, diarrohea, etc. and he gave me some pills to stop that and sent me away again.

That little episode only lasted about a month and I forgot all about it til recently. A friend of mine was diagnosed at the start of last year with cancer of the pancreas and secondaries in her liver - she was 39. She was incurable and she sadly died last month. I found a breast lump last October and completely freaked out about it (but I think this is normal!) - had it checked out at hospital and all ok, but then in February (when my friend started getting very very ill) I started getting tummy / bowel problems and absolutely convinced myself it was serious. Since then, I've probably developed (at some stage or another) every symptom of anxiety!

I know my problem now is that I am scared to ignore any little symptom in case it is the start of something serious, and I know this is because my friend had a little niggly pain that she ignored for a long time, and then when it was investigated it was found to be too late .....

My doctor tells me it is sensible not to ignore things, but I get pain of one sort or another every day and I know I can't report in to her on a daily basis! I think I am just hypersensitive to everything in my body now.

Mine seems to go in phases; it is always at the back on my mind that I need to stay on high alert, but I go through periods when I can get on without it affecting "normal life" too much. Then I'll sink right back and dwell on every little thing.

[net]

mine started because i was emotionally and sexually abused as a child

netty


the dreams of the future are better than the history of the past

[Wenjoy]

Mine started 24 years ago out of the blue on a hot stuffy bus which I just had to get off. Then nothing for 23 years and now am in menopause and started up again - cant go on buses or sit in cinema or packed places. Gotta be near an exit So I can get out. Love wenjoy x

[Jammer]

Mine started 16+ years ago, while I was suffering with noise and physical abuse from the upstairs flat and my stress levels were high not only because of the above but also being a one-parent working parent. The first time it happen I was driving my car, and didn’t know what hit me, thought I was going to pass out, manage to get the car to the kerb and settle myself down but after that things just went down hill mentally and physical. Things have got better in the last 3 years but I still got a long way to go.

[missacorah]

I have always been a worrier but had not noticed until my first attack the fact that i NEVER felt completeloy relaxed - ever!

I had my first attack 2 years after i started work for the first time. I dont know if that was the main factor. In the weeks leading up to my first attack I had been to a works do and got drunk - not anything embarrassing just a bit tipsy and then the summer holidays follwed the work do so I had 6 weeks to worry about what people thought of me! It became an obsession almost and I was soo worried about it. In October the attacks happened.

I had a bad marriage too - I just cannot pinpoint exactly what caused mine. I have been referred to a counsellor - I wonder if they will try and get to the route of things.

[mysweetshadow]

hi leanne, my symptons started almost 2 years ago, when i was working in a Call Centre. The day before my Panic Attack started I had a warning sign, which silly enough I didnt take.
On day One, I had funny eye visions. My Sight was going all blurry and people to me looked like they where a grey colour. I didnt think anything of it, I just thought I was tired from all the long hours I had been working. The rest of the day carried on as normal.
The next morning when I was getting up to go to work, I remember felling quite dizzy and sick, but again I just blamed it on lack of sleep. I went into that morning and up to lunch time I felt fine. I was on my way back from luch and I had checked the time and realised I was late, so I was rushing back to my desk. After I sat down at my desk, I started to feel dizzy again. I put my head between my legs to try and get the blood flowing to my brain. After a while I lifted my head and the dizzyness was still there, and I started to feel sick. The only way I could describe it, was that I felt drunk. Lucky for me the toilets where close by, but when i went into the toilets nothing happened. I then explained my situation to my line manager, and he laugh at me and said, that I was out drinking at luch time. After 10 minutes of arguing with my line manager I was sent home.
When I finally got home, I ran straight for my bed, and I went and lay down for a few hours. When I woke up I felt fine, but when I went to go outside, I couldnt. The dizzy spells kept coming back, and the symptoms were worse. I thought I would rest for the day and I would try again the next day. So I did, and when i tried to go and see my GP I could, I just couldnt step foot over my front door.
Now 18 months later, I can thankfully say I can set foot outside my front door, but I cant go no further than 5mins down my street. I have also seen my GP and progress in my situation is also starting to happen.


phil