Anxiety sufferer :-(

[Jessica13]

Hi everyone,
New to this site. Found on twitter so thought I would register and introduce myself!
I have suffered with anxiety for 12 years. Go through patches where I have no anxiety to patches where it is awful. What has triggered it in my life I'm still yet to work out!
Have been on anti d's for anxiety. But a year and half ago decided to come off paroxetine as I found they weren't working for me. Had a couple of months where I was absolutely fine and then blow me down back comes the anxiety. This time around I'm experiencing new anxiety problems.
I was diagnosed with IBS a year or so ago. It wasn't until January this year that I cut certain foods out of my diet and have got on top of it as much as I can. But I do find if my IBS flares up then my anxiety is also sky high! And vice versa.
My parents moved to spain arch this year and I have found my anxiety worsen since they have gone.
Another symptom I found I have was fatigue. I have never had this with anxiety in the past. Some days I felt like I couldn't get up out of the sofa. Taking kids to school was tiring also even tho it was a 15 minute walk.
So I decided to go to the doctors. They took my bloods and they came back as protein levels slightly raised. So what do I do...... Google what that could be..... And guess what came up.... CANCER!!!! This petrified me. Docs said they ŵanted to re take my bloods a week later. Which I did. They they came back as protein levels normal. So I had the all clear. However still now I feel like I'm ill!! Is this what anxiety can do to you?? I find any symptoms I have I then google it.. And self diagnose. It eats me up. I don't understand why I do this?
At the moment I'm finding every day in wake up with a churning stomach and I'm a bag of nerves. I went bk to docs to try new Meds for anxiety until my CBT referral all came through. Doc gave me something called Sertraline. I of course being me looked at the leaflet inside the pill box. Absolutely petrified me! But I thought no I must try these out. So started taking them. On the first day I felt completely on another planet. I had nausea and also kept gagging when I yawned or drank. This must if been one of the side effects, and no way was I going to ride these effects out until they wear off! It's taken me a good 3 days to feel normal after taking just one tablet.
So I have figured that I shall just wait for my CBT course to start and try to deal with my anxiety issues in the mean time. I do find it very difficult especially as I am starting to stop myself doing certain things like driving or going food shopping. Hopefully I can find people in the same situation as me on here. And any self help tips please feel free to e mail me.

Thanks for reading....

Jess x

[AnxietyDJ]

Hi Jess, sorry to hear that you've been struggling... I think a lot of us here can associate with what you said - I for one definitely worry about my health all the time... Right now, I'm sure that I can feel something wrong with my heart, even though in reality I know that it's probably just because I had two cups of tea in the last hour!

Fingers crossed the forums will help - there's loads of great information, and more importantly, loads of great people :)

Hope your evening is going well :hugs:

[suejep]

Hi Jess. I'm new too and can identify with most of your struggles, especially concerning illness. Any symptom I get becomes huge in my mind, not helped by the fact I always have bad side effects to any medication. I have just posted a lecture I listened to on Youtube today, which I found fascinating. How Your Brain Can Turn Anxiety into Calmness. As stated it's long, but worth sticking with. Best bit 1 hour 6 minutes in is a guided imagery exercise that I found to be brilliant. Worth a listen, it just might help. Sue

[Jessica13]

Hi Jess, sorry to hear that you've been struggling... I think a lot of us here can associate with what you said - I for one definitely worry about my health all the time... Right now, I'm sure that I can feel something wrong with my heart, even though in reality I know that it's probably just because I had two cups of tea in the last hour!

Fingers crossed the forums will help - there's loads of great information, and more importantly, loads of great people :)

Hope your evening is going well :hugs:

Hey thanks so much for responding. It's horrible having anxiety.
Sorry you suffer also.
Do you take meds for anxiety or just use self help for it? Xx

---------- Post added at 22:23 ---------- Previous post was at 22:21 ----------


Hi Jess. I'm new too and can identify with most of your struggles, especially concerning illness. Any symptom I get becomes huge in my mind, not helped by the fact I always have bad side effects to any medication. I have just posted a lecture I listened to on Youtube today, which I found fascinating. How Your Brain Can Turn Anxiety into Calmness. As stated it's long, but worth sticking with. Best bit 1 hour 6 minutes in is a guided imagery exercise that I found to be brilliant. Worth a listen, it just might help. Sue

Hi sue
Thanks for your reply also :-)
Sorry to hear you suffer with anxiety.
When u say u just posted a lecture. Where have you put this? Is it something I can listen/read? Xx

[Ex Panicy Person]

Hi Jessica,
I'm an ex-anxiety/panic/health phobia (you name it sufferer). Totally anxiety free and after years of therapy I never did find a trigger. I think I focused on looking for it for too long instead of being proactive and dealing with the anxiety. I also suffered from IBS/anxiety and it became a vicious circle. I started taking peppermint capsules and found that they helped and drank copious amounts of peppermint tea! Also helped.

Setraline can make you very lethargic. I attended CBT classes as I wanted to find out more about the technique and thought it was brilliant. I also practice Mindfulness which is really useful to push unwanted thoughts out of your mind.

I promise you that you can get over anxiety. I'm living proof. From someone who couldn't leave the house in my late teens and early 20's to someone who now lives fear free, flies, drives on motorways, doesn't google health symptoms etc.

It really can be done, hard work but you will get there.

[Jessica13]

Hi Jessica,
I'm an ex-anxiety/panic/health phobia (you name it sufferer). Totally anxiety free and after years of therapy I never did find a trigger. I think I focused on looking for it for too long instead of being proactive and dealing with the anxiety. I also suffered from IBS/anxiety and it became a vicious circle. I started taking peppermint capsules and found that they helped and drank copious amounts of peppermint tea! Also helped.

Setraline can make you very lethargic. I attended CBT classes as I wanted to find out more about the technique and thought it was brilliant. I also practice Mindfulness which is really useful to push unwanted thoughts out of your mind.

I promise you that you can get over anxiety. I'm living proof. From someone who couldn't leave the house in my late teens and early 20's to someone who now lives fear free, flies, drives on motorways, doesn't google health symptoms etc.

It really can be done, hard work but you will get there.

Hi thanks so much for your post. Is there some way on here we can talk more do u know?
At moment im very anxious and stressing myself out about being anxious which in turn is making me go to loo a lot. When my "normal" bowels r always constipated.
I constantly feel sick with nerves and it is making be loose weight yet I'm eating lots. It's worrying me a lot. Did u loose weight ? I just don't know if weight loss comes with anxiety/stress 😢 xx

[Ex Panicy Person]

I personally did not lose any weight. But anxiety affects people in different ways. Might be worth having a chat with your GP

[AnxietyDJ]

Hey thanks so much for responding. It's horrible having anxiety.
Sorry you suffer also.
Do you take meds for anxiety or just use self help for it? Xx[COLOR="blue"]


I was taking Mirtazapine up until a couple of months ago... I now have Cipralex (Escitalopram), but haven't started on them yet, as i'm really worried about the side effects... Was going to start today, but to be perfectly honest I chickened out (again) :(

What about you?

Hope you've had a nice weekend so far :) x