Feeling so low and really scared.....

[Dan21]

Hi,

For ages now my health anxiety has been at an all time low, but today I have been fighting to keep a handle on things as I'm terrified that I have something wrong with my throat (again).

My lump in the throat feeling ahs come back with a vengence, feels like my epiglottis (sp) is bigger than it should be coupled with a tight feeling in the throat. It comes and goes. But since I found out we are expecting, its comeright back and feels as bad as ever. I had thos feeling for most of last year and it went away for about three months. Now its back.

Surely if it was anything dangerous it wouldnt have gone away for three months would it?? I'm really, really scared.

I do feel stressed, the prospect of being a Dad is scary enough but it has brought up a ton of feelings in relation to my dads passing away in the summer. Plus, I have had deadlines for Uni this week (I really enjoy my work, but its still stressful) and to top it all off, my wife has had signs of spotting so we are in a bit of a state. We had to call NHS Direct last night about it. They said to see the doctors this morning, which we did and he has referred us to have an early scan which takes place tomorrow. I know we shouldnt complain as many countries dont ever have such care, but I feel like my body is slipping back to how it was during my most stressful months of last year. I'm trying so so so hard to convince myself that these symptoms I am feeling could be due to stress (lump in my throat, headache, migrane type eye pain, tiredness, grumbling digestive system and have to say I've been crying a bit too). I feel like I have enough on my plate without having to deal with this f***ing HA yet again.

Feeling really, really down, when I should be thinking of other things

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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.

[Mable]

Hi Dan,

Nice to see you are keeping your sense of humour when you are feeling so anxious! :D

You already know the answer, you are stressed and the result of that is a resurgence of your HA. I react in exactly the same way. If you had a serious problem, it would not go away for 3 months. It would not come and go according to what else was going on in your life.

Try and deal with the other stressful events going on as best you can, and I'm sure the throat symptoms will subside.

Best of luck with the pregnancy.

Mable

[russ]

Dan, I've had exactly the same issues as well as chest pains in relation to my father passing away.

The tight throat is scary, so are the pains which i'm told may be a physical injury or anxiety or both.

If something was seriosuly wrong you know it wouldn't have gone away before or you would have had other symptoms. I know it isn't easy, but try and relax, I hope things go well for you.

[spuds]

I had spotting a couple of times in both my pregnancies - it is very, very common. Both babies were fine. Symptoms of serious illneess don't usually come and go - it just that you have got a lot on your plate at the moment and that is causing a resurgence of health anxiety. Most of my health anxiety is heart related - been crapping myself because I thought I had palpitations yesterday morning. Although I've been told my ectopics are nothing to worry about, I still do - my mother died suddenly from heart failure so this is always at the back of my mind. My mum died before my children were born and pregnancy did bring up a lot of feelings about her never seeing them and so on. Pregnancy is a really tough time - I never enjoyed it - but the end result is worth it. Best wishes, good luck with the scan.

[lass]

Hi Dan, I hope all goes well at your early scan. It really is understandable how you are feeling at the moment. You are taking on a huge (but wonderful!) responsibility, you are worrying if all is ok with your pregnancy, you are probably trying to be strong for your wife who will also be feeling all the things you are feeling ...

As you say, serious health problems do not come and go. And as you know, your symptoms have previously been attributed to anxiety. So it makes sense that this IS anxiety again and nothing worse.

I find that (touch wood!) my anxiety symptoms are under control a lot of the time now, but any kind of stress and it seems to hit me again. So I can be stressing about something completely unrelated to my health, but the anxiety kicks in again and I'm convinced I'm seriously ill.

It will get better. Hopefully once you've had the scan you will have a bit of relief, and everything will fall into place eventually.

Best wishes,
Caroline