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[PaulieC]

Hello everyone,

My name's Paul and I've been suffering from anxiety on and off since my mid-teens. I'm now 34 and have had a recent flare up due to a relapse back into my alcoholism.
I am dry again now, but my health anxiety is absolutely through the roof. I am terrified of everything at the moment.
I was diagnosed with ectopic heartbeats in 2004, and since then I've been absolutely convinced that I will develop a deadly arrhythmia.
I also experience head "drops", where it feels like the inside of my head has suddenly dropped. I've not been sleeping well, so suspect it's something to do with that, but I have such a hard time believing that I won't drop down dead from a seizure or something similarly nasty.
Living on my nerves is exhausting and I'm terrified of bedtime (scared of dying from sleep apnea or ventricular fibrillation). It's a hellish carousel.
I just wanted to say hello and also to say thank you for having such an amazing resource available.
Paul

[venusbluejeans]

Hiya PaulieC and welcome to NMP :welcome:

Why not take a look at our articles on our home page, they contain a wealth of information and are a great starting place for your time on the forum.

I hope you find the as site helpful and informative as I have and that you get the help and support you need here and hope that you meet a few friends along the way :yesyes:

[PaulieC]

Thanks ever so much for the welcome. I'll be sure to take a good look around. Thanks again :)

[witsend]

Hi Paul

Just seen your post. My brother was diagnosed with arrhythmia 10 years ago when he was 34. To be honest, the mental torment he has gone through ever since is way worse than the actual heart flutters he has. He even got as far as self harming, and an incident that could be viewed as a suicide attempt - the details have never been clear. The fear of dying caused him to almost take his own life - ironic or what!

I understand though, as like him, I also suffer with health anxiety,but for different reasons (brain tumour, MS, MND, insanity - only the best!). The point I'm getting at is that our fear of a situation/problem can be worse than the problem itself. Mind you, after a day of horrendous anx, it's taken me two bottles of wine to actually come up with that pearl of wisdom.......

Hope it helps

W