New here - physical symptoms of GAD or HA?

[Mon_Ammi]

Hiya,

I'm new on the forum. This is a first for me in so many different ways. A first to experience GAD (and possibly HA!!) and a first to seek help for it.

It's driving me mad. It all started a few weeks ago, out of the blue, with a pressure over my chest, and was quickly followed with rapid heartbeat, pins and needles, hypersensitivity and random aches and pains in my legs, arms, shoulders, back. I'm at a point where I'm sure something REALLY serious has got to be wrong with me, although the Dr. says I'm fine, as well as my EKG and other tests. I don't feel unwell at all- it's just this myriad of unrelated symptoms. Needless to say, Google is NOT my friend right now...I've managed to convince myself that I'm either going to have a heart attack, or have one or the other debilitating, life threatening illness or neurological disorder, waiting to be diagnosed :weep:

Most of the physical symptoms have now subsided (just a bit more than 2 weeks since the original symptoms), except for the constant random pins and needles in my hands and feet, and the occasional random jolt of pain - is it possible for anxiety symptoms to last some weeks? Even though (I think) I don't feel anxious? I must admit, I am anxious over my anxiety, and hypersensitive to every feeling in my body :/ Not a nice way to live.

Some people say that anxiety can be caused, seemingly out of the blue, after an extended period of stress/trauma in your life. Could it manifest only 2 years after the trauma/stress? How long does these symptoms last and what do I do in the meantime?? I"m still so new at this I've not even gotten a formal diagnosis, but after multiple Dr. visits, it seems obvious that I'm suffering from GAD and/or HA.

So many questions :/ Would appreciate any advice or confirmations of what I'm experiencing right now.

A xxx

[sammie13s]

I would say it's health anxiety as your aware of your body and worried about it. I get the pins and needles, chest pains. It's all part an parcel of good old anxiety I'm afraid. Try to think positive before you make it a constant worry and before it takes over your life. My main fear is that I'm losing my mind. Very frightening. I can cope with the heart attack, the diseases but this I can't and believe it's taking a hold of my life. I at one point became overly aware of my heart and worried about heart attacks but now I say to myself well if it happens it happens. It's out of my control. Sorry I'm not much help. I'm not in the bester place myself at the moment and fighting my own demons. Just no iv had these symptoms xx

[drivememad]

hello,
I could of written that exact post ..I feel the same as you I think its a mixture of HA and GAD to be honest. I feel daily I will have a heart attack or stroke , now when I have symptoms I try and not give them any fuel...its going ok, but if I suddenly have a pain or a flutter of palps I get an adrenalin surge.

I have been under stress for years as I never talk about my problems or feel I am important enough so I am trying to deal with that too.

What helps me is not giving the symptoms any attention, chest discomfort is now an annoying little background pain, still there sometimes but not blown up by my mind to be a heart attack! I really hope with time it will go away. I think you are at the same place going forwards to recovery but not quite there but you will.

another tip that helps me is if I have a thought that's negative I place that thought in a cloud and blow it away..

[Ovaryacting]

You could be me, honestly. The sad part is, it keeps me so down that sometimes when I'm excited for a legit reason, like looking forward to something or getting good news, I actually "mistake" the increased heart rate and slight dizziness that comes with excitement as something bad. I'll think, I used to enjoy feeling this way! And that makes me feel more like I'm losing my mind....

[Pepperpot]

Welcome to my world also ;)
6wks ago out the blue (seemingly; I actually traced back to what caused it but not until a few wks later) I had pins and needles all over my body, mainly my feet and hands. I kept being sick too and couldn't sit still at all; I was wandering all over thinking I was going insane. Docs said the same as yours; anxiety. Over these past 6wks I've had allsorts of symptoms and I'm still not 100% convinced it's anxiety. I google my symptoms which is the worst possible thing anyone can do. Symptoms can last weeks. X

[Mon_Ammi]

HI Sammie13s,

Thank you for your message - over the last few days it's dawning on me that it might be GAD coupled with a good dose of HA :/ Not a lovely combination but I'm starting to understand slowly but surely (also by reading these forums!) what is happening to me and that I'm not alone :) Your message has been incredibly helpful, sometimes it just helps knowing someone understands. Not an easy thing to describe to someone who has never suffered with anxiety..Good luck and thinking of you x

---------- Post added at 08:48 ---------- Previous post was at 08:43 ----------


hello,
I could of written that exact post ..I feel the same as you I think its a mixture of HA and GAD to be honest. I feel daily I will have a heart attack or stroke , now when I have symptoms I try and not give them any fuel...its going ok, but if I suddenly have a pain or a flutter of palps I get an adrenalin surge.

I have been under stress for years as I never talk about my problems or feel I am important enough so I am trying to deal with that too.

What helps me is not giving the symptoms any attention, chest discomfort is now an annoying little background pain, still there sometimes but not blown up by my mind to be a heart attack! I really hope with time it will go away. I think you are at the same place going forwards to recovery but not quite there but you will.

another tip that helps me is if I have a thought that's negative I place that thought in a cloud and blow it away..

Hi Drivememad,
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! Really appreciate the time you took to respond! :yesyes:

It feels SO good to know someone knows what I'm talking about. The last week I've been doing exactly what you are suggesting - I've made a conscious decision to not fuel the fire, and just accept that my body needs time to heal. I hate not being in control, and that is driving me mad. I've had to be strong and responsible for so long, that now when I actually have time to take a breather, my body says "Whoa!!! Let's deal with your issues now!" LOL. So I guess I'm imagining that by not always expecting the worst or respond to every ache and pain, I'm helping my body to heal. Seems to be working, slowly but surely. Keep in touch x

---------- Post added at 08:51 ---------- Previous post was at 08:48 ----------


You could be me, honestly. The sad part is, it keeps me so down that sometimes when I'm excited for a legit reason, like looking forward to something or getting good news, I actually "mistake" the increased heart rate and slight dizziness that comes with excitement as something bad. I'll think, I used to enjoy feeling this way! And that makes me feel more like I'm losing my mind....

Hi Ovaryacting,

How amazingly reassuring it feels to see so many responses of people having the same symptoms as me! I totally get you! It's taken over my life, and I would like to think that I'm usually quite a bubbly, outgoing, excited person. Now I'm merely getting by, filled with dread and awful thoughts and a very bleak outlook on life. I get suspicious if I don't feel any aches and pains :( I just want myself back. My doctor suggested speaking to someone, but I'm having a hard time believing that talking about stuff that happened years ago can make my physical symptoms get better?? :wacko: I just don't know anymore. I keep on thinking "this too shall pass" but what if it doesn't?

---------- Post added at 08:57 ---------- Previous post was at 08:51 ----------


Welcome to my world also ;)
6wks ago out the blue (seemingly; I actually traced back to what caused it but not until a few wks later) I had pins and needles all over my body, mainly my feet and hands. I kept being sick too and couldn't sit still at all; I was wandering all over thinking I was going insane. Docs said the same as yours; anxiety. Over these past 6wks I've had allsorts of symptoms and I'm still not 100% convinced it's anxiety. I google my symptoms which is the worst possible thing anyone can do. Symptoms can last weeks. X

Hi Pepperpot,
This might sound strange, but do you actually believe that a stressful situation can cause such physical symptoms? And ones that can last weeks?? I know it's happening to me right now, because that's the only logical reason, but I just can't wrap my head around the fact that stress can cause all of this. I had a really rough time a few years back with a whole string of awful life happenings, but the anxiety is only manifesting now, when I find myself in a good, happy space. It's just come over me and clouded out whatever happiness I had, after so long. The doctor said it's because I've finally allowed myself to relax and my body is now coming out of "fight or flight" mode, that this is all kicking in. I just need to find a way to accept this as a medical reason for all these symptoms. Struggling to say the least. :huh:

[MyNameIsTerry]

If it's GAD, I would expect you to be suffering anxiety over more than your health. If you are sure your anxiety is limited to your health then that falls more in Somatoform Disorders (the most common forms found under the HA umbrella, remember HA isn't a medical diagnosis in either of the world's 2 major diagnostic manuals).

I have GAD and I have always been symptom focussed. But I know it's only anxiety. I've also had a few physical issues that I have solved with the help of Dr Google. Thats because I can look at list of potential problems and instantly steer away from the scary ones (which don't scare me in the least anyway since I know it won't be any of them) whereas the typical HA person would focus on the worst ones and scare themselves.

Thats why I know I don't have HA and that my GAD is symptom focussed as opposed to about worries of health. BUT I do have GAD because I have many other worries to deal with ranging across money, work, home, social issue, etc.

Was there a trauma 2 years ago? Have you been ok inbetween? Has anything significant happened running up to this e.g. under more stress, bad memories of a trauma dredged up by something, etc. It may be useful to consider these questions.

Symptoms can go on & on unless we recovery by working harm in many ways. Otherwise you can literally just keep experiencing them with some disorders. My GAD has always been the 24/7 variety and some symptoms I have now were then when it started 9 years ago. (but they are much much better). Some people with HA seem to have flare up and gaps, some are more consistent, but Somatoform Disorders have more than one form of disorder inn that category and they have different characteristics e.g. Hypochrondriacal Disorder is where the patient is naming a serious illness (one or more) that they obsess over & stick to or focus on the illness not the symptoms, whereas Somatization Disorder looks more at the symptoms. Both share the persistent refusal to accept symptoms. Thats all for the WHO ICD-10 manual we use in the UK, the US DSM-V (the other major manual) differs to this as the names are different e.g. they have Illness Anxiety Disorder and they place a closer crosscheck to a patient already having GAD in order to put it in that category. It's important to get a doctor to make a diagnosis though, they know which they are working to but if you used the US version and didn't have GAD already, it would be more likely to become the more typical HA route of Illness Anxiety Disorder or those connected to that class of disorders. (I can't remember whether they have connected forms like the WHO one without checking)

[Mon_Ammi]

Hi MyNameIsTerry,

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my questions. Your response was incredibly useful in providing me with all the different possibilities. According to your post, I think I might be in the same boat as you, but will seek a professional diagnosis. I am most certainly symptom focused but I don't fixate over one serious illness. Having said that, I do think about them at some point but it's not all I'm anxious over.

I had a whole string of traumas over the last few years, and like my doctor also said, I probably have been so busy keeping afloat, that I've not dealt with the underlying issues, and that is why she suggested I should speak to a psychologist. I think I'm going to do just that. I have also, since then, been under incredible, continued stress from work, but recently changed my job (because it was affecting me so negatively). This is the first time in a number of years I've actually been in a good, stable place mentally, and it's as if all these years' worth of stress and anxiety has now caught up with me.

Thanks again for your inputs!

[MyNameIsTerry]

Glad it helped.

Some of the Somatoform Disorders do deal with symptom focus too, so they don't have to be fixated on specific illnesses, but the criteria for us in the UK shows that a refusal to accept diagnosis as anxiety and nothing else and the seeking of tests is in several of them. If you don't do that, don't head for Dr Google and scare yourself and trust results from tests/doctors, then GAD seems more likely anyway.

It will be a really good idea to see a psychologist. For a start, they are far more qualified to make a diagnosis. GP's tend to give out a "woolly" diagnosis e.g. anxiety, chronic anxiety, general anxiety, etc which often is a catchall because they don't really know.

[Mon_Ammi]

Thanks again MyNameIsTerry.

I am in the process of deciding on a psychologist, because I agree with what you are saying about GP's and "woolly" diagnosis. I need to know what is going on and I need to be able to put a name to it. That is the only way I can get back in control of what is happening to me and do something constructive about it. The worst fuel to the fire for me is the absolute lack of control.