Does your anxiety get WAY worse with a cold/flu?

[tan235]

So I've had a cold since Friday - it's Tuesday today so that's 5 days.
It seems to have gotten increasingly worse, I can hardly breathe through my nose I'm so congested, I feel like I can't breathe properly, I have to keep taking deep breathes which is freaking me out, I feel like I want to vomit, I"m exhausted - I also have shingles on top of this cold - although the shingles have almost gone.

I"m a single Mum and I'm really just not coping, I feel like a failure.
I can't keep my anxiety under control, I don't have a fever but almost going to call an ambulance as I just don't feel right.
I get so scared everytime I'm sick and I just can't overcome it = I'm so disappointed in myself.

---------- Post added at 04:58 ---------- Previous post was at 04:57 ----------

Also the only family member I have close to me is my mum and her attitude is, 'Get over it.'
She doesn't understand anxiety at all.

[GingerFish]

My anxiety gets worse with any kind of health problem, even something I've had a 100 times such as a cold or even just my period. I think its because of sensitization as every thought and feeling is amplified plus we are already run down fr the cold and that leads the way to panic.

Usually if I am ill and I can still panic, I take it as a good sign and I try and tell myself its not that bad if I can still panic because the one time I was seriously ill with pneumonia, I was too ill and tired to panic and that showed me how ill I was as that's not like me at all not to panic.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Plenty of people on here have said their anxiety worsens from the threads I've sene about it. Some of us have it the other way. I can remember when I was relapsing and finally had to go off work, I picked a cold up the week after and had 7 days of repreive to then find it come back full force the week after. It was a break I was very grateful for at the time.

[KayeS]

Funnily enough my anxiety gets worse just AFTER I have a cold or flu. I seem to always have this period of a week or two after being ill where I feel very low and almost depressed, and my anxiety skyrockets during that time :/

[Leah1971]

Yes, mine absolutely does. It's like it tries to kick you when you're down. Stupid anxiety. At least I know why it's flared up when it happens. When I get sick it's almost like a package deal. For now anyway - until I kick this anxiety to the kerb :)