Help/advice needed

[Vet]

Hi,
I have joined this forum to see if anyone give some advice. First of all, I am a 49 year old that has suffered secretly with anxiety for around 20 years. It mainly involves anxiety around my health with every ailment being turned into a life threatening illness in my mind.

Usually this anxiety goes away with a visit to the doctor that gives me the all clear. This time though it's not working. First of all I had numbness in my leg and hand and went to the doctors, the doctor sent me for blood tests. At the same time I had a small lump come up in my mouth so went to the dentists as well. He gave me anti biotics but said if they didn't work he would have to do further examinations as it could be loose bone. This set the alarm bells ringing and I have now convinced myself I have oral cancer because the small lump still hasn't gone down despite the antibiotics being finished , furthermore the day after I visited the dentist I had a really large sore come up in my mouth and that hasn't cleared up either.

My blood test cam back fine apart from being borderline diabetes which I knew anyway but I was still getting the numbness so have been referred to a neurologist. Since my worrying about the lump has got worse the numbness has now stopped.

My question is twofold, does anyone know if anxiety can actually bring on things such mouth sores not the bump but the sore that came up the next day and things such as the numbness and lightheadedness I was getting which now seems to have gone. Secondly does anyone know a way of countering these negative thoughts because it's taken over my life now, I'm not doing anything I normally enjoy and have convinced myself I will be dead by xmas.

Sorry for the long post but if anyone could give me some advice I would really appreciate it.

[ray.olsen]

Hi,

First of all welcome to the forum.

If I may ask why are you keeping your anxiety a secret? Have you ever consulted a clinician about your condition?

Regarding your question, sometimes there can be physical symptoms whenever you are experiencing anxiety although I'm not sure if mouth sores can be one of them. With regards to the numbness and lightheadedness I did had this before whenever I have panic attacks.Also intrusive thoughts are a common symptom of anxiety.

What you should do is consult a psychiatrist or a psychologist and tell them all about your condition. They can provide a regimen and medications that can help you deal with your situation.

I'm sorry i can't be of more help. I'll do more research and get back to you. Let me know how the checkup goes.

[Vet]

Many thanks for the reply. I have been to the doctors before and I was treated for panic attacks. After about 5 years of counselling and medication and learning breathing techniques etc I no longer have panic attacks. What I have been left with is anxiety over my health. The reason I haven't been anywhere about it ,Is I've inly just realised that the thoughts going through my head are irrational. When I've been in this situation before it just seemed quite normal and quite rational to come to the conclusion I have. What's really made me realise that thinking the worse probably 5 or 6 times a year if not more is not rational is when I went to the dentist, the first thing he asked was if I was stressed out. At the time I thought he meant about being at the dentist and just replied I was fine. It was only when I got home and thought about was it I think he meant in general.