Haven't been anxious for a while -- symptoms almost fully gone

[Da]

Recently picking up an 8 week old puppy required/requires so much of my attention and focus that I actually completely forgot about my anxiety. I haven't googled, compulsively thought, over-focused on my symptoms, etc since getting him (preceding a period of my life where I would Google for hours at a time multiple times every day) Before I got him I thought I had a brain tumor, a demyelinating disease etc. I could NOT walk in public, had constant panic attacks, and thought multiple times that I was doomed to some scary shit. I remember times when my symptoms would be so vivid that I would think to myself like "there is no WAY this is from anxiety, it's impossible for this to be psychological". I experienced headaches on the left side of my head every night, dizziness, mental fog, leg weakness, a perceived feeling of walking disability, excessive sleepiness, random shooting pains all over my body including excruciating random shooting pains in the left side of my neck, and a whole plethora of other things. But since this period has started in which my mind has been fully focused on making sure the puppy is happy, healthy, etc, I've noticed literally EVERY symptom go away, which proves exactly what I didn't think possible-- that my symptoms really were products of my anxiety. So my advice for you guys is to do something that FORCES you to focus on something else. Getting a pet is a good one. I bet you'll start seeing your physical symptoms fade. While health anxiety increase can be an emotional snowball (more anxiety=more symptoms=more anxiety and on and on and on), decrease can be as well. Less symptoms means less anxiety which means less symptoms etc etc etc

[yogibear]

What a super cute story, thank you got sharing this. It helps to read the positives. Did you purposely go out to buy a puppy to aid in your recovery or did it just gone about and I turn worked out well for you? Either way, isn't it great! I've always said, if I fell pregnant, even though I think I'm too unstable with my own crap going on, it would probably snap me out of it! Caring for another tiny human life, or in your case a cute little puppy I believe can aid on people's recovery and you're proof of that. What a lucky little puppy :hugs:

[Leah1971]

I love puppies! They're so cute and always happy and playful. I think most animals are therapeutic. That unconditional love is amazing. Almost as amazing as puppy breath!! :D

[Da]

What a super cute story, thank you got sharing this. It helps to read the positives. Did you purposely go out to buy a puppy to aid in your recovery or did it just gone about and I turn worked out well for you? Either way, isn't it great! I've always said, if I fell pregnant, even though I think I'm too unstable with my own crap going on, it would probably snap me out of it! Caring for another tiny human life, or in your case a cute little puppy I believe can aid on people's recovery and you're proof of that. What a lucky little puppy :hugs:

It's been quite a while since I posted this (haven't needed this site for a while :yesyes:) so here's an insanely late reply-- but yes, he was somewhat meant to be a panacea for my problems. A big reason I got him was also to fill the void of my last dog's death, which I somewhat attribute to causing/exaggerating my anxiety to begin with. He's been superlatively helpful :D