Determined to overcome health anxiety

[Jay8]

Hi, I'll start by introducing myself. My name's Jay and I'm a 25 year old female from the UK.

In the last week I came to the realisation that I suffer from health anxiety. For me, it all started last year when I experienced aches, pains, tingling sensations, joint/muscle pain and joint clicks all over my body. At the time my friends and family thought I was being paranoid and told me it was nothing to worry about, until one night my leg was in a lot of pain and I could barely walk on it. I then started to get all hot, have heart palpitations, parts of me felt numb, I was struggling to breathe - at the time I literally thought I was having a heart attack. Paramedics came out and done some tests and told me it seemed a lot like an anxiety attack (as the lady used to suffer from them herself), but they took me in an ambulance to hospital anyway and got me checked over. They couldn't find anything wrong and referred me to my GP. After some blood tests the GP confirmed that I had vitamin D Deficiency and looking into it after, all the symptoms matched up. I now take extra vitamin D supplements and feel a lot better for it. Looking back I now know this was a panic attack and I've experienced 1 more since.

Since this happened, I've slowly become more paranoid about every slight ache or pain I feel in my body and everyday I'm spending hours on end worrying about my symptoms. It went away for a while, but in the last few weeks the worrying has come back to the extreme and it's really starting to affect my everyday life. I can't go a single day without a thought that i could be seriously ill and it's really starting to make me depressed.

Without going into too much detail about how I've been feeling recently yet (otherwise this post would be too long!), I came across this forum as I am at the point where I want to tackle the problem before it gets any worse. I'm looking to reach out to anyone that is going through something similar and is at the point where they want to turn their life around.

I'm fed up of my brain being on overdrive everyday about this and it would be great to speak to others who are experiencing something similar as it would be good to help each other get through the problem.

Any comments would be appreciated!

[jdheart]

Welcome to the world of anxiety. In it you will travel a road th at has it highs and its lows. You will try and find the answer to your problem but there is only one answer anxiety. He or she (it) (anxiety) is a master of you mind and body (it) will fool you and play its games for however long you or (it) want it to.

Now remember you which is actually you (as a person) and (it) as anxiety are together as one. To get rid of one you must find the other one.

What is the secret to getting rid of anxiety? Fear it can be any fear for most people its dying or some other irrational fear that you or it (anxiety) can make up.

The majority of people kbow they have anxiety deep down even with the physical symptoms. But some how someway let it control them. Google and reassurance can be our biggest enemy and for some there biggest friend. But either way you need anxiety and it needs you.

Dont be afraid of him (it) because by now as by what I wrote your one and the same. So what are you afraid of? I dont know? But when you find the answer you will know? You already know? Just think about it?

Let us know your answer? Anxiety what a great friend it is. Good luck. You will find your way. Believe.:bighug1:

[Mav]

Hi Jay, I'm determined to overcome it in all it's entirety too. My anxiety started last year too. I've been doing very well, keeping busy helps a lot and also a positive mindset. I've been anxiety free for a few weeks and I'm proud of myself :)

Good luck, we'll get there!

[pixie101]

This is like reading my exact same story, I'm Cara, 22, Female - I even got told I had a Vit D deficiency and am now taking supplements. I am suffering with constant leg pain and tingling which tends to make me panic about blood clots, I go through phases with HA - when I'm fine and when I'm convinced I'm dying (today is the latter)
I too joined the forum when I reached a point where I realised I needed to try and figure out how to beat this as I was losing focus with everything else in my life. I am on the waiting list for CBT at the moment and looking at online resources. Tried mindfullness but I became too aware of my body and it made my HA worse.
Are you trying anything to try and work through HA?

[Jay8]

Hi everyone, thanks for the replies. It's great to have others support each other on here, as a lot of the time people without anxiety don't really fully understand the mental fight we go through!

I think I'm scared that I will have a panic attack again, or feel the way I did when I first found out about the vitamin D. I googled a few things as well (which i know i shouldn't have!) and of course it basically told me I was dying. My Mum died from cancer when I was 4 and somewhere deep down, I worry that the same is going to happen to me, Google certainly didn't help! Saying that in the past few days I've been opening up to my partner about it who is luckily very understanding and wants to help me tackle it. She suggested I ordered a book about HA which I have done, and I've also been exercising as it focuses my mind elsewhere. It's only been two days but it's definitely helping, although i believe it's a lot road to take my mind off it completely!

Cara - I'm glad someone else is in the same position as me! When did you start taking supplements? I find i go through stages too, i felt fine for a month and in the past couple of weeks i feel like all my symptoms and more are coming back. I'm similar to you in that one day I'll put it down to vitamin D and the next I'll be convinced it's something more serious! What is mindfulness? I have heard of CBT but haven't looked into it yet, i haven't really plucked up the courage to speak to my doctor about HA yet. I'm going to start reading the book tonight, but i definitely recommend exercise. I'm not one to exercise normally but it's really helping my body feel more energised and focus my mind on something else. I also found a really good online 24 page leaflet from the NHS about HA, try giving it a Google if you haven't seen it already - it felt like i wrote it, it was that similar to my situation!

May I'm glad you're recovering, did you do anything in particular to help?

[pixie101]

I began my supplements in February and have now had to stop for a month so they can re-test my levels to see if they've stabilised. Mindfullness is like a kind of meditation, it's all about being aware of your senses and thoughts but it didn't work for me.

I'm scared to talk to the doctor about HA as I feel like they'll just dismiss every physical symptom as HA and not take me seriously, I went straight to the NHS CBT service and requested they didn't talk to my doctor about it. I've been meaning to exercise but my leg pain stops me which is so annoying. I've got that leaflet, it's useful isn't it? I'm just so fed up of this whole thing!

It's good you've opened up to your partner, I recently opened up to mine and she's been very supportive as I often feel like a burden when I'm constantly worrying. It's good to have support around you.

[Jay8]

I want to get re-tested soon but when I asked the doctor about it he said I didn't really need to get and just to keep taking it until summer, but I might ask a different doctor because it would be nice to get it re-checked for peace of mind! I feel like my vitamin D symptoms improved but seem to be coming back over the past month, do you find they come and go?

That's exactly the reason I don't want to - I know they won't take me seriously! I'll have to take a look at CBT at some point to see if it helps me.

The leaflet is definitely useful, I'm so fed up too! It sounds like we have a lot in common - crazy! I feel like I'm talking to myself!

Yeah I'm lucky she's been so supportive, I feel exactly the same like I must be a burden sometimes and have been trying not to mention when I'm experiencing HA. I think that's one of the reasons I joined up here, so I can stop bugging her with all of my worries! I hope your vitamin D results come back ok, it's crazy how much a deficiency can effect our bodies.