KM7
27-07-18, 13:13
Hi all,
I hope I'm posting this in the right place. I wasn't really sure as there are quite a few categories and I guess this thread could go in any of them.
Last night was another sleepless night after a bout of panic. I once again had a constant urge to urinate that I just couldn't shake off. A couple of hours into my sleepless night and I suddenly had a strange feeling at the back of my legs, a sense of something crawling on my skin. I know my mind immediately jumped to the thought of multiple sclerosis and that's when I started to panic. As I panicked my legs seized up followed by strong cramp like pains in my quadriceps and now here I am typing this after having not slept at all.
I'm not entirely sure when my health anxiety started. For all I know I've suffered from it for years without really thinking about it or knowing what it is. I was diagnosed with general anxiety around 6-7 years ago after experiencing some heart/chest pains accompanied by palpatations and breathlessness. But I guess like many other people I never really knew what having general anxiety meant, noone ever really bothered to explain it to me and I never really did a good job of researching what it was, so I just lived with it.
Since the end of last year I started to notice some symptoms. They all felt fairly random and minor such as muscular spasms, urges to urinate when lying down, ocassional aches and pains, but I didn't really think of them except as an annoyance. For all I know I've always I've had them for much longer but just never really thought about them. Today however these symptoms that I would have considered minor at the time have been a central focus of my worry. I see them as signs of an illness that I should have taken more notice of.
It would be around three months ago when everything started to take a turn for the worse. A right abdoimal pain I had been suffering from for several years started to flare up. This pain has been investigated several times over the years and nothing has ever come up, however for whatever reason it just got suddenly worse. I was very conscious about it at the time and not long after I started to experience stomach issues. Constant acids, sharp like pains that would come and go, constipation, etc.
I proceeded to visit my GP about the symptoms I was experiencing and they arranged to have several tests done ranging from blood tests to ultrasounds.
It would be during the waiting period of having my tests done when I would have my first ever panic attack.
One day, after having had a quick shower I came back into my room and started to feel strange. I sat down knowing something wasn't right but made the mistake of immediately trying to get back up. That's when everything hit me like a train. An immense sense of dizziness and panic ensued, my body immediately went into meltdown mode and my heart started to race whilst my body was shaking uncontrollably. My girlfriend who was with me at the time called for an ambulance and I was whisked off to hospital. There, I had several bloodtests done and a regular check up by one of the doctors. They asked me if I suffered from anxiety to which I of course replied yes and they told me that what I experienced that morning was a panic attack. I was told to go back home and rest.
From this day onward everything sort of spiralled out of control. I've suffered from a variety of symptoms, each of them changing daily, some days would be worse and some days would conjure up new symptoms that I had never had before.
I've had periods of immense constant dizziness, vision problems, your typical chest pains and breathlessness, persistent urges to urinate (not just when lying down anymore), weakness and numbness in my face and arms especially in my hands, general aches and cramps throughout my body, tinnitus that once started hasn't gone away since. These are just a few of the symptoms that have cropped up over the past couple of months. I've also had several panic attacks since my initial one. One resulted in me ending up in the eye hospital as I lost complete vision for several minutes after multiple nights of insomnia, which was a pretty frightening ordeal.
Due to all these symptoms I have of course been in and out of hospital. My GP has appointed me many tests over these past few weeks such as 2 MRIs, one for my head and one for my upper spine (the latter of which I'm still waiting results for), ultrasounds, stool tests, urine tests, blood tests etc. All have come back negative aside from something that was found by chance during one of the MRIs which ended up being congested sinuses which isn't the biggest worry.
I was at one stage prescribed some medication which I was taken off quickly due to some side effects, so at this time I'm not currently taking any medication. I have arranged however to start taking therapy and I will soon commence CBT which should hopefully help.
I'm not really sure what I'm seeking by posting here. I guess like many I'm hoping for reassurance from others who have been through something similar or just having the sense of venting some frustration. It's better than going back to old Dr Google anyway and searching for every symptom I feel and finding out I'm going to die or suffer for the rest of my life.
These last couple of weeks when I think about it have been much better than before, but some days are just impossible to manage and a single thought can ruin it. Today my mind has wondered back to the idea of multiple scelorisis due to my current symptoms of muscular pains and uncomfortable urges to urinate. My mind has created an abundance of severe illnesses I could be suffering from over the past couple of months. As I also mentioned my mind wonders to symptoms I've felt for multiple months that I didn't pay enough attention to and now I feel I should have taken them more seriously.
I apologise for the novel, I didn't expect to write so much but after several weeks of wanting to create a thread and not mustering up the courage to do it I suppose everything just built up and came out in one go.
If anyone takes the time to read this thread or even replies to it please know that I greatly appreciate it and hope that if anyone else is suffering like I am that you're not alone!
So there we are. I'm at bit a of loss after several months of having dealt with a variety of minor to intense symptoms. I felt like I was overcoming the last difficult hurdle but last night just set me back a few paces. Hopefully the light at the end of the tunnel isn't too far ahead...
I hope I'm posting this in the right place. I wasn't really sure as there are quite a few categories and I guess this thread could go in any of them.
Last night was another sleepless night after a bout of panic. I once again had a constant urge to urinate that I just couldn't shake off. A couple of hours into my sleepless night and I suddenly had a strange feeling at the back of my legs, a sense of something crawling on my skin. I know my mind immediately jumped to the thought of multiple sclerosis and that's when I started to panic. As I panicked my legs seized up followed by strong cramp like pains in my quadriceps and now here I am typing this after having not slept at all.
I'm not entirely sure when my health anxiety started. For all I know I've suffered from it for years without really thinking about it or knowing what it is. I was diagnosed with general anxiety around 6-7 years ago after experiencing some heart/chest pains accompanied by palpatations and breathlessness. But I guess like many other people I never really knew what having general anxiety meant, noone ever really bothered to explain it to me and I never really did a good job of researching what it was, so I just lived with it.
Since the end of last year I started to notice some symptoms. They all felt fairly random and minor such as muscular spasms, urges to urinate when lying down, ocassional aches and pains, but I didn't really think of them except as an annoyance. For all I know I've always I've had them for much longer but just never really thought about them. Today however these symptoms that I would have considered minor at the time have been a central focus of my worry. I see them as signs of an illness that I should have taken more notice of.
It would be around three months ago when everything started to take a turn for the worse. A right abdoimal pain I had been suffering from for several years started to flare up. This pain has been investigated several times over the years and nothing has ever come up, however for whatever reason it just got suddenly worse. I was very conscious about it at the time and not long after I started to experience stomach issues. Constant acids, sharp like pains that would come and go, constipation, etc.
I proceeded to visit my GP about the symptoms I was experiencing and they arranged to have several tests done ranging from blood tests to ultrasounds.
It would be during the waiting period of having my tests done when I would have my first ever panic attack.
One day, after having had a quick shower I came back into my room and started to feel strange. I sat down knowing something wasn't right but made the mistake of immediately trying to get back up. That's when everything hit me like a train. An immense sense of dizziness and panic ensued, my body immediately went into meltdown mode and my heart started to race whilst my body was shaking uncontrollably. My girlfriend who was with me at the time called for an ambulance and I was whisked off to hospital. There, I had several bloodtests done and a regular check up by one of the doctors. They asked me if I suffered from anxiety to which I of course replied yes and they told me that what I experienced that morning was a panic attack. I was told to go back home and rest.
From this day onward everything sort of spiralled out of control. I've suffered from a variety of symptoms, each of them changing daily, some days would be worse and some days would conjure up new symptoms that I had never had before.
I've had periods of immense constant dizziness, vision problems, your typical chest pains and breathlessness, persistent urges to urinate (not just when lying down anymore), weakness and numbness in my face and arms especially in my hands, general aches and cramps throughout my body, tinnitus that once started hasn't gone away since. These are just a few of the symptoms that have cropped up over the past couple of months. I've also had several panic attacks since my initial one. One resulted in me ending up in the eye hospital as I lost complete vision for several minutes after multiple nights of insomnia, which was a pretty frightening ordeal.
Due to all these symptoms I have of course been in and out of hospital. My GP has appointed me many tests over these past few weeks such as 2 MRIs, one for my head and one for my upper spine (the latter of which I'm still waiting results for), ultrasounds, stool tests, urine tests, blood tests etc. All have come back negative aside from something that was found by chance during one of the MRIs which ended up being congested sinuses which isn't the biggest worry.
I was at one stage prescribed some medication which I was taken off quickly due to some side effects, so at this time I'm not currently taking any medication. I have arranged however to start taking therapy and I will soon commence CBT which should hopefully help.
I'm not really sure what I'm seeking by posting here. I guess like many I'm hoping for reassurance from others who have been through something similar or just having the sense of venting some frustration. It's better than going back to old Dr Google anyway and searching for every symptom I feel and finding out I'm going to die or suffer for the rest of my life.
These last couple of weeks when I think about it have been much better than before, but some days are just impossible to manage and a single thought can ruin it. Today my mind has wondered back to the idea of multiple scelorisis due to my current symptoms of muscular pains and uncomfortable urges to urinate. My mind has created an abundance of severe illnesses I could be suffering from over the past couple of months. As I also mentioned my mind wonders to symptoms I've felt for multiple months that I didn't pay enough attention to and now I feel I should have taken them more seriously.
I apologise for the novel, I didn't expect to write so much but after several weeks of wanting to create a thread and not mustering up the courage to do it I suppose everything just built up and came out in one go.
If anyone takes the time to read this thread or even replies to it please know that I greatly appreciate it and hope that if anyone else is suffering like I am that you're not alone!
So there we are. I'm at bit a of loss after several months of having dealt with a variety of minor to intense symptoms. I felt like I was overcoming the last difficult hurdle but last night just set me back a few paces. Hopefully the light at the end of the tunnel isn't too far ahead...