Anxiety and Pain Link - might help some

[eshu55]

Just a quick aside, which might help some people. I'm in the middle of a HA episode related to middle and lower back, lower right side rib etc pain (and as usual with me, I'm catastrophising and diagnosing myself with terrible diseases). Anyway, two days ago, I went for a swim and was walking back to my office and feeling great, not a pain in 'sight', feeling fit etc. Suddenly my phone rang, and it was my pregnant daughter in law, in tears, saying that her and her son had just been in a car crash (thank God all were ok) and I INSTANTLY got a horrible tight pain all around my chest, ribs, back etc (the identical symptoms that I'd been having before!) Now, I'm not saying that my symptoms are purely from anxiety (I have lots of rational non-terrifying reasons for them) but it was a really 'good' demonstration to me just how anxiety can worsen or even bring on pain. I'm well aware that when anxious, I immediately get an upset stomach (sometimes even before feeling particularly anxious) but it was interesting to me just how quickly my anxiety triggered the (most likely) muscle pain and IBS.

[Dave_Lister]

I'm hoping this is what is going on with me. We just dealt with my wife's brother dying from cancer and in the week leading up to his death I have felt a lot of strain and stress and now I have been having bad back pain in the lower right, and my reflux is bad, and I'm also getting pain in upper back, and my bowel movements are small and soft little pieces, so I am in full on panic mode thinking that I have chronic pancreatitis or cancer of some sort. This has rocked me, and I am supposed to go on holiday to Mexico on Friday with the wife and I don;t want to go because I am scared I'll be ill there and wind up in a Mexican hospital, and now the wife and I are scrapping fiercely now.


I'm a mess.

[eshu55]

I'm hoping this is what is going on with me.

Oh Dave, I feel for you. I also had a similar trigger, someone I know being diagnosed (and last time a similar trigger happened, I had a really bad 3 month HA episode!) I had/have thoracic back pain on the right side, then lower right rib pain, and now the whole area is hypersensitive with painful spots (which of course, I have been prodding), and I have awful gas and have lost weight...and even though I know that I did an awful lot of stuff that could have hurt it in the week before (long drive, kayaking, falling out of the kayak and trying to get back in, my dog pulling really hard on the leash) and the pain comes and goes (and moves around....it is also on the left side, and side of the abdomen and lower back), I ALWAYS lose weight with anxiety, it is almost guaranteed, and my massage therapist says I have the tightest back muscles she has ever felt and they are literally stuck to the bone, and is really minor and it doesn't hurt at night AND I have had the exact same thing before, and my doctor said it was muscle strain and anxiety...I am still stressing about the worst possible outcome. I have gone back on Zoloft and hopefully that will at least take the edge off...good luck!

[Dave_Lister]

Thanks for the reply Eshu. I just went to the doctor and he thinks I may have a duodenal ulcer and is sending me for a scope. i asked him if it could be serious and he said highly unlikely, and plus we have a clear ultrasound(those were his words). He knows me well, and is a family friend. He knows how I get and told me its probably from some stress because I internalize my stress, and am very high strung so this could be causing it. I did have a better bowel movement this morning after seeing him, and also reducing my Zantac, so maybe it is a combo of too much Zantac and stress.


The one thing that does worry me though and keeps in the back of my mind is he did mention that the PPI and Zantac should have taken care of the ulcer, so that does scare me even though I haven't changed my diet and would have an empty stomach a lot and would drink a few beers without food so that would explain why the ulcer wasn't healed properly wouldn't it?

[eshu55]

I think a few beers (any alcohol) would probably bother an ulcer! I'd say trust your doctor as s/he knows you better (last time I went to mine with the same symptoms as I have now, she asked me 'what are you dying of this week?', which sounds mean, but actually snapped me out of it a bit)! I woke feeling totally fine this morning, and had zero pain until I had to drive (in horrible traffic) to a meeting 100km away, so I suspect mine is also due to bad posture and my shift stick car and of course, anxiety...

[jray23]

This is so very true! The mind is a powerful influence on the body. I have a very real balance/dizziness problem, but I have noticed in times of anxiety I become significantly more dizzy/off balance. Even in short periods - i.e. the first five minutes of a first date, etc and then as my anxiety settles down so do my symptoms back to baseline.

I think this is why meditation and mindfulness bring such great results to a lot of people even though there is very little "scientific evidence" for it.

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