mumof2
03-03-08, 16:41
I've been lurking on here for a while but have now plucked up the courage to post!
I got diagnosed with anxiety in January following a couple of very stressful years (moving house/house renovations/having a 2nd baby/returning to work & childcare worries/serious illness in the family/stress with the kids etc etc - need I go on?). It took ages for me to realise I might be suffering from anxiety - over a year in fact. I was worried I might have some awful disease, especially as my dad died from bowel cancer. For me, it started gradually with mild IBS symptoms soon after the birth of my 2nd child i.e. having to suddenly rush to the loo. To begin with, it would only happen sometimes, usually on social occassions, but over time started to happen more frequently so I felt rough nearly every day. I would also feel sick, shaky, shivery, panicky and have palpitations.
Ironically, by the time I sought help many of the problems that had caused me to be stressed were well on the way to being resolved, yet I felt worse than ever. My GP explained that my body had "learnt how to panic" and the original stressors had been replaced by a new one i.e. the fear of feeling ill. I was put on a very low dose of 10mg Citalopram per day and after a few days I noticed a definite improvement although it seemed to plateau after that. Regarding the IBS, I was no longer needing the loo several times a day. Instead, I would often have diarreah once or maybe twice 1st thing in the morning and would then be fine for the rest of the day. I went back to the Dr after 6 weeks who said that it was possibly just the fear of having to face the day. I think she had a point as it tended to be worse on days I had to go somewhere. She increased my dose to 20mg per day 10 days ago and I've definitely felt much better and hadn't had diarreah for over a week, until this morning when I had to go 4 times which got me very dispondent and prompted me to post on here :weep: However, it was Monday morning (which I always dread), so fingers crossed, I'll be ok for the rest of the week.
Sorry for droning on, but hopefully someone can relate to my story and perhaps could offer me some words of wisdom. I'm so glad I found this site as at least I know I'm not alone and what I'm suffering from is not that unusual.
Thanks for reading.
I got diagnosed with anxiety in January following a couple of very stressful years (moving house/house renovations/having a 2nd baby/returning to work & childcare worries/serious illness in the family/stress with the kids etc etc - need I go on?). It took ages for me to realise I might be suffering from anxiety - over a year in fact. I was worried I might have some awful disease, especially as my dad died from bowel cancer. For me, it started gradually with mild IBS symptoms soon after the birth of my 2nd child i.e. having to suddenly rush to the loo. To begin with, it would only happen sometimes, usually on social occassions, but over time started to happen more frequently so I felt rough nearly every day. I would also feel sick, shaky, shivery, panicky and have palpitations.
Ironically, by the time I sought help many of the problems that had caused me to be stressed were well on the way to being resolved, yet I felt worse than ever. My GP explained that my body had "learnt how to panic" and the original stressors had been replaced by a new one i.e. the fear of feeling ill. I was put on a very low dose of 10mg Citalopram per day and after a few days I noticed a definite improvement although it seemed to plateau after that. Regarding the IBS, I was no longer needing the loo several times a day. Instead, I would often have diarreah once or maybe twice 1st thing in the morning and would then be fine for the rest of the day. I went back to the Dr after 6 weeks who said that it was possibly just the fear of having to face the day. I think she had a point as it tended to be worse on days I had to go somewhere. She increased my dose to 20mg per day 10 days ago and I've definitely felt much better and hadn't had diarreah for over a week, until this morning when I had to go 4 times which got me very dispondent and prompted me to post on here :weep: However, it was Monday morning (which I always dread), so fingers crossed, I'll be ok for the rest of the week.
Sorry for droning on, but hopefully someone can relate to my story and perhaps could offer me some words of wisdom. I'm so glad I found this site as at least I know I'm not alone and what I'm suffering from is not that unusual.
Thanks for reading.