Something has happened to me

[panicagain]

I don't know how many of y'all read my other story about trying to take an 800 mile trip then cancelled it cuz i couldn't bring myself to do it but if ya didn't read it i just recapped it but now i'm different, i know it sounds weird but now i don't want to go anywhere, not even down the road a mile to the gas station, it never bothered me before but now it does. I'd be totally happy if i could just stay here in my home and order everything to be delivered to me, or get my husband to bring it. Is this weird, i've never felt this bad before. My health anxiety has also got worse(if thats possible,lol) now i'm sure i'm having internal bleeding, i don't know why its always internal bleeding, my belly hurts, my whole belly hurts, like its full of blood or something, sorta like bloating, sometimes the pain goes to one small area then another. Everyone thinks i'm crazy, my husband says all the pain is in my head. I talk to him about it and i need to be reassured over and over by him that i'm ok(he's not even a dr) so what difference does it make that he says i'm ok, he doesn't know for sure. Does anyone else do this? Does anyone else ramble like this when they're stressed?lol I know this is kinda an all over the place thread but i get like this sometimes, sorry. I'll stop now:wacko:

[emlou71]

I am so sorry you are feeling like this. I don't suffer from health anxiety but I suffer from social anxiety so I know a little of what you're going though It can be so debilitating (think i've spelt that right). Some days I don't want to leave the house and when I have doctors appointments or need to go shopping I always drag my oh or kids with me as I won't go alone. My oh even pays at the checkout because I won't even do that now! I am frightened to speak to people. I am ok with my daily routine which is walk the children to school, visit my mum, go to the corner shop and then pick my children up again. If my routine changes I start to panic and lose my patience with the children. I am a stay at home mum at the moment but when my daughter starts school this September I am supposed to be looking for a job (me, going for an interview, thats a laugh!) I have good and bad days but I have been suffering badly this week even though I did have a good weekend. I hate being like this! A good friend of mine suffers from health anxiety and that has stopped her from going away on holiday or even visiting family who live at the other side of the country. She just doesn't seem to have any life at the moment and its very worrying. To some extent I think that everybody suffers at some time in their lives from anxiety and reading the threads on here I realise that I am not alone. Sorry for ranting on. I really hope you are starting to feel a little better. x:hugs: :hugs:

[panicagain]

I am so sorry you are feeling like this. I don't suffer from health anxiety but I suffer from social anxiety so I know a little of what you're going though It can be so debilitating (think i've spelt that right). Some days I don't want to leave the house and when I have doctors appointments or need to go shopping I always drag my oh or kids with me as I won't go alone. My oh even pays at the checkout because I won't even do that now! I am frightened to speak to people. I am ok with my daily routine which is walk the children to school, visit my mum, go to the corner shop and then pick my children up again. If my routine changes I start to panic and lose my patience with the children. I am a stay at home mum at the moment but when my daughter starts school this September I am supposed to be looking for a job (me, going for an interview, thats a laugh!) I have good and bad days but I have been suffering badly this week even though I did have a good weekend. I hate being like this! A good friend of mine suffers from health anxiety and that has stopped her from going away on holiday or even visiting family who live at the other side of the country. She just doesn't seem to have any life at the moment and its very worrying. To some extent I think that everybody suffers at some time in their lives from anxiety and reading the threads on here I realise that I am not alone. Sorry for ranting on. I really hope you are starting to feel a little better. x:hugs: :hugs:

Sounds like me only i don't go out nearly as much. I'm relieved to have my kids home schooled so i don't hafta go pick them up or drop them off. I've had jobs in the past but not long, the longest job i had was 7 months which is unheard of for me, the only job i've been able to keep and thats the job i do now if ya wanna call it a job, i take care of the paperwork and billing for my husbands business and i don't hafta go out to do it, its all done right here on the computer. well i've rambled enough. Good luck with the job thing and Thank you:hugs:

[sheba2]

Hi panicsagain.

I know how you feel. 2 years ago after the death of my father I was driving home the day after he died. I had experienced panic many times so was feeling very anxious. On the way home my car broke down and so did I. Getting home was a nightmare and took me the rest of the day and evening. I was drained physically, mentally and emotionally. After that I didn't want to go out in the car again. It used to be one of my safe places and now it was one of my scariest. So I didn't go if I could help it. Then I decided that going out was scarey so I gradually stopped doing that and my husband took over. Neighbours took my daughter to school. Then I didn't like going out in the garden in case I had a turn and people saw me. All the time I was frantic that I would just drop dead. I had hundreds of panic attacks. Then I decided that once I came down stairs in the morning I better not go back up in case I died on the stairs. If the phone rang I was scared when I answered it in case I died. I ended up being glued to one chair for most of the day. This extreme phase lasted for several weeks and then one day I thought this is just so ridiculous I might as well be dead as live like this. I didn't want to be dead and had no suicide thoughts I just realised that I wasn't living anymore. So I made myself leave the phone where it was I had been carrying it around with me in case I needed to dial 999. The progress I made was slow and I have had some excellent counselling. Looking back I think it would have helped if I had got help sooner. I left things too long and had gradually withdrawn from life. Please try not to follow this same route. If yu feel that you are becoming agorophobic the sooner you get help the better. I really hope this helps yu take care

[Bill]

This is often a usual reaction. When we become overstressed by something, we tend to feel the need to retreat to somewhere where we feel safe. The trouble is, although we're in a "place" where we feel safe, the fears are still running riot in our minds so that our minds are still in a terrifying place wherever we run.

Once we retreat, we feel trapped with free time to worry so the mind then looks for something to worry about which is often the anxiety symptoms we're feeling and then the mind starts making us think they're "not" anxiety symptoms but something serious instead when they're not!

I feel the only way to overcome this is to not to give in to fear. Push yourself to get out of the house so you feel less trapped, even for a very short distance. Often even staying in a car just for a short drive can help because the car "can" be an extension of the "safe" house but it means we're getting away from the trapped feeling.

Fresh air and different surroundings can also help to stop us focussing on anxiety feelings.

I know it's far from easy but it's best to nip this in the bud because the longer you stay indoors, the harder it becomes to face the outside world again. :hugs:

[artistguy]

I advise you read any of the books by Dr Claire Weekes.