Amanda3266
17-11-03, 19:28
Hi there,
My name is Amanda, I'm 37 and have been suffering from panic attacks/General anxiety for the last year. At present I am pretty desperate as I am suffering with an illness type phobia which makes me convince myself that I have cancer or some other life threatening illness when I have minor symptoms such as diarrhoea etc. When this happens I have a real panic/anxiety attack which takes the form of a burning sensation spreading over my body and I get a dry mouth and a funny taste. I've had some biggish problems this year - a caesarean section last December when I had my son and then a diagnosis of gallstones in April after four months of seeing my GP with severe indigestion which both he and I put down to panic attacks and post natal depressiopn. My gall baldder was removed in July and I'm now well again but I can't help going over all this past history in my head and panicking that I've got something seriously wrong with me.
To give you an idea of how daft this is I was told by the anaesthetist when I went in to have my gall bladder out that "Thanks to this you've had a pretty good MOT and you're nice and healthy - all your blood results are fairly good". So why do I still torture myself that I might be unwell. I'm already on antidepressants and they have helped but only to a certain degree.
Any advice from those more experienced and further down the recovery road than me appreciated. I'm driving my poor husband mad but he is very supportive - just scared that it's all to do with him (it isn't - he's wonderful).
Amanda
My name is Amanda, I'm 37 and have been suffering from panic attacks/General anxiety for the last year. At present I am pretty desperate as I am suffering with an illness type phobia which makes me convince myself that I have cancer or some other life threatening illness when I have minor symptoms such as diarrhoea etc. When this happens I have a real panic/anxiety attack which takes the form of a burning sensation spreading over my body and I get a dry mouth and a funny taste. I've had some biggish problems this year - a caesarean section last December when I had my son and then a diagnosis of gallstones in April after four months of seeing my GP with severe indigestion which both he and I put down to panic attacks and post natal depressiopn. My gall baldder was removed in July and I'm now well again but I can't help going over all this past history in my head and panicking that I've got something seriously wrong with me.
To give you an idea of how daft this is I was told by the anaesthetist when I went in to have my gall bladder out that "Thanks to this you've had a pretty good MOT and you're nice and healthy - all your blood results are fairly good". So why do I still torture myself that I might be unwell. I'm already on antidepressants and they have helped but only to a certain degree.
Any advice from those more experienced and further down the recovery road than me appreciated. I'm driving my poor husband mad but he is very supportive - just scared that it's all to do with him (it isn't - he's wonderful).
Amanda