always anxious

[calmcanaries]

I'm writing on this board in the hopes that it will be somewhat therapeutic, and maybe i will end up allaying my fears in the process. I have had sharp pain in my abdomen and chest for about a year and a half with varying levels of severity and constancy. Last year at about this same time I had an EKG, an abdominal ultrasound, and a lot of bloodwork (including sed rate). I don't have much in the way of family history for health problems at a young age, at least in my immediate family and grandparents. My blood pressure is good, possibly slightly on the low side. I have borderline high cholesterol, but it has gone down a considerable amount since the last test. My BMI is normal for my height, but I don't get much in the way of exercise. I am twenty years old, and I don't have much in the way of preexisting health problems. However, I'm scared that someone might have missed something along the way in screening. I know that many conditions can go undiagnosed for long periods, and that EKGs aren't always reliable. I just want to get to the bottom of it. I just hope that it's not acute in manner, and I don't know if I should continue to screen for conditions. I've scheduled an endoscopy for next month. It's difficult to discern where anxiety ends and actual health problems begin. I typically get nervous with the start of each school year (I'm in college) and the fact that my boyfriend has been gone for a month also makes me quite anxious. I just want everything in my life to go smoothly. Any advice?

[pooh]

HI Calm

I agree it is hard to know where anxiety ends and real physical problems begin. I will give you an example. I have nerve damage in my neck which affects my left arm. it can get really sore and if I use it when it is sore the pains travel up my neck and down into my chest round the heart area and across the back.
Funnily enough if i am really anxious not sleeping this can trigger it off too. When i had the flu and was coughing a lot it triggered it off. I even phoned an ambulance which is not like me at all and i was tested and given meds for a suspected heart attack lol and there was me saying no dont send an ambulance ill get myself to hospital im not having a heart attack which I wasnt.
The point I am trying to make before I go off on a tangent like Billy Connolly lol is that this is a pre exisiting condition. Therefore I dont worry about pains that are classic heart attack signs lol cause they arent. Especially when a couple of co codamol cures the problem.
I think you need to put some trust in the health professionals and the tests that have been run. A student huh? You familiar with occam's razor? The simplest explanation is usually the right one....there is probably a really simple explanation to what you are experiencing here. Try not to let it worry you you should be out having fun gawd i miss my student days id be one forever if i could get away with it lol

Take care and let us know how you get on

Pooh xx

[calmcanaries]

Thanks for the reply. It's so difficult sometimes, because the Internet allows you to look up anything, but you know what they say, "a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing." I only have a shallow understanding of the conditions I look up. In the past year I have worried that I had MS, a pulmonary embolism, Lupus, Fibromyalgia, Pancreatic Cancer, Colon Cancer, an aneurysm, you name it. I know that many of these conditions rarely occur in people my age. However, I cannot get away from the pain, and don't know how it can be psychosomatic. None of these conditions run in my family, however, anxiety has a very strong genetic link.

[pooh]

Calm you heard the stories of people sying they register pain from limbs that have been amputated? The brain is capable of amazing things many we dont know about consciously that are driven by deep rooted anxieties. I believ it is possible to feel pain and it"be in your head' for the want of a better expression.
And c'mere to I slap ya no googling stuff on the internet lol
Look at this way
if you had all that how are you still here to be writing posts in this wonderful poem.
PERSPECTIVE sweetie try not to lose it if you can

Take care

Pooh x

[pooh]

poem lol i meant forum i have my moments LOL

[elitest]

poem lol i meant forum i have my moments LOL


i thought poem was rather a wonderful way of describing it:hugs:

[countrygirl]

Pooh I am interested in you saying that pain can be all in the head. I have a damaged spine - degenerated discs and a few mild herniations and arthritis - nothing to make a neurosurgeon want to operate on me but I have pain all over! it seems to go from one place to another so for months I will be in agony with say my lumbar spine then suddenly it will change to my thoracic spine. I have severe health anxiety and being in constant pain and having odd sensations means I am super freaked 24/7!!

I am sure my anxiety makes my pain worse in that I am constantly tense.

And of course the more symptoms/pain I have the more I worry so its a viscious circle.

Interesting thing is my husband also has multiple back problems from a car accident and he gets huge amounts of pain and strange sensations/dizziness etc but he doesn't worry about it just thinks "xxx its my back I wish it would not hurt so much" or whatever.

How I wish I was like him