What Next - with symptoms

[turnthelighton]

It is really frustrating because just when I think I am fine my mind does overtime and my symptoms come back. I have been on fluoraxtine since January this year and it really has helped but my health anxiety is still there:weep: I am feeling really down and I wish I could make it all go away, I want the old me back and not the nervous, worrying person I am now.

As per my previous post my latest symptom is my sore eye, like it has a headache! I am really concerned about all my symptoms being down one side my left and have now got it into my head again that I should have another MRI to make sure there is nothing sinister there.

I am really glad I found this board, apologies for boring you with another post.

[tHamera]

It is really frustrating because just when I think I am fine my mind does overtime and my symptoms come back. I have been on fluoraxtine since January this year and it really has helped but my health anxiety is still there:weep: I am feeling really down and I wish I could make it all go away, I want the old me back and not the nervous, worrying person I am now.


you nailed my condition right on. i dont really have panic attacks anymore, but i live in an on again off again state of normalcy infused with worry and intrusive thoughts processes along with minor physical symptoms - chest pains, dizziness, heart flutters, etc...

like you, i just want the old me back!

[itoldyouiwasill]

This is classic symptom shifting. Anxiety doesn't want you to get rid of it, it thrives on fear and uncertainty and knows all the tricks that will allow it to find and maintain a safe haven in your mind and body.

Anxiety needs fear in order to live, the moment you start to accept a specific symptom as being anxiety based and not actually a terminal organic illness you begin to lose the fear and your anxiety will begin to panic.

What will then happen is that your anxiety will change it's tactics and give you another new sensation/symptom to worry about. Yep, last week you had it licked but this new sensation has started the loop all over again.

Symptom shifting is very common and a sure sign that your physical sensations are the mind somatising rather than an underlying physical illness.

all good fun isn't it.

edit: See below, not my words but a useful article.


A perplexing problem faced by most people is that every person's constellation of symptoms is slightly different, although many of the symptoms are the same. The confusing element is that, over time, and even during therapy, a person's physical symptoms may change.

This is many times frightening to the person who doesn't understand what is happening to them. For example, as a part of panic disorder, a person may be plagued by feelings of nausea for a long period of time, enter into therapy, and as the panic attacks are gradually cut off, the nausea disappears -- only to be replaced by a headache that the person is afraid is a brain tumor.

What is really happening here is actually positive. Once the person fully and completely realizes the nausea is simply a symptom that the mind associates with fear and panic, the symptom disappears. In its place another symptom appears -- whatever feels different or out of the ordinary. Then, the process begins again: The catastrophic misinterpretation -- blowing a physical symptom way out of proportion -- and then paying attention to it. And, as we know, the more attention you pay to these symptoms, the bigger they grow and the worse they get.

The person who understands that this will happen is two steps ahead of the game. Panic is very tricky -- it will continue to plague you as long as you let it. In therapy, we learn quickly to expect this symptom shifting and then to realize that this is a positive event -- a major symptom has gone away, and a new symptom has appeared. This new symptom is then identified for what it is, and we learn not to pay attention to it. Any of these "new" symptoms are, as a result, not as dramatic and intense. The shorter period of time it takes before you realize that a symptom has shifted and that panic is playing a trick on you, the quicker and easier the symptom will be to deal with and eradicate.

Once the panic attacks are eliminated, and the symptom-shifting starts, a person is well on the way to recovery. Symptom-shifting is a positive element that, when viewed properly, indicates that you are on the road to recovery.

[tHamera]

wow itoldyouiwasill, thats some interesting insight. i kinda knew on an instinctive level that my symptoms were 'shapeshifting' if you will but i didnt know that this shifting was part and parcel of the recovery process. its very interesting, as this is what i've been going through since the more intense panic symptoms have subsided.

thanks a lot for the insight.

[precious78]

Frustrating isn't it? I get this quite a bit. Just when I think I'm getting a handle on things, another symptom comes along that I haven't had before and I star getting adjitated again.

It is interesting though as I was reading the Claire Weekes book and she said that nothing new could happen to you. Which is the contradictory to what is happening, but I believe this to be correct. Once you no longer fear something it has to try a new tactic to get your attention again.

[itoldyouiwasill]

Frustrating isn't it? I get this quite a bit. Just when I think I'm getting a handle on things, another symptom comes along that I haven't had before and I star getting adjitated again.

It is interesting though as I was reading the Claire Weekes book and she said that nothing new could happen to you. Which is the contradictory to what is happening, but I believe this to be correct. Once you no longer fear something it has to try a new tactic to get your attention again.

Claire Weekes was an excellent authority on the subject of anxiety but her books where written a while ago and there have been significant advances in the understanding of the mind body relationship and somatisation in particular.

I think Weekes mainly tends to concentrate on the 'traditional' idea of anxiety as being panic attacks that lead to palpitations etc etc as well. As we are aware free floating anxiety and GAD also come resplendant with a load of subtle and not so subtle physical sensations as well.

[precious78]

Claire Weekes is a very common sense book which has helped me immensly but you are correct and we are all testiment to this. My symptoms do change regularly and sometimes new things do pop up. I try as hard as I cna nowadays to recognised this. But that is always dependent on how bad the feeling makes me. If it is a minor irritation I can brush it away, something more painful and I start to worry again.

[turnthelighton]

Thank you for all your replies, a lot of it makes sense.