Underlying weakness?

[LeeBee]

I have started to wonder why I keep getting ill every time I exert myself a little bit beyond the norm. When I first got a viral illness in July this year, I had two dance classes and a yoga class in one week and the following week began a sickness which lasted the best part of 3 months.

Once I got better I slowly built my strength back up, put a bit of weight back on (I got quite skinny) and slowly increased my level of exercise. A couple of weeks before Christmas I went to two dance classes and a yoga class. I was exhausted(!) and the following week I had a return of the symptoms that I had in July - dizziness, swollen glands, fatigue.

I was terrified that the illness had come back but it has got better. Since Christmas I wake up most mornings with a snotty nose and a sore throat which gets better as the day goes on. I have bouts of dizziness and nausea but once they go away I feel OK. I'm examining myself for lumps, bumps and bruises (scared bruises aren't healing), checking glands daily but they seem pretty much OK. I had a series of blood tests in July/August which were all fine and I was OK for about 2-3 months before this latest relapse. I went to the doctor just before Christmas and he said it was a mild virus.

Am I overreacting? Is it just the HA messing with my mind? Or could I have some kind of underlying weakness (ME or cancer or something) that are causing me to get ill every time I push my body a little further than normal? I'm worrying that there is something lurking under the doctor's radar that is making me weak. Help?

[LeeBee]

It's midnight here in the southern hemisphere and I've tried to go to sleep but can't. I've been feeling dizzy all evening - it's worse when I'm moving so I'm trying to sit still. I can't help feeling that something is wrong. I really, really hope this is just anxiety.

[agent orange]

Leebee. I really am sorry that you feel crap. I am sure that it It is just that you are fatigued and it does seem that the mind can give us horrendous symptoms(I am struggling with this also) But you know you are not alone and there is a lot of us who feel similiar things. Of course I cannot say that you do not have something,but if your bloods came back negative, then I would try and live with it and keep telling yourself that there is nothing wrong, either that or go back to the Doctors and get rechecked. I go to the Doctors at least once a month with the same old symptoms and he said that there is nothing and that it is Somatic (all in the mind). In a round about way I am trying to encourage you to look at this differently. I feel dizzy, nauseaus and I have had an MRI on the brain and nothing. So it is possible to actually have nothing wrong. Sorry for the long post.
Good Luck and best wishes.
Tony

[LeeBee]

Thank you Agent. It really does help to feel that I'm not alone in this :hugs:.

[Utility]

This may help you in your outlook towards how you are feeling:

I do a lot of exercise (gym 2 to 3 times a week and swimming 2 times a week) and I went through a phase where I thought it wasn't doing me any good. In fact I became convinced it was going to kill me. I was wrong of course. It was coincidence that I was feeling ill after exercise, but my anxiety made me focus my thoughts in the wrong direction.

I was just going through a period where I seemed to pick up all the bugs and viruses that were doing the rounds but I blamed my exercising.

What I am careful of is not to exercise when I do feel a bit under the weather because this can make you feel worse the next day, but it certainly doesn't cause it.

It was my CBT that made me realise that my train of thought was focusing on the negatives and not the positives.

[agent orange]

Remember this LeeBee, you may be the other side of the planet, but you are never alone. There really is so many of us who have so many similiar problems, and Sometimes we cannot change the here and now, we have to make do with what we have and to cope. I sometimes think i would feel better if I did not have this or that symptom, but the truth is I do have this and that symptom like you. We just have to put strategies into place. The C.B.T that utility mentions is a good strategy, unfortunatley it did not overly work for me. Here in the U.K Mental health resources are not brilliant.
Send me an I.M if you would like.
Take care of yourself and be kind to yourself.
Tony

[LeeBee]

Thanks Agent and Utility - I really appreciate your replies.

[agent orange]

I send you a big hug.
Tony