jos
26-07-05, 00:05
hi there
i found your site by chance a few weeks ago and it has been more reassuring than any number of medical people and friends reassuring me that things would be ok and it was only anxiety and depression
I was off travelling in south america last year, getting the usual tummy bugs and then had problems at altitude 4000m (in La Paz, Bolivia) with shortness of breath and fatigue as well as salmonella. Over the next few weeks i was in the trauma unit 4 times with extreme shortness of breath and varying degrees of tingling in my hands, arms and face, near collapse, chest pains - each time diagnosed as poor acclimatisation to altitude and given duiretics and antihypertensives - in hindsight some level of acute anxiety (but not a regular panic attack) was probably involved.
Over the next month or so travelling i developed a lot of left arm, chest and gut symptoms that showed up no ongoing problems with regular gut and blood tests and anxiety was suggested but i felt mentally ok just run down - then things started to get weird and scary so i headed home from australia. Within days of landing in the depths of winter in the north of england i was dropping into an extreme anxiety downward spiral with an unhealty dose of depression thrown in.
I was all ready to hospitalise myself but a psycologist friend urged me not to but to hang on in there and try to get back to my flat that i had rented out and normalise my environment ASAP. I was looked after by family and friends for 5 weeks but I will tell the details of the long haul since my return to the uk in january another time -
i am nearly back to work full time after 4 months now with fantastic support from my bosses. It seems that i have had some sort of health anxiety, post illness depression and acute anxiety episodes similar to panic attacks and then tried desperately to regain my former life - while finding it very hard to accept that these could be "normal" psycological problems and there wasn't someting serious neurologically wrong (from the altitude problems) - or i wasn't developing a more serious mental illness such as manic depression or schizophrenia - all keeping the anxiety wound up tight
I am learning so much about myself and have found it very hard in an anxious and depressed state to find my way through the health system including privately, i hope i can share some useful experiences with others. I seems that if you are anywhere between just in need of some antidepressants or actively suicidal then the NHS is ill equipped to help - finding your way to the right help in this middle ground takes some research and this forum seems a great place to start
more another time - I really feel i have turned a corner and finding you has been part of it
thanks jos
i found your site by chance a few weeks ago and it has been more reassuring than any number of medical people and friends reassuring me that things would be ok and it was only anxiety and depression
I was off travelling in south america last year, getting the usual tummy bugs and then had problems at altitude 4000m (in La Paz, Bolivia) with shortness of breath and fatigue as well as salmonella. Over the next few weeks i was in the trauma unit 4 times with extreme shortness of breath and varying degrees of tingling in my hands, arms and face, near collapse, chest pains - each time diagnosed as poor acclimatisation to altitude and given duiretics and antihypertensives - in hindsight some level of acute anxiety (but not a regular panic attack) was probably involved.
Over the next month or so travelling i developed a lot of left arm, chest and gut symptoms that showed up no ongoing problems with regular gut and blood tests and anxiety was suggested but i felt mentally ok just run down - then things started to get weird and scary so i headed home from australia. Within days of landing in the depths of winter in the north of england i was dropping into an extreme anxiety downward spiral with an unhealty dose of depression thrown in.
I was all ready to hospitalise myself but a psycologist friend urged me not to but to hang on in there and try to get back to my flat that i had rented out and normalise my environment ASAP. I was looked after by family and friends for 5 weeks but I will tell the details of the long haul since my return to the uk in january another time -
i am nearly back to work full time after 4 months now with fantastic support from my bosses. It seems that i have had some sort of health anxiety, post illness depression and acute anxiety episodes similar to panic attacks and then tried desperately to regain my former life - while finding it very hard to accept that these could be "normal" psycological problems and there wasn't someting serious neurologically wrong (from the altitude problems) - or i wasn't developing a more serious mental illness such as manic depression or schizophrenia - all keeping the anxiety wound up tight
I am learning so much about myself and have found it very hard in an anxious and depressed state to find my way through the health system including privately, i hope i can share some useful experiences with others. I seems that if you are anywhere between just in need of some antidepressants or actively suicidal then the NHS is ill equipped to help - finding your way to the right help in this middle ground takes some research and this forum seems a great place to start
more another time - I really feel i have turned a corner and finding you has been part of it
thanks jos