moore
29-06-09, 03:05
Ok..I'm new here, but I'm certainly not new to anxiety. I'm glad to have finally found such a large community of fellow sufferers, and since I have battled my symptoms "alone" for so many years, its a bit odd reading others with the same things going on, I thought I was unique!! :winks:
Anyway, to cut a long intro short, I'm a health anxiety sufferer of about 22 years plus since early childhood, I think I had a "brain tumour" at 8 years old, followed by a few types of cancer, you get the idea. By age 32 I've accumulated my fair share of real stress related illnesses, or thats what I call them, because in my opinion they are caused or exascerbated by stress. None of them are serious or life threatening, the worst include IBS, bells palsy (stress? undoubtedly!), hand numbness, panic attacks, and so on..more than I can even remember, never mind care to remember.
What never stops surprising me is how many different health problems I can have. Logically you'd think that anxiety and stress would cause one or two complaints, maybe go away, then recur as the same complaints. For me, I get no such familiarity, every complaint is a new and different one, which of course I find distressing because every time it catches me out. The latest special is mouth numbness, which I have never had before. Been to see the doctor, he doesn't know what it is.
Doctors over the years have been very variable, I have found. Some are sympathetic to anxiety but more often I find they are not. I am surprised to find that anxiety and its symptoms isn't taken more seriously. I always feel overlooked, and shooed away from doctors due to either generalised "wooly" symptoms or no physical manifestation, or they just cant explain it. Or, perhaps thats a manifestation of general anxiety. Which is something I've never really thought about before. Anyone else get that?
So yes, I am glad to join you fellow sufferers, I hope I can be of use aswell as learn a few things and maybe it would be nice to get a bit more control over my symptoms!! :D
Anyway, to cut a long intro short, I'm a health anxiety sufferer of about 22 years plus since early childhood, I think I had a "brain tumour" at 8 years old, followed by a few types of cancer, you get the idea. By age 32 I've accumulated my fair share of real stress related illnesses, or thats what I call them, because in my opinion they are caused or exascerbated by stress. None of them are serious or life threatening, the worst include IBS, bells palsy (stress? undoubtedly!), hand numbness, panic attacks, and so on..more than I can even remember, never mind care to remember.
What never stops surprising me is how many different health problems I can have. Logically you'd think that anxiety and stress would cause one or two complaints, maybe go away, then recur as the same complaints. For me, I get no such familiarity, every complaint is a new and different one, which of course I find distressing because every time it catches me out. The latest special is mouth numbness, which I have never had before. Been to see the doctor, he doesn't know what it is.
Doctors over the years have been very variable, I have found. Some are sympathetic to anxiety but more often I find they are not. I am surprised to find that anxiety and its symptoms isn't taken more seriously. I always feel overlooked, and shooed away from doctors due to either generalised "wooly" symptoms or no physical manifestation, or they just cant explain it. Or, perhaps thats a manifestation of general anxiety. Which is something I've never really thought about before. Anyone else get that?
So yes, I am glad to join you fellow sufferers, I hope I can be of use aswell as learn a few things and maybe it would be nice to get a bit more control over my symptoms!! :D