Went to the doctors this morning

[MidnightCalm]

as my follow up to starting sertraline, he's prescribed me another month, was hoping I'd get some answers but he didn't seem too concerned with my symptoms.
I told him I was getting the occasional night sweats and I told him I keep waking up in the night feeling REALLY ill, when I wake up my arms feel foreign and weak and I feel lightheaded and spaced out, sometimes it looks like my eyes are flickering too but he wasn't too concerned with that either.
I changed to him because the other doctor I had was new and I wanted someone with more experience (He is the head of the practice and apparantly he's very well respected amongst his patients and collegues).
He said this to me which I don't know whether to be happy about or not,
he knows my worries that I have lymphoma, leukemia or some other type of killer disease.
He said
"When you came to us last time and the times before we did various blood tests, you've had an ecg and all your vitamin levels checked, thyroid, calcium, liver, it was sort of an M.O.T and that showed you have NO underlying illness and nothing serious going on"
can he really get this information from just a few tests? I don't know what to think as my symptoms are still going on and every day I feel like CRAP and sometimes I feel "like I'm dying".
Does anybody else feel as bad as I do on a daily basis? I don't even have "good" days anymore, to me a "good day" is having a day with slightly minor symptoms, they're always still present.
My neck is killing, my head is in the worst pain never had such a bad headache, it's all around the front, behind the eyes, around the back, all over my scalp today, my glands hurt in my neck (unless this is just part of the neck pain I'm getting) the pain extends down to my shoulders and ughh..
it's hard to believe all this isn't caused by something major when it feel so damn horrible and scary!

[MidnightCalm]

ONE MORE THING.
I know about depersonalisation and derealisation.
Do you think that could be causing my feelings that my arms are foreign or that my body is sometimes and I'm spaced out?
I don't know because it feels so real that my arms aren't attatched, I never heard anybody experiencing depersonalition in such a physical way :C

[jazz25]

hi there, i feel exactly the same as you on a daily basis, i was told i have a health anxiety and low mood/depression. your symptoms and worries seem the same as mine, have they suggested to you this same diagnosis? the problem with anxiety is we remain in this vicious circle where our mind encourages these physical symptoms, and the physical symptoms make us worry about our health and it continues until we change the way we percieve things. the headaches and the neck pain and general aches and pain are all anxiety symptoms as much as its hard for me to believe. the tests they perform are widespread although it might be one or two bloodtests they can identify underlying medical problems that cause similar symtoms...and the fact that you have been told they are all fine should give you a positive outlook..easier said than done i know! i think if we stop putting ourselves under so much pressure expecting to feel better we might notice the improvements more over time, but i know if you wake up feeling crap it puts a cloud over the whole day..

sorry if im rambling a bit, im new to this but i can relate to your post and am interested to chat to you more:)

[jazz25]

the detachment you feel about your body is indeed a symptom of depersonalisation, derealisation is a sense of detachment from your surroundings

[MidnightCalm]

hi there, i feel exactly the same as you on a daily basis, i was told i have a health anxiety and low mood/depression. your symptoms and worries seem the same as mine, have they suggested to you this same diagnosis? the problem with anxiety is we remain in this vicious circle where our mind encourages these physical symptoms, and the physical symptoms make us worry about our health and it continues until we change the way we percieve things. the headaches and the neck pain and general aches and pain are all anxiety symptoms as much as its hard for me to believe. the tests they perform are widespread although it might be one or two bloodtests they can identify underlying medical problems that cause similar symtoms...and the fact that you have been told they are all fine should give you a positive outlook..easier said than done i know! i think if we stop putting ourselves under so much pressure expecting to feel better we might notice the improvements more over time, but i know if you wake up feeling crap it puts a cloud over the whole day..

sorry if im rambling a bit, im new to this but i can relate to your post and am interested to chat to you more:)

It's horrible isn't it! Just waiting for something to let up!

[MidnightCalm]

the detachment you feel about your body is indeed a symptom of depersonalisation, derealisation is a sense of detachment from your surroundings

I just find it so hard to believe when my arms feel so foreign and I just feel out of it, I try things like counting to 3 then squeezing my left hand then right and so on just to try and convince myself i still have control over my body as it doesn't feel attatched.
Sometimes it affects my breathing too, makes me feel like I've forgotten how to breathe or that breathing is coming at different times to when I think to inhale, like there's a delay, so weird.

[phil06]

ONE MORE THING.
I know about depersonalisation and derealisation.
Do you think that could be causing my feelings that my arms are foreign or that my body is sometimes and I'm spaced out?
I don't know because it feels so real that my arms aren't attatched, I never heard anybody experiencing depersonalition in such a physical way :C

It can cause numbness, headaches, dull vision shakiness, rapid heart beat, visual disturbances and floaters, adrenaline rushes ..that's my take on physical symptoms of DP.

Behavioral: Staying indoors, partly agoraphobic, avoiding things, extensive research on via google, extreme health anxiety, obsessive compulsive worrying.

Thoughts: Going mad, dying, feeling distanced from thoughts, worries of personality changes, alien view of the world, foreign, de ja vu.

Also heard it can be brief spells or prolonged months/years. I am suffering it at the moment. Like any anxiety symptom it feeds off how much you worry about it. Extreme worry may mean you have had all these symptoms. Forgetting about the symptom is seemingly a way to recover.

The chances are the physical symptoms are caused by anxiety/worrying "phantom symptoms". Worrying about depersonalization certainly can make it worse.

[MidnightCalm]

It can cause numbness, headaches, dull vision shakiness, rapid heart beat, visual disturbances and floaters, adrenaline rushes ..that's my take on physical symptoms of DP.

Behavioral: Staying indoors, partly agoraphobic, avoiding things, extensive research on via google, extreme health anxiety, obsessive compulsive worrying.

Thoughts: Going mad, dying, feeling distanced from thoughts, worries of personality changes, alien view of the world, foreign, de ja vu.

Also heard it can be brief spells or prolonged months/years. I am suffering it at the moment. Like any anxiety symptom it feeds off how much you worry about it. Extreme worry may mean you have had all these symptoms. Forgetting about the symptom is seemingly a way to recover.

The chances are the physical symptoms are caused by anxiety/worrying "phantom symptoms". Worrying about depersonalization certainly can make it worse.

Thank you.
I just wish there was a diagnosis.
Like a doctor could say "DEPERSONALISATION!"

Has anybody else experienced anything similar?

I get numbness, and tingling, and flickering vision with it aswel.

[jazz25]

acceptance is key to getting past things, i had a bad episode with derealisation where everything and everyone seemed to be surreal, like i wasnt really there and it all seemed hazy. so i said to myself well this is the way im gonna see the world now i guess i will have to live with it, and without realising things returned to normal after a time..i still get days where i think things seem strange and like i cant see properly but the more i think about the more likely it is to get worse

[MidnightCalm]

It just seems more physical than mental with me, for example I don't feel like "ooh my arms are alien" I feel like "my arms aren't working", I feel detatched because I feel they're not actually doing what they should be doing.

[MidnightCalm]

:mad:

[phil06]

It just seems more physical than mental with me, for example I don't feel like "ooh my arms are alien" I feel like "my arms aren't working", I feel detatched because I feel they're not actually doing what they should be doing.

Has it always been physical? Sometimes constant worrying can then force it from mental symptoms onto mental ones. When I was really bad I only felt safe in a seat, on a bed and felt my hands were not working. Chances are it's tension which creates these feelings. If you think "my hands are not working" expect anything from sweaty palms to numbness as it's the tension signal being sent.

[MidnightCalm]

Yes its always felt physical, it's a weird feeling, I can be lying in bed and I just wont be able to feel where my arms are without moving them or looking. It's sort of like when you get dead arms from lying on them.

[joannap]

it may reassure you to know that i never feel well - i am in some sort of pain every day - i have had years of chronic headaches/sinus type pain. i am currently suffering awful stomach symptoms that i am waiting for tests for and so no - i never have a day without something to worry about either.

however - when i think back to when i was anxiety free and say i had a near miss whilst crossing the road and the adrenalin rush left me feeling really horrible and ill - well - if we have too much adrenalin in our bodies on a daily basis - it should not be a surprise we feel awful.

[MidnightCalm]

it's horrible isn't it joannap :C
Everyday I'm feeling crap, my doctor doesn't seem too concerned, I think he thinks I'll snap out of it so tries to reassure me, I know he's probably had patients who've been really worried and feeling ill from anxiety and he's told them they're okay then they miraculously feel better from stress relief but I'm not like that.

I just hate these symptoms and they're driving me crazy.