Searching for a medical reason

[judipat]

Hi everyone,

Just thought I'd tell you about some of my experiences over the last 30 years - I'll keep it as short as possible.
It all stared in my early 20's - I was out walking and my legs gave way and I fell over - I went into a full blown panic attack and hurried home. Things went downhill fast, could'nt eat, sleep, concentrate- basically, could'nt function at all.
I saw numerous doctors, had all the tests you could possibly think of, which all came back negative.
Not once did anyone mention anxiety/panic etc - and I knew nothing about it at that time.
Anyway, I got worse and worse - would'nt sleep because I was terrified I would'nt wake up. 3 weeks later. I was admitted to a psychiatric ward with mental and physical exhaustion caused by acute anxiety.

Whilst I was in hospital, I found a book in the library by Dr Claire Weekes and read it from cover to cover - I thought she was writing about me!!!! I was amazed (thats how niave I was!!). I've read her books over and over again and conbined with medication and relaxation tapes etc, I gradually got back some normality.

The reason for this post is for all of you that are still searching for a medical reason for all your nasty physical symptoms.
Doctors are physicians and they will always rule out all medical reasons before they consider psycological ones i.e anxiety, depression etc.

Over the last 30 years, I have had many years where my anxiety has been under control - but if I get tied or ill, it can come back with a vengence - I've had to learn to live with it and manage it - not easy sometimes. The menapause was particularly difficult for me and I ended up going back on medication.

I have all of Claire Weekes books and although I've read others - they are still the best and I still go back to them today. This site is also brilliant - I wish it had been available to me years ago.

To those of you who are acutely anxious at the moment, this post may be too long for you (yes, I know) and for others you will probably skip over it and keep searching for another reason. However, my advice to you all is to be as well informed as possible, to know your body and your limitations and then try to learn acceptance and management of your anxiety.

I wish you all well

Judi

[LisaLisa]

What a great post

Thanks for sharing that, it really helps me to hear your story. Its so like mine but you are further down the story than me age wise so its really comforting to hear that for you it really was anxiety and nothing physically sinister.

Thanks again for your story

Lisa
xxxx

[sandy40]

Hi my gp has run tests and bloods tests so now hes sending me to a Psychiatric Consultant as he says on paper im fine..hes says the way i am will eventually "burn out" but i need help along with my meds..my first appt is 12th January,but im terrified hes wrong and im really ill..is this way im feeling normal? the meds im on are Duloxetine and Pregabalin..not very popular on NMP as ive searched for them for advice.
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