Health Anxiety

Hello All,

I am new to posting onto any health forums, but it seems to help people so I figured I would give it a shot.

For several years, I had some form of anxiety and was taking medication for it and depression. I was also self-medicating with THC for several years. I decided to quit the THC at the end of February and about a week later I was having full blown anxiety attacks and could barely get out of bed. My doctor tried me on the generic for lexapro and I had bad side effects and instead she referred me to a psychiatrist that has dealt with this before. He got me me on a combination of XR xanax 1mg, gabapentin, and some supplements - NAC and Omega-3.
For the first 3-4 weeks I was doing great! I knew I did not want to be on the xanax regularly long term so I asked about switching to something else now that my brain had healed from the THC withdrawals.
Started on sertraline (zoloft) 25mg and then up to 50mg. I was having some weird side effects but I was trying to champ through them and actually started getting past the side effects. Then on Saturday I noticed that I had this tightness in my chest, almost felt like my sternum but anything in the chest is scary. It had happened mildly once or twice before but I was now making note of it and said something to my doc who recommended I get an EKG to be safe. I have also been experiencing some numbing in my arms, especially when I wake up. I have also been extra tired the last 5 or 6 days - I'd love a nap right now!
I have health anxiety so as soon as I feel these symptoms, I feel like I am dying or something. I am also anxious anticipating the EKG test this afternoon, not to mention worrying that my doctor is going to recommend blood work and I HATE needles.

Am I crazy? I keep trying to calm myself down and put it in perspective but it is so hard. I have a lot going on with work and a class I am taking with an upcoming exam in a month and I also just started a relocation process to move for my job to another state. Could the combination of everything at once triggered these symptoms?

Thanks in advance for your help

Anxietyprone88

Welcome, I'm happy you found us this is an awesome forum full of caring people that above all else understand. Stick with us and we will walk this path with you and your journey of becoming anxiety free.

You are not alone, not any longer there are alot of people here with health anxiety including myself. Your symptoms sound like anxiety probably brought on by the stress you are under, trying to reduce your stress will help. Have you had the EKG yet? I'm sure it will come out okay, but it is always best to rule out all physical stuff first before blaming it all on anxiety.

Here are some links from our resource thread for health anxiety, check out the top thread on the forums for other links on anxiety and self help material.

Health Anxiety - A Self Help Guide:

www.nhs.uk/conditions/hypochondria/pages/introduction.aspx

Helping health Anxiety

www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/resources/infopax.cfm?Info_id=53

Health Anxiety- The Super Scanner

www.get.gg/docs/SuperScanner.pdf

Again, Welcome I'm happy you found us, Keep posting!