Feel'n Sick
I move your post to your own thread so you would have the opportunity to meet our members and we would be able to give you a proper Welcome to HealingWell. I am Kitt and I am very glad to meet you.
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Wow I am so glad I found this forum, it makes me feel SO much better knowing other people are dealing with the same thing. I'm new here and this is my first post so its gonna be kinda long...
First some info about me:
I'm 19 years old. Female. Hypochondriac.
My anxiety is pretty specific. ILLNESS. So I guess I'm a hypochondriac, never been diagnosed but I've looked up the definitions and symtoms and done all kinds of research and I'm almost positive that's it. Before I found out I was a hypochondric I just thought I got sick alot. I know I overreacted sometimes when I felt ill but I didnt realized that most of those times when I felt sick it was an ANXIETY ATTACK:
I feel tense all over, my back aches, my jaw clenches or chatters I get shakey all over. It usually starts out as a general tense-ness all over my body and then my teeth chatter as if I'm cold but I'm not, I feel really really warm, like I have a fever (I used to think those hot flashes WERE a fever so I would constantly check my temperature then be confused when it didn't show I had a fever... sometimes I was sure the thermometer was broken)
My stomach tenses up too, I feel constipated or sometimes I get diarria. (That always convinced me I was sick, I was sure I had eaten something that made me feel this way or I was coming down with a virus or food poisoning or something) When it gets really bad I feel sick to my stomach almost like I;m going to throw up. I have thrown up because of an anxiety attack before but its usually because I think something I've eaten has given me food poisioning.
The attacks seem to be getting worst, yesterday I started hyperventilating and my chest felts SO TENSE that I couldnt seem to get enough air into my chest to breath! (I felt a pain/tenderness on my underarm and looked it up on Google and all the search results said breast cancer)
I have a very MILD case of hypochondria though, I usually just think I have food poisoning or a general fear of vague illnesses. I usually don't think I have a life threatening disease (like cancer) and I've never thought "I'm going to die" when I get an attack but sometimes I feel really frantic and think things like "kemo (sp?) therapy, cancer, baldness, sick sick sick in the hospital, shots, IV tubes. IF I die... my mom will never get over it, my boyfriend will hate me like he hates his dad for leaving them like that an-" STOP IT! I tell myself not to think that way. I want to calm down but I feel frustrated and shakey and want to cry or rage. I clench my jaw to stop the chattering but then it just feels sore later.
Anxiety is HARD to deal with. Exercising helps ALOT, run, jump, spin, move get your heart rate going so your breathing fast NOT from anxiety but just from being winded. Walking helps, running is better, sometimes I try to run away from it, and that actually makes me feel better, stronger, powerful. The repetative motion helps and my breathing comes more regular. My body feels more relaxed after running and once I stop breathing hard from the exersion I dont feel shakey anymore.
Medicine... well I um, I'm not exactly AFRAID of meds but... SIDE EFFECTS scare me. Withdrawal is scary too. I like natural remedies better, I dont have to worry about side effects (execpt maybe gas or something from some herbs/plants) Right now I'm taking PureCalm every day and it really does seem to help me alot. Though that's more of a PREVENTIVE solution and doesnt do anything for me when I'm actually in the middle of an anxiety attack. The number one thing that seems to relax me almost immediately is ..... well...
Post edited for content prohibited by
1. No discussion of any illegal activity or threats of violence. (ie. illicit drug use, including medical marijuana use, threats of suicide or self-injury, or threatened or intended physical harm). Discussions of suicide or self-harm that are deemed negative and therefore potentially injurious to others are also not permitted.
Thank you in avance for your understanding of the reason for the edit.
Kitt