New here! Is it time to see a doctor about my anxiety?

oh i hear ya n i can so so relate
i was always outgoing n happy all the time even though i hv illnesses but since this time last yr i hv become deaf n i hv literally turned into something i never thought could happen to me
im isoating self from friends except here
family is no where around of course and my daughter has recently moved out she cannot deal with my mood swings depression n tears
i dont blame her
i despise what i hv become i want t be me again but i know i need to fight to get the ME back
i finally took this am n walked by self to bank did bills n other things n it felt great
i hv to find the will to carry this thru each day
i miss me n i dont like being a shut in at all
my friends n family dont get it either was always laughing playing jokes on ppl going fishin n hiking as well as other things
YES i would def see a doc asap
I WILL find the me i lost n i know you can too we can take this journey together along with other ppl here
im so sorry as i really do get how you feel
plz keep posting n know you are cared for
huggs
lyn

Thanks for the quick replies.  The thought of going to talk to a doctor about all of this is embarassing to me.  I hadn't been to a doctor in 6 years before all of these issues started.  Therefore, I don't have a regular doctor that I've built up trust with.  To talk to a stranger, face to face, about all this craziness I'm going through seems awkward.  I want to feel better though!  I guess I know what I need to do but just don't know if I can make myself go.  This is so frustrating.  How can you distinguish between symptoms of anxiety over actual symptoms of a physical illness?

Hey needing answers and welcome to Healingwell!! I have a chronic illness myself and whenever I get stressed I will develope IBS like symptoms right away. I will get diarrhea and nausea right away. I say yes, get in there and see the doc, I would also suggest you seeing about talking with a therapist. I found therapy to be really helpful to me as it helped me to change my thought patterns some. Good luck and keep us posted. Hugs!

Yep, if you want my advice I think it's probably time to get proactive. Reassert yourself and regain some control. I think seeing a doctor may help you do this, and probably a lot quicker than you can imagine. Talking to them about it may lift a big weight off your shoulders. After you have taken that initial step, you and your doctor will figure out a course of action that may or may not include therapy or drugs. Just make an appointment, prepare yourself to describe what you're going through, and keep an open mind about solutions. And do NOT be embarrassed. Problems with anxiety are much more common than you may think, and I'd be willing to bet that just about every doctor has seen a lot of patients for it. You're not alone and there's nothing at all to be embarrassed about.

Well, your case and my case are actually strikingly similar. Reflux. Gallbladder gone but symptoms remained. This happened in my twenties and I'd never had any kind of health trouble before. It freaked me out something fierce. They had trouble diagnosing the gall bladder issue because my symptoms weren't typical...I was tested for very bad things by the kinds of doctors you never want to see (for months and months on end), and then it was found that my gall bladder was screwing me up.

What happened was thrown so off balance by all of these tests and possible diseases that I had that I ended up with anxiety disorder, I guess. This kind of thing can get into your head. My gall bladder symptoms got better, but my stomach was never, ever right after all of this. Eventually I ended up seeing a gastroenterologist who made the initial diagnosis of anxiety disorder. It was confirmed by a panel of three other doctors at the clinic. Basically, my head was spinning. I couldn't let go. The stomach has a billion nerve endings in it and can be affected by anxiety. In fact my stomach was so bad I never even noticed the anxiety itself.

At first I thought the diagnosis was just plain stupid, and that they were giving up. However, over the next few weeks I started looking at my own behavior from a new perspective and what do you know? I noticed that there was a lot of anxiety accompanying my stomach problems. Not a little. A lot. And so I went on about my life the best I could, trying to manage the anxiety issue by myself. I thought it would go away over time.

I was wrong about that. I mean I did better at first, but I'd have these breakdowns. Sometimes they'd last a few hours. Sometimes a day or even two. But then one hit me really hard and I was useless for a week. That's when I started taking medicine for the anxiety, and there was an immediate difference.

Can't lie. Drugs aren't the answer. They're only part of the answer for some if not most people. To get better, lots of the work you'll have to do yourself in your own head. I think your brain and my brain trained themselves to think differently while we were sick, and it's up to us to correct it. For my part I've made lots of progress. It hasn't always been easy and yeah there have been setbacks from time to time, but my quality of life has improved by a magnitude of ten.

Of course I cannot know how similar our stories really are, but on the surface they seem close and so I feel kind of like I know what you're going through. It sounds a lot like what I went through myself. And I'd hate to see you make the mistakes I've made.

My advice is to go to the doctor and talk about this head on. Get your life back.

debaser - Thank you so much for taking time to respond to my post.  While I'm not glad you had to deal with similar issues it is comforting to know that someone else know what I'm going through.  Sometimes I feel so alone and I know my family and friends are tired of hearing me complain.  They just think everything should be great for me after the gallbladder removal.  Well, things are worse on a day-to-day basis now and they don't understand what I'm dealing with.  Like I knew before surgery, your gallbladder is there for a reason and I didn't want to have mine out.  Just didn't really have any other options I thought.

I had been dealing with some slight stomach issues since August.  At the end of October is when I started having the gallbladder attacks.  Had 3 of those in a month before having my gallbladder removed in December.  Even after the first gb attack, at the time was the worst pain I'd ever experienced, I still didn't go to the doctor.  Just kept hoping that maybe everything would just miraculously go away.  No such luck and after the 2nd one I knew that I was going to have to deal with this in spite of my fear of going to doctors.  It was the most excruciating pain, thought I was going to die, and had the phone in my hand about to call an ambulance when it subsided.

I'm not the type of person to run to the doctor over every little thing.  Always had a huge fear of doctors so I avoid them if at all possible.  Now I've had numerous doctor visits and had surgery and still don't feel well at all.  No one else seems to know how scary and frustrating that is.  My fear is, like what you said, that I'm going to be stuck trying to live like this. 

Wednesday is my follow up appointment where I will find out the results of the upper endoscopy.  In realization, I'm not going to go away from that appointment feeling good about whatever the doctor says.  Either they found nothing really wrong, therefore nothing that should be causing the degree of discomfort I'm having.  So what will I do then?  On the other hand they did find a lot of damage to my esophagus - obvously would indicate the meds aren't helping (tried Prilosec, Nexium, and Prevacid) - so then what?  Either way I'm still going to have more questions than answers.  If he says nothing is seriously wrong, will that mean anxiety is causing a lot of the symptoms?  If there is damage, even while taking medication and eating right, does that mean my acid reflux could be caused by anxiety?  Will I need to have more tests done to determine what's going on?  Gosh, I hate waiting on appointment but like I said, I'm not going to be satisifed regarless of what he says.

It's ironic that you mentioned Barrett's esophagus because I swear I heard one nurse tell another that I had it.  Granted I was just waking up and was still groggy from the meds.  That totally freaked me out.  There is one problem that I had prior to the gallbladder removal that I failed to mention to my doctor.  In July and then again in September, I had pretty bad pain at my breastbone and in my back, just a few minutes after consuming just one alcoholic beverage.  Happened again in January and March, those were the only 4 times I had a drink, and my doctor thought the pain was caused by acid reflux when drinking.  If that's the case I've been having acid reflux for 10 months now and didn't even know it until the last few months?  I've only had heartburn a couple times!

You said it may take a while for things to get back to normal after the gallbladder surgery.  I keep hoping that just maybe things will start to improve but it only seems to get worse.  I just feel like crying which is so totally not me.  With what I'm going through now, there is no way I can live like this for the rest of my life.  Just accepting that this is the way things are gonna be, after the gallbladder removal, just doesn't seem possible to me at this point.  This is all so scary to me and worrying me a ton.  Not only do I keep wondering if something serious is wrong I also keep thinking what if all of this is just in my head, which is even more frustrating.

Again, thank you so much for taking time to respond.  It really helps to have someone that understands.  I'll probably be posting more about this but I've gotta go get ready for work now.  Hope you have a good day!

I really doubt you have Barrett's. Not after just ten months of acid reflux. Obviously your doctor will need to determine whether you have it or not but usually it develops over a much longer period of time, I believe.

Your body is having to get used to a new way of digesting foods. I had a hard time with fiber after my surgery. Would have a lot of stomach pain after eating anything with a lot of fiber in it, whereas before the surgery I didn't. Eventually that did go away. I still can't eat anything with a lot of saturated fat, or at least not unless I want to deal with the consequences (which are annoying but not horrible).

Acid reflux is common, and if you had it before your surgery it would probably get worse after the surgery. Eventually it will calm down. You say you're on PPIs...try some maalox or rolaids along with them and see if that helps.

I have a question that's sort of personal in nature. Are you overweight? Or were you overweight but lost a lot before the gallstone appeared? If you're overweight now, losing some will definitely help out with the reflux. There's a pretty good GERD forum on this site that I'd encourage you to visit.

csmc2 - I'm currently taking Prevacid once a day, usually in the morning.  I also take 2 teaspoons of Carafate 4 times per day.  Also was told to take Gaviscon before bed.  Wednesday I go back to the doctor to find out the results of the upper endoscopy.  I'm assuming he'll change my meds at that time because they are not helping.

No, I'm not taking any anxiety meds at this time.  I'm starting to think that I need to be though because I'm not having much luck at pulling myself out of this.  I know this is not all in my head and that I'm experiencing real pain but I'm wondering in actuality how bad it is cause everyone says anxiety can cause things to be so much worse.

Celey - It's like now I'm so much more keenly aware of every ache and pain in my entire body and always wonder if it's a new symptom.  It's driving me nuts.

Does anyone know if anxiety can cause hiccups?  I swear I can't eat without getting them just a few minutes afterward.  Also if I've been sitting for a while I'll get them as soon as I stand up and many random times throughout the day.

Thank you all for your support and I appreciate you taking the time to respond.  At least I know there are people out there that understand what I'm going through.  It's so much easier to talk to complete strangers, over the internet, than it is to talk to my friends and family about all of this.  They just don't know or care to understand.  Part of the reason I haven't talked to a doctor or therapist about this because I'm afraid of them judging me.

I've got a lot of decisions to make coming up.  If Wednesday's appointment doesn't address my concerns to I go to another doctor about my issues or do I try getting on medication for anxiety and see how that goes.  I'm scared, frustrated, worried, and confused.  Hoping to get this resolved soon.

Thanks again for all your responses.  I definitely appreciate the advice.

Celey - Honestly I've had moments over the last couple months where I've convinced myself that something is seriously wrong and that I'm dying. Been doing way to much research on the internet and whatever I read about I then start thinking I have. I'm afraid of having my doctor judge me, or think I'm being ridiculous, if I talk to him about the anxiety. There are so many people out there battling serious illness and handling much better than I'm handling my perceived problems. I keep telling myself that if something serious was going on it would've shown up in the bloodwork I had done recently or on the upper endoscopy. Still yet, I have my moments, when my chest starts aching, in which I start thinking the worst. Going to a therapist, a complete stranger, and talking about my issues seems completely awkward to me. Yes, it probably would help and is something I definitely need to look in to. It just getting up the courage to do it that's the hard part. Why can't I just stop whining about this and do something about it?! I really don't like the way I'm acting right now.

Anxiety can be utter hell on the digestive tract. I was sick forever. Had surgery. Supposedly recovered from surgery. Symptoms continued. Finally went to the doctor to get something for anxiety and was given Klonopin. I was too scared and sick to even try it.

Then I took it. Within three days I was a new person. Not kidding. I'm not saying ALL of your symptoms are the result of anxiety, but if you're anything like me then the anxiety is creating some new symptoms and making others much worse. There's a mind-body connection that's much more powerful than you may think.

I think mental health care should be a part of treating any long term illness.

No, you are not a lost cause.
Everyone wants to be happy.
Get some help.
It really is worth it!
Use this as a catalyst for your life.