New, Would love if people took time!

Hello ! My name is Jeff and I'm pretty new to these forums. I originally posted in the G.E.R.D Forum but after just seeing a surgeon today about Surgery obviously....He told me It sounds like anxiety.

So let me give you guys a little bit of background

When I was 17 I was going through a break up that was really dramatic to me...I was constantly down in the dumps. One day me and my friends decided to try this experimental drinks of Morning glory seeds for a high.
Needless to say it ended us up in the E.R and I thought I was going to die that night....During this time I just started my senior year of High School and I just started my first job as a sign holder for a local gym.

about 2 months after the incident with the drink, I was laying in bed one night and felt some pain in my left arm. Following this I had a shortness of breath, and started to burp a lot. Eventually it broke down into a panic attack and I ended up in the E.R. to tell me that I was fine, but that I had sinusitis. They gave me meds for that but in never cleared of my shortness of breath feeling.

I later when into a doctor again and said everything i'm suffering with can be related to anxiety and they see it all the time, she gave me paxil and off I went. I stopped the paxil probably a little over a year ago because I don't think it actually did any benefits to me.

I started to get a lot of chest pain, and I started to feel symptoms of gerd. I felt lumps in my throat, I felt a burning, I kept burning, I had the chest pains in the stomache and in the breastplate and back area...difficulty swallowing the whole shabang.

I've been taking meds for probably the last 2 years for GI related systems and have gone through a ton of tests because of it.

Hida Scan - Normal
Colonoscopy - Normal
2 EGDs - Showed gasritis and also the breaking down of my wall because I have celiac Disease
CT Cat Scan of chest and abdomen - Normal
Emptying Study Test - Was a little slow almost normal mark
Barrium Swallow with low bowel follow through - Normal

Which have all been pretty much normal and no showing of the acid in my chest.

Basically I saw my surgeon today, and i'm going to go get the egd tomorrow, and some sort of PH test to truly see if I'm actually refluxing or not. He told me that he thinks I have anxiety yet all my tests see to come back normal for everything. Yet I swear I have so many symptoms that seem like GERD. Like not eating spicy or any sort of Hot food or triggers of gerd type foods. I swear the medicines help me to swallow when I started on stuff like rinitidine. I also tend to get sick a lot...

Can this really be Anxiety ? For 3 constant years where I have felt shortness of breath and what I thought such sure symtomps of GERD but not getting any results that reflux is actually going into my esophagus or not showing that I have any sort of a swallowing problem ? Yet i feel warmth and burpy and a lot of gas pain.

If it is anxiety I would like to tackle it, but I don't even know where I would start...How to get help? Its been with me for 3 years and has ruined my social life and I never want to do anything because I feel like I have these symptoms.

Any help would mean so much to me if anxiety truly is such a beast.

You've experienced shortness of breath and chest issues, but you've never had any real heart tests?

I would ask for a stress test to help get a better idea of what could be an underlying issue of shortness of breath.
Are you overweight?
And when you're experiencing shortness of breath, can you remember what thoughts are floating around in your mind?

Shortness of breath is almost always related to anxiety or heart problems. (In your case, more likely anxiety)
I ended in the E.R. because I was convinced that I was experiencing unsual shortness of breath, only to regain my breathing composure when I arrived at the E.R. . . . . my mind tricked me so easily, I didn't even know I was experiencing anxiety at that time.

Jhall387

Good afternoon.  I am sorry to read of your issues.   You posted that you have celiac disease - are you following a gluten free diet ?  Weight loss is a symptom that fits with celiac disease as well as stomach pains etc.  These also can be attributed to anxiety. 

First thing that may help you would be to go gluten free in your diet.  People with anxiety tend to take shallow breaths which would account for your feeling short of breath. Check out our resources at the top of the page and you will find links to breathing exercises.

Looks like your pulmonary studies were good.  If you have had these problems for 3 1/2 years,  now would be a good time to consider seeing a therapist to help you accept that you have anxiety and learn ways to help decrease your anxiety.

Keep on talking to us as well.  There is 100% acceptance here from those that understand.

Jhall387

Hoping your EGD goes well today and please do let us know how you are doing ?  Thinking of you.

Kindly,

Kitt