Thank you all.
I'm starting to think that you all maybe right. This is probably anxiety that's causing all this. For a little while when ever I would sleep I would always have dreams. I know everyone has dreams, but I was getting them every night and that seemed weird to me. Whenever I tried to go to sleep without taking a Xanax, I could never stay asleep for more than a hour or two. For the last two nights, I tried taking ZZquill and neither time did I feel the slightest bit drowsy. The night before, I managed to fall asleep, but woke up about
an hour later coughing and my mouth was really dry and scratchy. And last night, I didn't fall asleep period. I wanted to try to go at least one more night without Xanax, but having read Mom's reply about
.5mg being a low dosage and how anxiety causes many symptoms I decided to take one and finally got to sleep for more than just a few hours and that was also the first time in weeks that I fell asleep without having some kind of dream. It was hours after taking the ZZquill though and I know that those meds can interact together, but I think it was long enough in between the times that I took them.
Lately I've started to become hypochondriac. No matter how hard I try, I just couldn't keep myself from foolishly googling my symptoms and coming across various types of diseases and thinking that I could possibly have one of them. I would think that I had things such as an ulcer, appendicitis and even that dreaded C word.
I forgot to mention that for awhile I would get this pain in my chest. When it first happened, I thought I was having a heart attack. It would just randomly happen every month or two for at least two days. It would happen once and then hours later happen again. I thought maybe it was something I had ate. I did tend to eat BBQ sauce with certain foods. But even after cutting down on the BBQ sauce, I would still get that feeling. I finally mentioned this to my mother and my sister and my mother thought perhaps it was heartburn and scheduled a doctor's appointment for me. I would have mentioned this to them sooner, but we had been going through some other issues.(which I'll get to later)
Soon after scheduling my appointment, I started to google my symptoms(a BIG mistake) and thought I was having some kind of heart problem. A few days later is when I started to feel bloated. I thought it something I eat or that I ate too much and that it would go away. But the next day I felt worse and couldn't eat a meal without feeling full so quickly. So I had my mother take me to the ER. I explained my symptoms to the doctors and they thought perhaps I had Acid Reflux/GERD and gave me some medication. I don't smoke. I don't drink. I'm nowhere close to being overweight. However I did tend to eat a lot of high fat foods and drink a lot of pop. So I tried making some lifestyle changes.
Even after eating more healthy foods and drinking more water, that pain where I felt I was having heartburn happened again. When I went to see my PCP, he said that I was too young to have anything really serious(I'm 30) and as I mentioned in my initial post, the blood work came back normal. He even used his stethoscope on me and couldn't find anything abnormal.
I've heard that stress can play a factor to this and I have been going through some pretty stressful times the last couple of years. Around Thanksgiving in 2013, we had to rush my mother to the hospital because she had pneumonia. And last year, we found out that she had CHF and had to get a defibrillator implanted. Even with the defibrillator, I still worry about
her sometimes. I also sometimes worry about
my father. Who's diabetic and had a mini-stroke in 2011.
My mother and my sister were telling me that nothing was wrong with me physically and that it probably all in my head. Turns out that they may have be right all along. I have been pretty paranoid all along. I never realized how much of an effect the mind could have on your body. Even when my doctor assured me that nothing was wrong, I'd feel better for a bit, but then start to feel bloated and have cramps. My mother is looking to have my doctor refer me to a counselor to talk to. Hopefully that'll make me feel better.
After looking more into things, I think those pains that I thought was heartburn, were probably panic attacks. I haven't been officially diagnosed with anything yet though.
Post Edited (KCJ506) : 4/10/2015 12:48:34 PM (GMT-6)