Allow me to Introduce Myself,

Good evening. I've been a member for only about 5 minutes so please bare with me.

My name is Anthony. I'm 22 years old and I live in Central Florida. If I begin to ramble then I apologize ahead of time. I'm very upset at the moment... I suffer from a panic disorder along with generalized anxiety and depression. I was officially diagnosed back in the fall of 2009 though I showed some symptoms even as a child. I currently see a psychiatrist and a therapist, both for about 9 months. I had been seeing my previous psychiatrist and therapist for roughly 3 years before one died suddenly from cancer and the other dropped me as a patient.

In January of this year I had a tremendous setback that sent my anxiety spiraling out of control. I believe it was a combination of stress' from previous months that eventually overwhelmed me, along with the theory that the medication I had been on had lost it's effectiveness. I ended up terrified and went to the hospital convinced something was wrong with my heart and that anxiety wasn't the only issue. After hours in the ER, several rounds of blood tests, a 24-hour holter monitor, a stress test, and a cardiac ultrasound... the results? Nothing. A perfectly healthy heart. And that my tachycardia (rapid heartbeat) was simply the result of the anxiety.

Fast forward to now. Since mid-2014 I've had moderate neck pain. This led to X-Rays and examinations that didn't lead to concrete answers, however the only explanation was that my pain was tension caused by my anxiety. From then until a few weeks ago the pain has been largely manageable and hasn't affected me to a large degree and months of chiropractor visits may be to thank for it. However, roughly 10-14 days ago the pain became severe and was leading to headaches on a daily basis. This triggered my anxiety and sent it to a fever pitch. We're talking about daily panic attacks, not wanting to eat or being afraid to eat, digestive mayhem, extreme agoraphobia.. you name it. None of these feelings are new to me but they are still just as scary as when I was a child.

Now, I went to my chiropractor and he felt it was a flare up and that my anxiety may be feeding in to it and causing the pain to be worse. He felt that more chiropractic treatments would help. I accepted what he said with doubt but did my best to trust his judgement. After 3 days I wasn't satisfied and decided to see my primary care doctor for peace of mind, to make sure something worse wasn't going on (THAT I might add is what has really maintained by anxiety). After answering lots of questions and listening to what she had to say, she seemed to agree with my chiropractor that the anxiety is the root cause of all of this. She said she wouldn't be against getting an MRI or seeing a neurologist but she expressed that she felt those would be costly and possibly unnecessary things to do. Just like everything that occurred at the beginning of the year. My visit to my primary doctor was yesterday 8/18.

And here I am now. My neck pain isn't as bad.. the headaches have mostly stopped.. my hypochondria is still strong and who knows how long that will last. The point is that the damage has been done and controlling my anxiety at the moment is extremely difficult. I've upped my Xanax dose (which isn't exceeding my daily limit I should add) and that is the only relief I have at the moment. I'm still scared. I'm still crying. I'm still not eating right and am afraid to eat food a lot of the time. I am paranoid about every little ache or pain I feel. I honestly just want this to stop and I don't know if I have what it takes at my young age to truly grapple with this at times.

Anyway, that is my current predicament and I am just tired of being constantly upset and afraid. It's misery. I just want to feel like I did 3 weeks ago when I was fine and functioning normally.

That's all for now. Your responses will be greatly appreciated and I look forward to being a productive member here and perhaps meet and be friends with lots of you as well.. Goodness knows I need more people in my life who can understand what I go through. Again, I apologize for being lengthy. Thank you all for your time.

Hi

Welcome to the forum I am glad you have found us.

Sorry to hear you are having a tough time at the moment do check out our resources thread and keep posting here we are here for you.

Hibee

I don't have any advice, but welcome! Our brains can be absolutely cruel to us, HA is the worst! You've come to a great place! We're all here for you!

Welcome to HW Anxiety and Panic Forum, I too hope you will stick around so we can get to know you better and you can get to know us. This is an awesome Community full of caring people that understand what living with anxiety is all about, we will walk this journey with you if you let us.

I too am so sorry to hear your anxiety is flared. I know how you feel, and I know it really sucks. :)

I agree with everything SC had to say and have the same questions as she does, mostly what kind of coping skills do you use to help with your anxiety?

Thank you all for your time, your understanding, and your support. I've quickly learned that it can be difficult finding people who can truly relate to these things so I'm very grateful for your replies.

And to answer your questions Scaredy Cat, my next therapy visit is next Wednesday, August 26th. Our visits have been spaced out to about a month but that may certainly have to change. Hopefully they will be accommodating.

And yes I'm aware of different self-help methods though the effectiveness of some is debatable. I was taught deep breathing exercises as a child and still try to implement them to this day. Sometimes I seem to do well and other times I seem to be too wrapped up in my anxiety to stay focused long enough on my breathes. Another method suggested to me was sitting or laying down and allow the panic and anxiety to flow, feel all the symptoms, accept them as they come, acknowledge them, and not fight them and eventually you may feel a release. I'm not sure how effective that is. I've tried it a few times but after about an hour (at the most) I can no longer tolerate being so still.

Thank you for the resources as well. I'll give them all a good look. And again, thank you all for responding, I'm very appreciative. And if any of you have any techniques of your own to help manage your anxiety/panic then I'm all ears!