First trip to ER-palpitations

[Ace4791]

I'm new here. I struggle with feeling shame about asking for support. I have had generalized anxiety for most of my adult life (I'm 40 something.) I have recently been waking up with feelings of severe panic and then racing heart. It has been very scary for me as this is a new symptom. Yesterday I went to ER for first time and was medically cleared in that there were no cardiac issues. I was encouraged to reach out to others. I'm a stay at home Mom with a 1 year old in a new town. Just bought and sold property and moved with little help in a 2 month span. Thought that I would have difficulty in the midst of all of that upheaval in my life but it is coming now instead once things should be settling down. I appreciate any input and thank you for taking your time to read my post.

[Hidden]

Welcome to the site! What you're dealing with is a lot , then on top of it you have anxiety. I try to focus on the positive, happy things in my life. I also listen to music. Try to take slow breaths in through your nose , out through your mouth! I'm here for you if you need to talk! Peace & joy for you! XXX

[Ace4791 in reply to Hidden]

Thanks for reaching out. I appreciate not being alone in this. How long have you had your troubles? I really hope to break this cycle. I don't want my daughter to pick up on my anxiety. I have a lot to be thankful for and a lot of things are going right in my life.

[Hidden in reply to Ace4791]

To be honest most of my life! But i'm still here, plugging along, some days or weeks better than others. You must be kind to yourself , this is a disease , just like any other. Treat yourself to something, you sure deserve it!!!!!!! XXX

[old-soul]

Welcome aboard. I'm curious to know how long you lived in your previous residence, and how far you moved in this short period of time. I'm also curous to know if there were additional stressors involved such as a loss or similar negative catyliat that you may just now have time to sort of sit with and begin grieving.

I'm keeping the questions really general, Ace, because don't want to pry or be digging for details you may not feel comfortable sharing with strangers.

All that aside, it sounds like you had a crazy marathon move that had you running on high adrenalin levels while exhausted just to get it all done, went from an area where you likely had more supports/friends to a new area where you likely have a limited support base, and maybe now that it's done, you're just suffering the back-side of the adrenaline and crashing a bit.

Ever action has an equal and opposite reaction, so could this just be a perfectly normal crash?

After only a short time here, I have gotten a ton of what I feel is really heart-felt support, for which I am really grateful. I am pretty confident that if you hang with it here and give it some time and effort, you too will find answers and just the sort of support and encouragement you need.

[Ace4791 in reply to old-soul]

I truly appreciate your outreach to me. Talking to others has always gone a long way in my battling this historically. I don't mind sharing with strangers. I almost prefer it for the time being as I am not comfortable letting many friends and family know the extent of my struggle.

This is my deal in a nutshell. My husband is having major difficulty at his new work. He took a new job and we moved 130 miles across the state. We used almost all of our financial resources to do so. I had virtually no support where we were living before so I welcomed the move. We were there for 3 years and I was unable to gain employment with an advanced professional degree. I also had toxic mold in the home that made me barely able to function physically because of respiratory illness. He announced to me that if he didn't succeed where we are now we would be required to move back to the town where I had a really bad time. When he told me this it terrified me so much that I almost fainted (and I have never done that in my whole life). Prior to that I was in a 15 marriage where I later found out husband was serial cheater.

Again thanks for caring.

[Dubba61]

Oh dear, you've had a tough time. Isn't it just the way though, that when things are done and you can heave a sigh of relief, that's when the anxiety starts. It's happened to me too. You are an intelligent Women and you understand what's happening. Lots of people find themselves in hospital with what turns out to be Anxiety related. When i feel anxious i try to go a long walk, deep breathe, and i listen to the online hypnosis, which helps me to Sleep. I also, find Chanting Mantras helpfull and Tai chi. 😊 All of these things take my mind off my worries.

[Ace4791 in reply to Dubba61]

Thanks. Had a successful night sleep last night and it was great. Shoveled snow and this helped me clear my head in part enough to feel ok for the rest of the day. I thank you for reaching out. Did listen to one of those inspirational things too, also helpful. All the best to you.

[Dubba61 in reply to Ace4791]

Oh, i am pleased to hear that, 😊

[old-soul]

Sigmund Freud came up with the whole couch thing where the patient would relax and recline in his office, which was a pleasant environment, and he would seat himself at the head of the couch outside of his subject's view.

He theorized that this would allow people to share a bit more openly about the things that were troubling them with less fear of facial reactions or perceived body language that might make them think they'd said something wrong, or strange, or horrible.

I bet he'd be pretty impressed with the way we can help one another today be also adding anonymity to the equasion!

I really and truly hope you guys are able to tap into good work environments that will allow you to have living options that suit your family well.

I can relate very strongly to having a very toxic community at large at times in my life. The panic feelings straight out of the blue that ate so strong they actually cause physical faintness sound scary. I think I would very much be wanting to see a doctor about that.

Maybe a doctor would find it reasonable to prescribe a prn benzodiazepine as sort of a rescue med to keep you from e,periencing such strong symptoms while you work toward unraveling the underlying cause.

Black mold is plain evil, and I think I recall something about it sometimes having some really odd effects in some people that can present as being mental health stuff, but I'm not sure if that's accurate or not.

Given you've said that you guys are pretty well extended about as far as possible financially, you might do some of your own research to investigate this as a possible cause, or other plausible causes of this sudden onset symptomology to try to narrow the possibilities and maybe be able to limit diagnostic expenses.

One of the downsides to living in a capitalistic society is that, truth be told, there is a certain degree of salesmanship in the medical profession too. Every sword cuts in both directions, and there is no "perfect system."

Unfortunately, liability concerns also sort of cause medical professionals to lean toward, "deferring to borderline paranoia," where safety is concerned, which is ok to a point, but it is also at the parent's financial expense because, of corse, hospitals are corporations, and corporate law states that the corporation's sole responsibilty is to the shareholders, not the customer.

That being the case, any reasonable business model will dictate that it is good practice to administer $5,000 tests with a 300% markup to 17,000 patents per annum to avoid a 1 in 100,000 liability. In other words, spend lots of your money rather that a little of the shareholders money. Sad, but true.

So, yeah, I have found that doing some research to find causes that are EXTREMELY likely, if possible, can strech your medical dollar a great deal, SOME of the time. It may also help to get proper treatment a lot faster, because you obviously only have one patent. Yourself. A doctor has you, and a whole lot of others, and just like anyone else, a doctor has only 24 hours in any given day.

Doing one's own research, just like any other sword, again, CAN cut in both directions, even for people with M.D. degrees, so care has to be exercised in not getting so fixated on something that you're not opened to the idea that you could be WAY off base!

I pray it's something simple, and that everything else goes really well for you too.

[Ace4791]

Thank you for your in-depth response. For now I've just been trying to utilize all the tools at my disposal calling friends, getting out of house, meditation. I'm trying to get a regular doctor that will check this all out. In retrospect I think this is how my body reacts to major stressors. I spent almost a year after the divorce depressed because I decided to work constantly instead of feeling those emotions at the time. I was sleeping 12 hours a day and gained some serious weight. My reaction to my move was anger because I felt like a failure professionally and interpersonally. Now I am think I am just having a delayed reaction to that and struggling with the internal dialog that things will be just as bad here. Wow just writing this all down does wonders. I can say that I recently made a new friend and have been mending some relationships. It has also been helpful. The isolation is a terrible enemy to these feelings. Thank you for reaching out again.