Bad night: worried about electrolyte imbalance, need support & reassurance

[mrmonk]

For the past couple of days, I've been worrying about my water intake and having too much or too little sodium and potassium. Now, it's all come to a head tonight and I'm starting to panic, as well.

I realize my anxiety is only making things worse, but I am actually concerned about this: I don't consume all that much fluid -- five, maybe six glasses per day (including from food). But I eat very little (for reasons too involved to go into here), so I don't know if I'm getting the adequate amount of electrolytes. I drink Ensure products, usually one Ensure Plus and one Ensure Enlive per day, which gives me about 1,200 mg of potassium and almost 500 mg of sodium. I usually get an additional 1,500 - 2,000 mg of potassium from food, and at least another 1,000 mg of sodium. The RDA for potassium is 4,700 mg and around 1,500 for sodium. So, I usually feel like I'm doing okay -- not great, but okay.

But I've started worrying about how water intake affects the amount of absorbed electrolytes. How do I know if I have too much or too little of a given electrolyte? I have vague symptoms, but the only concrete thing I can observe is my urine output and color. Forgive me for getting a bit personal, but I tend to urinate very frequently with low volume and output, but my urine is almost always very light yellow (if not clear). Also, I don't sweat very much. I'm worried there may be something wrong with my kidneys and I'm not eliminating the waste products from my system properly, which can lead to electrolyte imbalance, and worse.

Today/Yesterday, I had a couple of servings of minestrone soup, which provided over 2,000 mg of potassium and 1,200 mg of sodium, so I decided to only drink the Ensure Enlive, and otherwise snack during the day. But I just don't know if I'm getting too much or too little. I'm beside myself with fear, worry, and panic.

Please, someone talk to me; be present with me. I'm so scared right now.

[hypercat54]

Hi you are massively over thinking such a simple thing as drinking enough water. It sounds like your anxiety is now focusing on that.

Relax - as long as you drink when you are thirsty and your urine is pale coloured then you are hydrated enough. If you weren't you would be ill and be having treatment. So stop obsessing over this and worrying yourself to death. Try distracting yourself when these thoughts come, read a book, watch telly, wash up the dishes etc. It is hard at first but becomes easier the more you do it. x

[b1b1b1]

Hypercat is correct. Of things to be anxious about, I must say this is a new one. ( I don't mean that in a nasty way xxx). I am pretty sure pale urine is considered a good thing. If it would help you, you can have a urinalysis test.

[hypercat54 in reply to b1b1b1]

Yes it's the first time I have heard this one too! x

[kar_]

Hi there :). I wish I had seen this sooner since it was posted two days ago. I have worried about this myself due to fainting spells caused by not having enough electrolytes. I also had a severe kidney infection at one point but my kidneys are fine now. I think you'd know if your kidneys weren't properly functioning or if you weren't absorbing the right amounts of electrolytes- when my kidneys aren't functioning properly or I don't have enough electrolytes, I go down like a sack of potatoes. The only thing you can do to mitigate your nerves is to drink more water and get a urinalysis at a walk-in clinic if you're not feeling more relaxed. They're not expensive and can check to make sure all is well. Your lack of sweat and urine output sounds directly related to not drinking enough water, which is fortunately an easy fix. Get guzzling haha unless you can't drink high volumes of water at once for a medical reason, that is. Then I suggest asking a doc what you can do otherwise. If that's not the case, try to mitigate your fear by taking a big gulp of water with every worry. Humans technically need approximately a gallon of water a day to be optimally hydrated. But you're doing a great job by drinking the Ensure products - 🙊 better than me and I pass out frequently from hydration issues. You just reminded me I'm not meeting my daily hydration goal. We should work on it together! Love and light.

[mrmonk in reply to kar_]

Hey kar, I'm relieved to hear that your kidneys are okay now -- fainting spells are scary enough, did you also suffer any cardiac symptoms from electrolyte imbalance? Thank you so much for the encouragement and for acknowleging that this isn't all in my head, that my fears and anxiety are rooted in something real. There is a comfort in simply being heard.

So, how much fluid are you trying to get per day? Make sure you stay hydrated...I mean, I want you to get some sleep, but not from passing out!

Take care and be well, my friend. Time for me to return to sipping water and munching pea pod crisps.

[kar_ in reply to mrmonk]

Me too! They are scary indeed! I didn't have any cardiac symptoms from the imbalance, however, which I'm grateful for. If I did it was probably a slower heart rate from the dehydration but it wasn't a large enough issue for doctors to take note of it. Once I'm properly hydrated, it's right back to normal. In general, I do have cardiac issues if I don't maintain a proper, clean diet because I am prone to hypertension. Its hereditary, unfortunately.

But you are very welcome. I'm always here to chat and hear you loud and clear. I've been thinking about it and considering your emetophobia with this terror of not absorbing proper nutrients, it seems as if the digestion and filtration processes of the body are great triggers for you. I wonder if there's any deep rooted reason why that is. I'm not trying to pry and maybe it's a conclusion you have already come to yourself but it's curious and seems related.

I'm trying to drink at least 8 eight oz. glasses of water a day, or roughly a half gallon -often called the 8 x 8 rule - to start, as getting my intake is really hard for me. I don't know why but I'm never thirsty and hate drinking water. Eventually I'd like to drink my recommended amount of around 117 oz., as I'm approx. 175 pounds.

But thank you you too!

P.S. Pea pod crisps sound delicious! Where'd you get them? I want to try some.

[mrmonk in reply to kar_]

Hi kar, you're not prying at all! I think the connection between the emetophobia and this health anxiety is something about experiencing a loss of control. Ultimately, it seems like a form of thanatophobia, a fear of death. Or rather, the loss of control in the face of death. That's why the dilemma of whether physical symptoms are anxiety-induced, just benign nothingburgers, or indicators of a catastrophic health event has me so vexed. It's why I never advise someone on these forums with physical symptoms to ignore them or tell them it's just anxiety. Because what if it's not? After all, I'm not a doctor, and even if I were, I couldn't diagnose someone remotely.

Thanks for being there, kar -- it's always great hearing from you.

Oh, and I get the Harvest Snaps Snapea Crisps at my local Target store, so you should be able to get them at most big-box places. They are yummy indeed!