Constant stress :)

[Kevin160]

Hey everyone, today was my sister's surgery, i woke up panicking and felt my heart palpitating and racing , while i was at school i just kept quiet and looked calm, but deep down i was panicking and felt my heart palpitating and racing ..i just kept assuming the worst and making up scenarios , i never got this anxious when i woke up, i would always wake up a bit calmer than this and during the day and when i sleep im calmer , but today was much worse, i just keep worrying that I can't control stress , its my new normal , every time i felt stressed i kept saying "dont worry,you wont die , stress doesnt kill, u feel like it nothing else just accept the fear because its harmless" and i just get these massive headaches whenever i try breathing exercises , this was a weird type of panic, like i could walk , talk, do activities , but i was just panicking on the inside and getting these palpitations, and whenever i think of them my heart keeps palpitating, i really dont know how to stop the panic , nothing is working, i just want to get through the week to go get therapy, i just dont want to die, how is constant panic for 2 months is not harmless I don't know because I just get this thought of doctors , hospitals, dying and how my family will react, im trying to stop thinking about the panic , and i get these short moments where the panic fades a bit , but its not going away

I just fear that i wont recover from this , eventhough as simple as it might sounds regardless of what im going through, panic disorder wont go away

Chest pains and shortness of breath are hard to ignore because its scary

[Hidden]

Hi Kevin - think you should visit your doctor especially about the migraines. I know you have GAD but if you having difficulty with breathing, when doing breathing exercises may be you are an asthma sufferer? prevention.com describes different sorts of migraines. If you are light sensitive you may have ocular and also vestibular migraines.

A combination of these types of migraines can disturb your balance, make you feel light headed and may be increase heart palpitations.

It is also possible that foods and drinks can affect your migraines, and your heart.

WebMD.com and healthy food.co.uk give a list of many foods and drinks which can

affect you giving rise to migraines. Blue cheese, parmesan, soy, smoked fish, red wine caffeine, coffee, chocolate, tea, colas, and sodas are some foods. activebeat.com indicates bananas - tyramine histamine in them. excess caffeine more than 2 cups of chocolate or coffee can increase tyramines as does luncheon meat bacon sausages hot dogs aged cheeses gouda blue cheese and others eg swiss Emmental, cheddar. Pizza contains a natural chemical "coumarin" which can trigger migraines in some. Monosodium glutamate and soy sauces can trigger them too. A common source of migraine triggers is whole milk. This can even lead to pain in the shoulders and hands and throbbing headaches.

If you are on any medication you can check them on drugs.com. If there are any side

side effects or conflicts with foods they will show up.

I know from experience that if you are light sensitive and work with overhead lighting the glare can give you migraines. Suggest you visit the optician and he/she may advise grey tinted or blue lenses to calm you down when reading. The tinted lenses help with computers too. Sorry this is so long - understand how you feel. Hope you visit doctor soon.

[ksquig]

I’m sorry you are experiencing so much anxiety right now. It sounds intense and a lot like what I have been experiencing (multiple panic attacks every day). I’ve been using this app rootd. It basically has a button to press when you experience a panic attack and it talks you through it. I’ve found it to be helpful. Good luck!

[Kevin160 in reply to ksquig]

Im going to check out the app, it seems promising , thank you for the support

[Kevin160 in reply to ksquig]

If you dont me asking, how long was your anxiety for, howlong did it last, how did you deal with and which methods worked too

[ksquig in reply to Kevin160]

I've been a "worrier" my whole life. But, things didn't get really bad until I was in graduate school. Around 2005 I went on a vacation to Hawaii and developed two really profound phobias. I couldn't get in the water because I was convinced I'd be eaten by a shark (to the point I was in tears) and I was convinced people were following us on our hikes and they were going to murder us. I got on medication and saw a therapist and within a year I was a lot better (went of meds etc).

In 2014, I had a pretty traumatic birthing experience that has been the impetus for my anxiety since then. I have health anxiety and death anxiety, as well as panic attacks. Any depressive thoughts I have are tied to my anxiety (i.e., I feel like I'm a burden to my family because I have anxiety). And, I have managed it in better and worse ways over the past 5 years, but it has been a constant in my life. Right now, I'd say I'm in a bit of a low.

As for treatments, I've tried a few different types of medication and Lexapro seems to work the best for me, albeit with some minor side effects. I mentioned that I had a traumatic birthing experience (emergency surgery etc) which made me obsess about my breathing (am I breathign too much, too little, maybe I'll stop breating etc). I found that EMDR worked really well for that obsession. From my understanding, EMDR works best when the anxiety/depression is associated with a trauma. I used exposure therapy for a fear I had of flying, which was successful. I also use CBT and acceptance therapies for my health and death related anxieties. I haven't been using either of those very long, but the reframing of my thoughts, in the short term, has been helpful. I think that app I mentioned (rootd) would be consistent with CBT and acceptance therapies. That's been a huge help with my panic attacks.

What about you? What's your story?

[Kevin160 in reply to ksquig]

Well, i turned 18 just recently, hroughout my life choas was everywhere, i would never be able to catch a break, as long as i can remember from being just a kid, my parents and sibling always had fights, and as i grew up it just gotten worse, it gotten to violence and it got so bad where it would end up in the ER , then about 5 years back my mom was diagnosed with cancer, it runs in her family, my grandma and aunt both had cancer ..it was difficult seeing her go through treatment and surgeries and with all the violence throughout that time along with my dads alcohol abuse, and other main events in my siblings lives , many of my siblings dropped out of college and had to postpone alot, i had so much worry about what if it all falls apart, my parents ended up with a messy divorce and my siblings each taking a side, and i was in the middle too young to do anything , my health anxiety started without knowing what it is, i would panic going to a doctor for even a cold, i would get weird psycological symptoms but whenever i go to doctors they say u r physically healthy, i went through bullying and never really had friends that actually cared i was always the person who never stood out, never did anything special or participated in acitivities or sports which i regret, anyway fast forward to a couple months back , i think all the stress got to me due to my moms cancer is back scare, although thankfully it turned out negative , but alot has happened in these past 2 months that were absolutely terrible and scary , new fights, health scares, exam pressure, alot of secrets and hiding ...i started panicking after going to a gastorlogist in december 2018, where he pointed out my bp was high but its probably fear from doctors, white coat syndrome ..

I became obsessed over bp and measured it every waking minute, it was terribke but now im over it, i barely care about it and for the last 3 weeks i would measure it barely once a week without caring and it would be very low, however my mind didnt stop the panic, i had so many panic attacks im just scared what kf i get them without reason , im scared of stress and anxiety now, and i keep getting migraines with aura that are very debilitating and hard to live with , and im always on edge what will happen next, i keep also worrying about dying, i keep panicking that if i stay like this i will stroke out or get a heart attack since it runs in my family , my life never works out in my favor so i always kniw my luck will suck, i also have icd tendansies which make me panic and have weird rituals and superstitions , im so worried every waking minute now, recently my sister had a surgery and my brother also came back with a heakth scare , which made me panic, i just want to be normal but i cant do anthjng ...

[Hidden in reply to Kevin160]

Thank you for sharing more of your story, Kevin. I'm really sorry that your anxiety is so severe right now, but I can't wait until you get to your appointment at the end of the month. I'll keep following, because I'm looking forward to hearing things are better for you soon.

[Kevin160 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you so much, well today was much better than these past few days, i started realizing a bit more and more than all this constant stress and anxiety will not kill me so i wasnt afraid to experience it, and since that was my main fear i started noticing that even when i feel panic if i really convince myself im fine ..i beckme much calmer, today i had no panic attacks, i only had a couple of heart palpitations and there was a few times where i found myself overthinking and worrying but it wasnt so severe...so this is a great start i never thought this will happen again before therapy ...

[rothko in reply to Kevin160]

Wow!! I’m so happy for you! I need to learn from you when I begin to feel the anxiety walls caving in. Thanks for the inspiration.

[Kevin160 in reply to rothko]

Thank you all it means alot, most of what ive learned has been from here so i owe it all to the kind people on this website

[Hidden in reply to Kevin160]

That is such great news!

[baileyf14]

I am so sorry you are going through this. Stress and anxiety is such a difficult thing to deal with. When I start to feel this way, I love to take a walk outside. There is something about the fresh air that makes me feel so much better. I know it does not sound like a lot but it really helps me and changes my mood. I hope everything gets better.

[Kevin160 in reply to baileyf14]

Its a bit better now , actually for the first time since my anxiety started taking this huge toll , im dealing with it more , i started realizing logically how anxiety is harmless, and found ways to control my pulse rate and blood ..anxiety comes and go now but i got a really long break from stress few days after i posted this particular post , about 3 weeks ago i started feeling less physical symptoms amd panic , i dont get panic attacks now , i get herat palpitations sometimes but its less scary because now im more used to everything thta happens to me ..we will see what happens i guess

But yes im much better now thank you for the support and advice ..i sometimes go on walks when i feel too anxious, and yes sometimes it really helps me feel calmer