Need help

[Lukey92]

I have had anxiety for a while now, but I'm always worrying about having a serious mental health illness, I feel dreamy all the time and my emotions can be flat :/ these feelings can be really intense to the point where I feel so scared and helpless. Does anyone else relate to this?

[Hidden]

Hi. I think you already pinpointed what is going on in the first line of your post - you use the two words 'anxiety' and 'worrying'. Health anxiety can be very scary and really cause havoc in our heads. Many people talk of feeling as if they are going crazy or losing their mind. Your post is very lucid and to the point. You did not mention anything about any medical interventions so far in your illness - are you taking any medication for example, or have you been offered or started any course of therapy? Related to health anxiety, you will often find ocd as a feature of the illness. For some reason this is quite often missed or ignored when it comes to treatment. Maybe you can ask about therapy when you next see your doctor if you are not already seeing a therapist. I hope you feel batter soon.

[Lukey92 in reply to Hidden]

Hello, well I'm supposed to be taking citralopam but I haven't taken any yet as I'm worried about the effects of it, and I'm still on the waiting list to see a therapist. I do believe I have a certain degree of OCD as sometimes I keep saying a word in my head so that I don't forget it, I also worry about taking things like painkillers Incase they make me feel weird in some way, so yeah you are probably right about the health anxiety. Thank you

[Hidden in reply to Lukey92]

You are very welcome. Again you might now see health anxiety at work in your situation with 'I'm worried about the effects of it....'. The effects will most likely be good ones - but even if this particular medication does not work for you, there are alternatives. In the end, it is therapy that will eventually get to the root of your illness, and then you get to that point you will be able to remove that root and return to better health. Good luck

[Lukey92 in reply to Hidden]

It's a tricky one because I feel as if there is no root, like it just started to get worse and worse until my everyday routine is to feel this way, derealization and depersonalisation plays a big part in how I feel every day, I don't really have a panic attack the feelings of unreality and weird feelings are just there.

[Hidden in reply to Lukey92]

There is the basic principle in all things of cause and effect, therefore, every illness has a cause or root. In the case of anxiety the cause is usually a psychological one, which may or may not stem from a physical trauma or experience. In my case for example the anxiety stems from the fact that i had 2 heart attacks and a stroke last year. The doctors say that it is unlikely I will be having any more in the near future - so my current anxiety is psychological, but stemming from a physical trauma. The point is that there is a root cause for all of us. You may not know what that cause is - one of the functions pf therapy is to identify that cause. Also, you dont need to have every symptom on the anxiety list to be suffering from the disorder. All of the things you mentioned are on that list though.

If you find that things are getting worse for you then maybe you need to discuss alternative treatments with your doctor. I believe that individually tailored, or person centred, treatment plans are far more successful.

[Lukey92 in reply to Hidden]

I'm sorry to hear that, anxiety is strange because it can manipulate in any way possible, like I said I don't really have panic attacks I just feel really off and strange to the point I feel as if my mind is going to break. I know what is going on and I realise that something is wrong and that I need to change, we will get there some day haha