Health.

[Missialeri]

I'm an 18 year old female basically convinced I'm dying. I've been suffering some undiagnosed illness a good 5 months now, I've been getting chest tightness/congestion, coughing and chest pain... Which then caused more symptoms such as tension/migraine sort of weird headaches. I was convinced I had a brain tumour, the headaches have eased since I had my eye test and everything was normal. I've had 2 blood tests since October which came back normal which doesn't help my situation at all because I just cannot be sick for no apparent reason. Like recently I've started with pains in the glands under my chin, behind my ears, under my arms, my breasts are very sore and the pain travels down my shoulders to my arms. Anxiety has never caused symptoms like this for me before, it's just all happened slowly over the 5 month period and I just don't want to be one of those patients that the doctor ignored and ends up dying of a deadly disease. I go to bed every night now worried I'll never wake up again . I feel exhausted everyday, I just can't get my mind at ease until this is resolved. I'm so scared, I've never had any feeling like this before. I've already had one breakdown over this either my brain is tricking me into thinking it's serious or this is my gut instinct telling me I'm right. The doctors are saying I'm fine!, what else could it be?

[Jeff1943]

Missialeri, you have told us that you have an anxiety disorder, your doctor has investigated your symptoms and can find nothing organically wrong with you but you still believe you have a deadly illness. Doctors are a lot wiser than perhaps you give them credit for, they see dozens of patients every day which gives them experience as well as knowledge. As an outsuder who has read your post it is clear to me that all your symptoms are the result of anxiety and that your are most definately not dying of a deadly disease.

Anxiety regularly mimics all kinds of organic diseases including all the symptoms you describe, the fact that you have not experienced anxiety symptoms like some of these before does not mean that they are not anxiety.

Your nervous system has become sensitised by stress and worry, what started it I of course cannot say, but you are now maintaining that sensitivity by bombarding your nerves with fresh worry and fear on a daily basis. When our nervous system become sensitised small daily problems become magnified ten fold, small aches and sprains are considered life threatening illnesses, all caused by continual introspection to the point where your fears become obsessive.

You are not unuque in this, everybody on this forum has gone through thesame experience as you: adding second fear to first fear and becoming involved in a viscious never ending circle of anxiety causing symptoms causing more anxiety causing more symptoms and so on.

Missialeri, there is a simple cure for your problems. But although it is simple it isn't a quick fix and it takes perseverance. I suggest you recognise the obvious, all your symptoms wre tricks being played on you by your tired and over sensitive nervous system. They are fakes, they are frauds, they do not exist in thevorganic sense though I appreciate they feel real enough to you. What you should do to recover is what so many of us here have done. You must stop fighting and you must Accept these symptons for the time being, that is to say you must utterly accept them knowing them to be merely blips in your nervous system which can do your body no permanent harm. Why fear something that does not really exist? So when you feel your symptoms and bad feelings let your body and mind relax by letting every muscle go limp. Do not add second fear to first fear, stop feeding that viscious circle with further anxiety. It will take time and practice to cultivate this mind set of temporarily Accepting the annoying symptoms. But when you do, you allow your sensitised nervous system to recover because you are no longer thrashing it with fresh fear - and you will soon be well on your way along the yellow brick road of recovery, I promise you.

[Missialeri in reply to Jeff1943]

Thank you so much!, it feels great to have people like you who understand and know what it's all about.

[Mloanddb]

I have almost the same exact symptoms as you do. Chest pains chest tightness coughing here & there. I also get shortness of breath do you experience that symptom? I also get random pains everywhere. Now when you said that your breast were sore that really made me think. Mines hurt to it's like a dull ache and they hurt almost all month not just before my period. I'm sorry that you are experiencing this at such a young age. I've had blood work done EKG and they say I'm fine well I don't feel fine!

[Missialeri in reply to Mloanddb]

I'm the same!, I just don't want them using my anxiety as an excuse because some doctors tend to fob you off even if something is actually wrong. I don't want to accept that it might be anxiety, because I could possibly be right about it being more than that. I have asthma but the nurse has told me that the chest pains/tightness isn't my asthma and may be something else. I get chest pains when I move quickly or lay down and the anxiety makes it worse because I feel like I can't breathe

[skyraknight]

Anxiety is not an illness! It's a amorous number of symptoms that were all bunched up and put in a box. That box of symptoms is called anxiety for lack of better understanding what's causing it and how to treat it. Anxiety may be caused by a number of things. Unresolved psychological hurts, pahtogens, worms, bacterias, environmental toxins, certain viruses like EBV, heavy metals like mercury present in amalgam dental fillings, poor diet full of additives, certain medical drugs, poor sleeping habbits, mental overload, lack of faith, surgeries, negative close relationships, etc. The list goes on and on. Anxiety is a reaction, it's an alarm bell. Its a system overload. When was the last time you heard your liver, your spleen, your intestines, thyroid, heart talk to you? And if they could, how do you think they would communicate with us? Bear in mind that everything is connected together, everything works in synch. Different people resolve their anxiety in a number of different ways because they changed something personal only to themselves. You can supress anxiety symptoms in many different ways through drugs, for example. But is it the lack of drugs that cause anxiety? As such, you can put many bandages and keep supressing symptoms but underneath anxiety is still present. The key to rid of anxiety is to find the root cause. Do you live a wholesome life? If you could, would it be possible to make a list of any habbit's that you would like to change? We live in a world where we look for quick 'boxed' answers and solutions, where we put so much trust in our doctors to resolve our problems. Nobody else knows about you as much as you. Even of you talked for hundreds or thousands of hours about yourself there would be no one that honestly could say than now they know you now. However, many good doctors or therpists can guide you to find the root cause. I am sorry my reply is not candy wrapped but looking and eliminating tlroot cause will most likely rid of your anxiety. Cheers!