Constant worry...going insane

[stchmp06]

I was diagnosed with postpartum depression a couple of months after I had my son last year. I have never been officially diagnosed with anxiety, but I know I have it. When I was diagnosed with PP depression, I was seeing the doctor because I was having heart palpitations. I was sent to a heart specialist where he found nothing wrong with my heart. Those were a rough 2 weeks going back and forth to the doctor and ER thinking I was having a heart attack. Then I began to feel a brain fog and dizziness. I had never felt that way before in my life. The doctor put me on a low dose of Prozac which tremendously helped with the symptoms. Fast forward to now, I haven't been taking my medicine because I am 5 weeks pregnant. The heart palpitations return on some days, I feel dizzy in the mornings, my vision seems blurry at times, I'm having night sweats, and my neck is constantly stuff/sore. The day I found out I was pregnant, I was so stressed out that I started having tingling/numbness in my arms and hands. Now for the past week, I have not been able to stop worrying that I have a brain tumor or something is seriously wrong with me. I have been fighting the urge to go to the ER to beg to have an MRI done to see if something is really wrong with me or not. I feel like I can relax if it comes back nothing is wrong. I can't keep going on in this constant state of doom, like something is going to happen to me. Someone please give me some words of encouragement. No one around me understands. Everyone just thinks I'm crazy! I can't go and enjoy myself at any kind of event because I'm so afraid someone will bomb the place or come in shooting. I worry about things that people shouldn't even worry about. I can't even think about my 5 year old starting school this fall from worries of something bad happening at his school. I'm hoping to find people I can relate to here.

[jamie1975]

Hi I can relate I had severe depression and depersonalization after the birth of my 1st child. Sounds to me like your symptoms are from stress and depression I would talk to therapist or dr before thinking you need an mri hope this helps. And I had all kinds of symptom so scared something bad was gonna happen heart beating hard and a feeling of being out of body. It was scariest time of my life when I should of been happy having a baby. It effected me real bad

[Jeff1943]

Stchmp06, let me reassure you you're not going to have a heart attack, you DON'T have a brain tumour and nobody is going to bomb you if you go out. These are all exagerrated negative fears caused by the fact that your hormones haven't yet recovered from having your last child and your body is getting ready for the next one. I'm no doctor but that's what I believe. Byall means go have a word with your doctor, tell him everything you've said here and I think he will reassure you.

For example, there's about 25,000 people on this Forum and most of them have had heart palpitations and when they go see a specialist they discover there's nothing wrong. Palpitations and missed heart beats are normal reactions to anxiety, I had them for a few weeks about a month ago but as I knew they were harmless because I've had them years ago I didn't fear them, I accepted them, and suddenly they went ad I knew they would.

All these bad feelings, the dizziness, brain fog, blurry vision are likewise the classic symptoms of anxiety. The way to respond to them is to just ACCEPTthem without fear and in time they will pass. It's the anxiety which is exaggerating all your fears and worries, we've all experienced it. And as I say, the best way to deal with the symptoms of anxiety is to accept them temporarily, that way they won't keep feeding your over-sensitive nervous system with fear. Everything is going to be alright for you, don't be fooled by the bad feelings, they will pass in time believe me.