Feeling lost - is it all in my head?

[Idannb]

Hello,

I’m 21 years old and I have suffered from anxiety issues for around 7 years now which has brought on IBS around 5-6 years ago.

Recently I have had abdominal pains around the bottom of my rib cage, which I have seen the doctor, I have seen them around 3-4 times about this. i have had various tests, such as stool sample tests to check for blood which cane back negative and another stool sample test to check for inflammation, a blood test which came back all normal and I have been referred for an ultrasound and to gastroenterology at the hospital to investigate the matters further, following the result for slight inflammation of the gut. I do suffer with health anxiety on top of my generalised anxiety so it may not have helped anything in terms of my anxiety and worries.

I’m feeling pretty helpless at the moment with my anxiety since the passing of my nan back in May. I have been put on Sertraline 50mg tablets to help with my anxiety, but I’m very worried mainly about the side effects of the tablets, this would be the first time taking tablets for my anxiety. I know that if I don’t take the tablets I’m not helping myself, so I don’t have any room to complain if I don’t help myself.

I’m wondering if anyone has any advice on what I can do to help tackle my anxiety and feeling lost.

Daniel.

[Jeff1943]

No reason to feel helpless, Daniel, regardless of the relief that Sertraline will bring you can take control of your recovery through understanding how anxiety works and using the methods that thousands have used to self-help their recovery.

You must have been experiencing stress an worry for some time and your nervous dystem has become so overwhelmed that it has become over sensitised and it is because of this that you are going through all your bad feelings, pains and even the IBS. If you can identify what stress has got you into this state then you should take steps to neutralise it, be ruthless and take decisive action putting yourself first.

Next you should address your over sensitised nerves and help them to recover. Instead of fighting the symptoms and bad feelings which only causes more stress and strain practice accepting all the bad feelings with the minimum of fear. Anxiety thrives on fear and when you start to accept the symptoms (for the moment) you stop thrashing your sensitised nerveswith more fear. Accept them calmly knowing full well that they are not real physical ailments but glitches in your nervous system. If you can cultivate that calmness and acceptance, as tens of thousands of others have, your nerves return to their normal state and all these ailments and bad feelings will eventually depart and you will experience the joy of recovery.

There is a book written many years ago by Claire Weekes that has stood the test of time and has brought full recovery to tens of thousands of people using the Acceptance method that she was first to develop. It is titled Self help with your Nerves in the UK and Hope and help with your nerves in the US - both available from Amazon. I feel sure that you would benefit greatly by reading this book and practicing the Acceptance nethod it describes. I think that this book will be instrumental in giving you back your life, you have only to read some of the reader reviews on Amazon to appreciate how successful it is at helping people with all kinds of anxiety disorders.