Anxiety/Stress/Lighthead/Wooziness

[Carl87]

Hello,

I'm new to the site and thought I'd try and get some insight into past and existing sufferers of Anxiety, in particular experiences with lightheadedness associated with stress and anxiety. My story in a nutshell started from scary thoughts that then created fear and worry eventually causing my body to be sensitised over a course of about 4 months. Sensitised to those who don't know what I mean by that is essentially your nerve cells misfiring constantly due to a hypersensitive fight or flight response. So whenever you hear, see or think about that one thing that made you anxious in the first place, it causes an automatic uncontrollable fear reaction within you and the only way to get away from that is by retraining your amygdala (flight or fight response in your brain). How do we do this? By using acceptance and not adding second fear to the automatic reaction already happening. Over time, with normal (not forced) exposure to these things that cause you anxiety, you slowly desensitise and your body just doesn't react anymore like it used to. This takes patience though and a complete and utter dedication to a acceptance. It doesn't happen overnight.

This is the stage I'm at right now, I am desensitised, not consumed by anymore fearful thoughts or worries, however I seem to have developed a new sensation which is this constant lightheaded / tipsy drunk feeling 24/7. I had this for 3 weeks, then a gap of around 2 weeks came where it subsided, then it came back and has been with me now for around 5/6 weeks. Given that my body was ridiculed with fear and worry for the best part of 5/6 months, is this now my bodies way of slowly trying to recuperate back to normality? Stress - response hyperstimulation is something I've discovered on anxietycentre.com however there are not many other things on the net to back this theory. If it is stress alone that's caused this, then I am more than willing to just sit tight and let these feelings pass, but it's always good to seek opinions from others. Another theory I've discovered is that I could be hyperventilating without realising it, so breathing abnormally faster due to past suffering and a bad breathing habit has occurred as a result of this. If this is the case, I'll need to work on my breathing to reset it back to normal? So many possibilities, yet nothing set in stone. Ah the joys of being a human !

Some further information about myself, I went to the GP and he seems to think its stress and anxiety despite me not having had any tests. He also said it could be a form of derealisation, but from looking this up online, this doesn't seem to be what I have unless it's a very mild form. I am medication free and have never taken any medication for my Anxiety. I have never had therapy and also am not seeking it either. This isn't due to being in denial and stubborn, I genuinely feel there is no need for it as I have no worries or fears like I used to.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to your responses.

[Ashley1489]

I've had the same symptoms off and on 4 years and doctors say anxiety and panic disorder