Reluctant to believe anxiety

[Sandy1710]

I am very reluctant to believe I’m suffering with anxiety. I struggle through each day constantly thinking I’m having a heart attack only to wake up the next day. I don’t get it, it doesn’t show up in scans or bloods so how do we know anxiety is real!!!

[Fearoffear]

If it showed up in bloods or scans it wouldn't be anxiety. I know it's hard to hear and accept, but accept it so you can move on. Learn to hate it and accept it at the same time and you will be able to take its power away. I still get panic attacks but when they're over I don't give them a second thought except for smiling and saying kicked panics butt again. Maybe it will get tired of not winning and leave, but until then I continue to kick and win! Good luck you can do it, set your mind to it and do it! *hugs and thoughts sent your way*

[Hidden]

I am the exact same way. I live in a nice house and do well in school. I don’t understand what I could possibly be so stressed about that I get heart attack symptoms and panic attacks. I had blood tests, urine tests, an ekg, all of them came back normal. I miss so much school because I always feel sick. People keep telling me it’s anxiety but I am struggling to believe them. It feels like there must be something more. I also wake up the next day thinking woah how am I still alive? It’s so weird I just can’t believe it’s supposedly all anxiety.

[Abadar in reply to Hidden]

Missing the school is very positive sign, read my note below. Learn to live with it and get back to life. I have lived with it for over four decades. I got 3 degrees and live a wonderful life. “Miss Anxiety is my narcissistic life partner who is always fighting with me, bullying me and torturing me, but at the same time she loves me so much that she never leaves me alone”.

[MrMannering]

And that is your vicious circle. I dont believe it's anxiety therefore it has to be a heart attack which is causing anxiety. This comes from the human desire to find an answer born out if reluctance. My chest hurts there's a heaviness or a tingle or a shooting pain. It's not anxiety I must focus on the pain until I've worked out what is the cause. The desire to find the cause keeps you noticing the feeling. Like being adamant you saw someone in your garden. You look closely but there's nobody there. You walk away from the window but you are so sure that you go back again and again. Then you decide to go out in the garden to look behind the tree to see if he's there. You eventually give up and accept there was nobody there and the thought doesn't bother you again.

[Ctate96]

I’ve been to the hospital 3 times now with chest pain (plus probably 4 other times for other reasons) all leading back to anxiety. I know it’s hard and I too constantly think “it can’t be anxiety it has to be something else” but it is anxiety. But I also get the “heart attack” anxiety symptom and it really does suck

[GypsyJill18 in reply to Ctate96]

Girl, me too 😟. I have been in and out of the E.R. literally about 8 time in 6 weeks. That is insane crazy. Like no one does that. I have always thought of myself as a very rational and level headed person I don't go to the emergency room ever I just make a doctor's appointment if something is wrong. The chest pain is as real as a broken bone pain. I swear I'm having a heart attack each time and the hospital people make me feel like I must be crazy. No doctors around here where i live prescribe pills for anxiety or panic anymore they are so stingy with help they just want me to talk to people and that doesn't help. I have missed two weeks of work from the chest pain and I'm a hard worked I like making money I like my job. I'm just lost on what to do. I have a halter monitor on now but it's not bothering me tonight it's so crazy. It hurts every day and the day I get the monitor I feel good. Go figure makes no sense at all.

[Abadar]

The earlier you accept it, the faster you will be back to life.

The faster you start taking it as your life partner, the earlier it will stop scaring you.

Like a bully in school, if you are afraid of it, it will bully you more.

Saying there are no diagnostic tests for it and all tests come normal is not correct. Just this that psychiatric tests are questionnaires. Like angina (heart pain), the anxiety symptoms and signs are known. We all fulfill common diagnostic criteria mentioned in all psychiatry books.

Cheer up, make friends with it, learn to live with it and get back to life/school/ work/ laughter.