A little help is needed here?

[RubberDingy24]

Hi all, I need to vent and get some advice in what is going to be absolute jumble but that’s what my brain is feeling at the moment.

I don’t know where to begin really. I have the worst anxiety at the moment. Usually I’m a bubbly person who is the first person to give anything a go but now I’m on edge all the time.

It all started about a month ago, I came down with a sickness bug and I very rarely get ill so this was weird and I had been ill in the august the exact same but I shrugged it off. I was throwing up and it was violently coming out the other end( sorry) and I spent a good few nights on the bathroom floor. Usually being sick doesn’t bother me but ever since my mum died (June 2021) I have this impending fear that I’m going to just randomly die like she did.

Anyways after about the 4 days of keeping nothing down, I started having heart palpitations and shaking and overthinking everything like you normally do and I honestly thought I was going to die. I rang the doctors but they are a load of nothing🤦‍♀️ I ended up going to a&e and getting an ECG and that came back normal and they put everything down to anxiety. They put me on propanalol and sent me on my way.

For the first few days I was fine, and then I would get excruciating chest pains and still couldn’t really eat anything, I had lost all sense of taste and smell( not covid been tested) and having the worst sleep ever. But that wasn’t the worst part the worst bit was the fact I felt so out of, like I was watching me through my eyes like I’m not here.

So I told the doctor and she’s not put me on sertraline, but I have a mild form of serotonin syndrome and with how out of it I’m feeling I’m scared that I’m not going to feel the side effects anymore and I’m going to die. I don’t feel here anymore, mentally or physically. Please can someone help or give me some advice. I have just come off all my meds I can’t take them as my body makes my reaction worse than if I didn’t take them. I’ve cut out all dairy from my diet to see if that helps but I just have a constant headache and I just don’t want to die.

[anxiousfairy16]

Hi, firstly, maybe some of what you are feeling is a mental thing. Sometimes, our mind can trigger certain responses from our body when under pressure. I noticed that you said you’re afraid of dying and one of the things I’ve learned is that when you think you might die, your mind convinces you and your body that you are actually about to die. Also, we usually underestimate the power of anxiety on our mind and bodies. I’m not saying your sickness is 100% anxiety related but a lot of your symptoms are being heightened or even created by your anxiety. Believe me, I’ve been there; wondering whether I was about to die and having panic attacks so bad I couldn’t breathe and I thought I was dying. If you can, find some way to relax and try to calm your thoughts, more specifically those thoughts you have that you’re about to die. It’s our brain’s response to unfamiliar sickness: believing that we’re about to die. I know it’s hard because you’re feeling so sick and you’re also overwhelmed with these thoughts but try to find your safe space where you can find some, if not semi-total, mental peace. Then, if you still feel as sick, maybe it would be time to see a specialist. Also, I know headaches SUCK but you’re not going to die from them although they are really painful. I really hope you feel better soon.

[designguy]

Sounds like maybe you got a bad case of food poisoning and it's taking a while for your body to recover. There is a direct connection between our gut and our brain that directly influences our anxiety/depression/mood and when our digestion is upset it can trigger our anxiety especially for those of us who are prone to anxiety. Try to relax some and reassure yourself that this is just temporary and do what you can to let your body readjust itself and heal which will help lower your anxiety.

[RubberDingy24 in reply to designguy]

Hi, firstly thank you for your response but I’m highly doubting that it is food poisoning as this was September and we are now in December and if anything my health anxiety and physical state have gotten worse. I am slowly starting to eat again but I feel out of it all of the time and I have a constant dull headache. I don’t go out by myself anymore I have cut out most of things that could trigger this but nothing has helped me so far

[designguy in reply to RubberDingy24]

One thing that helps me when my digestion is way off is to just drink bone broth and drink slippery elm in water. I do a two or three day fast with just it and let me digestion calm down and settle. I empty the contents of the slippery elm capsules in hot water and drink that. I like to make my own bone broth but you can get it in boxes now. the bone broth provides nutrients and the slippery elm soothes and coats the digestive tract. Also drinking ginger and/or peppermint tea is good for soothing.

Do you possibly have IBS or SIBO and food allergies/sensitivities? It's possible to not realize you have issues and then to have then seem like they suddenly appear.