I could really use some help!

[Butturfly2021]

I am 26 years old and have anxiety for 4 months now.....i have had every possible tests done....at first my symp. were heart palp., lighthead, dizzy and sweating.  Now the only symp. I have are pounding heart, chest tightness and shortness of breath.  I have tried valuim and beta blockers and can't take either one.  Does anyone else have these symptoms? I would really like to talk to someone about all of this.  It is starting to take over my life.  I don't work anymore and it is a chore just to make myself get out of the house.

[sixpack]

ANxiety can really muck with you.  The best advice I can give you, which is often very hard to accomplish, at least at first, is to accept logically and emotionally (that is the hard part) that anxiety affects more than the mind but the body as well.  Your whole body can be dragged around like a puppet from ole BEASTY (your anxious thinking mind). You have to accept, also, that anxiety is not an on/off switch.  Just because you may not feel consciously anxious doesn't mean your body won't react.  It takes a while to get ramped up and it probably takes twice as long to get calmed back down.  So it can take months of therapy (meds if you are open to that), exercise, hobbies that completely take you away, self-help books, forums to get yourself back to a normal anxiety level.  Remember that everybody has anxiety to a certain extent---life is stressful.  But it only becomes a disorder when it consumes you.

Here is a link to the 100+ most common anxiety symptoms:

http://www.anxietyzone.com/index.php/topic,17050.0.html

Perhaps if you can see logically that anxiety is a powerful foe, you will more easily accept that it can muck with you all over the place.  Once you aren't afraid of the physical symptoms, your anxiety will go down a bit.  Actually when I get physical symptoms now, I look at what is going on in my life that has me stressed.  Sometimes it is just a random thought or sometimes it is a squirrely life event.  It is a bit easier for me right now to see the triggers because I'm not in the snowstorm, so to speak.  If you are living in a steady stream OR have beenfeeling anxious, like you for 4 months (honestly its probably been longer   4mo may be just when you started noticing it), then your body/mind has it's anxiety button stuck in the on postiion.  So likely you don't even need a stressor or trigger to set off a panic or physical symptoms.  However you can change this.  It will take some time but it can be done.   You may always have to be wary of anxiety rearing its ugly head BUT once you have the tools, it won't be able to drag you around quite so easily.  

[Butturfly2021]

Thank you for your reply...I have been trying to figure out what has triggered this...I did have some symps when i was 19 right after i had my son and he was in the hosp for a month right after birth but the symp were on and off for about a week.  Now...I thought it was my job or my husband just started working off shore and is only home one week out of the month.  I quit my job so i know it's not that....i know it will not hurt me and the only thing that baothers me is when i'm driving i start getting the tightness in the chest and i feel completely disconnected from the world.  I get to where I really shouldnt be driving and that is what gets me the most.  i am starting to cope with it and making myself get out of the house...My mom and my mother in law both have anxiety and i see how they have let it beat them and i am determinded not to let it do that to me - for my family's sake.....so do you think that exercise and making positive changes in my life could help?

[Deb1]

I think you have more than anxiety. That sound like panic disorder. If your not leaving your home that means that you have agoraphobia, a fear of leaving your home. I had severe panic disorder with severe agoraphobia & couldn't leave my home for a very long time. Do not get discouraged. It does get better.
Panic attacks will not kill you. The best thing thats ever helped me is Xanax. That is similiar to Valium.
Anxiety runs in my family. My Dad took Valium for a short period of time. I have a maternal grandmother who took Xanax. Neither one of them had anxiety as bad as I have had it. No one in my family ever had panic disorder but me. This happened in 1998 & it took a long time & many many many medications before finding the one that worked for me. Agoraphobia is something I had to work on gradually.
I've been panic free since June on 2004. I still have a lot of anxiety. It's terrible. Bad things have happened to me. You are not alone. I hope you have good support. You will find people who share those same symptoms you have. I've improved with panic and agoraphobia. I still have major anxiety.
A few days ago I went to 3 stores by myself. Good not to panic while out. When I got home I had some heart palpitations, but not as severe, chest pain & overbreathing a little. I was afraid I'd develope panic disorder again. None of these being as severe as I've had in the past. I've had worse heart palpitations & hyperventilated terribly. I thought this would never end & agoraphobia was something I would never overcome. I did. It just takes a long time.
I hope you have a good doctor. My first doctor was my bigest mistake.
I hope you feel better soon. Been there, done that
Debbie

[sixpack]

What's helped me most in the past is execise, hobbies AND leaps of faith that I'm not ill (for me Health anxiety was the biggie).  You also need to not change your life to suit anxiety.  This makes anxiety/symptoms worse.  Take things slowly but don't run from the fear.