im still questioning my anxiety

[baileys]

I hear a lot of people describing their health concerns and wondering if its anxiety, i also hear them describing typical panic and anxiety situations but i never hear people describe the way i feel constantly, which still makes me wonder if how i feel is all due to anxiety.
 Ive had all the usual tests but there are so many things that docs in the UK don't test you for, even food intolerance is something that most docs don't think exists.
I know Ive had a certain amount of anxiety all my life so maybe i don't realise that i am anxious, but i don't get the high level anymore.
When i get up in the morning i feel like Ive had a good drink and very off balance, the head pressure is bad and i ache all over, this can go on until the afternoon, then i sometimes feel a bit better. I feel very distant from people when I'm like this. It all depends how i physically feel on that day to how my day is going to be.
 I ignore all the other symptoms like stomach problems because i don't have bad health anxiety's so the symptoms don't scare me but they wont go away.
I know I'm always tense and most days i have a headache but these feelings are constant now and its really hard to try and have a life when i feel this way. It doesn't matter how much i ignore the symptoms there is nothing that seems to get rid of them.
I know i worry  about thing but its usually things like, trying to find a job that i can do with all the symptoms i have.
So I'm still questioning if whether I'm anxious because of my symptoms rather than the anxiety causing the symptoms.
I know anxiety comes in all different ways but because i don't get the normal ones that i hear other people describe, I'm still not fully convinced.
I would be interested if anybody else feels like me.

[IowaAnxiety]

I do not "panic attack" myself aka breathing into a bag.  I often feel floaty and disconnected...I get really depressed and I worry non stop that I am losing my mind...this is anxiety still and should be handled and discussed with a psychiatrist!  You are certainly not alone!  Anxiety takes many forms and their is healing and help for them!


Thanks,

IowaAnxiety

[baileys]

Thanks for the reply, I have been seeing a therapist for 3 years but i seem to be getting worse, so she is now wondering if it is all due to anxiety.

[IowaAnxiety]

Well first and foremost keep reminding yourself that you are not dying and you are not alone!  Your therapist could very well be right!  I would maybe ask to be reffered to a psychiatrist who could dig into the anxiety issue further!  There are many good books out there.  The best advice I can give you is don't go digging around on the internet for symptoms and such.  That will only fuel the anxiety and cause it to get worse!  Keep breathing, keep your chin up, and remember your not alone!


IowaAnxiety

[baileys]

I dont dig around the internet and im not really bother about dying. What bother me is, am i trying to fight something that is out of my control, if it is not all anxiety, thats why i was wondering if people feel like me.

[tigerpaw]

Does your therapist suggest you seek meds yet?

[IowaAnxiety]

I know with my anxiety when I get stressed I get a lot of headaches and my stomach is constantly upset.  I think it has a lot to do with stress levels and worry, both things that are often related to anxiety.


IowaAnxiety

[baileys]

Tigerpaw, I did use meds when i had panic attacks and anxiety in my teens but i had to have a very high dose to do anything for me and i was like a zombie. I did try several different meds about a year ago but they didnt help. I may not have given them long enough to work but what scared me the most was the suicidal thoughts that i had when i was on them and that scares me to take them again.

[thinker247]

Hey Baileys,
It sounds like you do have symptoms of anxiety, but I think getting an official diagnosis from a psychiatrist would put you at ease and lay the foundation for chipping away at this thing.
Also, as far as what you said about you worrying about finding a job that would be compatible with your symptoms, I am right there with you. The intensity of my symptoms has gotten so bad now that I am just sitting at home thinking about what I could do with my symptoms, and what I could allow myself to do (pride-wise) seeing that I have a college degree in biology. I don't have a solution for you in that respect except to tell you that, ideally, we should be pushing for what we want to do and balance that with our current situation. I hope this helps.

[baileys]

Thanks Thinker, I know i have symptoms of anxiety and i know i am an anxious person, i just dont know how to control it to lesson my chronic symptoms. When youve had it for so long it becomes a way of life and its so hard to understand what im doing to fuel it. I do accept it but it doesn't help my symptoms.
Because i dont have the classic symptoms of anxiety it hard to get a definite diagnosis. My doc has twice referred me to a psychiatrist but i only had one visit to them and told to go back to my doc and to go on meds, i cant afford to go private.
I worry because i need to work etc and its hard when i feel so bad.
Thanks again for your reply.

[thinker247]

You know, Baileys, I have this same issue. I have anxiety now for about ten years and I have found so many ways to work around it, ignore it, tuck it under the rug that now I almost numb to my symptoms. I think that my attempt over the years to get help from therapists and doctors has left me with very few tools I can use and has forced me to deal with the anxiety anyway I can. I've been through so many panick attacks in my day that I eventually learned to just talk through them if i'm in public. The intrusive thoughts I get are too frequent to focus on one, or I have learned to either distract myself from them or play them out in a joke or in a safe environment with friends (if that makes sense). Your symptoms might be different from mine. I'm sort of giving you an example. I am definitely not saying that this is where I want to stop in my progress with anxiety, because all I am basically doing is carrying the burden of anxiety and depression, but at least we are surviving.
Anyway, as far as symptom control, the general consensus is taking meds. Many people on this forum have found relief with that track. I am not one of them (yet), and that is mostly because because I panick when I take medication, I think they call it pharmacophobia. In my ten years I have tried therapy waaaayy more than meds and I can say now with confidence that for someone with long term chronic anxiety, no amount of therapy or self-help alone is going to help you to the point where you want it. And this is coming from someone who has avoided trying meds for the last ten years, with the exception of very few brief intolerable attempts. Once again, I hope I have at least provided you with some sympathy. Good luck to you.     

[rally1]

I am going through a similar experience as well. My story started about 5 months ago, when my anxiety first went full-blown "symptomatic" in the span of about 5 minutes. I felt like I was crawling out of my skin. The entire world was hostile and alien, including my house. The physical symptoms (shortness of breath, one foot feeling "different" than the other, head pressure, nausea, insomnia, thirst, dry mouth and lips, etc.) and emotional symptoms continued relentlessly for about 2 months. I've been to every specialist I can get my hands on (pulmonologist, neurologist, sleep disorder docs, dermatologist, cardiologist, GI doc) and had a whole series of tests (MRI's, CT scans, EMG's, EKG's, blood work, sleep studies, you name it) without any official diagnosis other than anxiety. After I had all of my testing done,  I went so far as to sit down with a different primary doctor for a second opinion. Again, anxiety. On the advice of my many doctors, I started to see a therapist. When the behavioral office first sat down with me, I got lucky and had the head of the department (and this is a huge and well respected teaching hospital) sit in on my session (I was told this was abnormal; I think he was checking up on the intake counselor). He confirmed that he felt it was anxiety and that nervous system issues can take many, many forms. He also advised that I not be afraid of meds.

And yet, with all of that work done on me, I still feel like it isn't (entirely) anxiety. While some of my symptoms have gone away (my emotional symptoms are almost normal again), a few remain just as strong as they ever were (mainly my foot and occasional shortness of breath). The therapist I was assigned to thinks that I am afraid of my physical symptoms, which in turn creates more physical symptoms. It doesn't really matter what stresses in my life first caused everything to go symptomatic, but once the flood gates open...they really open. They are suggesting that I start on Lexapro to break the physical symptom loop while starting CBT to stop the negative thinking. I'm trying to keep a journal to identify my "triggering events" but find it difficult to connect a thought to the symptom since the symptom is pretty much always there.

I guess my point is that you are not alone. Anxiety can do a ton of strange things if you let it.

[baileys]

Thanks Thinker, i am thinking about trying meds again. You sound like me, you work round it but sometime you get to the point where you've had enough of doing that. Thanks your reply it makes so much sense to me.

Rally,   I wish i could believe it was all anxiety but I'm still not totally convinced.
My second bout of anxiety started 14 years ago with the usual symptoms, trouble breathing, panic attacks, palpitations numbness, all the things i hear described on here.
But  4 years ago i gradually began to get rid of all those symptoms, now i am left with general aching, tiredness, head pressure dizziness etc, but i never panic now, I'm just anxious of the way i feel, knowing i need to continue trying to cope with life. So although its still anxiety in a way its not the normal things that i hear about on here, and i do sometimes question if these things are making me anxious rather than anxiety causing them. Thanks for your reply.