my health anxiety story and questions

[p0ttz]

Hi all

I am 15 years old and 3 months ago during the summer holidays I was on the computer and my eyes wouldn't focus on the screen, so I thought maybe I was using it too long and i shut the screen. Then I felt like I was going to pass out so I jumped up and ran outside and started kicking the football across the garden panicking thinking what is wrong with me. I then ran to the kitchen and made a drink of squash and I drank it and I needed more. I then vomited in the garden whilst I was still panicking. I went to sleep thinking I what if I don't wake up. I thought I was going to collapse and die that day. I then woke up 2 hours later and had a shower, thinking I would be 100% ok, but I still felt the same. Then I went to bed.

Since then, different symptoms have happened to me, such as sharp shooting pains in the head and different places of my body; tingling, numbness on my hands 24/7 , derealization/depersonalisation, muscle twitching, headaches (occasionally), Indigestion. (I haven't vomited since that day by the way) Sometimes I cry and say whats wrong with me? Do I have cancer? leukemia? MS? Brain tumor? Lyme disease? Underactive thyroid? Dementia?

I went to the doctor 2 months ago after finally having the confidence to tell my mother that I want a blood test. I went to the doctor, they examined me, by checking my eye lids and stomach and they thought I might have anemia. They ordered a blood test, I had the test 2 days later and got the results. The results showed that it was borderline (I didn't get the overall evaluation) and the doctor examined my stomach again and issued a liver function test and a abdomen scan. This is when all my symptoms started.
I was scared. My mother was nearly in tears because she didn't know what was wrong with me and didn't want to lose me. I had the test, it came back a month later ( I don't know why ) and the doctor said the results were good, and didn't know why the first blood test showed like that. He still wanted me to go to the ultrasound for my abdomen for a "routine checkup"

The ultrasound is on tuesday by the way.

I have no family history of cancer, diabetes, or any disease apart from asthma from my father which I have also. Nobody smokes in my family, I don't drink do drugs etc. So I am wondering what caused all this? Is it really anxiety or a disease?

[Ravens Lady]

This could very well be anxiety related.  I would also like to remind you that sometimes minor issues can affect our body, and these minor issues are not serious concerns at all.  We don't tend to consider that a minor benign issue could be affecting us, we tend to automatically begin to focus on the most serious things we can consider.  But sometimes things like diet, nutritional deficiencies, colds, flu's, stress, things in our environment, lack of a good sleep schedule, and those sorts of things can affect us.

For whatever reason, my body began to go a little berserk when I was 17.  I don't know what set it off, but I was suddenly having high levels of anxiety, panic attacks, waking panic attacks, bumps in my throat, painful tense chest pain, feeling of weakness, feeling like I was going to faint.  I felt like I was just going to fall over and collapse.  However, I was in general pretty healthy.  Still to this day I'm not quite sure what set me off, but thankfully after I got some tests and I was ruled healthy, my body began to relax and things went back to mostly normal. 

I think that the best things you can do are:

-eat a good diet with a wide range of healthy foods fresh foods
-do moderate exercise consistently
-sleep on a regular schedule and get your zzzz's. 
-find an outlet for stress relief (art? meditation? dancing? therapist?)
-don't assume the worst; realize that HA people have a tendency to focus on the the most serious scenarios they can think of, quite often irrational scenarios that are unlikely... you can break this habit by keeping your focus on the positive side, which I think is more likely and probable anyway. 
-trust your doctor's judgment.. you may have a few other tests, but if they turn out normal for the most part, you should relax and trust their judgment and realize that it could be anxiety or other benign things. 

Feel better soon. 

[Itzomi]

Hi there!

Sounds like classic anxiety to me.  When I first started having anxiety symptoms, my doctor told me it was anxiety - and I thought she was nuts!  I didn't FEEL anxious!  (Though I had gone through something very stressful months before.)  In fact, I dumped her as my doctor over it, because I thought she was incompetent.  Turned out she was right on!  (It all started when I fainted for the first time in my whole life.) 

It's good that you're getting checked out, but I wouldn't be TOO worried, as SO many people are having your very same symptoms - I'd bet moreso now than ever, with all the crap & uncertainty that's going on in the world.

I hope you can put it all behind you soon!