I am stuck in ha hell and I dont know how to get out

[mjnsaj]

Gah Im driving myself bonkers! Everyday it's something new. Today I am so sure I have a brain tumor, because last night I was laying in bed almost asleep and all of a sudden I got this burning tingle pain in leg into my foot. I freak for two more hours before finally falling asleep. I wake this morning and my nose felt like it was burning everytime I breathed in and ear hurt and my stomach feels upset. How that equals a brain tumor I have no idea, but that's what I am sure I have. Also my vision has been wacko it gets blurry and my eyes feel like they jump they get dry then wet. I just have a general something isn't right and I m dying feeling. Last week I thought I had a stomach infection or stomach cancer and then a blockage. I ve going through this for three years. I am in therapy and I take meds, so why the heck can't I get that this anxiety???? I sit here for hours obessing over my health every pain, pinch, dizzy spell, anything that isn't right. Even as I type this my screen looks like it has a yellow line on it until I blink. What else can I do? How do I make this stop? Is all this really just anxiety? I need this to end I want my life back!!!

[JunoX]

It takes time for meds to take effect in your anxiety and even then, you might still have to week with the dosages and the types of anti-anxiety meds you take because they dont all work the same for everyone. You can also developed a tolerance to some of them quicker than you do others and so they stop working, etc. Its a work in progress to finally get a combination that works for your anxiety.

Therapy is the same way. It takes a while to discover what therapy techniques work for you and not all therapists are good at what they do so that is a work in progress as well.

Anxiety is a chronic illness that can take many years of different therapies, meds, etc to control and stabilize. It all depends in how good your doctors are and how you, personally, respond to treatment. Anxiety has been a life long battle for me so I can tell you from experience, not all treatments, ideologies, beliefs about anxiety, work for all people in the same way. Mental illness is unique for everyone and that's why its so difficult to treat. It is as unique as a fingerprint and even though there are some "universal" techniques that seem to be successful for most, they aren't for all.

As long as your still questioning whether what your feeling is anxiety or not, then technically your still in some denial about your mental illness. You have to accept it in order to be able to battle it successfully. The moment you give your thoughts any merit of reality, they will take over. Anxiety is a viscous little creature that is constantly looking for a way in and the littlest hole (doubt) will soon allow it access.

You truly have to take a Draconian tactic with anxiety. There is no way to reason with it. You have to ignore your symptoms because 1, they are not indicative of a brain tumor and 2, you will not move forward to remission if your sitting there panicking about every gurgle, grumble or pop your body makes. Let it snap, crackle and pop. Its a body, your going to feel things on a daily basis.

That always causes people with anxiety to ask well, how do I know what's real and what's anxiety then? What if I'm ignoring something that will kill me? My answer is, believe me, you will know when something is truly wrong. If you had a brain tumor you would be going through some serious symptoms that do not consist of a tingling leg. If you go to your doctor regularly and normally, like for a yearly physical, routine tests will discover if something is or about to go wrong. Other than that, in the worst case scenario where someone does have a brain tumor and they never realized it until it was too late, well, maybe that's there destiny. Maybe that's what was suppose to happen and it wouldn't have been able to be stopped no matter what they would have done. We can't control everything in life. Sometimes you just have to let it go for the sake of living in peace, the last few weeks of life you might have left. Let it go.

[LindaRK]

I sit here for hours

That would be the first problem. 

I'm an anxiety veteran, too .... over 36 years now.  I haven't conquered anxiety, but I have accepted it.  Once I was able to do that, it was alot easier to downplay and even ignore bodily symptoms that I would exhibit.

Our bodies are finely tuned machines ..... there are things going on all the time. We get little twitches and burning, trickling sensations ..... aches and pains and vision disturbances and everything else.  But it doesn't mean that something is wrong. It's just our body doing it's thing.  The problem lies with us focusing on the symptom.  From there, it's all downhill, if you let it.

It's important at the onset of a symptom to tell yourself that it's nothing more than your anxiety doing it's thing.  Then, get up and moving - stimulate your mind and your body.  Do something - anything!  You have to change your thought process at the moment your anxiety kicks in.  It's all about changing the brain.

This isn't something you can do overnight - it takes time, practice, persistence and patience.  But, it can be done.  Sure, there can be setbacks - I've had them.  But when they happen, it's like a little blip on the radar that's passing through space, instead of the meteor hitting dead on.

Great post by JunoX, by the way.