Newly-triggered Anxiety

[halia 60]

Good day, all.

 

I don't generally post much on here but do look around often. However, recently I've found myself suffering from strong physical symptoms of anxiety and I think health worries trigger it.

I've been diabetic since I was 18, it's probably not the best managed ever with quite regular highs and lows and I guess that I'm worrying it's taking its toll on my body. I've found myself paranoid I'm going to have a massive heart attack or something and I'm only in my 30's!

Does anyone else get anxiety like this? How do you manage it?

My doctors prescribed me drugs that help with the physical symptoms as it was starting to really affect my life at work and home.

 

Thanks

[adiantum 36,027]

G'day halia,

 

I'm sorry your not feeling your usual self.

Theres another member posted  of a similar problem , to which another member posted this link which could help you also

https://www.healthline.com/health/grounding-techniques 

[Diana_CT 16,228]

2 hours ago, halia said:

I've been diabetic since I was 18, it's probably not the best managed ever with quite regular highs and lows and I guess that I'm worrying it's taking its toll on my body. I've found myself paranoid I'm going to have a massive heart attack or something and I'm only in my 30's!

Does anyone else get anxiety like this? How do you manage it?

 

One time at work I had an anxiety attack and I stood up at my desk and said that I can't feel my pulse! After not keeling over... I then got embarrassed which caused more anxiety.

 

Another forum member posted a similar thread here yesterday... I Think I Need Help which I posted comment.

[halia 60]

Thanks for your suggestions and links @adiantum and @Diana_CT, I'll be sure to check them out. Sorry if I may have exaggerated a bit on my first post, there's no history of heart disease, etc in our family, though I consider my weight already overweight, I'm fairly active, up and downstairs a lot at work, walking to client visits and I enjoy weekly mountain bike sessions. I don't sit for days or weeks with my blood sugar above 15mmols but I do have a habit of spiking both ways due to diet (trying to improve)

Logically, there's probably no reason why I should be sitting worrying about these things at my age. I think an over-active brain and health anxiety are the problem.

I wish I could just switch off sometimes lol.

[Hammer 19,340]

While this is not the solution for everyone, I have found that if I just get it in my head that I don't care, anxiety is never a problem.  I have had a number of panic attacks in the past, and each time I had one, I didn't know what it was while it was happening.  If you've ever had a panic attack, it feels like a heart attack, only a panic attack won't hurt you.  If you let the panic attack scare you, that just feeds the attack and makes it worse.  Every time I've had  one, I just talk to myself and say, "Is this it!  Is this the best you've  got?  Well, bring it on then!"  By not letting it scare you, it will go away quickly.  

 

If you are suffering from anxiety a lot, then that is typically just a shortage of serotonin in the brain.  They don't know why the shortage occurs, but since they know that it's a shortage, they typically prescribe a selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI).  Prozac is an SSRI, as is citalopram.  Taking one of these every day will allow your body to maintain a higher level of serotonin, and that should help ease the anxiety.  I don't know if there are any natural ways to increase your serotonin levels, so if anyone knows of any, I'd be interested to know about them.

 

I've heard that meditation can ease one's anxiety, so you might want to try that.  Myself, I think that I mediate all of the time without knowing it, since I can sit in front of the computer for long periods of time, and just think about things, which usually results in putting me to sleep.

Edited January 26 by Hammer

[halia 60]

Thanks for your response.

For some reason, I'm only really getting the physical symptoms of anxiety and not the emotional ones and I think this causes a spiral as it makes me think something else is wrong.

I guess all the info they give about being 5x more likely to have heart attacks and strokes just made me paranoid and that worry.

It all came on all of a sudden a couple of weeks back when I had what the doctors said was an anxiety attack/panic attack. I've never had one of these before so demanded my other half drive me to the hospital. I've not been right since but I'm hoping it's all in my head.

I've had bloods taken and an ecg taken over the last few weeks. I imagine they would have found something if it was there but It just seems to be all I can think about lol.
 

[ran23 10,766]

With all my close school friends moving on, I had few face-to-face left.   I did find my favorite teacher was now a therapist, spend time with her.  It was worth it to me.   

[Dowling 249]

Worry and anxiety is useless. My husband was a worrier and wondered why I never worried about anything. I told him he did enough worrying for both of us.

 

Worriers don't live as long as long as those of us who don't worry. My philosophy is if you have something you are concerned about change or attempt to change it if you can. If you can't change things or work toward changing things then there's not much sense worrying about it because it is beyond your control. Go with the flow is a good motto. If I feel stressful I meditate. I'm 80 years old and I have the blood pressure of a 20 year old. I'm active to an extent and have excellent health.