A few symptoms but debilitating fear

[Itsjustnotme]

Hi,

I am just not sure with my emotional brain what to take seriously and what not to. My logical brain tells me I am panicking about minor things but I don't want to be that person who ignored things and then died!

I have little collections of symptoms, leg swelling, low back ache, hip ache tiredness, occasional palpitations and itching skin. I am 49 and it has been suggested that many of these things can happen in the peri-menopausal woman. However, the main problem now is the obsession that something is wrong. I can't sleep for the anxiety and fear of illness or death coming for me. It is not rational and I cannot talk myself out of it. The worse my anxiety gets, the worse my sleep is. My lovely GP pays attention and orders tests etc as things occur but to date there is nothing much to find. She thinks however that it is an unusual presentation for perimenopause. Therefore is it all in my head? How do I control this feeling of teariness and terrible emotional lability? I try to be self actualised and have read resources but has anyone experienced this? What has worked because this is just not who I am as a person and can be very distressing?

[Sophie_M]

Hi itsjustnotme,  
 

Thank you for your post to the forums today and for sharing with us how you are feeling right now. Health anxiety is incredibly challenging to manage, and it sounds like you are doing lots of things to help support yourself on your journey to feeling better.  

 
It’s good to hear you are speaking to your GP about these symptoms, we think it’s always really good to keep your GP updated with health anxiety and physical symptoms. Please know that the Beyond Blue counsellors are here for you as well, and you can call us on 1300 22 4636 anytime if you feel like talking it through.  
  We’re sure we’ll hear from our lovely community here soon, but in the meantime here’s some resources and conversations on managing anxiety you might find interesting: 

• Some strategies for managing anxiety  
• This previous thread where community members shared some of their Beyond Blue’s anxiety management strategies 
  
   

Thanks again for posting here. It must have taken a lot of strength to share this, but you never know who will read this post and feel less alone in their own experience. 

 
Kind regards,  


Sophie M 

[Itsjustnotme]

Thanks Sophie.  The anxiety and negative thoughts are overwhelming today. I am sitting in the office with the tears flowing with no real reason except this sadness and fear that something is really wrong with me. Can't seem to escape these irrational thoughts.

[Mark Z.]

Hi Itsjustnotme,

I can tell that it must be super frustrating. I do understand you as I had similar experience before.

It's good to know that your GP has arranged tests for you and the result is normal. If you still have concerns, you can find another doctor for a second opinion. If you are suggested that everything is fine, you should be relieved. However if the anxiety is still there, I believe you need come back to your GP to refer a psychologist.

Mark

[therising]

Hi Itsjustnotme

It's absolutely horrible when you've got a number of symptoms of something or some things and no one's exactly sure what they're symptoms of. So, you're kind of left twisting in the wind while fearing the worst. I think we're programed to find answers and the stress of not having answers really pushes us to find them. I suppose you could say stress is a driving force toward answers, solutions, management plans etc.

If your GP's done all the tests and nothing serious has been revealed, it doesn't hurt to begin wondering. Could your body be pushing you toward a natural lifestyle change in a number of different ways? Being a gal who listens to her own body (nowhere near as much as I should), sometimes I ask my body 'Okay, what are you trying to tell me?'. I know, sounds a bit weird but I find it works. While my knees may tell me (through pain) 'We're done supporting the weight we have to carry. You need to lose it because we're suffering', my nervous system will tell me 'You can't consume this much stimulant and expect to sit with level of hyperactivity. Get up and get moving and stop drinking so much coffee!', every symptom is telling. So, with the leg swelling, what could your legs be telling you? 'We need to circulate more (exercise)' or 'Flush, flush, flush (drink more water, get the fluid moving through and out of us)' or 'Stimulate us through massage (perhaps lymphatic massage, for example)'. Not sure. With lower back pain and hip ache, could your body being saying 'I can't tolerate your favourite chair or mattress anymore' or 'This problem is coming from the ground up. It's time to get better shoes'. With the fatigue, could it be saying 'I need more energy, I can't go on this way'? Could all the symptoms be pointing to individual problems. In other words could the collection of symptoms come down to a collection of problems? Again, who knows.

At 52, while blood tests revealed no pre menopausal signs, I couldn't deny I was becoming a lot more sensitive to a number of things, beginning a couple of years ago. One of the side effects was I could suddenly feel everything that was wrong with me. The call felt a little like 'Okay, time to make everything right'.

[Bob_22]

Hi Itsjustnotme,

Welcome to the forums and thank you for sharing your post. I'm sorry to hear that you've been overwhelmed by anxious and negative thoughts. I, myself, used to suffer from crippling anxiety which much of the time manifested as health anxiety. This meant that alot of the time I would be anxious about physical symptoms I was having which would lead to them even worsening. Anxiety can have a lot adverse effects on our physical health. I would mainly experience, shortness of breath (feeling like I was choking), dry/flaky skin, intense shoulder pain and headaches. I thought alot of these had underlying causes but similar to you, the tests turned out negative. Here is some more info about health anxiety: https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/~/media/CCI/Mental-Health-Professionals/Health-Anxiety/Health-Anxie... 

That's not to say your symptoms are in your head but there is a possibility your stress and anxiety is causing/exacerbating them which makes your anxiety worse. The best way I found to break this cycle was talking things through with my GP and psychiatrist and implementing relaxation strategies as well as CBT. I found breathing exercises helped in reducing anxiety and identifying what physical symptoms were being caused by the anxiety also. For example, once I realised my shoulder pain was initiated by feelings of anxiety I could control the pain mentally with the help of breathing techniques and thought challenging. 

This may all be confusing but it is simple once talking to a psychologist or GP about this sort of thing. I hope this helps and let me know if you have any questions. 🙂

Bob