New to Anxiety

[Ryan_j]

Hi

I’m Ryan 33 years old and recently been suffering quite considerably from anxiety. Well, at least I think it’s anxiety I have been referred to a psychologist in a few weeks and also a respiratory specialist as my anxiety seems a major player in my struggle to breath almost all hours of the day.... does anyone else suffer from what only I can best describe as heavy breathing or not being able to feel like thay can inhale a full breath? My anxiety stems from the fact I think I must be dying.... I suppose this is something that has been going on for a few years now and I’ve just swept it Under the rug never thought I would be the person who might need mental health help.... have an amazing wife a stressful job but can never stop to seem thinking about my health and how upset I would be if something happened to be and I disappointed my wife.... health anxiety I guess it’s a bad one.... anyway first step made to see a specialist a little embarrassed by it all but will see how we go.

[Ryan_j]

Thanks so much for taking the time out of your day to give me this information applebloosom. I will definitely take your advise on board and do everything I can to clear my mind and get back I track.

It is so strange I have such an amazing wife and family and friends but yet I always find ways to worry And distance myself It really makes no sense.

once again Thankyou very much it’s appreciated beyond words

[AshleyK]

Hi Ryan ,I’m glad you’re by function test has gone well ! I know the feeling of still not being reassured by the results but I hope you find reassurance in the fact that if it was something serious or life threatening most specialists don’t wait and act very quickly (this was actually what my own specialist and the ER told me) . I hope you find some comfort in the fact that your not alone, when I actually google this symptom there’s many of us around with this shortness of breath ! I wish you all the best and hope you get through this!

[Peppermintbach]

Hi Ryan (and a wave to all your lovely supporters here),

Thanks so much for writing again. It’s good to hear from you, but I’m sorry to hear your anxiety has been triggered...it sounds as though it has been very intense lately...

I feel you clearly have a lot of personal insight into the cause of it. I suppose it’s a bit of a vicious cycle with the fear of potential health issues feeding into the anxiety. I think there are quite a lot of people on the forums here who struggle with health related anxiety, so you’re in compassionate company here...there’s a lot of understanding...

Good on you for booking into an anxiety specialist. I hope you find that very helpful 🙂

Kind and caring thoughts to you today,

Pepper

[smallwolf]

Hi Ryan,

Just thought I would pop by and add my 2c worth ... different people react differently with anxiety, at least for me. With depression I have the negative thoughts, and with anxiety the physical symptoms. In one of your posts you mentioned chest tightness. Me.... I had chest tightness and racing heart among other symptoms as a result of anxiety. I also get the venesections for haemochromatosis (I have high ferritin/iron levels) and was getting a blood test (something for the heart) at the same time for a specialist. They asked me whether I was experiencing any chest tightness. At the time I said No (because I wasn't). As I was having the venesection, I asked the doctor about the chest tightness question. It turns out that feelings I was getting with anxiety are similar to that of a heart attack. So my initial thought was that, and I said this out loud, that I would not be able to tell the difference between anxiety and a heart attack. Thankfully now I am on a medication (SNRI) that also targets anxiety as well as depression, but it took a while to get there.

I noticed that Pepper pointed you to a thread elsewhere on the forum. A couple of other threads you might want to look at to help you get back to the present moment include one on grounding and the other on mindfulness. If you use the search function that the top of the page you should be able to find these quite easily. The threads contain ideas or suggestions from lots of users describing ways of distracting yourself from the negative thoughts.

Hope this helps,

Tim

[Paula_T]

Hi Ryan, I am new to this forum as well, it has been around 8 years now since I have been diagnosed with GAD and I have notice that my symptoms vary considerably. The one thing that I have noticed is that I have developed a tightness in my chess over the last few years and have been told by my doctor that it is a symptom of my anxiety. It causes me to go into coughing fits every couple of hours and this has been happening for a long time. I do suffer from hay fever as well and the cough gets worse with that. Other symptoms are insomnia, constant job hopping , huge emotional stress.....the list just gets bigger and bigger. It is very helpful reading that other people suffer too.

[smallwolf]

Hi Paula,

Welcome to beyond blue.

How are you coping with anxiety?

If you are looking for threads on coping you might want to check out the threads on grounding and mindfulness. And if you just want a chat, head over the Cafe in the social zone. Looking forward to hearing more from you.

Tim

[Ryan_j]

Thanks small wolf appreciate the time you take to respond and detail. Chest is still extremely heavy which is frustrating but is worse when I think about it (I think) .

Have a a couple more tests this week for my asthma and so forth and also my first full session with an anxiety therapist so will see if that can also assist with some more positive thinking .

thanks again

[Ryan_j]

Hi Paula

hooe you are well and thanks for jumping on the thread. Sorry to hear about your GAD and symptoms seems like it is more coming then we think to have these symptoms.

mine have really only been in play for about 3 years now but the chest tightness is new (about 6 months) on and off but been constant now for about 6 weeks. Impossible not to think it isn’t something more sinister than anxiety I can’t bring myself to believe the specialists docs as I simply can to breath.

The questions they ask make your answers sound ridiculous and then I feel crazy but the the fact remains I struggle to breath almost all day.

hope you feel better

Ryan

[Paula_T]

Hi Smallwolf, thank you so much for replying. My anxiety is getting so bad at the moment because I don't have a job and we are living off my husband's wages. I am gaining so much weight because of this disease and have stopped drinking wine, eating chocolate and have started walking for an hour a day and trying to keep focused on something other than what is going on in my mind. I hate letting my husband down and really need to get my stuff together.