What happened to my life?

[Katty]

Hi everyone,  my life has gone downhill in the last 6 months. I used to be the girl who would ride her motorbike anywhere, go get a tattoo on impulse, hang out with friends and have a drink. I don't know what set it off but I started having some symptoms of health problems eg: tight throat, light headed, heavy feeling in the chest. I've had ct scans, ecg's, blood tests, there is nothing physically wrong with me. Problem is now I feel worried all the time that somebody has missed something. I have panicky feelings about not being able to breathe, I've had nasal congestion for months now and that makes the panic worse, feeling like I can't breathe! The big worry is that now I'm too scared to take any medication of any type in case I'm allergic to it, even things I've had before like simple medication for a headache. I'm not allergic to anything, but now I worry my self silly thinking 'what if?'   I want to go back to the person I was at the beginning of the year and not be this panicky nut bag 🙂 I want to be able to go to the shops without being frightened that my throat will close and no one will be able to help me. Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks

[colin_g]

You're mind is capable of powerful things, i've experienced the same symptoms, talk to your doctor about anxiety and depression i'm sure he/she will be able to help! Just remember you will be okay, just don't let it consume your life 🙂 

[geoff]

dear Katty, just a question, do you suffer from OCD at all.

You say you don't know what set it off, and for most of the time none of us ever do, although it can be a combination of different events, however with depression one problem leads to another problem and before we know it it just gathers anything in it's way. L Geoff. x

[Jessie83]

If you replaced motorbike with pushbike, I could have written that myself. Not sure what to do either. My health anxiety is really limiting what I can do: even going for a walk is extremely challenging at the moment. One tip I can give is to do something ALMOST every day that you find challenging/scary (every now and then I think it's ok to have a doona day!). When you do it, no matter how big or small, make sure you celebrate/congratulate yourself. When I was really bad a few years ago just walking to the letterbox was the most I could do. It shocks me to think about now. These days my scary thing is maybe having  a hard work out at the gym (anyone with health anxiety will understand how hard this can be!); shopping centres; hiking in national parks. Sometimes my scary thing is driving to a quiet supermarkket and buying milk, if it's one of those days! I have been symptom free for a few years but feeling it creep up again, as I have a hella stressful job and busy life, so I am doing my scary tasks daily routine to see if it can help. Otherwise it's back onto meds. If you get really stuck, I can't advocate enough for taking a simple antidepressant (start of really really slow as you can feel a bit rubbish for a few weeks if you don't!) I had to take new meds last week for asthma. It all went fine though it took 2 days to work up to the full dose. Try to identify things that you are feeling a bit phobic about and address it now as much as you can.