Anxious 18 year old male who's trigger is his heart/health.

[-Jack_]

I'm an 18 year old male and have self diagnosed myself with general anxiety disorder. On a daily basis I experience pretty much every symptom of anxiety such as; a rapid heart beat, excessive sweating, dizziness/fainting, shortness of breath, hot flashes or chills, exhaustion, panic attacks, over-thinking everything that ever crosses my mind, irritability and fear of losing control. These can all occur at random at any point of any day.

Mainly, I am worried about my heart. It is the trigger of 90% of my anxiety, and I feel compelled most of the day to check my pulse. I am worried that it will stop beating altogether, or that its beating so fast that something will go wrong with it and that I will die, or that I will have a heart attack etc. Occasionally I forget about my heart but so many things will trigger my mind to start thinking about it again such as a rapid heart beat in nervous situations, or say if im doing exercise and my heart rate rises then i will become conscious of its beating pace and begin to worry. If i feel any sort of pains in my chest, usually sharp, then i also begin to worry that their is something wrong. I become extremely anxious during public speaking at university and have come extremely close to fainting on multiple occasions. Each of these times, a rapid heart beat, sweatiness, mumbly voice and dizziness have occurred.

My first ever panic attack was during smoking weed. I had smoked many times before and this was just another regular occasion, although i started to notice my heartbeat was going EXTREMELY fast, in which i began to calm myself down by breathing deeply, this, in fact did calm me down and caused my heartbeat to slow right down to the point i couldnt feel it at the time. I then felt an extreme wave of heat over my body and thought i was having a heart attack and could no longer control myself. A friend sat me down for 2 hours in which during that time i consciously controlled my breathing as i believed if i didnt i would stop breathing and die and held my hand on my heart to make sure it was still beating, (all while my legs were shaking uncontrollably). This experience caused deep depersonalization for around a week afterwards. For a few months this stopped and i forgot about it until one night while trying to sleep i had another completely random panic attack with no trigger that i could identify whatsoever, and all the regular symptoms occurred.

From that night (over 1 year ago), until now i have been experienced what i described in my first paragraph on a daily basis. It started mild but now has become a part of my daily life as my mind has become more and more aware of its presence and triggers. Even though my mind acknowledges there is nothing actually physically wrong with me, it still cannot ignore the symptoms. What i have described restricts me in my social life, and activities i wish to pursue. With this has come an extreme constant feeling of loneliness. I will confess, i am not in need of any more friends, although i still feel lonely 90% of the time. This feeling can be ignored if i am with a friend at the time, although as soon as i am alone, my mind begins over thinking life in general, i become sad for no reason, and the loneliness kicks in.

If youve managed to read this far then thank you. Has anyone experienced anything similar before? And have they tried any techniques that have in any way helped them? Will this be a part of my life forever or will some sort of treatment be able to put this away for good? Will medication help?

[TroyS]

You are not alone in this, I am a 33 year old male that suffers pretty much the same symptoms/problems as you have described.

I have suffered from high blood pressure for most of my life, 3 months ago I went to the doctor as I knew something wasn't right. I was prescribed a beta blocker to bring my BP under control. Four weeks into the medication I had my wife pick me up from work to take me to the ER as I thought I was dying. After blood tests and X-rays revealed everything thing was fine it occurred to me that I may have suffered my first panic attack Never having suffered one before I wasn't sure until two day's later when I copped it again.

I returned to my doctor to tell him what was happening and it was decided it was the beta blocker that had triggered the problem, needless to say I went off of it straight away.

It has been six weeks since I ceased taking the medication and yet I still suffer panic attacks, usually one per week. My trigger is also my health/heart, constantly monitoring myself almost obsessively, checking my BP, BC (type 2 diabetic) and pulse, all of which are quite normal.

I too am desperate for help as panic is so tiring, not to mention destructive to your life as you described yourself, I decided to get proactive and started absorbing as much knowledge as possible.

I switched to a good doctor that is trying to help, he referred me to a psychologist as it is believed therapy works better than medication for anxiety sufferers, I have only had the one session so far and have booked in for a second. But everything we spoke of during the session I had gleaned from reading books prior to the appointment. Although my psychologist did recommend two books that I have found useful 1. The Happiness Trap (Russ Harris) 2. Mindfulness (Mark Williams & Danny Penman).

For a short term fix my doctor prescribed a benzodiazepine medication in small controlled amounts so that I could continue to function. From my own experience the short term fix doesn't work, so I have stopped taking them.

Being my age and already on what I consider to be a lot of medication, taking more pills is not an option if there is an alternative.

At present I am trying different relaxation methods, from breathing exercises to calming music as well as reading about and trying to put into practice 'Mindfulness' and 'ACT'.

It looks like it could be a long road, but I am hopeful and have no doubt I will get back to 'normal'.

If you don't think you can do it on your own see your GP, if he understands and cares he should point you in the right direction.

Best of luck.

[integrityguy]

Hi Jack
I've suffered from similar symptoms to you since I was about 13, and I'm now 32. However, it's only been in the past 2 years or so that I've started to recognise my anxiety triggers and get professional help for managing my condition. My point is, it sounds like you're already in a good position to manage your anxiety as a relatively young person with (forgive the cliche) your whole life ahead of you. Life will throw all sorts of stressful situations at you, but the earlier you develop anxiety management skills, the better you'll cope later in life.

With the constant rapid heart rate ... I find that worrying about it creates a viscious cycle. Effectively you are worrying about anxiety, which therefore makes you more anxious. Below are some things which might be helpful:
- (1) Stop checking your pulse - it will only make your heart rate increase. If you find this hard, distract yourself with something else whenever the thought pops into your head.
- (2) Try to reframe your thoughts about anxiety symptoms (including a rapid heart rate). IE Rather than terrifying and life threatening (unmanageable), look at it as more uncomfortable and annoying (manageable).
- (3) Focus on the symptoms rather than the thoughts that cause them. If your mind drifts back to those thoughts, just acknowledge them briefly and bring your concentration back to the symptoms.
- (4) Try some deep muscle relaxation exercises. Beyond Blue has some you can try: http://www.beyondblue.org.au/docs/default-source/senseability/relaxation-techniques.pdf?sfvrsn=2 .

I would definitely recommend you see a GP and get a referral to a psychologist. They are full of useful pieces of advice and strategies to manage anxiety. For example, on the "overthinking" front, it's helpful to see thoughts as cars on the highway - large numbers of cars (thoughts) come and go, but they have no power over you. They have no basis in fact or reality and they come and go at will.

In terms of anxiety and your life ... I've found it's better to focus on *managing* anxiety, rather than *eradicating* anxiety. The more you try to do away with it, the more aggravating it becomes. But it is possible to learn to live with it, to retrain your mind to manage it and to put steps in place to keep it under control. All the best.  

[Quark]

Hey! 

The exact same thing happened to me nearly 4 months ago, I only started smoking marijuana this year, and not often either - One night, full blown panic attack and had drug-induced anxiety. I can tell you I had panic attacks days after that, but now I'm pretty much 95% complete, still feel occasionally small anxiety when going out to parties and what not, but no attacks! Here's how to fix it:

Tell you're mother or father about what has happened - This is incredibly important, and my parents never used drugs and didn't like it that I did marijuana, but they will support you to get back to normal!

See a GP (Get the best one you can get - important!) and tell them what is going on (it is full confidentiality, so they legally can't tell anyone), ask them to recommend you a psychologist.

Lay off Caffeine, tobacco, and alcohol, and especially drugs! - I did all three, I'm able to enjoy a good coffee and cigarette now, but haven't started drinking again even though I'm perfect, just incase! 

Learn to bring yourself back into the moment - Thoughts can be a good thing but sometimes bad, and when you're thinking about bad thoughts try and bring yourself into the moment. Ask yourself what can I see?, what can I hear?, What can I feel?, What can I taste?, What can I smell? (This is known as the five-sense technique) 

Learn to logically reason with yourself - Whenever you feel anxious, ask yourself Why am I feeling anxious? Is this a logical reason for why I am feeling anxious? What is the likely hood of that being the case?

Exercise is good for burning the adrenaline given off by an attack, and taking you out of the thinking-zone you're usually in. Make sure you are positive, negative thoughts only make you're anxiety stronger! Be courageous and hold through! And tell yourself constantly "It is going to be Okay!" - Make sure you're always positive!

Psychologists are amazing at treating anxiety, I'm nearly back to normal and only in less than 4 months. 

You got this man! Never stop being strong, it's the best thing you can do!

[dani1717]

wow reading your first two paragraphs ... 100% me... anxiety makes heart go fast... heart fast...more anxious etc etc etc sweating EXHAUSTION from heart and everything, dizziness, cold toes and fingers, sweats etc I FEEL YOU and its wonderful to know im not alone. Im 18 too.

my doctor told me the other week: "you will never die from having your heart go too fast dont worry" that calms me. 

deep breathing helps, breathe in for four and out for four. I do crosswords to distract me a lot too.

haha im constantly checking my pulse... which i know is silly because what will it change? apart from making me more anxious.

again great to hear im not alone and neither are you. 

we got this x Dani