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 fla...
View more
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?
New to this Forum? Please read this first!
