new anxiety symptoms? need advice

[Wolf76]

To cut a long story short, i was diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome about 2 years ago. this would cause me to get a large variety of symptoms like skipped heartbeats, palpatations and abnormally fast heart rate. This caused me to develop anxieties regarding health, which has now progressed to a generalized anxiety disorder. over the last two years i have handled my anxietys reasonably well, having only a handful of panic attacks however anxiety is always at the back of my head.majority of my anxiety is me being anxious about having anxiety and panic attacks or health anxieties. in the last two weeks i have been experiencing new symptoms. yesterday when zipping my bag up i thought my zip was a cockroach then when i looked again it was a zip. a few days ago i saw an enzelope on the floor and then looked back to see nothing but a lighter colouring on that part of the cement. i have been seeing shadows out the corner of my eye and so on. last night i woke up to a sound that was as if it was in my room, it said the name 'harry'. while im certain it was in my dream i heard the sound when becoming conscious apon waking. has any experienced this before?? any help or advice would be great.

[romantic_thi3f]

Hi Wolf76,

Thanks for reaching out to BB.

I'm sorry that you are dealing with some anxiety at the moment and I hope I might be able to help.

First, I think it's great that you can even start to identify what's causing the anxiety as I know how difficult it is to have a physical condition that can cause anxiety related symptoms like heart palpitations and then have to deal with anxiety on-top of that.  One thing that really helped me is to recognise that it's just anxiety.  Whenever the body is faced with an anxiety-event, even just seeing what could be a cockroach it goes into flight/fight response which can cause you to have these reactions.  So recognising that 'it's okay it's just my body responding' can help a lot.  

It's important to remember that when it comes to anxiety there's no right or wrong answer - as when the body is in such a heightened state of mind even shadows and sounds can be really scary, even if there's nothing actually there.

Have you ever tried breathing exercises or mindfulness?  BB have a link on relaxation techniques which I think will really help if you are interested.  I think just finding ways to wind-down and recognise that it's just a natural response will be key to getting on top of this. 

Here's the link if you're interested : https://www.beyondblue.org.au/docs/default-source/senseability/relaxation-techniques.pdf?sfvrsn=2

Good luck 🙂

[Tizlak]

Hi Wolf76,
I'm sorry to hear that you are experience such frequent bouts of anxiety but i agree with romantic_thi3f's advice that you need to accept that it is a natural response to a stimulant.

Last year i used to get very anxious at times  and used to have to walk home at 11pm after work and always thinks shadows were out to get me. Sometimes I would sprint home and get home in a fit of fear. The thing that used to help me and still does was to stand where i was and take a few breaths until my heartbeat went back to resting and convince my self to think a bit more rationally and continue.

Even sometimes in public just randomly i think something is not as it should be and my heart starts racing but i just go over to the side and take a few sips of water and try to breath in and get my heart to rest again and usually i feel a bit better.

I know i havent had the exact same experiences as you, and i commend you for being an absolute trooper to push through all your health problems! But I hope some of my experiences can help you!

All the best and I hope your attacks decrease steadily and hopefully dissapear!! 🙂
-Tizlak

[PatT]

Hey,

I can relate. Too often I've become anxious about anxiety, however ironic that is. Panic attacks are one of the worst things in the world and knowing that one may be right around the corner can be pretty terrible. And you said you've been seeing weird things lately - that can often be a byproduct of stress. I have quite bad insomnia and when I go through a really bad period of not sleeping I tend to "see" things. 

Sometimes that will be a room getting lighter and darker suddenly, or something in the corner of my eye. It definitely sucks and makes my anxiety all the worse. It's extremely difficult to live with anxiety on a daily basis, but one of the best recommendations I have is to practice mindfulness techniques. Meditation has helped me with my anxiety more than any medication or psychologist I've ever seen.

What I like to do is sit in a quiet space, sitting up comfortably, legs crossed and close my eyes gently. I will focus on my breathing with slow controlled breaths and try to avoid any other thoughts distracting me. Visualisation is really useful here - if I get an unimportant thought sneaking in, I imagine the old windows PC image of putting something in the rubbish bin where the piece of paper floats away and into a bin. You can come up with your own but try to get rid of those useless floating thoughts.

It really helps if you can begin to identify the things that begin to make you feel anxious. If you can do that then you have a good chance at either avoiding or realising how silly they often are. I'd also recommend speaking to a GP and seeing a psychologist/psychologist. There is so much help out there for people dealing with issues like us, we just have to push ourselves to reach out.

[Felicity308]

Hi Wolf76,  

The fact that you’ve been coping so well for the past 2 years it’s really something to be proud of. Managing POTS in addition to an anxiety disorder really shows how strong you are.  

In the past I’ve also had a lot of trouble with anxiety and understand how exhausting that can be. I can remember days where I would have panic attacks thinking about leaving the house in case I had a panic attack – bit of a vicious cycle! I haven’t had the experience of seeing things but I have had random new symptoms pop up at  time and they seem to be managed by my normal techniques so it may be worth a try.  

Mindfulness

Some of the people who have already responded have mentioned mindfulness as a technique for you to try, I strongly agree with them. While everyone responds to techniques differently this is the one that has honestly changed my life. I had a psychologist suggest it to me and it took a little bit of practice before I could do it without her help but after a few goes I could do it alone and anywhere. Even at work, I just stop for 5 minutes or so and shut my eyes somewhere quiet and calm down. You can look it up on the internet but personally I think it’s best to be shown it.  It could really helpful particularly with new symptoms showing up just to help your mind recognize that it’s okay and it’s just your body over reacting to stimuli and calm down.  

Listening to Calming Sounds

Another similar technique is to download rain sounds, put headphones on and shut your eyes just to escape from the world for a bit and let you body relax. Rain may not work for you (some people seem to find it makes them nervous) but I think the general idea is to have a relaxing sound with no lyrics so you’re not distracted.  

Singing

One last thing that I do (not sure if anyone else does) is to sing in the car – embarrassing I know, but I love music and I find it helps to slow my heart and steady my breathing. Your body will naturally take a deep breath to project your voice so I find it helps to make sure my breath isn’t shallow and take my mind off the fact that I think I can’t breath.  

Mental illness is really hard to get a handle on because different things work for different people but fingers crossed you find something that works for you. Well done for putting yourself out there and asking for help.

F 🙂