Im sure many of you can relate to my story. I have been diagnosed with Health anxiety, all triggered by an operation that had complications almost 4 months ago now.
I was extremely sick afterwards with heart pulpitations, no appetite, nausea/vomitting, tightness in throat, sweaty palms, tingling in arms. I had every test under the sun but all came back clear.
I was told I had anxiety. I thought... no way, it must be something else and couldn't accept it. So I continued asking for more tests just to find that they were all good!
The biggest thing for me was accepting this illness. Once I did, I seeked help.
How I came to this realisation was a funny thing. I was feeling sick as usual with head in the bucket. My partner started to talk to me about anxiety, reassuring me that it will get better and that the feeling of being sick is all the anxiety. Then... it was like an off switch! I started to feel hungry, stopped feeling sick, tightness in throat disappeared and got energised all within seconds. The rest of the arvo I was bouncing around, eating everything in sight and I was back to my old self.
That was the day I realised I had anxiety. Of course I felt sick again when I woke the next morning because my brain was trained that the day was going to be bad, but I had hope now and acceptance.
So, the next step for me was to seek medication and a good phychologist. Of course, as most of us experience, was bad side effects from the meds. Higher anxiety, waking up at 4am with panic attacks, every symptom I had was alot higher.
The side affects lasted about 2 weeks before I found some relief. I no longer have nausea, eating well, heart pulpitations have decreased and the tight throat have subsided. Im still working on the morning heart pulpitations but they are no way near as bad as they were.
This is a work in progress and not an easy fix. I have to learn how to control the anxiety attacks when I fall ill with the simple cold or a virus. I immediately go into fight mode, thinking the worst which develops into an anxiety attack.
I have good days and bad days but as long as the good days outweigh the bad, then I'm happy with that and hope the bad days will become less and less over time.
Just to sum up what my treatment involves: medication, healthy eating, no alcohol, phychologist, CBT, yoga, meditation, keeping busy, breathing techniques, excercise and positive self talk.
I would love to hear your success stories or work in progress stories as well.
