Posted by dana on June 20, 2001, at 8:25:41
In reply to Symptoms of anxiety?, posted by KristinaN on June 20, 2001, at 3:38:10
Hello Kristina, welcome to Panic and Anxiety!...you described your symptoms perfectly.
Please know that not everyone's symptoms are the same............ there are just so many.....
Once you experience the symptoms, you become constantly aware of ANY sign of them recurring... and become hyper-vigilant with regard to your body. While running upstairs may have seemed a normal thing to do before in your life, now you notice that your heart beats faster, and then you think ...oh god, I am dying !! and so may only walk up slowly to AVOID allowing your heart to pound...... you may feel dizzy or lightheaded and think ....it's got to be a brain tumour......!! but's it's because you are over-breathing and it makes your Oxygen levels out of balance....... it just can go on and on............normal everyday things become a nightmare......and so you try to juggle your life and behaviour desperately trying to not let anything create the sypmptoms.......
What happens Kristina is that you associate normal body functions......e.g. heart racing, exhaustion.... pains and aches.... with something being seriously wrong. It is sort of hypochondria.....but it's only because you have become OVER-sensitive to NORMAL occurrances and you start OBSESSING over them.
Can I promise you something........THIS WILL PASS..........IT DOES PASS if you get COUNSELLING.......here in Australia, we have CLINICAL PYSCHOLOGISTS who specialise in COGNITIVE THERAPY which trains you to THINK and behave differently........ they teach the MOST IMPORTANT thing......and that is HOW TO BREATHE PROPERLY.
I have been a sufferer for a few years now and have just come of medication which was difficult, and I have been having some PANIC episodes, but I can promise you this, that I AM COPING without drugs, only because of the year of therapy I have had.
They teach you how to RETRAIN your brain, with SELF-TALK.........THIS WILL PASS I am not having a heart attack I haven't had one yet !! NOTHING DANGEROUS IS GOING ON HERE......even though it FEELS LIKE ABSOLUTE HELL !!...and unless someone else has experienced it..... it is impossible to explain just how awful it feels....
Please take comfort in knowing that there is help. Medication is wonderful when prescribed sensibly and sensitively.....but most important is COUNSELLING. I was taking ZOLOFT which was wonderful. But I decided I had enough of medication and wanted to try it on my own with my retraining of my way of thinking.......and I believe I have done it ......
Will you please POST again so I know how you are going..?
Lots of love, you are not alone....
Dana
poster:dana
thread:67187
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010618/msgs/67203.html