Health Anxiety
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Guest
Can anyone explain what hyperventaltion syndrome feels like? It freaks me out when people say I am hyperventalating! I feel it is some kind of breathing problem. I can be just fine and all of a sudden I feel I wont be able to breath or I have felt I have to gasp for air. or my heart is just going to stop. My nose will feel wierd sometimes? It is just so strange it can come and go within a few seconds or does it many times thru out the day scares me. It is always just out of the blue?
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Guest
I believe that what got my latest long term period of anxiety going was worry about my prostate (guess what? I am a male!). I was having pain "where the sun don't shine" and my GP said was probably an inflamed prostate - put me on antibiotics. Then sent me to a specialist who did the same. 9 weeks later, CIPRO (the antibiotic) left me totally anxious (a rare side effect that could last a long time), and the original pain was unimpacted until....(and there may be a lesson here for anxiety sufferers), I went to an ER with a panic attack. I was given xanax-xr 3 mg. Wow! I felt groovy, baby! And, all the internal butt suffering vanished and has never returned. Now, there may be something not quite right going on with the prostate (although mainstream medicine just nukes it with antibiotics and then kisses you goodbye, so I am seeing a naturopath instead). But my point is that with 1 strong benzo injection, all the discomfort vanished and has yet to return. So was it all part of the anxiety syndrome? That is my working theory right now.
But you know, we are all human and will eventually actually have something go wrong in the body. So we need the coping skills to deal with that via CBT and whatever other tools you find. You can't just tell yourself "well, I'm a hypochondriac and nothing is wrong". Eventually, something will be wrong because the human being is like that. What we then need is the capability to respond in a mature calm manner instead of going into a freaky deaky anxiety attack or start doing laps around an ER screaming our head off because someone found a boo boo on our breast or a heart murmur. We need mature coping skills for what life can throw at us. (And as a previous hospice volunteer, I can tell you stories of what life can throw when it gets in a bad mood!).
But you know, we are all human and will eventually actually have something go wrong in the body. So we need the coping skills to deal with that via CBT and whatever other tools you find. You can't just tell yourself "well, I'm a hypochondriac and nothing is wrong". Eventually, something will be wrong because the human being is like that. What we then need is the capability to respond in a mature calm manner instead of going into a freaky deaky anxiety attack or start doing laps around an ER screaming our head off because someone found a boo boo on our breast or a heart murmur. We need mature coping skills for what life can throw at us. (And as a previous hospice volunteer, I can tell you stories of what life can throw when it gets in a bad mood!).
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Guest
Hi Lori,
Hyperventilating is just overbreathing. I've done it numerous times and it can be just due to ongoing anxiety. Deep abdominal breathing is what has been helping me to calm myself and change my breathing pattern. Hyperventilating can be scary because of how it makes you feel, for example, dizzy, short of breath, chest pains, lightheaded, etc., but it is usually not serious. Once when I went to the ER they drew blood from an artery in my wrist (OUCH!) to check my oxygen in my blood, I think. Anyway, they just came back and said I was hyperventilating and would I like to try Lexapro?
It wasn't funny then but it is now as I that probably made me worse as I have had a fear of taking meds in the past. I ended up taking a natural supplement for awhile, called 5-HTP, and that really helped me get a grip on things until I learned how to change my way of dealing with stuff.
Chandler - Thanks for sharing what you went through. Isn't it amazing what our brains can cause us to react to?! I agree that we all need to change our way of dealing with stuff and I like the way you put it!
CBT is a great tool to help ourselves overcome the way we think and react to various bodily symptoms.
I've been doing a lot better but I had a slight "scare" earlier today when "out of the blue" I got real dizzy. It passed quickly but still scared me. BUT I had just gone to two stores (I also deal with agoraphobia) so I was a bit stressed and my neck muscles are really tight and that has caused me to be dizzy in the past soooo.... off to do my neck stretching and ignoring the dizziness.
Hyperventilating is just overbreathing. I've done it numerous times and it can be just due to ongoing anxiety. Deep abdominal breathing is what has been helping me to calm myself and change my breathing pattern. Hyperventilating can be scary because of how it makes you feel, for example, dizzy, short of breath, chest pains, lightheaded, etc., but it is usually not serious. Once when I went to the ER they drew blood from an artery in my wrist (OUCH!) to check my oxygen in my blood, I think. Anyway, they just came back and said I was hyperventilating and would I like to try Lexapro?
It wasn't funny then but it is now as I that probably made me worse as I have had a fear of taking meds in the past. I ended up taking a natural supplement for awhile, called 5-HTP, and that really helped me get a grip on things until I learned how to change my way of dealing with stuff.Chandler - Thanks for sharing what you went through. Isn't it amazing what our brains can cause us to react to?! I agree that we all need to change our way of dealing with stuff and I like the way you put it!
CBT is a great tool to help ourselves overcome the way we think and react to various bodily symptoms.
I've been doing a lot better but I had a slight "scare" earlier today when "out of the blue" I got real dizzy. It passed quickly but still scared me. BUT I had just gone to two stores (I also deal with agoraphobia) so I was a bit stressed and my neck muscles are really tight and that has caused me to be dizzy in the past soooo.... off to do my neck stretching and ignoring the dizziness.