To not know if I'm anxious or ill?

[fallingapartdaybyday]

God this is so hard.
How do you tell the difference between anxiety symptoms and being ill?
I’ve had upper stomach one sided pain for months.
They don’t think it’s gallbladder but have ordered tests/scans.
They say it could be a symptom of anxiety. I’ve had an awful few months and I’m 100% anxious.
Then last week the shortness of breath started. I got myself in a right state as I thought it was connected and I was dying.
Earlier on this week my eyesight went funny. I had flashing lines in front of both eyes.
Now numbness has started. I woke up in the night and one half of my head was totally numb. Then it changed to a tingling sensation.
Today my head and face feel numb.
How the bloody hell do you differentiate between anxiety and real illness?
All of these things point to anxiety, but then they also point to genuine medical issues.
I just want to know what’s happening.

MN cannot diagnose

I understand that they can’t diagnose, but I was wondering if anyone else got genuine symptoms from anxiety.
I just don’t understand how anxiety can cause physical problems like this.
I’m worried I’m being fobbed off.

I hope to god it is anxiety, as hopefully that would be easily treated.

Go back to GP and shout. If you can afford it get a private referrel. Google your local private clinics.

Sorry to tell you but the only thing you can do is go to the drs and they’ll be able to help. I know it’s frustrating because I have anxiety, and I keep going to the drs thinking my blood pressure medication isn’t working, because I have headaches I can’t shift- nope, anxiety.
I go to the drs because I’ve got palpitations- they check. Oh it’s anxiety.

I’m sorry you’re going through this. How is your anxiety being treated?

I haven't much advice OP. My mother suffers from severe anxiety and she is aware that some of her aches and pains are due to her anxiety. She's had anxiety for years and so I guess understands her flare ups better.

I think it's still sensible to report any problems to your GP. And can I ask if you are receiving any help for your anxiety? Some therapy and or/ meds could potentially help you and if your pains, numbness etc. eases then you'll know it's that.

Go easy on yourself

So my anxiety isn’t being treated at the moment.
I keep telling the doctors that when all the tests have been done and they’ve ruled out anything medical then if I still have symptoms then I’ll go on something long term.
But new symptoms keep appearing weekly. I have tests over the next 2 weeks, but now I’m getting funny eyesight, shortness of breath, numbness, tingling.
I suppose the tests coming up will show what’s wrong regardless?

Plus I have very occasional chest pain.
It’s so bloody hard when your body is telling you there is something wrong but the doctors are blaming anxiety.
If anxiety can cause these awful physical symptoms then it’s a very powerful thing indeed.

Anxiety is VERY much a physical issue. It produces physical symptoms and physical symptoms can produce the emotion.

Anxious children typically complain of stomach ache and head ache.

Anxious adults can distinguish and articulate more. Very common symptoms of anxiety in adults include: 'butterflies in the tummy', feeling sick, stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, needing to wee more often, head ache, increased heart rate, palpitations, increased breathing, tingling and pins and needles in hand and face especially, feeling hot, sweating, hot flushes, dizziness, feeling like you can't breathe. There are others but I forget.

When you have an anxious thought (yep, even just a thought - your body doesn't know the difference between you thinking about being attacked and you actually being attacked) your body goes into fight - or - flight. You get releases of hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. These cause things like upset tummy and increased heart rate.
Another part of fight or flight is rapid, shallow breathing. This can cause (very slight) imbalances of carbon dioxide in your blood, which causes tingling etc, most often in hands and face. These symptoms can be treated incredibly effectively, quickly and safely with breathing exercises. Get on YouTube and pick one. Should fix the tinging in a couple of minutes.

Why are you not having treatment for your anxiety?

Well, I do have diazepam and propanolol.
But that just helps short term for an hour or so and they’ve said not to take more than once a day. Plus both knock me out so I don’t like taking when caring for young children.
I think ideally I need something long term when all of this is sorted.
I just want to do one thing at a time, I’ve had a couple of test results come back normal and just waiting another couple of weeks for the rest to be completed.

MN can't diagnose, and it's best to speak to medical professionals.
But I would say that most of your symptoms could be caused by anxiety- thoughnot sure about all together.
Shortness of breath is well known, and all barring the stomach pains are sometimes migraine symptoms, so I would imagine could be caused by tension or anxiety as well.

It's hard to believe, but your emotional and mental state can have all sorts of physical effects. That doesn't make them any less real, or mean they effect you any less.

Hopefully the tests will find something,m easily treatable, or put you on a path to a treatment plan which will help one way or another.

I am a medical Secretary for a team of clinical psychologists. Anxiety is extremely powerful and can let to a whole host of physical symptoms. Some of which you are describing. It's worth going back to your gp and talking about it. Try and get a referral to a psychologist or counsellor

Feel for you op , I am no doctor but I have similar symptoms to yours and have googled every symptom but I do think in my case it's anxiety.
Have had scans for unexplained pain in side and other places but I have noticed if I am relaxed and having a lovely time with my mind engaged then I get no symptoms.
Trouble is with anxiety our whole body tenses up and that's not good long term .
Hope you get it sorted .

I had a looooong list of physical symptoms from anxiety. If you don’t fix the root cause your body just keeps breaking more! I had numbness in hands, various pains etc.

See a therapist and look at reducing all the stress factors in your life.

The best GP I saw asked me what I was doing myself to sort it. Which sounds rubbish but actually helped me get control of it. I did also have chiropody as some symptoms were genuinely physical and were aggravating my anxiety further.

Regarding treatment of the anxiety more generally:

1. is there an actual problem for you to be seriously anxious about? A frail parent, an ill child, an unhappy or abusive spouse, a depressing or unstable job, etc. Sometimes the causes of anxiety are fixable, in which case the best thing to do is to figure out how to do that.

2. NHS treatments for anxiety are cognitive behaviour therapy and/or medication(s). CBT would likely be offered as low-intensity first - you'd be looking at 30 minutes a week for 6-8 weeks. That might be face to face, online or telephone.

There's a range of meds available for anxiety which work in different ways.

Go and see your GP.

Not chiropodist, I meant chiropractic

This is exactly it. If I’m not thinking about my problems because I’m busy or having a nice time then I don’t have any symptoms.
The moment I stop being busy then this starts.
Then it goes round and round in my head, and I analyse it and then it gets worse.
I’ve been out all morning with not a single symptom and as soon as I’m in the car home I notice my head feels numb and my face feels numb, and I can’t feel anything when I tap on my scalp.
Oh and I get a twinge in my chest etc.
It’s vile vile vile.
I just want to be normal and well.

It is really worth doing progressive relaxation, meditation or breathing exercises whether or not you have something else wrong with you as it will help you cope better with the pain/other symptoms. If you are waiting for a pill to take all this away- as you know, there may not be one, as often side-effects are bad and so on. This is NOT a substitute for medical tests or good medical advice- you should continue to seek that whatever happens, but it doesn't make sense to wait to treat your anxiety, also talk to the dr about your dosage as it may be you are not receiving enough of your existing anxiety drugs to really make much difference. Hope it all works out for you.

So, I’ve always suffered a little bit with anxiety. For as long as I can remember.
A few months ago a close family member was in hospital.
I was very very worried and stressed.
As soon as family member came home and started to recover it almost felt like I had post traumatic stress.
Since then it’s spiralled.

That's it op , if it's anything real (if you know what I mean ) then you would have symptoms if your happy or anxious 🌺

On the breathlessness front, a conversation with your GP could help.

I have lots of physical health problems, which at one point were causing me a lot of stress and I started to worry I couldn't tell what was anxiety and what were signs of my actual physical health deteriorating.

My GP talked me through the difference in sensation and symptoms between anxiety breathlessness and breathlessness caused by heart/chest problems etc. Which I found really helpful and reassuring, because it meant I knew how to respond and when to worry vs when to focus on calming myself down!

We also had helpful conversations on the rest so I feel I can trust my body and what it's telling me now as to whether it's because of my illnesses, or whether it's the stress/anxiety of dealing with them/life in general.

If you could have a conversation like that on the breathless front I think it would probably set your mind at rest - you'd know you could trust your judgment about whether you needed medical help or not if it happened again - and that might start to settle you more. It could all be anxiety, it could all be physical, or it could be that it started with something physical and you've become so worried all the extra stuff is now anxiety symptoms.

It is easier to differentiate between anxiety and physical illness if you can reduce the anxiety caused by some of the symptoms, even though it feels like trying to break a very vicious cycle. If you respond to yourself in a calm, gentle, reassuring way and pay attention to how your body feels as you focus on calm and reassurance it can show you what's going on. E.g. If you feel or listen to your pulse as you focus on reassuring yourself you'll be able to hear it gradually slow back down to a normal rate... then you'll know a) what you're doing is working, and b) it's just panic, and c) you have some control. But you do have to be making conscious efforts to calm yourself at the same time.

I hope you get to the bottom of things.

It’s just awful isn’t it.
I feel like my whole life is suffering.
I’m short and impatient with the kids and my mind is elsewhere so much that I feel I’m not paying them attention.
My poor husband is doing the brunt of everything as I constantly feel too ill or tired to do it, housework, laundry shopping etc.
My body is just a state. I’m eating crap because I’m anxious, I’m not drinking enough and getting constant bouts of cystitis needing tablets.

And yes I know exactly what you mean.
I’m sat here struggling to breathe some days and my head is flitting between telling myself it’s anxiety and to calm down and breathe, and calling an ambulance because I think I’m on the brink of death and no one believes me.
If I did have an actual medical emergency I’d probably sit here and do nothing as I would think it was just anxiety.

It is possible to develop PTSD as a third party or bystander - although obviously that's not a diagnosis.

It comes across that you do know what the problem is.