Optimism and anxiety

[KondosSecretJunkRoom]

I feel like I have good self-esteem and I'm generally optimistic. I feel like I have a nice balance in my life and good well-being. I suppose I don't get to relax very often and life feels busy but on the whole I'd say life was good.

I went to the doctor's today because I have been hyperventilating for the last few days and I feel dizzy and fainted whilst at the doctors. They sent me to the hospital to do a load of tests. I fainted again while there too. In the end all the tests came back good and the doctor suggested this was all down to anxiety.

I was/am sceptical but my dm thinks that I could very well have anxiety symptoms and not be aware of being anxious so I said I would keep an open mind.

But SURELY I would have some idea that I was struggling before I ended up having such a dramatic reaction to stress? I just don't know where to start because I feel like it doesn't fit with how I feel (and why would I only be hyperventilating on excertion? Surely if I were anxious it would be just the same problem when I am sat down?) but maybe I am being hopelessly niave?

Does this fit with anyone's idea of what anxiety can look like? Or can someone point me in the right direction of some reading material as to why there could be such a gulf between how I feel (good) and this unreasonable shit my body is doing?

I'm going to go back to the doctors and I want to be open minded to the idea that it could be anxiety but not boxed into this diagnosis simply because nothing else fits.

wInsee a lot of peeps talking about anxiety, especially here. But I am never quite aure what they are describing...

I do remember being very ... very ... very hyped up once when sailing across the Dover Straits in thick fog and surrounded by the sound of fog horns on ships heading our direction...

... That was a "we can be dead in seconds" moment, but I was not anxious.

OTOH,, I get worked up about missing a flight...

did they check for POTS (can't spell google it!)

I'm not sure dangermouse. I was in a busy assessment unit, so I only know what they did - take blood, check blood gassses, check BP, a chest x-ray and an ECG - but not the concerns they were eliminating by doing those.

I've had a google of PoTs - it does sound a lot like what was happening to me over the last few days but it was the hyperventilation that was most unusual and that doesn't seem to figure with PoTs. I will ask my GP though, it makes as much sense as anything else at the moment. Thanks.

Itisnot yeah, I guess I operate fairly well in a crisis. But I don't feel like I've discounted anxiety on that basis. I guess I am unsure of what counts as normal run-of-the-mill reactions to day-to-day stuff. I suppose I am not the coolest person in the world and maybe a bit more alert to avoiding potential problems than others - but then I have a kamakazi toddler to keep safe. Ughh, I don't know.