Can anyone relate or help me?
I'm 36 and the last few months I've developed crippling anxiety related to my health. I should add here I have been to my gp and I am waiting to speak to a counsellor.
It started when I experienced a retinal problem - I am very short sighted and woke up one morning with severe flashing lights in one eye and went to eye hospital to have it checked. By then it had stopped and they told me they couldn't explain it but was probably just a tug on my retina and they warned me all about retinal detachment in case I experienced any of the symptoms and told me to come back if I did. That was around November time and since then I've been in a constant state of high anxiety about that worrying I'm going to go blind (they can do a repair operation if they catch it quickly enough but I'm still terrified).
Alongside this I then started to have severe back pain / just under the left side of my shoulder at the back. I also had aches along my jaw and arm. One day it got so bad I very nearly rang an ambulance but instead rang and spoke to my gp and they said to go down.
They did an ecg which was normal, saturation thing which was normal and 4 different lots of blood tests; all of which came back normal. The gp said I had pulled a muscle and was having an anxiety attack.
Since then I am just either in constant pain with my shoulder problem (for which I was told to just take painkillers) or worried about my eyes. I spend so much time in a constant state of very high anxiety, thinking I'm going to have a heart attack and die (my shoulder thing makes me worry about this despite all the tests coming back clear).
I am happily married with two children; one of which has asd and learning difficulties and I am constantly worried about being there for them. I feel like I'm having a daily battle with my own mind just to function. It's really ruining my life.
Any words of wisdom welcome.