Please help me :(

[Sunshinesandice]

I’ve gone from being a happy , content calm person - to practically a crippling mess.

It started about 6 weeks ago when I woke and was reading to my ds, and I had this really sharp awful chest pain to the upper right - it hurt when I breathed in , then I felt tingly and dizzy and just generally ill. I left it and it went off , spoke to GP Who told me to go to A&E, did that - bloods , ECG, and chest X-ray normal. Docs mentioned anxiety..

But since my trip to hospital, my anxiety has been so so bad . I feel like a shadow of my former self , I used to love my life . Now I feel trapped , constantly googling any sort of pain, or symptom I get, regular awful panic attacks mainly at night - racing heart , palpitations , shaking, dizzy.

I just cannot function anymore , I have just switched over doctors as my previous doctor just will not listen to me , he just talks over me and says I have to self refer to Iapt . So I’ve done that, but the waiting list is over one month just for a phone consultation which I have now booked.

I have a phone appointment with my new doctor tomorrow , in the hope they will at least listen to how I’m feeling, and the problems I am facing.

I’m struggling so so much, I just want to feel normal again. Is there any advice or anything I can do whilst I am on the long waiting list for therapy?

I will assume that the doctor may offer me some sort of anti depressant ? Are there any that are deemed the best ones? I’ll take anything right now to feel better :(

Please help

While waiting to speak to a Dr, Google anxiety self help techniques, there are a lot of ways of combating anxiety that don't rely on medication.
Develop a 'tool box' of things to use when it's bad.
For me it's watching comedy, going for a walk, getting clean and if it's really bad some guided visualisation on YouTube.
Anxiety pulls all of your focus inwards so to help yourself you have to find ways of pulling yourself outwards.
What blood tests did they do?

Thank you, I don’t even know what bloods they did , they were checking for a whole range of things they said. Thyroid , pulmonary, and other things ..

I recommend fluoxetine at its lowest dose, one per day before bed. That way you you can sleep through any side effects. I've had depression on and off off for years, it is comes but it does go.
One bout was more anxiety and panic attacks out of the blue, it really was crippling. My heart was running a marathon for 5 weeks and I lost 1.5 stone, I was by that fat to begin with!!!
Fluoxetine takes a fortnight or so so to work so bare that in mind.
You're animal fight or flight response has list gone into overdrive and needs sorting out. It's the flight response you're experiencing. We are evolve humans with a no out let for this animal instinct anymore so we sometimes our brains gets confused. Deep breathing techniques and talking therapy alongside a positive reassuring 'it's OK it's OK' as you talk to your inner child will all help

I was by that fat to

I wasn't that fat

Sorry to hear you are struggling at the moment. When you’re having the panic attacks, remember that you won’t feel like that indefinitely, the body can’t always stay in a state of panic. There are a lot of self help techniques available, I found a good free book on my kindle which talked about anxiety and depression and techniques for dealing with them other than medication. Can’t remember the name of it but I’m sure there’ll be a few of them!

I have just created my own thread because I’m also struggling to. I’m due to start CBT this week after a long wait. I’m trying to get over this without anti depressants. I don’t have any great words of advice because I’m really struggling myself to and I feel like it’s turning into depression now.

@Sunshinesandice have you read the book ‘overcoming health anxiety’ I have it and it was helpful to me. Not a cure though. I need to re read it tonight I think. I totally get what you’re saying as I’m there myself. I hope you’re okay. Private message me if you like. X