GP has told me to go to A&E but I feel a bit fobbed off.

[Sunshinesandice]

longtime anxiety sufferer...

so I called my GP this morning, as I cannot shift my anxious feelings - it all started around 2 weeks ago when I had a sharp chest pain, followed by lightheadedness , fear, dizziness, but then it subsided and I felt normal the next day . but since then, I have had on and off days of feeling so anxious - but mainly physical symptoms. .

No more chest pains but I have been getting:

racing heart
palpitations
extreme worry that something terrible is wrong with me
every ache pain or niggle I think I am going to die
dizziness
heavy chest like a nervous feeling all the time

Hence my phone call this morning, in the hope he would call me in , do some bloods check me over .

But he didnt, he listened to around 5 seconds of my symptoms, and said just go to A&E bye, and hung up.

I mean, I am sat here now at home I am not unwell, I feel fine - working, up and about , eating, drinking etc , but I am still well aware of my anxious feelings.

What shall I do ? I don't want to waste A&E time if it is literally just panic and anxiety

CBT is the best approach for anxiety not counselling. Nothing against counselling but for anxiety you need a structured approach that helps you examine your thoughts and behaviours, uncover the types of thinking that maintain anxiety and the behaviours that do the same, and can help you to develop more helpful attitudes and behaviours. For this you need an accredited CBT therapist not a counsellor who uses CBT. @Sunshinesandice as I mentioned upthread have a look at your local IAPT service, waiting lists are long but there may be helpful group CBT or online programmes you can do to help while you’re waiting for one to one CBT. I am not sure if IAPT is still on line. If you have a university near you that happens to run a post graduate CBT course they may be able to point you towards a low cost option via closely supervised students (though most will be working within IAPT).

If you have a telephone assessment with IAPT they will be able to say what they would target first so depending on that you might find one the Overcoming series of books helpful. There is one called Overcoming Heath Anxiety and one called overcoming Panic (panic and HA are often present together). Good luck

There is help. First make an appointment with your GP and tell them what is going on. Ask if you can try an anti depressant and beta blocker for instant relief. I'm also on Venlafaxine and it is very very good for anxiety. Get a referral for the CBT. In the mean time, there is a very good CBT app called Woebot you can use until you are able to start.

@Sunshinesandice

The thing I struggle with the most is the physical Symtoms , is there anything I can possibly take that will help ?

Have you made an appointment to speak to your doctor?

Antidepressants are not a sticker!
Your doctor asked you to get physically tested at a hospital to rule those side effects out.
Your poor gp- damned if they did and damned if they don't!
You can now go back and make a new plan, but you lost my sympathy when you stated that AP's are a sticker

I'm confused about what you consider 'proper help'. You're calling other people ignorant for giving quite reasonable suggestions.

@Sunshinesandice

The thing I struggle with the most is the physical Symtoms , is there anything I can possibly take that will help ?

Beta blockers

I have found medication a great help, having developed anxiety this year. Not actually seen a Gp or had any blood/hospital tests, but after a few weeks on them the debilitating physical symptoms have really eased.

Just to buck the trend here slightly.

Trust your instincts. If you somehow feel there is more to what's going on with you than anxiety, then be a Pearce that anxiety can sometimes have a physical cause & yet that physical cause can sometimes be bloody hard to get diagnosed.

If you are physically reacting to stress, even minor stress, whilst in your mind going "wtaf, why am I over reacting with panic symptoms to that" then there may be more to it, but it's often difficult to get a diagnosis.

This happened to me, I had years of been fobbed off with anxiety. I tried the pills offered & reacted badly to some of them, so gave up. This turned out to be another clue to underlying health issues been a cause of the anxiety symptoms.

I turned out to have POTs... you can check for this yourself at home with a BP monitor. Google POTsUK "Active Stand Test"
This affects your autonomic nervous system

I also turned out to have pernicious anaemia making the POTs worse & found B12 injections helped a lot. Google "Tracy Wittys B12 website" to find out more

I was also chronically low in potassium, but was symptomatic with lowest normal results too. This was only picked up when a doctor went back through my potassium results some 15 years & saw a pattern of low/lowest normal & prescribed a potassium drink. This had an amazing affect on the anxiety reaction & i drink coconut what're now if I feel extra jumpy & it helps a lot. They were never 109% sure why this happened, but thought it might be related to earlier kidney infections