Anxiety after quitting smoking... - Anxiety Message Board

ash0479 · 09-02-2006, 04:06 PM

I am a 27 year old male, I quit smoking 6 weeks ago after smoking 1 - 1 1/2 packs a day for 9 years...I have not really had the urge to smoke, in fact the smell of cigarettes makes me sick...

I have however other symptons and seem to have delveloped anxiety....I almost feel as though everything is bothering me, lungs, chest, bladder, stomach, colon, etc...I have had in the last 6 weeks, Chest X-rays, Stomach x-rays, spine x-rays, several bloodworks, urine works, CT SCAN, colonoscopy, endoscopy, MRI of the brain...I told you that I felt like something was wrong...everytime i go in, they find nothing wrong....had a physical to check everything out, came out good....My sister{REMOVED} is thinking that this is all from anxiety...and after all of the testing coming out good I would have to agree...I have never taken any antibiotics my entore life and have been on 3 different ones in the last 6 weeks, makes me feel like crap...Anxiety is taken over....for example I am not sure if you guys and gals know who Jon Lester from the RED SOX is, but he was having back pains and went in to the hospital for a check up and tests, they found enlarged lymph nodes and diagnosed him with Lymphoma...well I was doing landscaping work last week, lifting heay rocks follwed by sprinting at the park and 2 days of softball, and tis past week my back was bothering me...Immediately after hearing the news about Lester I was convinced that I had Lymphoma...without even realzing that back pain is not even a symptom...I just have these things stuck in my head until something else hurts....sorry for the long first post...anyone else battling serious anxiety

I hope I am not the only one...:

ms_mod · 09-02-2006, 04:27 PM

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boxerlover227 · 09-02-2006, 04:39 PM

Hi ash0479

I first wanted to mention if you haven't already done so go to the smoking sensation board on this website. Search for the post written by barney the dog titled side effects from quitting smoking. You may find this very helpful, it's a great post!
As for your obsessive thinking towards every illness you are by no means alone in this department. You well see there are many of us on this board including myself who suffer from this form of anxiety disorder. If you read my post titled My Disease called Anxiety you might also find some helpful information. As for your anxiety over lymphoma, the test your Doctor had ordered would certainly rule out this disease. Lymphoma is diagnosed through CT scans, and being that you just had one, I would say it is safe to say you don't have lymphoma. I think your sister is correct, being that you had so many test to rule out so many illness, That anxiety disorder may just be what you are experiencing I think your next step is going to the Doctor to get properly diagnosed for anxiety disorder and perhaps setting up a treatment plan. Don't wait for your anxiety to just go away on it's own like so many of us suffers do. This in turn will cause you more harm then good.
My best of Luck to you along this Journey!
Boxerlover

ash0479 · 09-02-2006, 05:18 PM

Thanks for the vote of confidence....I was on Xanax for about 1 week, the sall dosage, but I felt worse after...almost like a dizzness and drugged feeling...I have not asked for anything else...I am going to try to ride it out a few more weeks and see what happens...It just seems like time goes by slow and everytime I hear or listen to something it is bad news, a disease, etc...and then I think I have that disease...My wife was out of town this entire week which left me at home by myself alot...not good but made it through with the help of some close freinds who spent time with me and did not leave until it was late and I was ready to sleep...thank goodness for them...

Icy · 09-02-2006, 05:23 PM

I agree with Boxer on this. First of all I want to state it could be anxiety from quitting smoking because from what I understand smoking helps relieve stress? If so you could just not be able to handle all the stress in your life as easy now(although there are many easy things you can do to help).

When I was going through a bad phase of anxiety attacks I was also a hypocondriac. The best thing I can reccomend for you right now is to NEVER worry about something unless it is really a new type of feeling of pain you've never felt before or if it is unbearable because atleast until you get your anxiety under control it will basically always just be the anxiety. Also looking up information on diseases will only make you paronoid (trust me) so try to avoid that as much as possible. I could go from 1 disease a day to quite a few a day.

Something for you to remember is that all of your tests already came out fine you should have nothing to worry about since it is just anxiety attacks. Which you cannot die or go crazy from no matter how severe.

Although I must admit a plus to your anxiety is that (it sounds) it's not keeping you stay at home like many(Me included). Just make sure you keep exercising and even get a healthy diet going if you don't already. Those can help reduce anxiety. I know just exercising (soccer practice) almost completely got rid of mine and my first anxiety attack happened during intense exercise so I was terrified of it!

Anymore questions just post them - I probably missed some of yours anyways

EDIT - Personally I think you should try to rid yourself of anxiety without medicine first since you have only had it a few weeks (I know it seems like forever) you still have a chance to get rid of it yourself. I was house bound for 6\7 weeks but then finally started doing things and I saw a huge improvement just do things to get your mind off of it which I understand is hard at first but after a while it becomes weird not thinking about it (I actually have thoughts of it feeling weird to feel 'normal' now haha)