Hi all,

I am very new to this board, hoping that this will ease my fears a bit. I am 30 in dallas, and have always been a little anxious in general.

Here is my story, and I won't get graphic. I recently (3-4 weeks ago) put myself in a sexual situation that posed very little risk for STD. I am hetero, and it was a hetero experience.

About a week after the incident, I started to get paranoid that I had something serious, like HIV. I started looking on the internet, self diagnosing. The stress was building and building, until one day all the sudden it took over. I got a major hot flash, and it was difficult for me to swallow. I completely lost my appetite, could barely swallow food for days. The following also happened:

Burning sensation in my upper arms
Pain in some of my joints (elbows mainly)
Sharp pains randomly throughout my body (fingers, feet, jaw, shoulders, legs, head, etc.)
Trembling and shaking
Nausea
Lightheaded
Fatigue
Sweating at night
etc.

My appetite has come back, and some of these symptoms are now gone--they tend to leave when i have my mind on something else. They also tend to be more pronounced at night.

I have talked to a number of people, and they all say that they are probably stress/anxiety related, but I would love to hear from some of you and your thoughts. I am extremely scared, I dont know what to do. I just hope I dont have something serious. Can anxiety really do this to your body? Please let me know, I would sincerely appreciate it!!!!!!!!!!!

Michael

Michael, you've experienced what I and many others experience: anxiety producing self-diagnosis syndrome! I go through those phases every now and then. My blood pressure is typically around 115/70 when I'm in a no-care phase/attitude. However, every now and then, I'll start to go through the whole self-diagnosis phase and I've gotten my BP as high as 170/110 by doing so. Using information on the Web to help educate yourself, and your doctor, is one thing - using it to create more physical problems (via anxiety induced psychosomatic disorder) is another.

Think of the worst case scenario: you have HIV. From what I've heard and read, most people live long, healthy lives - thanks to very good medicines out there. If you want to find out for sure, schedule a test via your doctor. Good luck to you and stop your self-diagnosis syndrome!

Michael, honey, the likelihood of it being HIV is so miniscule that you really should put that out of your head. In your reading, what is the normal incubation period of HIV? I'm pretty sure it's MUCH longer than the time frame you are discussing.

Did you have a sore throat during any of this? I'm wondering about the possibility of mono.

Yes, anxiety, can cause many symptoms and, most likely, your friends are right with their diagnosis. Especially since you get so much better when distracted.

Good luck to you!

Thank you all for the replies--I am driving myself crazy!!! I started experiencing symptoms about 9 days after the incident. The problem is, during the incident, the protection slipped off for about 10 seconds, no more. So i was unprotected for 10 seconds. It just really scares me, with all these bizarre pains, aches, etc. I know that anxiety can wreak havoc on the body, it just seems too much of a coincidence? Thank you again for the replies, would love some feedback.

Michael

Michael,
I have been having your symptoms and more for about a year now, they are very real, and have all but destroyed my life. And, I am married, which means, i dont have sex at all, (just kidding), but there is no sexual connection.
My symptoms include, burning arms, lower legs and feet, muscle twitches, heart pounding, nausea, abdominal pains... you name it. My muscular nerve symptoms are there all the time. The major hot flash was probably your first real panic attack.
I seriously doubt this has anyting to do with a STD. Some would argue that STD would be easier to deal with. Best wishes.

Thank you aslo, I appreciate your response. I think the ones that scare me are the joint pains, muscle pains. I am also paranoid that i have swollen/painful lymph nodes. Any thoughts on this? Sorry to hear about your problem, I have learned that anxiety is a very scary condition.

Michael

When it comes to anxiety, I have learned that there is no logical reason why you feel like you feel. You can spend hours and hours trying to pinpoint an exact reason or condition. You search and search the internet, which by the way will make you think that you are as good as dead. Half of us with this condition probably would be cured if it weren't for the internet. This is a condition that defies everything you know and you just have to train your mind to look past the sensations that that you are feeling. I'm by no means an expert because I suffer from this everyday, but it sounds like once you find out you don't have what you are afraid of, the symptoms will subside. It is very very normal but when you are going through it you feel alone and like nothing you can do will make this go away.

SirReal, I agree. If I am working, I typically dont feel the symptoms. If I am sitting, just thinking, eveyrthing starts to ache, I am conscious of my lymph nodes, I start to think the worst, I get flushed, arms burn, immediately lose my appetite. It still scares me though, I just dont want to have HIV!!!

has anyone else experienced this? Major symptoms, or feeling of symptoms, related to stress and anxiety that mirror a specific disease, like HIV?

I got really scared that I had HIV after an unprotected hetero encounter with a woman, but I didn't freak out until about a month later when I was surfing the web and read the symptoms, I had a hotflash the second I read the symptoms, and then I had my first real panic attack it felt like I was dieing, I went a week later to test for HIV and came out negative, I have to retest tommorrow to make sure but Im sure all my symptoms are anxiety related(sweating chills, hotflashes muscle aches,stomach problems), after I got the negative test result I started looking for other dieases and thought I had everything from ALS, Chronic fatigue syndrome, cancer, to thyroid problems, until I found the symptoms of Anxiety, all my symptoms make sense now, they are anxiety related I have tried some meditation anything to center myself again and it seems to be working a little. a little side note Night Sweats, as related to HIV come late into the infection, night sweats are caused by infection with other dieases and the body fighting them with what little resources it has left, they are not caused by the actual HIV virus, so if you wont have night sweats if you where recently infected with HIV unless your immune system was already weak from drug use or something else, but if you have an unexplainible flu a month after your encounter then you should worry, still go get tested for peace of mind

Hi dazed, thank you so much for your response. Mine is similar--After reading the symptoms 9 days after the encounter, I completely panicked. My whole body got hot, but no fever. started shaking, trembling, completely lost my appetite for a week, got a sore throat and started to feel like my lymph nodes were hurting. Keep having these weird muscle pains--were your pains a quick sharp pain? So you dont think I should worry? I will get tested for piece of mind, but I am just freaking out a bit here. My fingers even hurt at times, along with my elbows...

same exact symptoms, funny thing is that each individual deals with anxiety in there own way, the body will react differently for each person, I guess we have something in common lol, My hot flashes have become more like a rush of cold or heat then sweating, no night sweats though, pains in the joints, muscle aches, and once in a while a shooting pain in my leg or arm, Im kind of a bodybuilder, and knew at once that these werent workout related so I freaked out even worse, My hot cold flashes have a pattern to them, I only get them out in public places with alot of people, or in the heat, never when Im alone or in familar surroundings, so I guess anxiety is to blame, Ive been more calm this week so my flashes seem to be less intense. I started having all these symptoms about 1 1/2 months after my encounter, and they happened after my first panic attack and gradually got worse, I was reading the symptoms of HIV infection online and had a panic attack, so the mind can create these symptoms, I find that when Im feeling anxious about HIV I read the HIV board, the people on there can be real comforting

one more thing if your an old male, around 35 - 45 Hot flashes can be the male form of menopause, a drop of testosterone, you should still have a doctor check you out to make sure nothing else is wrong but from what youve said it seems more like anxiety to me