I was wondering if anyone can relate to my story, i would really appreciate any responses...thank you.

This all started at the beginning of August, i went out a few times, once with my family and once with my friends. I remember all of a sudden becoming striken with nervousness. I would have some hot flashes, feel some dizziness, but mostly just all around panicky. I made an appointment with my doctor and described my symptoms and he told me i was having anxiety and that i should start to see a therapist. A few days after my first visit to the doctors I had a ful blown panic attack, and it's steadily gotten worse up until this point (January). I'm really sick and tired of this and it seemed to come out of nowhere, I'm only 21 years old. I went for a checkup in september and he told me everything was fine, I had bloodwork done because i had lost around twenty pounds since the beginning of summer and everything was perfect, no signs of infection or anything like that. I have become an extreme hypochondriac since the first visit to my doctors and i get fixated on all types of diseases ranging from cancer to mental disorders such as insanity. I was wondering if anyone can relate to my case, if it helps i started smoking cigarettes around july and think this may be feeding more into my anxiety. My list of symptoms include:

dry mouth
weight loss
forgetful ness
feel like i'm burning up
slight agoraphobia
intrusive thoughts
heart palpitations
fatigue
migrating pain
fear of dying/losing control
headaches (have not had any since october)
nausea
appetite loss
slight constipation (don't go as much as i use to)
lump in throat
troubling breathing
troubling waking up

any input would be nice, thank you.

Hello JRS28
Thats a long list of nasty symptoms also all symptoms of anxiety.I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder 14 years ago and yes I have felt attacks just like you descibed.One of my most embaressing attacks was when my husband decided we would take my father in law out to dinner for his birthday.Most of my in laws were there.I felt great going to the resturant and ordering my meal.Then (while waiting for the food and chatting) I suddenly felt extremly nervous with no clue why.Then my heart started skipping and I felt hot,shakey,and sick with a huge urge to flee the resturant.My mother in law was glaring at me from across the table with this look like "what the heck is wrong with her?" I then did flee the resturant and my husband followed me. I begged him to just take me home and he did.My story and symptoms would be enourmousley long so I will spare you.I will tell you though there is hope.I have had my ups and downs through the years but I am doing much better.There is Therapy,medications,books etc. to help us anxiety sufferers.Some may have a few attacks and things to one day never have problems again others it is a daily battle.For me the thing that has worked best is positive thinking.I try to be positive and not give focus to symptoms and attacks.This was'nt easy and it took time.I would have symptoms even when I did not feel anxious and I have had major health anxiety.Anyway, I wanted to avoid writting a book and here I am writting a book.You are certainly not alone with those symptoms.Just wait there will be more responces I bet.

Sounds like a combination of anxiety and depression to me.

Your list pretty well is identical to any list you'd fine on any anxiety and/or depression symptom site. The difficulty waking kinda sounds like depression.

As far as smoking doubt that it would cause any of your symptoms. As matter of fact it probably would relax you somewhat but is very damagining to your organs. I smoked for decades - quit over year and half ago.

thank you both for your posts, although i have to tell you i really don't feel depressed. i've gone through a few short stints of depression during the last four or five months but nothing that i couldn't handle. it definitely sucks having anxiety, but i'm confident i can beat this. it's been under six months and i've started to think a little more positive and really believe there is hope for me to get better, i've had glimpses of being better and i just would like to get back to normal when i lived a carefree life. and just to let you know, tnmomofive, my first attack was at a restaurant. i was out to dinner with my family for my father's birthday and everything was fine, and all of a sudden i got extremely nervous and began thinking i was having an allergic reaction to something i ate, i also had to leave and go for a cold shower.

JRS28,

I can relate exactly. I had all of those symptoms and then some. I also had severe stomach pains. The intrusive thoughts were the worst back in the day because they made me contiplate how horrible of a person I was due to the messed up things going through my head. I thought I had schizoprenia, ulcers, hypoglycemia, etc. Anything that would physically explain the physical anguish I was creating for myself. Anyway, I did a lot of reading on anxiety dissorders and found a name that fit my particular form of anxiety and it is Pure OCD. I have just the obsessive thoughts and panic attacks either caused by or causing the anxiety. So, yea man, I know exactly how you feel. You probably have hit some depressing times when the panic and anxiety is at its worse and you are worn down by stress. That is when I am at my lowest for sure, but it isn't depression in the clinical sense, it is depression that you are battling this anxiety dissorder daily that is draining you of your energy and eventually you just crash. You pick yourself up after a good cry and life goes on and the cycle continues. Don't worry, it isn't Bipolar dissorder either, you just have an anxiety dissorder.

Now, how do you fix it? First things you need to do if you haven't already is eleiminate alcohol, caffiene, cigarettes, and other toxins from your system. Once this is done you will know exactly where your anxiety stands because alcohol actually helps anxiety in the short term. Many alcoholics are people with anxiety dissorder that can't stop drinking because of the anxiety that will come. Also:

Eat good quality food
Exercise (huge help)
Meditate (really huge help with the thought intrusions) Do some research on Mindfulness Meditation. It really helps a lot!!!

As for medication, start with herbal remedies and see if they will help first:

St. Johns Wort is a natural antidepressant. It didn't help me, but don't knock it until you try it I guess and everyone is different.
Kava Kava helped a lot with mild anxiety, but didn't stop major panic attacks. The kind that have you leaving work early and when you get home you are wondering why you left in the first place or the ones that land you in the ER for potential migranes or ulcers?
Valerian is also good for anxiety. You can get Kava and Valerian in tea and pill form. I took a combo because the tea was really relaxing but doesn't have a therapeutic dose of the herb in it.

Try all of this first!

If you have to take meds, in my opinion, the Benzodiazepenes are the best for what you and I have, which is some form of panic/OCD anxiety dissorder. They will eliminate almost all of your anxiety and really quickly (within 15 minutes). I take 2-2.5 mg per day as needed and it has changed my life. I am able to be a father to my little girl and I can get through tough days at work etc., so I consider it a success. Anyway, the SSRI's and other antidepressants I found to increase my anxiety and actually make my symptoms much worse. I got weird feelings in my head and had all kinds of strange feelings throughout my body which didn't help the obsessive side of me, so I decided that I would never take them again. That was about ten years ago. I got by with only herbs and exercise until I got married and had my first daughter and then the stress was just too much. I now take the xanax. .5 mg 4x per day and it works great. I thought at one point that I would need to continue to raise my dosage forever, but it does stabalize once your brain is saturated with the chemicals that block your GABA receptors. The stuff is wonderful and causes no side effects at all. Remember, Benzo's are not addictive, but they can and do cause dependency in some people. Your liver and you rbrain get used to the drug and that makes it very dangerous to quit cold turkey. If you start the Benzos and take them for a long time at large doses then plan on weaning off of them for a long time as well.

I think, honestly, I will be on the Xanax for the rest of my days in various dosages. Sometimes more sometimes less depends on how stressful my life is, but as I said before, it really doesn't effect me at all at work or at home. In fact my wife says I act like new man and she likes the change.

Anyway, that is my huge dialogue. I am done now, so I hope you got something out of this and understand a little more about your dissorder. There is no cure for Pure OCD or any other anxiety dissorder, but there are definitely coping mechanisms that can make your life worth living again and that is priceless. Read some of the other coping mechanisms out there. The more you know, the moer you can challege your doctor to get you the correct treatment.

If you get a chance check out the OCD board and read the latest post by Nice chap. He said he solved the OCD dilema, and he has. His techniques, whether he knows it or not, are classic meditation techniques used for thousands of years to help us neurotics get through our tough days. LOL.

Take care,
OE

hey ocdengineer, thank you for your time and thoughtfulness on your reply i sincerely appreciate it. i find it comforting knowing that i'm not alone and that there are others out there willing to reach out and offer advice and techniques that have worked for them. I will definitely go out and buy some of that tea this weekend. As for the diet i have already started to eat healthier and i quit drinking and sm the only thing i have to do now is stop smoking. I also started reading a book, "The Heart of the Buddha's teaching" to help my mindset and assist me on meditation techniques. It's funny, the first time i had a truly intrusive/disturbing thought i researched feverishly online for a mental condition that fit my description...and i stumbled upon the Pure O form of OCD, and i thought i had it. However its escaped my mind since then and i told my therapist about it and she said she had never heard of it, so i just figured i had GAD or something like that because i didn't really associate hypochondria(my biggest problem) and anxiety symptoms with Pure O. But now that i know Pure O can present itself in a physical form i truly believe that i have it, and i can also trace it back to my adolescence which is also somewhat comforting...i hope we can talk more and thank you again.