My Anxiety Story

I am a 38 year old healthy male. I enjoy being outside hunting and fishing. I have always been a little high strung and anxious but I have always been in pretty good shape and health. Diagnosed with IBS in middle school. Up until last year my life was wonderful....

In the Spring of last year (2015) my mother-in-law, which watches my kids, had some tests and had to have a triple by-pass. Within a couple of weeks of the news of her needing to have the by-pass I started having chest pain, tightness, GERD and SOA. I like to research things so I started looking all over the internet for answers. This resulted in multiple trips to the doctor and me getting a chest x-ray, 3D echo and holter monitor. All which were completely normal. I also get a yearly check up which includes blood work, which has always been completely normal too. Blood pressure is usually around 125/80 but does creep up from time to time. I battled this for a couple of month and then all of a sudden everything went away.

Fast forward to this Spring (2016), my wife was going through a stressful situation which put some stress on us. Around this same time I had a big heart palpitation. I continued to have a couple of heart palpitations per week that I could feel. I could feel my heart beating all of the time. I started researching again and making multiple visits to my dr. Then one day I had a all out panic attack. I thought I was going to die. I ended up having a panic attack almost weekly and one resulted in me having very high blood pressure and I went to the urgent care. By the time I was seen my BP was back to normal. I talked to the MD into doing a EKG which was normal. My MD ended up leaving the practice so I am seeing a NP now. She referred me to a cardiologist to put my mind at ease about the cardiac issues.

After this, every pain or pressure immediately pushed me to look it up which in turn had me thinking that I had every cancer and serious ailment known. In the last 6 months I have been convinced that I've had heart issues, lung issues, renal cancer, colon cancer, diabetes, ALS, and who know what else. I ended up going back to my MD and asked for medication options but did not want to be put on a Benzo or SSRI, so we tried Buspar. I don't really know if Buspar worked...I guess it did a little but it made me so dizzy even after 3 months the dizziness was terrible. The dizziness was so bad that I had a hard time walking. I tried increasing the dose from 10 mg to 15 mg twice a day but had a bad anxiety attack. I ended up going off Buspar and trying a Hydroxyzine. I think Hydroxyzine helps some but I cannot take it during the day because it makes be extremely tired.

In September I started having right sided pain. I had a CT which was normal. I am having getting scoped at the end of the month by a gastro. I did have a vasctomy and so my urologist did an US which I am waiting on the results.

I have lost about 12 lbs without trying, I feel weak a lot of the time. From what I read, these are common symptoms of anxiety. After a bad couple of weeks I have come to the realization that I think all of this maybe anxiety/COD/health anxiety (hypochondria). I made an appointment with my NP because I need help with this. I agreed to try medication. I am now 7 days into Paxil. She picked Paxil because she sees less sexual side affects.

I have felt more anxious the last couple of days on Paxil. I will be increasing my dose tonight from 10 mg to 20 mg per instructions. I felt so weak and tired yesterday. I have had some increased heart palpitations but the palpitations don't concern me anymore, just make me feel weird. I really hope Paxil helps me get back to normal. I am thinking about getting some CB therapy but not sure. I am open to suggestions. I don't like the idea of being on medication but something needed to change.

Thanks for reading and open to suggestions.