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I'm a 20 year old college student, and I think I can safely diagnose myself with health related anxiety. I was always one to worry about my physical health, and I'd always go to the doctor to put myself at ease. I handled it well before, but recently a friend my age died of cancer and it set off the ticking time bomb within me. First, I had an infected cyst under my arm. I convinced myself I had undiagnosed lymphoma. I went to 3 doctors, and they all told me that it was a minor infection. For some reason, I didn't believe them. I didn't believe them even though I was put on antibiotics and the infection and lump went away under my arm. On top of not believing them, I constantly check the internet and check my temperature for that short relieved assurance that I'm fine. Second, I have a minor cough that's accompanied by a tickle in my throat. I then convinced myself I had lung cancer or some sort of fatal disease in my heart or lungs. Went to the doctor and they told me I had a bunch of mucus in the back of my throat and it was a post nasal drip. Third, I started having back pain. Once again, searching the internet made me believe I had lung cancer or failing kidneys. In the back of my mind I knew it was from bad posture, but my body told me it was cancer. Now this week, I'm studying the nervous system and we covered several motor disorders. These include ALS, Parkinson's, Huntington's, and others. Now I've developed weakness in my legs and arms (they feel like jelly), and my hands are shaking a tiny bit. I have been constantly in a state of anxiety since the beginning of November, and this is most likely from anxiety, but I am CONVINCED I have ALS. I can hold a pen just fine, I'm not tripping over my feet, I was able to lift a 25 pound kettlebell in each individual hand, and I walked up and down 6 flight of stairs 3 times yesterday. My legs feel better, and my hands feel better, but are still shaky. Yet here I am. Because I am in such a state of anxiousness all day every day, I haven't been able to eat or study. I am crying nearly every other day. These are the thoughts that run through my mind as soon as I wake up in the morning up until I go to bed. I have avoided hearing or reading the words cancer, death, disease, etc. Every time I hear it, I go into panic mode and I nearly vomit. I'm even bothering my parents because I'm constantly calling them to ask for reassurance that I'm not fatally ill. I'm seeing someone about this when I come home from school, but I am desperate for medication that can help me be in a calmer state so I can deal with my anxiety better. I don't know how this works. Has anyone ever started feeling symptoms when they hear about a new disease? How have you guys coped with this? My goal in life is to work as a physical therapist in a hospital with patients with spinal cord injuries, amputated limbs, and other disabling problems. I can't do that if I can barely deal with my own health.

Hello fellow anxiety and panic attack sufferers, I suffer from anxiety attacks and have built a new app to help myself and others track attacks. Follow this link www.limbical.com/?invite_code=acenteral and enter your details to join the beta program for the app. The app’s goal is to make it very easy to record your anxiety attacks in real-time, as they happen. Once you start tracking your attacks on the app, the app will detect patterns in your attacks and uncover insights. I've been suffering from anxiety attacks at varying frequencies since 2008. In the first few years, each attack was so debilitating I would struggle to leave my house for the next week. Thankfully, these days I'm doing much better. My attacks are less frequent, and the aftermath is dramatically less severe, something I can even recover from in a few minutes. But still, in many ways, my fear of an attack dramatically affects my choices. I've taken a few months off my full time job to build this app because I'm hoping it can help me and help others. I'm also hoping that together with the app’s users we will build an unparalleled body of data about anxiety attacks that can be used to significantly advance research and build more help for people suffering from anxiety attack. The app is currently in beta testing phase and is not available on the App Store. I invite all of you to join the beta, try out the app, use it if you have an attack, and share your feedback so I can make it better. To sign up for the beta use this link www.limbical.com/?invite_code=acenteral and enter your name and email. While the app does NOT collect any personal information, your name and email are required for Apple Beta Testing program. Please send your feedback, either through the app, or on this thread. Thanks!

Hey, guys. I haven't been on in a week so I've missed a little bit. I've never really done the online group thing before so it does make me nervous sharing all of this information but you all seem like wonderful people and I could really use the support. So last night I started having really bad anxiety. My anxiety is usually triggered by something physical. For example, my arm will feel "weird" or something and it will send me into bad anxiety. I used to have this all the time but it subsided over the last few years. However, I have been going through a tremendous amount of stress lately. First of all, I work two jobs and go to school full time. I get maybe 5 hours of sleep on a good night. My eating habits have improved but they could still use a lot of improvement. I'm dealing with a sick family member who is living with me and on top of it all my boyfriend of four years and I broke up two weeks ago. It may seem like silly things but they really do all add up into something bigger. I have a tendency to not share my feelings when needed, and I keep things bottled up until it's too late. Anyway, back to last night... I was at a friend's house and all of a sudden my right shoulder started hurting really bad. I noticed a big amount of weakness in that same arm and all of a sudden it felt like it wasn't mine anymore. I know that sounds so silly but it was a strange feeling. I've had it before and it's called depersonalization. I was a good 25 minute drive from home so my first thought was, "How am I gonna make it back safely?" I knew I was in good care and I knew that I was with people who were very understanding of anxiety/depression yet I still felt bad. Just as a note, I'd like to say that for the last almost two weeks I have been feeling really sick. I haven't been able to eat, I've lost weight, I've physically felt strange. I'm not sure if it's just because I'm overworking myself or the stress in my life or both. Anywho, I got in my car and started to drive home. I just felt like I was going to go into a big attack (which I *knock on wood* haven't done in a very long time). I did make it home safely (woohoo!) but I woke up today and I still feel like crap. I only got 4 hours of sleep so I'm sure that has something to do with it. But my shoulder/arm just feel so weak and strange. I'm traveling out of state next week with a good friend and after having this anxiety, I'm worried that it will stop me from having a good time. For some reason, the only thing that can really comfort me when I'm anxious is being home. I don't want to talk myself into having a bad time because of potential anxiety, but I also want to be prepared to deal with it while being so far away from my comfort zone. Does anyone have any thoughts, opinions, or ideas on how to go about doing so? My anxiety has always been closely linked with how I physically feel..meaning my anxiety will make me feel like I'm really sick and I do tend to turn into a bit of a hypochondriac because of it. I do appreciate you taking the time to read this post and/or reply. I hope you all have a blessed day!

I am SO frustrated! I thought I was OVER this. My last "panic/anxiety attack" prior to the one I experienced two weeks ago, was nearly SIX YEARS AGO! I thought I was OVER this... But then it hit again earlier this month. The nausea was so intense and horrifying, I could not walk and had to call an ambulance. (I also have Crohn's Disease... so, I was unsure if the nausea was from the Crohn's or anxiety... it turns out that anxiety was the cause.) Is there anyone else here who ONLY gets that one symptom - devastating, debilitating nausea - when in a panic/anxiety attack? I have done talk therapy for years... EMDR... CBT... read countless self-help books... tried many, many antidepressants. I am currently taking Cymbalta and Klonopin (as needed - which is rarely). In the past, I have tried... Prozac, Celexa, Lexapro, Wellbutrin, Paxil, and others. I've listened to Lucinda Bassett tapes, ordered other online programs. NOTHING IS WORKING! Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks!

Hello, I'm new to the site, and like most people here, I suffer from anxiety. I had the first anxiety attack almost a year ago. Very scary, as you all know. It was hard wrapping my mind around the fact that I have some type of anxiety disorder, because I was far from being an anxious person. People usually came to me to get calm. I guess stress over time equals anxiety, whoever you are. I've been battling for the last year, and when I think it's under control, it reminds me that it's still there. Nowadays, I'm feeling some of the worst symptoms I've felt mentally. A few days ago, I was feeling pretty good physically. Then, all of a sudden, I felt like I was fainting. I was just sitting in the car, and it felt like blood started to drain from my head, and my arms and legs felt tingly. This was particularly different because I wasn't feeling anxiety. It just hit me in the middle of feeling well. So this episode is having lingering mental affects such as fear and depression. I went to the ER after this episode, and they did an EKG, blood work, and chest Xrays. They didn't find anything. I've been to the ER 5 times in the last year. Echo, EKG, CAT Scans, stress test, nuclear imaging of my circulatory system, endocrinologist, gastrointestinal doc, and a cardiologist later, and it seems like I'm back at square one with this episode. Of course it doesn't help that I ruptured my achilles tendon a few weeks ago, so now I'm laid up. Has anyone ever experienced this fainting like episode out of the blue?... Which was different than the usual vision narrowing fainting like episode. It felt like blood draining from my head, vision started going dark, arms and legs were tingly, and it felt like I was passing out. This all came on at once, and subsided a few seconds later, then the typical panic attack symptoms came.

I'm sorry I've been posting a lot, in the past two days I've had about 4 panic attacks. I went to the doctors and they said I just have a common cold, but all the congestion is making my chest feel tight and it's causing me so much anxiety. Right now it's 2 in the morning and I woke up with another panic attack. Me chest feels really tight and I keep coughing because I feel like the congestion is just sitting there and I feel like I need to get it out. I've been coughing so hard I coughed up some blood twice. This cold is really beating me up anxiety wise, it's so bad. I don't know if it's because I haven't gotten enough sleep because of my school project with the electronic baby or something else. This weekend has been really stressful and my dog has dropped on the ground twice because he has fatty tissue near his arm pit and when he jumped yesterday it got lodged into his joint and he gets into extreme pain and my parents are saying that if this doesn't get better and they don't get enough money to pay to get it removed they're thinking of getting him put down so he doesn't have to suffer. There's just been so much stress this weekend and that could be why but my anxiety is worse than it's ever been and it's taking a huge toll on me and I'm scared about later today when I have to go to school because I'm always afraid I'm going to get a panic attack at school. I've gone down to the nurse for one before but she really doesn't do anything and she just has you lay down on this cot but it has no privacy and usually the nurses room is full so everyone can just see you so it doesn't help at all. I just don't know what to do, I've tried everything.

Right now where I live it's two o'clock in the morning and I'm having an anxiety attack. It feels so hard to breathe and my chest and throat feel tight, I can also feel acid that wants to come up. I also feel really weak and I don't know what to do to be able to sleep again and I really need to because I have to get up at 5:00 for school, most of the time I'm falling a asleep during school because of a lack of sleep and I end up missing important things, I just need this feeling to go away

Hello everybody. As someone who has suffered from General/Social Anxiety for the past 10 years or so, never have I thought that I would have or have ever had a Panic attack. The symptoms I have/had are almost identical to lists of symptoms of Panic attacks, I am still unsure. Over the past few weeks, I have had these episodes where I will be sitting using a computer or watching TV, and out of no where I am hit with a sudden flash of heat in my head and chest. My heart rate will fly up and I will get this over whelming feeling that I am going to die, this feeling is very common and doesn't usually effect me overly though combining that with the feeling your heart is going to explode or stop is terrifying, the closest thing I was able to describe it as was a heart attack. The only thing I have found so far, to claim myself down is to sit outside in the cool air and breath deeply. After one of these episodes I will get this terrible feeling, like something bad is going to occur, or a repeat of what has just happened (This is what I have been feeling like for about 10 years). Combine this with the fear that I will have one of these episodes while around my room mates, the feeling is probably worse than the attack itself and could probably induce one. So I did go to the doctor for a check up, and results came back as me being healthy, as far as my heart goes, and they are left not knowing what is going on. I did get some medication after a 4 hour episode where I was constantly getting these rushes of heat and increased heart rate. The length of episode is what had me confused and worried. Thanks, and I appreciate if anyone could take the time to reply, and possibly tell me if this is or at least sounds like a panic attack, and any tips on dealing with them. Also, I apologise, I am sure there is endless threads such as mine and answering my specific questions, though still wanted to to get direct answers regarding my situation.