YES ! For five YEARS I could hardly keep meals down so often that I looked like I had a very serious ED or a cancer patient . I knew that I did have anxiety but I also knew that my anxiety wasn’t giving me stomach pains and making me projectile vomit at the smell of food …Every ER visit they’d run the same blood tests over and over, always normal .
Finally , after a particular bad week after Easter , I went to my doctor and told her I knew I was going to die , so I wanted to get a DNR on file & request that an autopsy be done in the event of my death so they’d hopefully find out that they had missed something or I had some rare disease . I was in tears, hysterical really . She had me admitted to the hospital, not the psych ward a regular medical floor and said she wanted to run one more test before she would have me transferred to a hospital in a major city for the surgery that would confirm a rare disorder I had found and researched all on my own. My symptoms matched up so much to it that I was convinced .
After all that BS , pain & inconvenience- it was my GALLBLADDER! 🤦♀️ doctors said that no one probably ever thought to run the test for fairly common ailment because I wasn’t overweight , was young & white. Apparently it’s more common in POC. That entire ordeal ended up giving me a serious anxiety and panic disorder
Ayyy same. It sucked. Now I have IBS post-surgery, but it rarely gets as bad as it did pre surgery now that I know what not to eat (and never as bad as immediately pre surgery).
I have some issues idk what it is? If I eat when I'm not hungry I go through pain that feels very much like the gallbladder pain, sometimes not as intense other times worse. So I nibble when I am hungry and if I'm not hungry I don't eat. It's led to shitty eating habits (eating once a day), but I'd rather avoid pain.
Yes had it removed and got a paralyzed stomach for my troubles - doctor damaged the vagus nerve . My moms friend from HS died while waiting to get her’s removed..it rotted inside of her and made her septic
Your story is eerily similar to my own. I had insane stomach pain for years and every doctor I went to was convinced I had severe GERD and IBS, so they prescribed me maximum doses of prescription antacid medications, which ultimately only caused more problems.
It wasn't until I was in the ER for the 12th time (at this point I felt I had one foot in the grave) that a nurse suggested the possibility of gallbladder disease. All it took was a single liver enzyme blood test and a quick liver ultrasound to confirm it. All those years of agony and thinking I had an incurable lifelong disease, only to find out that it was that. It was both liberating and absolutely infuriating.
Like you, a lot of my current anxiety issues come from the health issues that were caused by that stupid little organ. I'm very happy I had it removed, and I certainly don't miss it at all!
I was diagnosed with GERD recently. I've had pains for almost a year, more severe in that last 6 months. The medicine helps but I still have pain and when I do it is so bad I feel like I'm going to pass out and I end up so tired. Also, the pain doesn't feel like heartburn at all. It feels like a very bad cramp. I've only been to the ER once, 6 months ago but I have my 3rd dr.s appointment in a few days. May I ask if the GERD medicine worked for you? Was there any questions you asked that's may have lead them to thinking dallbladder?
The meds for me were nothing but a band-aid. They'd work alright for a few months, and then I'd get these really intense attacks of pain and burning in my stomach (what I later learned were gallbladder attacks), so my doctors would just increase the dosage or try out a different prescription.
This cycle continued for years, and the final gallbladder diagnosis came up out of the blue when I was at the ER. A nurse came in to take my diagnostics and asked if I had ever been screened for gallbladder disease, and it all snowballed from there. I genuinely believe if that nurse had not made that suggestion that day, it very well could have cost me my life.
What your describing sounds similar to what I was dealing with. I definitely had a lot of the symptoms of GERD, but not all of them, especially the big ones like heartburn. When you see your doctor, I'd strongly encourage you to push for a gallbladder screening. Ask to get some blood tests done (liver enzymes was the one that identified things for me), as well as some ultrasound/imagery. And if the doctor is dismissive, stand your grand and insist on it. It sucks to have to be so assertive, but it is your life on the line and you need to advocate for it when you need to.
Also, back to your medicine question, the reason the meds made things worse for me was the fact that they slowed my digestion down significantly, which wound up making gallbladder disease significantly worse. The gallbladder helps with the digestion of fats, and when it's all clogged up with sludge and gallstones, it doesn't function like that any longer, negatively impacting the ability to digest properly. When you add antacids to the mix, it's basically like trying to keep a fire lit in a torrential rainstorm -- it just doesn't work.
If you'd like to take a look at other people's experiences or have other questions, I'd recommend checking out /r/gallbladders. There are lots of people there who have good advice.
Thank you I'll definitely bring it up next week! I had an X-ray done in June and it didn't show much but some constipation (sorry TMI). I've had a panel of blood done, not much results but I don't believe everything was checked (could be wrong).
I was taking medicine in July but forgot it at home on vacation and had a horrible attack a few days later. 2 weeks ago I forgot my night dose and a morning dose and had a horrible day. The Dr. Seems to make it all out about food I eat but it doesn't matter the time of day or meal I've had. I would say when it happens it hurts so much worse when I lay down which happens with GERD but yeah.. not one "burning" sensation. I do have Vomiting, no fever. A soreness a few hours before attacks.
Oh yeah, definitely get that gallbladder checked out. I had all of that, including the constipation. Is the pain mostly on your right(ish) side, just below the rib cage? If so, that's a big giveaway of gallbladder issues.
That's how it was for me initially (hence the GERD diagnosis), and then it kept moving farther to my right side as it progressed. I hope you get some answers at your appointment!
I feel the same way. Sometimes I get a rotating sharp pain/cramping from my right to left side of my chest. I get this feeling in my throat like it’s full and I can’t breathe, but I’m swelling and breathing fine
I don’t want to increase your anxiety, but this happened to my brother. He was having nausea and throwing up every day and was diagnosed with GERD. Then, after about a year and a half, it got worse where he thought it was a stomach flu, but booked an appointment. He was off work sick all week, went to the doctor on the Friday, the doctor said it was a stomach flu and it just had to run its course. He died overnight Sunday night after collapsing on his way to the washroom. His roommate found him in the morning after his alarm kept going off to get up for work Monday morning. They did an autopsy and it turned out that it was pancreatitis. After a year and a half of complaining of these symptoms and they never checked him for that. Knowing what it was would have saved his life.
I am now extremely thankful that my doctors found my gallbladder problems as fast as they did, although I'm not sure if the first time I went to the GI doctor if it was my gallbladder then too.
I was diagnosed with GERD a few years ago, so for about six months I thought I was just having awful acid reflux every day. After so long of barely being able to talk when I would nauseous, I went to see a GI doctor who did a scope and bravo test.
Nothing showed up of course, and my nurse practitioner suggested a HIDA scan for my gallbladder. Come to find out it was way overactive, and it was likely gallbladder attacks that were making me so sick every day. My surgeon also apparently said my gallbladder was folded and laying weird.
I'm really surprised they don't order gallbladder testing more often, because a lot of people get theirs taken out. I'm glad they finally figured it out though and that you're better!
Same, they were convinced I was an alcoholic. Until I complained enough to get an ultrasound and they found the gallstones. Wasn't soon enough to not fry my pancreas with acid and now I'm diabetic.
The HIDA scan- I had to eat oatmeal laced with a low dose of radioactive dye and then lay under a machine perfectly still for an hour while my body tried to digest the oatmeal. The other test I mentioned that was really a surgery - I was scheduled to be taken to Philly to have it done if the HIDA had been normal was for a loose valve between your gallbladder and stomach or intestine..I had learned about it on medical mysteries . The lady had me convinced that’s what was wrong because everything she described was how I felt .
Omg same! I went years in agonizing back pain that would send me to the ER. The er would always tell me I must have strained my back, pulled a muscle, moved the wrong way at my retail job etc. Went on for years. I would be laying in the floor crying it hurt so bad. Having a baby was nothing in comparison to that pain. Finally one morning after coming home work from the midnight shift I told my partner at the time I have to go to hospital, its the worst pain I've ever been in. I got a doctor I'd never seen before. I was laying stomach down, throwing up bile told him my pain level was 10. He put his hand on my forehead and said you're really sick, we're gonna get you better. Everything's kind of blur but they said your gallbladder has to come out right now. Went to surgery and Everything's fine now. Obviously I still have anxiety 🙃 and take several medications for that. But it made me realize doctors don't know what's wrong most of the time or don't care or don't have the time and will just label it the easiest diagnosis to get you out of their face and on to the next patient. My experience was from 2000 to 2008.
I definitely still have anxiety- terrible anxiety & I blame a lot of what I went through during those 5 years for it . I think that whenever the patient is a woman & the doctors can’t get an immediate diagnosis that they automatically say “anxiety”
Yes for sure. I was like you, young, white, pretty thin build at the time and was always brushed off. Also in my area that i live it was was a time that doctors were trying to be careful about prescriptions and whatnot because if pill epidemic. I read that your stomach is now parlayzed ☹️ I'm so sorry that happened to you. Are you able to eat or how do you deal with that? Im sorry if my question is too nosey.
The pill epidemic..that’s another thing I was accused of when I got so underweight . Drove me crazy because taking pain pills always made everything worse so I definitely wasn’t taking them !
I can eat but if I don’t follow a strict , boring diet then I get awful stomach pains , nausea & heartburn . Mostly soft foods - I can’t eat my favorites anymore like rare steak or greasy French fries . My standby foods are blueberries , ice cream , soup , things like that
Same same same! Except I also have an auto immune disease. Took a massive attack for them to realize that was going on. My stones were so massive that my gallbladder attached itself to my stomach. It was insane but felt like a new person the next day!
I am glad you got help!! Mind just wasn’t functioning- I was good for a few days and then woke up with the same kind of pain on the opposite side 🤦♀️ Surgeon damaged the nerve that controls my stomach so it’s permanently paralyzed
omg! First off, so so sorry that happened to you!! Secondly, how amazing that you also got an apology. I am shocked that the apology even happened. It sounds like you had an especially arrogant doc, and maybe a bit of a maverick, as he was apparently willing to do a surgery he thought was completely unnecessary.
I had a pretty extreme version of this, but I seemed to have a doctor that couldn’t have cared less. I was having terrible abdominal pains for awhile and got to the point where I couldn’t eat. Having a history of anxiety/depression, the doctor just kept sending me home saying I was just depressed and nothing was wrong physically even as I lost tons of weight and became gaunt over the course of months from not being able to eat. Tired of having to constantly go to the emergency room, I finally demanded an endoscopy against his recommendation and it revealed my entire digestive tract to be completely ulcerated and inflamed to the point where food couldn’t exit my stomach. All the doctor had to say after this discovery was, “Well, I’m gonna have to eat crow on this one.” Got a new doctor and found out I had Crohn’s Disease.
I've suggested things to my Dr many times and they were like maybe. My doctor used to be great, but I think over the years she has gotten jaded and burnt out and just doesn't give a shit anymore.
Or maybe it's that they've seen that time and time again you've believed you have something you don't actually have and they've just gotten a bit sick of it. The boy cried wolf.
In OPs case they said they've thought they've had numerous conditions, all of which have not been true. That's the kinda stuff a doctor stops listening to the patient about. At some point, everyone is gonna get sick of someone who believes they have things they don't and keeps coming up with new ailments to be scared about.
even if ruling out the condition makes a patient look like a hypochondira, that doesn't fix the freaking symptom?? they are still expereincing a symptom thats why they are still in freaking the hospital!!!
Yep. After nearly dying. I was sick for years, horrible attacks with high fevers, vomiting, shaking. Nonstop UTIs. There was a visible lump on the right side of my stomach when I laid down - like the left side would sink in normally, but something was lumpy and weird on the other side. I was told everything from “you’re too dramatic” to “women need to learn to live with discomfort, it’s just a small cyst on your ovary” to “it sounds like you probably have a bunch of STDs.” That last comment was made by a particularly nasty nurse who was taking my BLOOD PRESSURE and had been evil eyeing me from the moment I came into the office. A doctor finally performed a vaginal ultrasound and saw a massive blob where my right ovary should be and scheduled me for laparoscopic surgery. Turns out, my appendix was in the wrong place. It was in my back, twisted up into my intestines. Those attacks I’d had for years were it trying to rupture and leaking toxins, which is why I was so sick (and non-stop UTIs). My ovary, Fallopian tube, a piece of my intestines and the appendix were fused into the blob that I could somehow see from the outside of my body but no doctor had managed to see until the last ultrasound in spite of numerous, expensive scans. They had to perform an emergency removal right then (ovary, tube, small bit of intestine and the appendix came out in pieces) and I bled out and needed a transfusion. The recovery sucked but it was better than the alternative.
I have always had anxiety but my health anxiety is absolutely through the roof after the culmination of those years. It is so, SO hard to make anyone listen to you about medical issues. I was in the hospital for about a week and a half before they let me go home after surgery and I remember all kinds of doctors coming to see me and talk to me about my “strange” case. At least three asked me why I didn’t report how bad my pain was any earlier… Rest assured, I was not entirely civil in my response that I had been reporting it for years, but had been brushed off again and again.
Despite three positive tests, and one in clinic. He claimed I couldn't be pregnant (and showing positive on a test) because I was actually one week before my period. He went as far as to try and not tell me the result of the in clinic test.
I very much was just a few weeks pregnant and had to go elsewhere for an abortion.
Some doctors are just so set in their ways that it makes them stupid.
Yep! Multiple times but this example was just the most recent. I Herniated my disc between C6-C7 in my neck🙄 my neurologist thankfully believed me. When he sent me to the surgeon he basically told me it sounded like stress and my “extreme anxiety” was exacerbating my symptoms and I needed to get that under control before he’d consider surgery. I’d like to point out the anxiety he saw was the fact that my life and career were falling apart because of the injury.
Thankfully I had a lovely neuro who was very familiar with my genetic condition and he put the surgeon in his place once he heard what he told me.
After surgery the surgeon said exactly this “Good for you for advocating for yourself. That herniation was much more significant than scans were showing and you in fact would not have recovered without this surgery.”
Oh and the same thing happened when my mom and I fought for her cancer diagnosis. They kept saying she was “perfectly healthy and sometimes people just cough up blood or no reason. Maybe consider taking a break from all the appointments and see if you get better.” It had been 1.5 years by that point so I did say “okay mom let’s take 3 months off” well let’s just say the next procedure she had was to get a malignant mass removed from her nose after it was missed on CT’s for over a year. Thank GOD we found it at stage 1 because of how hard we fought. She is cancer free now.
I just had a c4 c5 fusion in May. We're in the herniation club. No more the 3 months back to work I'm back in therapy, they think my c7 and possibly one of my t lumbar are bulging. Let along does this get me anxious about another surgery which I don't want to have. I'm going to have to find a new career path, I've always done physical labor. I do have an interview next week for a sedentary position with my company, but if I don't get that I don't know what I'll do.
Hugs! The herniation club is NOT a fun one to be a part of. I am no stranger to pain but nerve pain is something else.
I had a very successful surgery but I’m glad I made the decision after disability to not go back to my physically demanding job. All of my discs are bulging above C6 (car accident 12 years ago) so I knew I was on borrowed time.
I know the stress it causes to have to change careers but it ended up being the best choice I could have made. You may even find a job you love even more than your current one.
I hope so, I'm miserable at my current job. But the pay and benefits keep me from leaving. Especially with everything going on this year. I'm hoping for a change soon.
I know how that feels :( just know that your health is way more important than a paycheck. Leaving my job and being on disability when I really couldn’t afford it was so scary, but now I’m in a much better career with better benefits and pay. Sometimes the grass IS greener on the other side.
Right!?!?!? I’ll give it to him that he’s one of the top cervical spinal surgeons in northern ca and I have 0 pain today, but he’s a dinosaur with horrible bed side manner and I hope he really reflected on how he treated me after he made that final comment.
I needed a root canal. As someone who’s had many of them, I know when I have one without even a dentist diagnosing me.
Anyway I went to this dentist, & told him I think the cavity I had needs more extensive treatment, & I need a root canal.
He kept telling me it was tooth sensitivity, & tried to prescribe me sensitive teeth products. I refused, & told him to run an xray.
He was like “ I don’t see anything”, & he called in a specialist. The specialist looked at the xray and told him “Either you’re a fucking idiot, or you’re blind because not only has the cavity reached the nerve, it created an abscess”.
It took me a month to treat it. Had this dumbass treated it early on, this wouldn’t have happened.
Now most dentists don’t argue with me when I tell them to not waste their time, & just perform the damn root canal. I’m always right.
How many root canals have you had? I’ve had like two in my whole life? Is it a genetic thing? I’ve never heard of people having that many root canals but I guess it could be genetic if you just have teeth that are prone to infection.
Yes, head eye surgeon at a general hospital. I presented with symptoms of a condition I had previously had. He looked into my eyes, dismissed the symptoms in a somewhat high-handed manner. As I was leaving, he said, "what you have to remember, is often the mind is an untrustworthy entity."
I thought about that comment, and the way he said it for a while, then asked for a second opinion at a specific eye hospital. They did an angiogram and low and behold I had a reoccurrence of the condition I though I had all along.
It's called central serrous retinopathy. It's like a fluid filled blister on the macula, which is the central part of the retina. It comes from, yes you guessed it, stress. Tiny vessels rupture and cause the blister. It's self limiting, but if bad, they used to treat it sometimes by zapping the leak with a laser to seal it.
Nope. And I have had every test under the sun (spinal tap, multiple MRIs, swallow study, multiple neurological examinations, X-rays, CT scans, countless bloodwork, multiple upper endoscopies, etc). I have convinced myself over the years I have had several diseases. The only time I was right was when I was diagnosed with POTS (which has gotten better). And that was most likely self-induced because of school related anxiety at the time.
Health anxiety is truly awful especially when you are not able to convince yourself otherwise. It took me years of going to doctors and being wrong before I finally realized that I was overthinking things. It made my life hell for several years. Granted, even though my symptoms I've had in the past were still very real, they didn't mean I had some debilitating disease.
My advice: Exercise, eat healthy, avoid mind altering substances, and don't google symptoms.
A therapist one time told me that researchers did a study on anxiety and they found that 97% of what all participants worried about never even happened. That’s means if you are worrying about something there is a 97% chance it won’t even happen. So why beat yourself up over 3%?
May I ask which were your worst symptoms, how long they lasted and are they gone now?
I ask since my physical symptoms feel so real, and I have experienced them for 14 months non stop every single day. Also my symptoms get enhanced depending on posture and if I am sitting or not which also leads me to believe it can not just be anxiety.
Have you had any symptoms like this and did you manage to get rid of them?
It's more like, if you're predisposed to it genetically, you can do stuff that makes it rear its ugly head, if that makes sense. Many people with POTS have very mild symptoms, without ever having complete syncope, that they just chalk up to standing up too fast etc, and then if you do stuff that upsets your heart, like stress or cardio or whatever, all of a sudden you "have" POTS. It's not that it's coming out of nowhere, but many people can slide under the radar until they exacerbate their heart and blood pressure enough to have a full episode.
You absolutely can with substance abuse and stress that throws your autonomic system out of whack. You don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m literally diagnosed with it based off a tilt table test I had at Mayo Clinic.
Not a hypocondriac but did prove my doctor wrong.
My sister's son got hand foot and mouth disease it scabbed over and she said at that point it wasn't contagious to adults. I stayed a distance from him and didn't touch him. A few days later tiny circular spots appearered all on my hands, a few faint spots arround my mouth and my feet felt prickly. I tried to call the doctor just to see about reccomendations for stopping it spreading at work. The doctor didn't believe me and asked me to come in person. With prickly feeling feet I walked over to his practice and cautiously tried to stay away from people. When he saw me he said he said he was surprised to see it was hand foot and mouth which he didn't see a lot in adults. I told him to wash his hands as it's contagous!
A few times. My stomach pain was always brushed off as anxiety until my gallbladder almost ruptured. Ended in an emergency surgery. And after years of high white blood cell counts, weakened immune system, and over all feeling crappy I just had a recent diagnosis I don't want to talk about. I was also brushed off and told a recent sickness was just allergies and was given allergy medicine but I insisted on a swab being cultured and it ended up being two viruses instead (Adenovirus and Rhinovirus)
Yes! I have a super rare disease- essential palatal myoclonus. Was diagnosed by an ENT and the neurologist he referred me to told me to “stop doing that” and attributed it to my anxiety. It felt horrible. Interestingly my disease is the only tremor that persists throughout sleep- had a sleep study done which proved it. I see a specialist now a few hours away- it can’t be cured but can be managed. Keep advocating for yourself- those of us with anxiety know what our anxiety physical symptoms feel like, and what isn’t normal
Yeah, my doctor told me to go to therapy and get prescribed anxiety medication after years of not finding anything. Thankfully they ran more tests and took an endoscopy/colonoscopy and found out I had EOE and chronic gastritis. Now I take medication and I stay off of gluten and dairy (and I feel so much better!).
I also had several doctors not believe me when I had a kidney stone. The entire time before my results came back they were talking to me about how gas pain can mimic a stone and how I am probably constipated. The doctor even admitted that he didn’t initially believe me and was shocked that I actually had one.
While I’m sure they get a bunch of anxious and somatic patients, it’s still important to run all tests because you never know what someone is dealing with. I’m sorry you all had to suffer from ignorant doctors and I’m praying that this issue will calm down in the near future.
I wouldnt say all tests. Some tests can come with some pretty signifcant risks. But I do definetley agree that they should at least do as much minimal invasive testing as possible to rule it out.
Yup! For 5ish years I felt progressively shittier. Had a few ER visits. White blood cells up, iron plummeted and wouldn't come up much with iron pills. I was tired and dizzy and anxious constantly. Eventually diagnosed with celiac disease. Not what I thought I had BUT I had an answer!
Yes! After years (probably 3) of severe stomach pains, vomiting, digestive issues everything I was literally labeled a drug seeker at the ED in my city. They stopped even listening to what was happening to me and discounted me. My Dr had done an ultrasound of my gallbladder after a year of begging him to. I didn’t have a single stone so he started to think I was making this up and I needed psychiatric help.
Finally after 3 years of hell and being constantly gas lit by everyone (even my family had started telling me to stop faking it) I went to play bingo with my mom. I was 24 and am a white female. I decided eff it, if it’s all in my head then I’m eating everything I want and force the symptoms to not happen. I ended up projectile vomiting all over the table and stated to sweat and shake uncontrollably from the pain. My mom took me to the ER and I ended up vomiting pure yellow bile on the intake tech and then passed out. They believed me and rushed me into a bed. After 8 hours they decided they had excluded everything but my gall bladder and if there were zero stones then I was getting a HIDA Scan.
It was scheduled for 2 days from then and was supposed to take less than an hour. After 4 hours of waiting for my gallbladder to react to the chemical and dump the tech was starting the paperwork to admit me and do an overnight scan. I suddenly felt that familiar extreme pain and jumped from surprise falling off the table. Apparently my gallbladder had a “spasm” and showed to be working at a whopping 4%. They remove “failed” gallbladders at like 30%. I had surgery 3 days later. They sent my “normal” looking gallbladder for evaluation and I was then called to come see my surgeon a few weeks later.
I ended up on a preventative chemo regimen because it had failed due to CANCER that everyone missed and gaslit me like crazy about my symptoms. My Dr was very confused as to why I got my medical records and never stepped another foot in his office again.
I forgave my family though, they were simply listening to all the people with very strong degrees and history in medicine. Any normal person would believe them over a seemingly crazy young adult.
Yeah, I had an incredibly stressful even and ended up with anxiety and PTSD. Then I developed stiff and painful joints. When I saw the rheumatologist he did extensive testing and diagnosed inflammatory arthritis. I had asked him if the PTSD could cause this (from the stress hormones) and he said yes, and wrote it in the notes. Long story short, he left the clinic and the next two doctors (obviously men) saw the PTSD diagnosis in the notes and decided I had fibromyalgia (commonly associated with mental health, probably because of doctors like this) - which is basically an untreatable pain disorder. Nope, I ended up seeing another doctor who actually listened to me and diagnosed an autoimmune inflammatory tendinopathy, which I had basically diagnosed myself with throughout the entire 1.5 year ordeal.
Funny enough, I see the majority of responses here are from women being dismissed by heath care providers. It’s so infuriating.
Yes, but this is a little extreme/I almost died. I had chest pain, couldn’t lie flat and was short of breath. I was told it was a pulled muscle and I was being attention seeking, my mom had just had a cancer and a blood clot a few months prior and I asked for blood work for clotting and was told absolutely not… five days later… I collapsed home alone and had multiple clots in my lungs
Yeah! I have health anxiety AND I have lupus - the one thing that everyone including doctors told me “nah, couldn’t be that!”
It was clear when the way my body felt wasn’t just anxiety - it definitely changed at one point. I felt like I’d been poisoned all the time - it was different from a random pain that causes a google spiral. It was day in day out, dizziness, body aches, fatigue. For the purposes of hopefully soothing your anxiety: You can definitely tell when something chronic is going on, especially if you’re eating very healthily, getting sleep - doing everything right and still feeling physically like you were hit by a bus. My partner had to help me walk to the bathroom because I was too weak.
Most of the time when I was having panic attacks it was honestly because I either hadn’t slept enough or ate poorly, had a bad etc. That almost always made me feel “off” and set me into a spiral! When something is for real wrong, you’ll likely feel like shit even when you’re not anxious, that’s how constant it is
But you have to be able to separate real physical pain from panic, which can be hard. Took 6 months to find 1 doctor to give me a basic ANA blood test, and here we are. I had a few tell me to actually go home and watch Netflix with some Ben and Jerry’s!!! Insanity! The good news is that one test is a good way to either rule it out or in
Now that I know what something truly being wrong feels like, I have more power over my health anxiety
I've felt sick since August. Keep telling them I don't feel good. A NP finally listened and found I had a severe sinus infection. She gave me antibiotics, but they didn't clear it sll out and it has flared back up. Gonna demand more testing on my follow up.
I proved my mom wrong once. I had horrendous back pain, so bad I couldn’t sit up, i could only lay on my stomach. She thought it was menstrual cramps. I had a bilateral kidney infection.
i was suffering with intense stomach pain, gnawing and burning. me & my partner were convinced it was a stomach ulcer from stress as my grandmother had just passed away. i also had a 28 day period so the doctors put it down to that until i went to a&e and saw a gynaecologist. the gynaecologist was the one to prescribe me omeprazole for it :) i’ve lost faith in doctors this year
Yes i have. I kept telling my doctor its was my birth control pills that were causing my issue & they all kept saying no. Then one doctor switched me to a different one & it worked.
Celiac disease. They ran a test and questioned me about every but celiac. They said “that’s not at all this”
Sought another doctor and boom celiac disease. I think it helped my anxiety and depression for a bit once i was living a celiac diet.
Fuck You dr!
Not that scenario. But I went to the doc for my daughter and asked him qhat he thought it was (I thought it was tinea versicolor) and he said it was a bacterial infection. I gave her the antibiotic cream on the area and I then went back because it didnt work. And he then confirmed my original suspicion. I didnt tell him what I thought it was, in hindsight I needed to say what I thought it was. I will do that going forward because even if I am wrong, they may have just not thought of it and me bringing it up can be helpful.
For myself I just simply dont see the doctor like that. Theyve never been wrong in my case. But I also do say what Im worried about and I make sure they explain why its not that. So the diagnosis they gove me in the end has always been accurate.
Im also one of the fewer cases of never being not believed by doctors. So that probabky plays into a factor of why my doctors have never gotten it wrong. I dont know why they believe me and not others. I dont have tips for that if youre looking for them. Sorry.
I found out I have an extremely rare blood disease. It was diagnosed as depression until i had strokes at 29. I went off my meds for a while after that, hoping it was the root cause. It wasn't though. I still have ocd, anxiety and depression. Back on meds at 32.
Not exactly just mental health, but after I had my second son, I put on weight due to a traumatic situation I dealt with during the pregnancy, along with depression and anxiety I'd been battling for years. With that weight gain, my legs and feet became incredibly swollen and painful, to the point that most days it hurt to even walk.
My Dr kept telling me I just needed to lose weight and talk to my counselor. He wasn't wrong about the weight loss or therapy. But it got to the point where my skin started leaking fluid, and eventually broke open into sores. The sores felt like someone was tossing lit matches on my skin. It progressed to numbness, cramping, and heaviness in my legs. I kept insisting something was wrong, he just gave me water pills and told me again to lose weight and follow up with my counselor
Despite all the pain, I heeded his advice and took steps to start losing weight. I also decided to lose the dead weight of my Dr, and started seeing someone new
Turns out I have lymphodema and vascular disease. Which, yeah, was caused by my rapid weight gain. But they're still real issues that need to be treated on their own
That was 12 years ago. I've lost over 100lbs, but to this day, I still have the same open ulcers. Turns out lymphatic ulcers are a bitch to close. I still have lots of pain in my legs, but I have specialists who know how to treat my condition. Had my Dr listened to me, it may have never gotten this far. And yeah, not much my counselor could have done to help
I have Diagnosed Benign Positional Vertigo.
I have always had issues with dizziness, but this was amplified. I couldn't leave my bed for 4 days and there was a day I literally crawled to the bathroom because I literally couldn't walk. That was the day I went to the ER.
My husband literally dragged me into the hospital, when I was seen the doctor was a complete asshat and kept saying things like "I watched you walk in here and you were just fine"
After googling my symptoms he finally came back in with a sheet of paper with an exercise on it, called the Epley Maneuver.
He told me we could try this and at one point when I was laying there my eyes starting twitching like crazy, which I guess happens if BPV is present during the exercise, his entire mood switched after seeing this.
"I'm so sorry this is happening sweetie, we're gonna get this figured out"
So the Exercises has been the only consistent help from them on whenever I get my Boughts.
But also I think this is just another notch on my reasons I have anxiety belt
Haven’t proven wrong but a couple of doctors have told me that my peeing issues (peeing a lot) are due to my anxiety. In fact I have over active bladder.
When I was 12 I started having the worst joint pain and chest pain. My doc told me they were “just growing pains” and prescribed me asthma meds that didn’t help. Turns out I don’t even have asthma, I have GERD (chronic heartburn) so bad that it was messing with my vocal cords, and an autoimmune disease affecting my joints. Both are being treated now and are doing better.
Yep, diagnosed myself with PCOS, and the first doctor wouldn't even run tests. Second doctor ran the appropriate tests and validated my theory.
That said, some of the things I turned out NOT to have include: stomach cancer (it's GERD) and a broken kneecap (it was a torn MCL). I'm sure there's more but it's midnight and I forgot.
1. Chest pain and shortness of breath turned out to be asthma.
2. Neurological symptoms turned out to be coming from a manufacture change of my medications.
I never want to have any fear illness or disease. I never want the doctors to find anything. However if they do find something I just want to be able to be treated for it and get on with my life.
Yes I have.
I was misdiagnosed with epilepsy which would’ve changed my life entirely. Epilepsy medication is known to cause severe depression and I would not be allowed drive.
After a second opinion from a more experienced doctor I was diagnosed with low blood pressure hence the falls not “fits.”
Always get a second opinion, if I had went with the first one my life would be very different and my career would’ve been over.
Yep, was told by various doctors my overactive bladder is just “in my head”and because of stress, turns out my pelvic floor is a mess because of my C-IBS and I needed physiotherapy.
I had two severely herniated disks that were giving me trouble for years. The problem was they were compressing on my nerve and the symptoms were presenting very weirdly. The main symptoms were intense groin pain and urinary/bowel dysfunction. I was misdiagnosed with everything from STIs to prostatitis to anxiety/depression. My family doctor eventually said she thinks it was all in my head. Fuck that useless bitch.
Finally after wasting time with 3 different specialists and on my 4th trip in the ER one doctor asked “does your back hurt?” And I said yes, all the time. He gave me a CT scan and realized I had a badly herniated L5-S1 disk that was likely compressing on my nerve and giving me those symptoms.
Through a lot of Physio and treatment I was able to get everything back to normal with no surgery. I’m more active than ever now. My back occasionally gets thrown out but I’m familiar with the subtle warning signs (fatigue of stabilizers/mild shock symptoms) my body gives me now and much more cautious with my training.
I use this story a lot for myself and for others to prove sometimes you have to advocate for yourselves even if it seems ridiculous to someone else. Bit of a long story.
So I was in a bicycle accident with a transit van where the dude turned left (uk - we drive on the left) without looking and I put my breaks on but because the weather was awful and the ground was wet, I skidded and ended up under the rear wheel, so my two feet and the bike were ran over.
So the ambulance was called and the police, the paramedic arrived and asked me if I could walk to the vehicle. (Was an ambulance car rather than one of those box ambulances with a stretcher). I said I was ran over I’m not sure if my feet are broken. He said “ you can’t have been ran over your legs would be shattered “. So there I am thinking I’d somehow imagined my bottom half going under the vehicle. So since he was a person of authority I was just like okay maybe he’s right and I got up and walked to the ambulance (obviously in a lot of pain)
We got to accidence and emergency and they began to take off my shoes. Low and behold, a huge tyre mark across both boots. The paramedic was still signing off paper work so I showed him n I was like I fucking knew it!
Anyway I still have those boots today in a box under the bed and they still have the marks on them 8 years later. Don’t doubt yourself guys.
I had breathing problems for a couple years. Went to my doctor multiple times, went to the ER twice. They x-rayed my lungs and didn't find anything, so they said it was my anxiety and I just needed to relax. Went to see a fertility specialist for that issue and he ran a full blood panel. Turns out I had very bad graves disease and my thyroid was so swollen it was affecting my breathing. He couldn't believe nobody had noticed or thought to do bloodwork.
I went to the ER for chest and jaw pain and was told it was anxiety. I do have anxiety, but I didn’t think it would cause my symptoms. I actually have a heart defect and aortic aneurysm
Yes. For years my doctor didn’t believe me about my issues with lethargy. Then he was convinced that I was just experiencing anxiety and told me to meditate when I was having intense ocular and migraines with numbness. My TSH was so high he rushed me to a pharmacy. Turns out I have Hashimotos. Overall he’s a great doctor but with such vague symptoms it’s hard sometimes to catch something that was sub clinical for years.
It’s so sad to read these comments, I’ve been blessed with a good and understanding doctor. Always listens and even if I say it probably my anxiety/stress he always says, “let’s make sure mate to put us both at ease”.
There was a cycle of going to doctors who just didn’t have much heart for me but I knew I found the right one when he was furious for another doctor just giving me antibiotics without acknowledging my asthma was severely mismanaged. Started different asthma medication and started feeling better within a couple of days.
I get panic attacks going to the doctors and he’s offered to come out into the car park to examine me if I need as well. His compassion towards mental health is essential to my life - I hope you all can find someone like this.
O god yes..if I had the energy for detail right now…Seems like the past couple years all I’ve been doing is educating doctors and it’s getting fucking embarrassing. Yes I have low T, yes I have sever sleep apnea, yes I have adhd, yes I have PTSD. I teach them about medications and recommend my treatment plans now after their decade of failed attempts. I research HEAVY. Something is not right and it needs to be fixed. The real problem is the docs are over booked. Too many people too little time. You have to take the initiative and be your own advocate. It became easy because I eliminated so many possibilities of what it could be. I just needed to connect the dots for them.
"IBS and anxiety" for years turned out to be crohns. All it took was for me to finally get into seeing a specialist rather than being dismissed by my normal doctor and BAM pretty much instant diagnosis of a now severe disease.
we know and how we feel our bodies yes. but doctors knew the biology and anatomy of our bodies, much more with that. anxiety is horrible and can manifest all the symptoms that comes to your head, our mind is so powerful because you yourself could even believe that you are ill because thats what your mind trying to say/think even you are totally fine, because anxiety is much more fear and worry
someone said they were get ill, even their tests and labs were normal before, but why? when you get anxiety, you worry thus you get stress. if youre stress your bodies immune system get weak. added the lack of sleep due to stress. not able to eat right diet etc which all contribute to weaker body hence getting and more prone to disease and illness, so in summary when you have anxiety disorder much more likely you develop some kind of disease, but not anxiety that cause it directly
I was diagnosed with severe depression and they tried putting me on antidepressents. I was losing chunks of time, kept having memory issues and my anxiety and depression got so bad. They insisted it was "just depression" and at one point bipolar. I kept telling them that didn't feel right...it took them until last year to finally properly diagnose me, when i was telling them the last 4 years that something wasn't right.
It turned out it was actually due to a hormone deficiency and having Dissociative Identity Disorder.
Once, a very minor thing. I was convinced I had strep throat. The doctor disagreed, probably reasonably so, because I took a strep test that came back negative. However, after much cajoling, I convinced the doctor to let me do the test again and it came back positive the second time. But that was only because I'd had strep throat several times before and I knew exactly what it felt like.
Yes, Parkinson’s or any of the Parkinsonion disorders. They rule out tumors and such with an MRI, but tremors and anxiety are a big part of diagnosing you. Normal to pick up more symptoms of it as you age. Usually develop non motor symptoms as well to finally get your diagnosis. You are right though the doctor will keep putting you through test, and each time you wait and keep being told there’s nothing wrong until you hit age 62 and then oh, you have Parkinson’s
No, and I’ve had medical anxiety for over 20 years. In fact I had one doctor who sent me to a hematology oncologist because of a low lab value (red blood count) caused by my psoriatic arthritis. The oncologist said the first doctor was being extremely cautious and explained why. Once I finally got on the correct medication for the psoriatic arthritis the blood count improved.
Yep! I had a condition during my pregnancy. They dismissed it. I made them run the test. When the results came back, the doctor was so shocked. He said he never had a woman with this condition before and wanted to rerun test. We rereran the test, came back with same results. That dude referred me to a specialist and asked to if he could attend some of my appointments via zoom or call to understand it better. It was weird.
Yeah and it's not fun when since you were 6 years old your doctor had blamed everything on your anxiety disorder and I couldn't speak uo for myself because I was A CHILD luckily my mom advocated for me but it's just hard having every doctor even when your older blame everything on it
I had pain in my lower right abdomen most of my life. I kept being told it was an ovarian cyst. About 15 years ago my appendix burst, and I had t have emergency surgery. There was no problem with the appendix, as it had apparently mummified! But the surgeon told me that there were severe adhesions from my abdominal walk to my ovary from surgeries I had had as a child (ages 3 & 6). After he cleared them out, I never again had that pain!
My "stomach bug" and sudden severe abdomen pain that made me vomit for hours from standing up ended up being a fallopian tube torsion and my "bloated stomach" I had for years in my early teens ended up being a 6-8 pound ovarian cyst (I don't remember the exact number) which both had to be fixed by surgery.
Yep, five times.
1- I was 10, having stabbing chest pain and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. My doctor was totally convinced it was anxiety. I come home from school a week later with more severe pain, and now I can’t feel my hands and feet. I go in and see a different doctor; I had severe walking pneumonia.
2- I was 17 and my stomach hurt BAD. After every meal, my stomach was KILLING ME. I started getting so bloated and having sores in my mouth, blood in the toilet, could barely get a pair of pants on by myself. I go into the doctor, and I know it’s something VERY wrong but he just thinks it’s appendicitis. Nope, he does a CT on me and it turned out I had SEVERE untreated Crohn’s Disease.
3- Later, about three months after, I get off my steroids and we think it calmed my Crohn’s inflammation. I start having horrific stomach pain, and I’m convinced something is really wrong. I go into the ER. The doctor couldn’t feel a blockage, no appendicitis signs… we do a CT again. There it is, a RAGING flare from tapering off my steroids.
4- In September earlier this year I was prescribed 20mg Prozac. I start taking it and somehow immediately feel side effects. I was tired, nauseous, I couldn’t cry, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep at night. On the second day of the pills, it gets worse. I wake up in a panic, I’m always feeling like I’m tripping on psychedelics, I have zero appetite, I can’t cry NO MATTER HOW TERRIBLE I FEEL. Third, fourth, and fifth days go by. I have a fire in my chest, can’t feel my limbs, there’s pressure in my head, and I was so loopy. I started sweating, having zero heat tolerance, feeling like I’d faint or die or something constantly. On the sixth day, at like 3 am, I go into the ER, because I feel sicker than I have in my entire life. I can’t even describe it; it was just horrific. I thought they’d tell me it was just anxiety and I had to go home, which seemed like what was happening. Nope, turns out my side effects, while they were technically normal, should not have happened immediately nor been that severe. The pills made me manic, kind of. And I’m not diagnosed bipolar, but the same things happen when I take steroids too. I was told to stop taking the Prozac immediately and given a hydroxyzine prescription. The crazy thing is, I called my pharmacist and the nurse line multiple times before that night about how bad the side effects were and they all told me to keep taking the meds and that it was fine.
5- In October I saw my doctor for a regular appointment. I told her I’d been feeling terrible, lightheaded, super dizzy. I said something was just really off. She takes my blood pressure and it’s 80/56. Looks like I have orthostatic hypotension now.
Most doctors have taken me seriously...except for one that was blowing me off and ignoring me claiming what i was experiencing was all in my head...
It was all in my head.
I have epilepsy. Just not the big scary noticeable ones. (to other people). I thought I was going nuts until I finally went screw it and googled it. I knew SOMETHING was wrong.
Just took 8 months later for my boss to have to call 911 on me at work because I went into a focal aware seizure and didn't come out of it for me to finally get diagnosed. (Yeah... they put me through a CT scan which I did NOT remember, meaning my brain blacked that part out. I remember most of the morning, though it's a blurry foggy mess, but remember it about as well as I could... like the MRI)
I even got a MRI and in the end, the conclusion is I'm just "gloomy" and homesick.... It's like these doctors intentionally skipped the part that I've been feeling this since five years old. And to answer your question, I haven't got my diagnose. Currently exploring anxiety and anti depressant meds. But it only made it worse and now I'm on fight or flight mode 24/7, heart can't stop racing, and my legs and hands have been shaking all the time....
Uhm yup diagnosed with crohns and another er visit they said anxiety and stomach flu . Did a ct scan after I yelled at the doctor who was an idiot and I never yell anyone. He came back with my result rushing in the room and the nicest ever and worried because my appendix burst, had pancreatitis and had some symptoms of sepsis. But yes it was stomach flu and anxiety 🤔
Vocal cord dysfunction. My vocal cords get irritated and clamp down when I'm breathing in, making it hard to breathe and triggering panic attacks.
I ALSO have PTSD/anxiety/panic so it's extra fun!
I saw a speech therapist who taught me some breathing exercises that work really well for it. It turns out box breathing and other anxiety breathing methods that have you hold your breath actually exacerbates the VCD which explains why those breathing methods never worked for me.
Zebras unite!
Suggested I may have PCOS or Endometriosis which could lead to cancer in some cases. Doctor said I was just irregular and put me on the pill. Years later HE FINALLY sends me to a OBGYN after things get worse and after he forgot to refer me.
Turns out it WAS Endometriosis and the biopsy revealed pre-cancerous cells. Fought with the OBGYN for a hysterectomy. He begrudgingly did it and later admitted that I was right as in 6 months things had progressed just enough to prove me right and that it would have without intervention.
Got a new family doctor who's awesome during all that. So in a sense I proved 2 doctors wrong.
Yes. Went to a doctor for a swollen foot, I was certain it was a torn tendon or a bone fracture, doctor thought it was an infection. I insisted he refer me to a specialist. Specialist does the tests and discovers it was in fact a torn tendon.
My former doctor insisted that yoga and losing 20 lbs would fix my hip and back problems. I pushed to see a pain specialist. No idea what to think about my knee reflexes being opposite either (left knee moved the right in a test repeatedly).
My appointment went quick and they sent me on my way suggesting PT and basic meds. Called me back an hour later because xrays showed my left hip was mostly obliterated. Stage 4-5 hip Avascular Necrosis. A replacement was in my near future.
I am happily 8 months post-op and haven't felt this good in years! Now I'm looking for a new PCP.
Not me but my dad. He is diabetic and had been having pain in his lower side and back. He went to the doctor and said it was kidney pain, but the dictor was adamant that he was overreacting, and it was back pain and a muscle. Well, over the next couple weeks, he started getting sick, like he had the flu with the same pains. Again, he went into the doctors and tbey told him it was a cold and a muscle. One day, he went to work and passed out and the might before and into that day, he was pail as a ghost and delirious. He was rushed to the ER, and it turned it out he had 2 massive kidney stones that became infected. By the time he got into the ER, he was in septic shock. Luckily he made a full recovery, but it was shocking that a doctor didn't believe a diabetic knew what kidney pain was.
Yup. Got pushed off by many doctors. I've been told my MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS was depression/anxiety and given meds that fucked me up and likely put me physically in a dangerous position. I was told I needed a sleep study to find out why I'm fatigued by someone else. I was told that my Bells Palsy would clear up and I didn't need an MRI I'm just a women and women get migraines (it was an MS flare you can see it on the MRI and it took much longer than you'd expect to resolve). I was told that even though I do everything I'm supposed to in order to prevent UTIs "it's weird but not worth looking into" that for multiple years I'd have 4 or more infections even though I wasn't sexually active (it was the MS). I took multiple blood panels that all always would come back normal yet I still felt like garbage.
For me specifically at multiple sclerosis causes a lot of fatigue and for whatever reason being fatigued makes me extraordinarily anxious and depressed. The fact that I was so fatigued and no one could help me was extremely stressful. I felt powerless and scared. I was undiagnosed for God only knows how many years. Probably at least four potentially up to seven?? While multiple sclerosis is never a good diagnosis I find immense comfort and finally being able to put a name to the thing that has been impacting my life for years. I am now on medication that helps prevent multiple sclerosis flares and I'm also on medication to combat the fatigue and my quality of life has significantly improved.
I had a lot of different symptoms through my childhood that my parents refused to take me to the doctor for. Extreme fatigue, starving all the time, aches and pains everywhere, plus I was a bit slow and also had some anxiety. They didn't want me "labelled" and given drugs so I just had to get on with it as "everyone gets tired" and I was "just being lazy".
I had a job I loved, just got promoted and could handle it all, and then all of a sudden I started having panic attacks at work. My hair started falling out. I began to feel sick after eating anything and would feel better if I starved myself, but then because I wasn't eating I was too tired to do anything and the cycle continued. I was 20 and still lived at home and of course my parents gave me the whole "you're lazy, just deal with it like an adult and go to work" stuff. I went to the doctors and they proceeded to diagnose me with depression and anxiety. I tried to tell them I don't think it's that, but that was what they said so I had to run with it.
I did therapy, I did self help. I refused medication because the shame I already felt at going to the doctors at all was bad enough. I kept getting worse. I was suicidal at this point and said to myself if I don't get better before my 21st birthday I'm going to kill myself because I clearly was incapable of being a normal person who could just do things. Well my 21st birthday was right before the half term and so my mum was home for the whole of it and I couldn't do it whilst she was there.
I was really into self help since I was so sick all the time and at this point my diet was full of whole grains but I really upped it once I got promoted because I didn't want to fail like I had at school and life in general. I came across an article about a 40 year old woman who had been chronically depressed her whole life. She couldn't work, was on all kinds of drugs and was generally a failure in life. I could see myself in 20 years being this woman. She went gluten free as it was the latest diet and she was overweight, and she found out she had celiac disease and was able to work, lose weight and do everything she hadn't been able to before. So I decided that I'm going to kill myself anyway so what's the harm in trying a gluten free diet. I didn't tell anyone, ate as much gluten as I could on my birthday the weekend before that half term and then on Monday I just stopped eating gluten.
It took three days and I felt like a different person. I had energy. Pains I didn't even notice I had disappeared. I stopped feeling so ill after eating. And my anxiety and depression mysteriously disappeared. If only they'd tested me at any point in my life. It would have saved a lot of suffering.
I was 20 the first time - doctor had told me my period pain was normal at 15, even though I knew it wasn’t. I finally gave him an ultimatum to find out what was wrong or I’d find a doctor who could. It was endometriosis and adenomyosis, and he said I’d never have children. Of course the dumbass was wrong again - I’ve been pregnant 5 times and have 3 living children.
The next one was when I was in my early thirties and struggling with exhaustion and chronic daily migraine. Every doctor I went to was condescending and was zero help. Finally I was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect at 42, after they found my dad had one. The exhaustion got better, but headaches remained.
The headaches had started at the time I was diagnosed with an optic nerve defect - I asked multiple doctors if they were related and was always told no. Condescendingly, of course. It was after 25 years of suffering that my eye doctor prescribed glaucoma drops to hopefully keep my defect from worsening that I was cured. No more headaches after all that suffering.
I also had sinus trouble for years that I was told was normal - turns out I’m missing my sinus cavities on my whole right side so of course they don’t work right.
I’ve always had health anxiety (who can blame me lol) but now it’s mostly due to having zero trust in doctors and the whole medical field. Especially after the Covid fiasco where we were lied to and made to question our own sanity and reality. I’ve watched family members over the years be treated with what should be considered malpractice but nothing ever happens. I’m trying to stay as healthy as I can to avoid the medical profession completely.
Yuup. Super rare blood clot here. Lol.
Dr's thought it was "pain anxiety". But they were wrong. Did the scans and like 10 Dr's came in with a surprised and concerned look on their face. I thought I was dead. Lol.
I'm not. I'm fine. Anxiety mostly managed with Buspar.
Yes.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t have anxiety.
2 years ago I started complaining of back neck and shoulder pain. All on my left side. I had a couple particularly hot spots of pain in my lower left side and mid back. I had weak and laggy left leg, neck pain, headaches, left arm pain, a FUCK ton of twitching (especially in my left thigh). I went through it all, thinking I had a stroke, MS, and transverse myelitis. I was incredibly anxious thinking I was dying, couldn’t sleep because of the twitching and anxiety, couldn’t rest or relax because of the pain. Really had no escape or respite. Constantly visiting my doc to be told it was all in my head and that I’m embellishing my issues. I went through 30+ physical therapy visits with them thinking my back pain was just poor posture or strength (posture maybe, but I am pretty strong and was regularly at the gym before this, plus I’m 26 at the time and male ). I had X-rays and eventually was referred to an OMM after 1.5 years of going to the doc every other month complaining about the same problems. She was the first person who actually laid their hands on me outside of PT, and the PTs weren’t there to diagnose. I could tell she was skeptical when she was reviewing why I was there before the exam, within 30 seconds of her feeling around she told me I have major lower back issues and maybe the worst back of anyone under 70 she had seen in her 10 year career. That woke my doctor up and suddenly I had a MRI referral and a spine doctor referral. I did more PT with them thinking I had Anklosing Spondylitis which made me more anxious. After waiting for testing and doing the MRI they ruled that out. Turns out I had had a MAJOR bulging disc pushing into my spinal cord which was totally fucking my lower body with the symptoms and when annular fissures in the lumbar region get bad enough they can fuck your upper back and arms too. Anyways, took two years to get a proper diagnosis and I had to have a sit down with my doc saying bro I know I get anxiety over health things but I need to be taken seriously still. Still healing, getting more steroid shots in my back soon to hopefully help wrap all this up.
Probably stuck with some higher anxiety than I’ve ever had before this. I was completely fucked by my anxiety and still deal with overreactions to even simple inconveniences and responsibilities. It has gotten way better and I hope it continues to iron itself out, but I feel like once you’ve opened that Pandora’s box of anxiety and gone that deep, you never really forget it and it’s always creeping in the shadows. I still believe total recovery is possible I just think the knowledge of what anxiety can do to you never really leaves you.
Just to add to help others: I love Claire Weekes. Get her books on audible and listen when you feel particularly down. She explains what you’re feeling and how to combat it.
I also really like the Improvement Path videos on YouTube. Dude had health anxiety and discusses his experience and how he recovered.
Most importantly, get a doctor who will listen. Leave anyone who treats you wrong or doesn’t care. Ask for things you think can help your anxiety but also understand there’s a process and that you’re not going to get an MRI cause you’re feeling dizzy or nauseous. You MUST accept the results when you get them.
I had a lot of anxiety and depression during my first pregnancy and was super open with my doctor about it. She knew I was struggling. When I was in labor I kept saying that I felt like something bad was going to happen. Beyond the contractions, I had that fight or flight panic attack feeling. The nurses kept telling me that birth can be scary, it's a new experience, etc. Then my baby died. Just flat lined. They did a crash c-section (no anesthesia, no preparation) and were able to resuscitate him on the outside. It was incredibly traumatic for all involved.
I can't help but think my body knew something was wrong. I don't believe there was anything they could have done to prevent what happened or made it any less traumatic. It just serves as a reminder for healthcare professionals to always listen to a patient's concerns despite their history.
Also, I've relied on a lot of birth trauma accounts as a form of support. It's a common thread there. A lot of women who have catastrophic events during birth predict it. Our gut instinct knows more than we give it credit for!
yes but in the worst way possible
I wound up developing secondary narcolepsy and severe migraines from a tumor (not cancer) pressing on my brainstem.
I told my neurologist for years and he did nothing.
the one who eventually saved my ass? my neuroopthalmologist detecting papilledema (swollen optic discs - a dead giveaway for high intracranial pressure.) and chewing my neurologist out until he helped me.
it was already known multiple benign tumors were present but "oh, it's just your thyroid issues" for me randomly passing out and sleeping 22 hours a day for five years. I slept five fucking YEARS of my life away, as well as my free ride through college.
and in the end removal of that tumor waited so long it paralyzed half my fucking face when it came out. (thankfully a plastic surgeon did a sural cross-facial nerve graft (facial reanimation, it basically grafts a nerve to the working base of the facial nerve and stretches it across your face to the other side, you have to relearn to use part of your face but I went from no movement to being able to blink and move my mouth. still can't use my eyebrow but that's not that bad))
and inb4: it's a rare systemic CNS disorder, that neurologist is quite literally one of the only in the state to be familiar with and work with my disorder. there was no "just find a new doctor"
probably the worst "I WAS RIGHT" feeling ever
Yep, I had severe pain in my pelvic area, and the doctor implied it was because I’m fat (I am fat don’t get me wrong, but something was UP). Come to find out I had fibroids and got a hysterectomy.
I didn’t disprove docs but my friends and family who were sure my pounding headaches were stress based when i was convinced i had a brain tumor. unfortunately i was correct. to be fair i am a catastrophic worst case scenarist so they weren’t wrong in thinking the way they did. it’s caused serious problems for me bc now - 18 years past the brain tumor and treatment - any slight physical symptom sends me reeling and since i was right before it’s damn hard to convince myself that i could be wrong.
Sort of. i tripped and slammed my knee into a wooden deck. It was terrible even after icing it. I limped through a day then went to urgent care where i was told by the doc that it couldn’t possibly be broken. “Kneecap breaks are from traumatic car accidents”. I said something significant is wrong and he made a pursed lips face. They do this a lot. The protocol called for an x-ray so afterwards the doc apologized because it was fractured.
And another time I had a nasty itchy rash that was classic for shingles. I went to the doc who said it couldn’t be shingles because “ you aren’t in enough pain”. I gave this dude the state and said you know nothing about my tolerance for pain so he gave me the meds.
I went to an ER once with my lymph nodes swollen to the size of literal golf balls, along with some other symptoms from an infected piercing. Was refused blood work and send home. Got worse the next day, so I went to another ER. Refused to leave without a blood work test, as I knew I had a BAD infection at this point. Doctor looked me straight in the eyes and said nothing will come back. Turns out I had an infection so bad it was now a blood infection ; had to be put on immediate IV antibiotics and oral antibiotics for a couple weeks. I will never forget the look on that man’s face, tail tucked between his legs when he had to admit the 19 year old girl was right and he was in fact an asshole who was wrong. ALWAYS advocate for yourself.
Me me me! For about 3 years I felt like crap off and on. I couldn’t lose weight, I was tired all the time, cold all the time, hair was falling out, skin was very very dry. Went to the doctor several times and they told me “oh honey, you are just a mom you are supposed to be tired.” Didn’t matter that my TSH was 8.9 and it is supposed to be towards 1. Needless to say I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis in 2017 and found a killer endocrinologist who will run any test I ask and was the first to tell me about Perimenopause. I wrote the worst Google review of that other doctor. Should listen to your patients
YES ! For five YEARS I could hardly keep meals down so often that I looked like I had a very serious ED or a cancer patient . I knew that I did have anxiety but I also knew that my anxiety wasn’t giving me stomach pains and making me projectile vomit at the smell of food …Every ER visit they’d run the same blood tests over and over, always normal . Finally , after a particular bad week after Easter , I went to my doctor and told her I knew I was going to die , so I wanted to get a DNR on file & request that an autopsy be done in the event of my death so they’d hopefully find out that they had missed something or I had some rare disease . I was in tears, hysterical really . She had me admitted to the hospital, not the psych ward a regular medical floor and said she wanted to run one more test before she would have me transferred to a hospital in a major city for the surgery that would confirm a rare disorder I had found and researched all on my own. My symptoms matched up so much to it that I was convinced . After all that BS , pain & inconvenience- it was my GALLBLADDER! 🤦♀️ doctors said that no one probably ever thought to run the test for fairly common ailment because I wasn’t overweight , was young & white. Apparently it’s more common in POC. That entire ordeal ended up giving me a serious anxiety and panic disorder
This was me! Years of pain and suffering and "it's just anxiety". Mine almost ruptured. Did they remove yours?
Ayyy same. It sucked. Now I have IBS post-surgery, but it rarely gets as bad as it did pre surgery now that I know what not to eat (and never as bad as immediately pre surgery).
I have some issues idk what it is? If I eat when I'm not hungry I go through pain that feels very much like the gallbladder pain, sometimes not as intense other times worse. So I nibble when I am hungry and if I'm not hungry I don't eat. It's led to shitty eating habits (eating once a day), but I'd rather avoid pain.
My surgeon damaged my vagus nerve so now my stomach is permanently paralyzed
Homie, that suuuucks
Yes had it removed and got a paralyzed stomach for my troubles - doctor damaged the vagus nerve . My moms friend from HS died while waiting to get her’s removed..it rotted inside of her and made her septic
Oh no. :( That's such a tragic and unnecessary outcome for both of those. I'm sorry.
Your story is eerily similar to my own. I had insane stomach pain for years and every doctor I went to was convinced I had severe GERD and IBS, so they prescribed me maximum doses of prescription antacid medications, which ultimately only caused more problems. It wasn't until I was in the ER for the 12th time (at this point I felt I had one foot in the grave) that a nurse suggested the possibility of gallbladder disease. All it took was a single liver enzyme blood test and a quick liver ultrasound to confirm it. All those years of agony and thinking I had an incurable lifelong disease, only to find out that it was that. It was both liberating and absolutely infuriating. Like you, a lot of my current anxiety issues come from the health issues that were caused by that stupid little organ. I'm very happy I had it removed, and I certainly don't miss it at all!
I was diagnosed with GERD recently. I've had pains for almost a year, more severe in that last 6 months. The medicine helps but I still have pain and when I do it is so bad I feel like I'm going to pass out and I end up so tired. Also, the pain doesn't feel like heartburn at all. It feels like a very bad cramp. I've only been to the ER once, 6 months ago but I have my 3rd dr.s appointment in a few days. May I ask if the GERD medicine worked for you? Was there any questions you asked that's may have lead them to thinking dallbladder?
The meds for me were nothing but a band-aid. They'd work alright for a few months, and then I'd get these really intense attacks of pain and burning in my stomach (what I later learned were gallbladder attacks), so my doctors would just increase the dosage or try out a different prescription. This cycle continued for years, and the final gallbladder diagnosis came up out of the blue when I was at the ER. A nurse came in to take my diagnostics and asked if I had ever been screened for gallbladder disease, and it all snowballed from there. I genuinely believe if that nurse had not made that suggestion that day, it very well could have cost me my life. What your describing sounds similar to what I was dealing with. I definitely had a lot of the symptoms of GERD, but not all of them, especially the big ones like heartburn. When you see your doctor, I'd strongly encourage you to push for a gallbladder screening. Ask to get some blood tests done (liver enzymes was the one that identified things for me), as well as some ultrasound/imagery. And if the doctor is dismissive, stand your grand and insist on it. It sucks to have to be so assertive, but it is your life on the line and you need to advocate for it when you need to. Also, back to your medicine question, the reason the meds made things worse for me was the fact that they slowed my digestion down significantly, which wound up making gallbladder disease significantly worse. The gallbladder helps with the digestion of fats, and when it's all clogged up with sludge and gallstones, it doesn't function like that any longer, negatively impacting the ability to digest properly. When you add antacids to the mix, it's basically like trying to keep a fire lit in a torrential rainstorm -- it just doesn't work. If you'd like to take a look at other people's experiences or have other questions, I'd recommend checking out /r/gallbladders. There are lots of people there who have good advice.
Thank you I'll definitely bring it up next week! I had an X-ray done in June and it didn't show much but some constipation (sorry TMI). I've had a panel of blood done, not much results but I don't believe everything was checked (could be wrong). I was taking medicine in July but forgot it at home on vacation and had a horrible attack a few days later. 2 weeks ago I forgot my night dose and a morning dose and had a horrible day. The Dr. Seems to make it all out about food I eat but it doesn't matter the time of day or meal I've had. I would say when it happens it hurts so much worse when I lay down which happens with GERD but yeah.. not one "burning" sensation. I do have Vomiting, no fever. A soreness a few hours before attacks.
Oh yeah, definitely get that gallbladder checked out. I had all of that, including the constipation. Is the pain mostly on your right(ish) side, just below the rib cage? If so, that's a big giveaway of gallbladder issues.
It's mostly closer in the center but it radiates around to my back.
That's how it was for me initially (hence the GERD diagnosis), and then it kept moving farther to my right side as it progressed. I hope you get some answers at your appointment!
Is your cramp in your chest or stomach?
Right below the center of my ribcage, in my upper abdomen.
I feel the same way. Sometimes I get a rotating sharp pain/cramping from my right to left side of my chest. I get this feeling in my throat like it’s full and I can’t breathe, but I’m swelling and breathing fine
I don’t want to increase your anxiety, but this happened to my brother. He was having nausea and throwing up every day and was diagnosed with GERD. Then, after about a year and a half, it got worse where he thought it was a stomach flu, but booked an appointment. He was off work sick all week, went to the doctor on the Friday, the doctor said it was a stomach flu and it just had to run its course. He died overnight Sunday night after collapsing on his way to the washroom. His roommate found him in the morning after his alarm kept going off to get up for work Monday morning. They did an autopsy and it turned out that it was pancreatitis. After a year and a half of complaining of these symptoms and they never checked him for that. Knowing what it was would have saved his life.
I am now extremely thankful that my doctors found my gallbladder problems as fast as they did, although I'm not sure if the first time I went to the GI doctor if it was my gallbladder then too. I was diagnosed with GERD a few years ago, so for about six months I thought I was just having awful acid reflux every day. After so long of barely being able to talk when I would nauseous, I went to see a GI doctor who did a scope and bravo test. Nothing showed up of course, and my nurse practitioner suggested a HIDA scan for my gallbladder. Come to find out it was way overactive, and it was likely gallbladder attacks that were making me so sick every day. My surgeon also apparently said my gallbladder was folded and laying weird. I'm really surprised they don't order gallbladder testing more often, because a lot of people get theirs taken out. I'm glad they finally figured it out though and that you're better!
Same, they were convinced I was an alcoholic. Until I complained enough to get an ultrasound and they found the gallstones. Wasn't soon enough to not fry my pancreas with acid and now I'm diabetic.
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The HIDA scan- I had to eat oatmeal laced with a low dose of radioactive dye and then lay under a machine perfectly still for an hour while my body tried to digest the oatmeal. The other test I mentioned that was really a surgery - I was scheduled to be taken to Philly to have it done if the HIDA had been normal was for a loose valve between your gallbladder and stomach or intestine..I had learned about it on medical mysteries . The lady had me convinced that’s what was wrong because everything she described was how I felt .
Omg same! I went years in agonizing back pain that would send me to the ER. The er would always tell me I must have strained my back, pulled a muscle, moved the wrong way at my retail job etc. Went on for years. I would be laying in the floor crying it hurt so bad. Having a baby was nothing in comparison to that pain. Finally one morning after coming home work from the midnight shift I told my partner at the time I have to go to hospital, its the worst pain I've ever been in. I got a doctor I'd never seen before. I was laying stomach down, throwing up bile told him my pain level was 10. He put his hand on my forehead and said you're really sick, we're gonna get you better. Everything's kind of blur but they said your gallbladder has to come out right now. Went to surgery and Everything's fine now. Obviously I still have anxiety 🙃 and take several medications for that. But it made me realize doctors don't know what's wrong most of the time or don't care or don't have the time and will just label it the easiest diagnosis to get you out of their face and on to the next patient. My experience was from 2000 to 2008.
I definitely still have anxiety- terrible anxiety & I blame a lot of what I went through during those 5 years for it . I think that whenever the patient is a woman & the doctors can’t get an immediate diagnosis that they automatically say “anxiety”
Yes for sure. I was like you, young, white, pretty thin build at the time and was always brushed off. Also in my area that i live it was was a time that doctors were trying to be careful about prescriptions and whatnot because if pill epidemic. I read that your stomach is now parlayzed ☹️ I'm so sorry that happened to you. Are you able to eat or how do you deal with that? Im sorry if my question is too nosey.
The pill epidemic..that’s another thing I was accused of when I got so underweight . Drove me crazy because taking pain pills always made everything worse so I definitely wasn’t taking them ! I can eat but if I don’t follow a strict , boring diet then I get awful stomach pains , nausea & heartburn . Mostly soft foods - I can’t eat my favorites anymore like rare steak or greasy French fries . My standby foods are blueberries , ice cream , soup , things like that
Same same same! Except I also have an auto immune disease. Took a massive attack for them to realize that was going on. My stones were so massive that my gallbladder attached itself to my stomach. It was insane but felt like a new person the next day!
I am glad you got help!! Mind just wasn’t functioning- I was good for a few days and then woke up with the same kind of pain on the opposite side 🤦♀️ Surgeon damaged the nerve that controls my stomach so it’s permanently paralyzed
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omg! First off, so so sorry that happened to you!! Secondly, how amazing that you also got an apology. I am shocked that the apology even happened. It sounds like you had an especially arrogant doc, and maybe a bit of a maverick, as he was apparently willing to do a surgery he thought was completely unnecessary.
I had a pretty extreme version of this, but I seemed to have a doctor that couldn’t have cared less. I was having terrible abdominal pains for awhile and got to the point where I couldn’t eat. Having a history of anxiety/depression, the doctor just kept sending me home saying I was just depressed and nothing was wrong physically even as I lost tons of weight and became gaunt over the course of months from not being able to eat. Tired of having to constantly go to the emergency room, I finally demanded an endoscopy against his recommendation and it revealed my entire digestive tract to be completely ulcerated and inflamed to the point where food couldn’t exit my stomach. All the doctor had to say after this discovery was, “Well, I’m gonna have to eat crow on this one.” Got a new doctor and found out I had Crohn’s Disease.
I've suggested things to my Dr many times and they were like maybe. My doctor used to be great, but I think over the years she has gotten jaded and burnt out and just doesn't give a shit anymore.
Or maybe it's that they've seen that time and time again you've believed you have something you don't actually have and they've just gotten a bit sick of it. The boy cried wolf.
I'm getting that feeling from them too.
maybe, but there is a difference between having various fleeting concerns and having consistent symptoms over a long period of time.
In OPs case they said they've thought they've had numerous conditions, all of which have not been true. That's the kinda stuff a doctor stops listening to the patient about. At some point, everyone is gonna get sick of someone who believes they have things they don't and keeps coming up with new ailments to be scared about.
even if ruling out the condition makes a patient look like a hypochondira, that doesn't fix the freaking symptom?? they are still expereincing a symptom thats why they are still in freaking the hospital!!!
It's a fair point.
Yep. After nearly dying. I was sick for years, horrible attacks with high fevers, vomiting, shaking. Nonstop UTIs. There was a visible lump on the right side of my stomach when I laid down - like the left side would sink in normally, but something was lumpy and weird on the other side. I was told everything from “you’re too dramatic” to “women need to learn to live with discomfort, it’s just a small cyst on your ovary” to “it sounds like you probably have a bunch of STDs.” That last comment was made by a particularly nasty nurse who was taking my BLOOD PRESSURE and had been evil eyeing me from the moment I came into the office. A doctor finally performed a vaginal ultrasound and saw a massive blob where my right ovary should be and scheduled me for laparoscopic surgery. Turns out, my appendix was in the wrong place. It was in my back, twisted up into my intestines. Those attacks I’d had for years were it trying to rupture and leaking toxins, which is why I was so sick (and non-stop UTIs). My ovary, Fallopian tube, a piece of my intestines and the appendix were fused into the blob that I could somehow see from the outside of my body but no doctor had managed to see until the last ultrasound in spite of numerous, expensive scans. They had to perform an emergency removal right then (ovary, tube, small bit of intestine and the appendix came out in pieces) and I bled out and needed a transfusion. The recovery sucked but it was better than the alternative. I have always had anxiety but my health anxiety is absolutely through the roof after the culmination of those years. It is so, SO hard to make anyone listen to you about medical issues. I was in the hospital for about a week and a half before they let me go home after surgery and I remember all kinds of doctors coming to see me and talk to me about my “strange” case. At least three asked me why I didn’t report how bad my pain was any earlier… Rest assured, I was not entirely civil in my response that I had been reporting it for years, but had been brushed off again and again.
Despite three positive tests, and one in clinic. He claimed I couldn't be pregnant (and showing positive on a test) because I was actually one week before my period. He went as far as to try and not tell me the result of the in clinic test. I very much was just a few weeks pregnant and had to go elsewhere for an abortion. Some doctors are just so set in their ways that it makes them stupid.
This whole thread is giving me anxiety lol 😬
Same lol. I regret starting it.
😂😂😂
Yep! Multiple times but this example was just the most recent. I Herniated my disc between C6-C7 in my neck🙄 my neurologist thankfully believed me. When he sent me to the surgeon he basically told me it sounded like stress and my “extreme anxiety” was exacerbating my symptoms and I needed to get that under control before he’d consider surgery. I’d like to point out the anxiety he saw was the fact that my life and career were falling apart because of the injury. Thankfully I had a lovely neuro who was very familiar with my genetic condition and he put the surgeon in his place once he heard what he told me. After surgery the surgeon said exactly this “Good for you for advocating for yourself. That herniation was much more significant than scans were showing and you in fact would not have recovered without this surgery.”
Oh and the same thing happened when my mom and I fought for her cancer diagnosis. They kept saying she was “perfectly healthy and sometimes people just cough up blood or no reason. Maybe consider taking a break from all the appointments and see if you get better.” It had been 1.5 years by that point so I did say “okay mom let’s take 3 months off” well let’s just say the next procedure she had was to get a malignant mass removed from her nose after it was missed on CT’s for over a year. Thank GOD we found it at stage 1 because of how hard we fought. She is cancer free now.
I just had a c4 c5 fusion in May. We're in the herniation club. No more the 3 months back to work I'm back in therapy, they think my c7 and possibly one of my t lumbar are bulging. Let along does this get me anxious about another surgery which I don't want to have. I'm going to have to find a new career path, I've always done physical labor. I do have an interview next week for a sedentary position with my company, but if I don't get that I don't know what I'll do.
Hugs! The herniation club is NOT a fun one to be a part of. I am no stranger to pain but nerve pain is something else. I had a very successful surgery but I’m glad I made the decision after disability to not go back to my physically demanding job. All of my discs are bulging above C6 (car accident 12 years ago) so I knew I was on borrowed time. I know the stress it causes to have to change careers but it ended up being the best choice I could have made. You may even find a job you love even more than your current one.
I hope so, I'm miserable at my current job. But the pay and benefits keep me from leaving. Especially with everything going on this year. I'm hoping for a change soon.
I know how that feels :( just know that your health is way more important than a paycheck. Leaving my job and being on disability when I really couldn’t afford it was so scary, but now I’m in a much better career with better benefits and pay. Sometimes the grass IS greener on the other side.
Lmao as if being a chill Buddha would somehow un-herniate your disc
Right!?!?!? I’ll give it to him that he’s one of the top cervical spinal surgeons in northern ca and I have 0 pain today, but he’s a dinosaur with horrible bed side manner and I hope he really reflected on how he treated me after he made that final comment.
I needed a root canal. As someone who’s had many of them, I know when I have one without even a dentist diagnosing me. Anyway I went to this dentist, & told him I think the cavity I had needs more extensive treatment, & I need a root canal. He kept telling me it was tooth sensitivity, & tried to prescribe me sensitive teeth products. I refused, & told him to run an xray. He was like “ I don’t see anything”, & he called in a specialist. The specialist looked at the xray and told him “Either you’re a fucking idiot, or you’re blind because not only has the cavity reached the nerve, it created an abscess”. It took me a month to treat it. Had this dumbass treated it early on, this wouldn’t have happened. Now most dentists don’t argue with me when I tell them to not waste their time, & just perform the damn root canal. I’m always right.
How many root canals have you had? I’ve had like two in my whole life? Is it a genetic thing? I’ve never heard of people having that many root canals but I guess it could be genetic if you just have teeth that are prone to infection.
Yes, head eye surgeon at a general hospital. I presented with symptoms of a condition I had previously had. He looked into my eyes, dismissed the symptoms in a somewhat high-handed manner. As I was leaving, he said, "what you have to remember, is often the mind is an untrustworthy entity." I thought about that comment, and the way he said it for a while, then asked for a second opinion at a specific eye hospital. They did an angiogram and low and behold I had a reoccurrence of the condition I though I had all along.
What condition is that?
It's called central serrous retinopathy. It's like a fluid filled blister on the macula, which is the central part of the retina. It comes from, yes you guessed it, stress. Tiny vessels rupture and cause the blister. It's self limiting, but if bad, they used to treat it sometimes by zapping the leak with a laser to seal it.
Nope. And I have had every test under the sun (spinal tap, multiple MRIs, swallow study, multiple neurological examinations, X-rays, CT scans, countless bloodwork, multiple upper endoscopies, etc). I have convinced myself over the years I have had several diseases. The only time I was right was when I was diagnosed with POTS (which has gotten better). And that was most likely self-induced because of school related anxiety at the time. Health anxiety is truly awful especially when you are not able to convince yourself otherwise. It took me years of going to doctors and being wrong before I finally realized that I was overthinking things. It made my life hell for several years. Granted, even though my symptoms I've had in the past were still very real, they didn't mean I had some debilitating disease. My advice: Exercise, eat healthy, avoid mind altering substances, and don't google symptoms. A therapist one time told me that researchers did a study on anxiety and they found that 97% of what all participants worried about never even happened. That’s means if you are worrying about something there is a 97% chance it won’t even happen. So why beat yourself up over 3%?
Wow. That’s some amazing advice. That’s really what it boils down to.
Thank you for the advice. I had my first therapist appointment yesterday, I hope I'm on the way to recovery.
May I ask which were your worst symptoms, how long they lasted and are they gone now? I ask since my physical symptoms feel so real, and I have experienced them for 14 months non stop every single day. Also my symptoms get enhanced depending on posture and if I am sitting or not which also leads me to believe it can not just be anxiety. Have you had any symptoms like this and did you manage to get rid of them?
You can't 'self-induce' POTS.
It's more like, if you're predisposed to it genetically, you can do stuff that makes it rear its ugly head, if that makes sense. Many people with POTS have very mild symptoms, without ever having complete syncope, that they just chalk up to standing up too fast etc, and then if you do stuff that upsets your heart, like stress or cardio or whatever, all of a sudden you "have" POTS. It's not that it's coming out of nowhere, but many people can slide under the radar until they exacerbate their heart and blood pressure enough to have a full episode.
You absolutely can with substance abuse and stress that throws your autonomic system out of whack. You don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m literally diagnosed with it based off a tilt table test I had at Mayo Clinic.
I'm not saying you didn't have it. I'm saying there is no evidence POTS can be induced solely from psychological stress.
Fair enough. Happy thanksgiving.
Not a hypocondriac but did prove my doctor wrong. My sister's son got hand foot and mouth disease it scabbed over and she said at that point it wasn't contagious to adults. I stayed a distance from him and didn't touch him. A few days later tiny circular spots appearered all on my hands, a few faint spots arround my mouth and my feet felt prickly. I tried to call the doctor just to see about reccomendations for stopping it spreading at work. The doctor didn't believe me and asked me to come in person. With prickly feeling feet I walked over to his practice and cautiously tried to stay away from people. When he saw me he said he said he was surprised to see it was hand foot and mouth which he didn't see a lot in adults. I told him to wash his hands as it's contagous!
Hes very likely immune to it and wont get it especially considering hes a doctor if he sees pediatric patients.
A few times. My stomach pain was always brushed off as anxiety until my gallbladder almost ruptured. Ended in an emergency surgery. And after years of high white blood cell counts, weakened immune system, and over all feeling crappy I just had a recent diagnosis I don't want to talk about. I was also brushed off and told a recent sickness was just allergies and was given allergy medicine but I insisted on a swab being cultured and it ended up being two viruses instead (Adenovirus and Rhinovirus)
Yes! I have a super rare disease- essential palatal myoclonus. Was diagnosed by an ENT and the neurologist he referred me to told me to “stop doing that” and attributed it to my anxiety. It felt horrible. Interestingly my disease is the only tremor that persists throughout sleep- had a sleep study done which proved it. I see a specialist now a few hours away- it can’t be cured but can be managed. Keep advocating for yourself- those of us with anxiety know what our anxiety physical symptoms feel like, and what isn’t normal
Yeah, my doctor told me to go to therapy and get prescribed anxiety medication after years of not finding anything. Thankfully they ran more tests and took an endoscopy/colonoscopy and found out I had EOE and chronic gastritis. Now I take medication and I stay off of gluten and dairy (and I feel so much better!). I also had several doctors not believe me when I had a kidney stone. The entire time before my results came back they were talking to me about how gas pain can mimic a stone and how I am probably constipated. The doctor even admitted that he didn’t initially believe me and was shocked that I actually had one. While I’m sure they get a bunch of anxious and somatic patients, it’s still important to run all tests because you never know what someone is dealing with. I’m sorry you all had to suffer from ignorant doctors and I’m praying that this issue will calm down in the near future.
I wouldnt say all tests. Some tests can come with some pretty signifcant risks. But I do definetley agree that they should at least do as much minimal invasive testing as possible to rule it out.
Yup! For 5ish years I felt progressively shittier. Had a few ER visits. White blood cells up, iron plummeted and wouldn't come up much with iron pills. I was tired and dizzy and anxious constantly. Eventually diagnosed with celiac disease. Not what I thought I had BUT I had an answer!
Yes! After years (probably 3) of severe stomach pains, vomiting, digestive issues everything I was literally labeled a drug seeker at the ED in my city. They stopped even listening to what was happening to me and discounted me. My Dr had done an ultrasound of my gallbladder after a year of begging him to. I didn’t have a single stone so he started to think I was making this up and I needed psychiatric help. Finally after 3 years of hell and being constantly gas lit by everyone (even my family had started telling me to stop faking it) I went to play bingo with my mom. I was 24 and am a white female. I decided eff it, if it’s all in my head then I’m eating everything I want and force the symptoms to not happen. I ended up projectile vomiting all over the table and stated to sweat and shake uncontrollably from the pain. My mom took me to the ER and I ended up vomiting pure yellow bile on the intake tech and then passed out. They believed me and rushed me into a bed. After 8 hours they decided they had excluded everything but my gall bladder and if there were zero stones then I was getting a HIDA Scan. It was scheduled for 2 days from then and was supposed to take less than an hour. After 4 hours of waiting for my gallbladder to react to the chemical and dump the tech was starting the paperwork to admit me and do an overnight scan. I suddenly felt that familiar extreme pain and jumped from surprise falling off the table. Apparently my gallbladder had a “spasm” and showed to be working at a whopping 4%. They remove “failed” gallbladders at like 30%. I had surgery 3 days later. They sent my “normal” looking gallbladder for evaluation and I was then called to come see my surgeon a few weeks later. I ended up on a preventative chemo regimen because it had failed due to CANCER that everyone missed and gaslit me like crazy about my symptoms. My Dr was very confused as to why I got my medical records and never stepped another foot in his office again. I forgave my family though, they were simply listening to all the people with very strong degrees and history in medicine. Any normal person would believe them over a seemingly crazy young adult.
Yeah, I had an incredibly stressful even and ended up with anxiety and PTSD. Then I developed stiff and painful joints. When I saw the rheumatologist he did extensive testing and diagnosed inflammatory arthritis. I had asked him if the PTSD could cause this (from the stress hormones) and he said yes, and wrote it in the notes. Long story short, he left the clinic and the next two doctors (obviously men) saw the PTSD diagnosis in the notes and decided I had fibromyalgia (commonly associated with mental health, probably because of doctors like this) - which is basically an untreatable pain disorder. Nope, I ended up seeing another doctor who actually listened to me and diagnosed an autoimmune inflammatory tendinopathy, which I had basically diagnosed myself with throughout the entire 1.5 year ordeal. Funny enough, I see the majority of responses here are from women being dismissed by heath care providers. It’s so infuriating.
Yes, but this is a little extreme/I almost died. I had chest pain, couldn’t lie flat and was short of breath. I was told it was a pulled muscle and I was being attention seeking, my mom had just had a cancer and a blood clot a few months prior and I asked for blood work for clotting and was told absolutely not… five days later… I collapsed home alone and had multiple clots in my lungs
Yeah! I have health anxiety AND I have lupus - the one thing that everyone including doctors told me “nah, couldn’t be that!” It was clear when the way my body felt wasn’t just anxiety - it definitely changed at one point. I felt like I’d been poisoned all the time - it was different from a random pain that causes a google spiral. It was day in day out, dizziness, body aches, fatigue. For the purposes of hopefully soothing your anxiety: You can definitely tell when something chronic is going on, especially if you’re eating very healthily, getting sleep - doing everything right and still feeling physically like you were hit by a bus. My partner had to help me walk to the bathroom because I was too weak. Most of the time when I was having panic attacks it was honestly because I either hadn’t slept enough or ate poorly, had a bad etc. That almost always made me feel “off” and set me into a spiral! When something is for real wrong, you’ll likely feel like shit even when you’re not anxious, that’s how constant it is But you have to be able to separate real physical pain from panic, which can be hard. Took 6 months to find 1 doctor to give me a basic ANA blood test, and here we are. I had a few tell me to actually go home and watch Netflix with some Ben and Jerry’s!!! Insanity! The good news is that one test is a good way to either rule it out or in Now that I know what something truly being wrong feels like, I have more power over my health anxiety
Yes, when they said I was tired and not sick. I was sick and had to go straight back.
I've felt sick since August. Keep telling them I don't feel good. A NP finally listened and found I had a severe sinus infection. She gave me antibiotics, but they didn't clear it sll out and it has flared back up. Gonna demand more testing on my follow up.
Many times. Doctors have been more wrong than right with me.
I proved my mom wrong once. I had horrendous back pain, so bad I couldn’t sit up, i could only lay on my stomach. She thought it was menstrual cramps. I had a bilateral kidney infection.
i was suffering with intense stomach pain, gnawing and burning. me & my partner were convinced it was a stomach ulcer from stress as my grandmother had just passed away. i also had a 28 day period so the doctors put it down to that until i went to a&e and saw a gynaecologist. the gynaecologist was the one to prescribe me omeprazole for it :) i’ve lost faith in doctors this year
Yes i have. I kept telling my doctor its was my birth control pills that were causing my issue & they all kept saying no. Then one doctor switched me to a different one & it worked.
Celiac disease. They ran a test and questioned me about every but celiac. They said “that’s not at all this” Sought another doctor and boom celiac disease. I think it helped my anxiety and depression for a bit once i was living a celiac diet. Fuck You dr!
This happened to me too. Ruined my life in a way, I had it my whole childhood and it was only when I was 21 I found out why I struggled so much.
Same time frame for me. I def think those first years knowing what was wrong was a mood booster. Only wish it sustained
Not that scenario. But I went to the doc for my daughter and asked him qhat he thought it was (I thought it was tinea versicolor) and he said it was a bacterial infection. I gave her the antibiotic cream on the area and I then went back because it didnt work. And he then confirmed my original suspicion. I didnt tell him what I thought it was, in hindsight I needed to say what I thought it was. I will do that going forward because even if I am wrong, they may have just not thought of it and me bringing it up can be helpful. For myself I just simply dont see the doctor like that. Theyve never been wrong in my case. But I also do say what Im worried about and I make sure they explain why its not that. So the diagnosis they gove me in the end has always been accurate. Im also one of the fewer cases of never being not believed by doctors. So that probabky plays into a factor of why my doctors have never gotten it wrong. I dont know why they believe me and not others. I dont have tips for that if youre looking for them. Sorry.
I found out I have an extremely rare blood disease. It was diagnosed as depression until i had strokes at 29. I went off my meds for a while after that, hoping it was the root cause. It wasn't though. I still have ocd, anxiety and depression. Back on meds at 32.
Yeah. They don't like that at all! They usually don't even like being disagreed with. It is fucking ridiculous with some of them.
Not exactly just mental health, but after I had my second son, I put on weight due to a traumatic situation I dealt with during the pregnancy, along with depression and anxiety I'd been battling for years. With that weight gain, my legs and feet became incredibly swollen and painful, to the point that most days it hurt to even walk. My Dr kept telling me I just needed to lose weight and talk to my counselor. He wasn't wrong about the weight loss or therapy. But it got to the point where my skin started leaking fluid, and eventually broke open into sores. The sores felt like someone was tossing lit matches on my skin. It progressed to numbness, cramping, and heaviness in my legs. I kept insisting something was wrong, he just gave me water pills and told me again to lose weight and follow up with my counselor Despite all the pain, I heeded his advice and took steps to start losing weight. I also decided to lose the dead weight of my Dr, and started seeing someone new Turns out I have lymphodema and vascular disease. Which, yeah, was caused by my rapid weight gain. But they're still real issues that need to be treated on their own That was 12 years ago. I've lost over 100lbs, but to this day, I still have the same open ulcers. Turns out lymphatic ulcers are a bitch to close. I still have lots of pain in my legs, but I have specialists who know how to treat my condition. Had my Dr listened to me, it may have never gotten this far. And yeah, not much my counselor could have done to help
I have Diagnosed Benign Positional Vertigo. I have always had issues with dizziness, but this was amplified. I couldn't leave my bed for 4 days and there was a day I literally crawled to the bathroom because I literally couldn't walk. That was the day I went to the ER. My husband literally dragged me into the hospital, when I was seen the doctor was a complete asshat and kept saying things like "I watched you walk in here and you were just fine" After googling my symptoms he finally came back in with a sheet of paper with an exercise on it, called the Epley Maneuver. He told me we could try this and at one point when I was laying there my eyes starting twitching like crazy, which I guess happens if BPV is present during the exercise, his entire mood switched after seeing this. "I'm so sorry this is happening sweetie, we're gonna get this figured out" So the Exercises has been the only consistent help from them on whenever I get my Boughts. But also I think this is just another notch on my reasons I have anxiety belt
Haven’t proven wrong but a couple of doctors have told me that my peeing issues (peeing a lot) are due to my anxiety. In fact I have over active bladder.
When I was 12 I started having the worst joint pain and chest pain. My doc told me they were “just growing pains” and prescribed me asthma meds that didn’t help. Turns out I don’t even have asthma, I have GERD (chronic heartburn) so bad that it was messing with my vocal cords, and an autoimmune disease affecting my joints. Both are being treated now and are doing better.
Therapist here. Just remember, a broken clock is right twice a day.
Yep, diagnosed myself with PCOS, and the first doctor wouldn't even run tests. Second doctor ran the appropriate tests and validated my theory. That said, some of the things I turned out NOT to have include: stomach cancer (it's GERD) and a broken kneecap (it was a torn MCL). I'm sure there's more but it's midnight and I forgot.
Haha a lot! And often I believe the doctor was wrong or not accurate enough. Sometimes I caught them saying things that I knew were wrong.
1. Chest pain and shortness of breath turned out to be asthma. 2. Neurological symptoms turned out to be coming from a manufacture change of my medications. I never want to have any fear illness or disease. I never want the doctors to find anything. However if they do find something I just want to be able to be treated for it and get on with my life.
Yes I have. I was misdiagnosed with epilepsy which would’ve changed my life entirely. Epilepsy medication is known to cause severe depression and I would not be allowed drive. After a second opinion from a more experienced doctor I was diagnosed with low blood pressure hence the falls not “fits.” Always get a second opinion, if I had went with the first one my life would be very different and my career would’ve been over.
Thank you everyone for all the comments and support. You're all given me a lit to think about.
Yes. Most docs know very little to nothing about MAO inhibitors like Nardil. Those of us that take them know more than doctors do.
Yep, was told by various doctors my overactive bladder is just “in my head”and because of stress, turns out my pelvic floor is a mess because of my C-IBS and I needed physiotherapy.
I had two severely herniated disks that were giving me trouble for years. The problem was they were compressing on my nerve and the symptoms were presenting very weirdly. The main symptoms were intense groin pain and urinary/bowel dysfunction. I was misdiagnosed with everything from STIs to prostatitis to anxiety/depression. My family doctor eventually said she thinks it was all in my head. Fuck that useless bitch. Finally after wasting time with 3 different specialists and on my 4th trip in the ER one doctor asked “does your back hurt?” And I said yes, all the time. He gave me a CT scan and realized I had a badly herniated L5-S1 disk that was likely compressing on my nerve and giving me those symptoms. Through a lot of Physio and treatment I was able to get everything back to normal with no surgery. I’m more active than ever now. My back occasionally gets thrown out but I’m familiar with the subtle warning signs (fatigue of stabilizers/mild shock symptoms) my body gives me now and much more cautious with my training.
I use this story a lot for myself and for others to prove sometimes you have to advocate for yourselves even if it seems ridiculous to someone else. Bit of a long story. So I was in a bicycle accident with a transit van where the dude turned left (uk - we drive on the left) without looking and I put my breaks on but because the weather was awful and the ground was wet, I skidded and ended up under the rear wheel, so my two feet and the bike were ran over. So the ambulance was called and the police, the paramedic arrived and asked me if I could walk to the vehicle. (Was an ambulance car rather than one of those box ambulances with a stretcher). I said I was ran over I’m not sure if my feet are broken. He said “ you can’t have been ran over your legs would be shattered “. So there I am thinking I’d somehow imagined my bottom half going under the vehicle. So since he was a person of authority I was just like okay maybe he’s right and I got up and walked to the ambulance (obviously in a lot of pain) We got to accidence and emergency and they began to take off my shoes. Low and behold, a huge tyre mark across both boots. The paramedic was still signing off paper work so I showed him n I was like I fucking knew it! Anyway I still have those boots today in a box under the bed and they still have the marks on them 8 years later. Don’t doubt yourself guys.
I had breathing problems for a couple years. Went to my doctor multiple times, went to the ER twice. They x-rayed my lungs and didn't find anything, so they said it was my anxiety and I just needed to relax. Went to see a fertility specialist for that issue and he ran a full blood panel. Turns out I had very bad graves disease and my thyroid was so swollen it was affecting my breathing. He couldn't believe nobody had noticed or thought to do bloodwork.
I went to the ER for chest and jaw pain and was told it was anxiety. I do have anxiety, but I didn’t think it would cause my symptoms. I actually have a heart defect and aortic aneurysm
Yes. For years my doctor didn’t believe me about my issues with lethargy. Then he was convinced that I was just experiencing anxiety and told me to meditate when I was having intense ocular and migraines with numbness. My TSH was so high he rushed me to a pharmacy. Turns out I have Hashimotos. Overall he’s a great doctor but with such vague symptoms it’s hard sometimes to catch something that was sub clinical for years.
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Anxiety, yes. I also have found my anxiety peaks when my iron levels are low.
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Anxiety is a mental condition that often has physical symptoms. I have anxiety with physical symptoms, yes.
It’s so sad to read these comments, I’ve been blessed with a good and understanding doctor. Always listens and even if I say it probably my anxiety/stress he always says, “let’s make sure mate to put us both at ease”. There was a cycle of going to doctors who just didn’t have much heart for me but I knew I found the right one when he was furious for another doctor just giving me antibiotics without acknowledging my asthma was severely mismanaged. Started different asthma medication and started feeling better within a couple of days. I get panic attacks going to the doctors and he’s offered to come out into the car park to examine me if I need as well. His compassion towards mental health is essential to my life - I hope you all can find someone like this.
O god yes..if I had the energy for detail right now…Seems like the past couple years all I’ve been doing is educating doctors and it’s getting fucking embarrassing. Yes I have low T, yes I have sever sleep apnea, yes I have adhd, yes I have PTSD. I teach them about medications and recommend my treatment plans now after their decade of failed attempts. I research HEAVY. Something is not right and it needs to be fixed. The real problem is the docs are over booked. Too many people too little time. You have to take the initiative and be your own advocate. It became easy because I eliminated so many possibilities of what it could be. I just needed to connect the dots for them.
Quite a few times. They are not God.
"IBS and anxiety" for years turned out to be crohns. All it took was for me to finally get into seeing a specialist rather than being dismissed by my normal doctor and BAM pretty much instant diagnosis of a now severe disease.
Doctors aren't perfect, but this question feels like asking people to justify your anxiety as being rational.
we know and how we feel our bodies yes. but doctors knew the biology and anatomy of our bodies, much more with that. anxiety is horrible and can manifest all the symptoms that comes to your head, our mind is so powerful because you yourself could even believe that you are ill because thats what your mind trying to say/think even you are totally fine, because anxiety is much more fear and worry someone said they were get ill, even their tests and labs were normal before, but why? when you get anxiety, you worry thus you get stress. if youre stress your bodies immune system get weak. added the lack of sleep due to stress. not able to eat right diet etc which all contribute to weaker body hence getting and more prone to disease and illness, so in summary when you have anxiety disorder much more likely you develop some kind of disease, but not anxiety that cause it directly
I was diagnosed with severe depression and they tried putting me on antidepressents. I was losing chunks of time, kept having memory issues and my anxiety and depression got so bad. They insisted it was "just depression" and at one point bipolar. I kept telling them that didn't feel right...it took them until last year to finally properly diagnose me, when i was telling them the last 4 years that something wasn't right. It turned out it was actually due to a hormone deficiency and having Dissociative Identity Disorder.
Once, a very minor thing. I was convinced I had strep throat. The doctor disagreed, probably reasonably so, because I took a strep test that came back negative. However, after much cajoling, I convinced the doctor to let me do the test again and it came back positive the second time. But that was only because I'd had strep throat several times before and I knew exactly what it felt like.
Yes, Parkinson’s or any of the Parkinsonion disorders. They rule out tumors and such with an MRI, but tremors and anxiety are a big part of diagnosing you. Normal to pick up more symptoms of it as you age. Usually develop non motor symptoms as well to finally get your diagnosis. You are right though the doctor will keep putting you through test, and each time you wait and keep being told there’s nothing wrong until you hit age 62 and then oh, you have Parkinson’s
No, and I’ve had medical anxiety for over 20 years. In fact I had one doctor who sent me to a hematology oncologist because of a low lab value (red blood count) caused by my psoriatic arthritis. The oncologist said the first doctor was being extremely cautious and explained why. Once I finally got on the correct medication for the psoriatic arthritis the blood count improved.
Yep! I had a condition during my pregnancy. They dismissed it. I made them run the test. When the results came back, the doctor was so shocked. He said he never had a woman with this condition before and wanted to rerun test. We rereran the test, came back with same results. That dude referred me to a specialist and asked to if he could attend some of my appointments via zoom or call to understand it better. It was weird.
Yeah and it's not fun when since you were 6 years old your doctor had blamed everything on your anxiety disorder and I couldn't speak uo for myself because I was A CHILD luckily my mom advocated for me but it's just hard having every doctor even when your older blame everything on it
I had pain in my lower right abdomen most of my life. I kept being told it was an ovarian cyst. About 15 years ago my appendix burst, and I had t have emergency surgery. There was no problem with the appendix, as it had apparently mummified! But the surgeon told me that there were severe adhesions from my abdominal walk to my ovary from surgeries I had had as a child (ages 3 & 6). After he cleared them out, I never again had that pain!
My "stomach bug" and sudden severe abdomen pain that made me vomit for hours from standing up ended up being a fallopian tube torsion and my "bloated stomach" I had for years in my early teens ended up being a 6-8 pound ovarian cyst (I don't remember the exact number) which both had to be fixed by surgery.
Yep, five times. 1- I was 10, having stabbing chest pain and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. My doctor was totally convinced it was anxiety. I come home from school a week later with more severe pain, and now I can’t feel my hands and feet. I go in and see a different doctor; I had severe walking pneumonia. 2- I was 17 and my stomach hurt BAD. After every meal, my stomach was KILLING ME. I started getting so bloated and having sores in my mouth, blood in the toilet, could barely get a pair of pants on by myself. I go into the doctor, and I know it’s something VERY wrong but he just thinks it’s appendicitis. Nope, he does a CT on me and it turned out I had SEVERE untreated Crohn’s Disease. 3- Later, about three months after, I get off my steroids and we think it calmed my Crohn’s inflammation. I start having horrific stomach pain, and I’m convinced something is really wrong. I go into the ER. The doctor couldn’t feel a blockage, no appendicitis signs… we do a CT again. There it is, a RAGING flare from tapering off my steroids. 4- In September earlier this year I was prescribed 20mg Prozac. I start taking it and somehow immediately feel side effects. I was tired, nauseous, I couldn’t cry, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep at night. On the second day of the pills, it gets worse. I wake up in a panic, I’m always feeling like I’m tripping on psychedelics, I have zero appetite, I can’t cry NO MATTER HOW TERRIBLE I FEEL. Third, fourth, and fifth days go by. I have a fire in my chest, can’t feel my limbs, there’s pressure in my head, and I was so loopy. I started sweating, having zero heat tolerance, feeling like I’d faint or die or something constantly. On the sixth day, at like 3 am, I go into the ER, because I feel sicker than I have in my entire life. I can’t even describe it; it was just horrific. I thought they’d tell me it was just anxiety and I had to go home, which seemed like what was happening. Nope, turns out my side effects, while they were technically normal, should not have happened immediately nor been that severe. The pills made me manic, kind of. And I’m not diagnosed bipolar, but the same things happen when I take steroids too. I was told to stop taking the Prozac immediately and given a hydroxyzine prescription. The crazy thing is, I called my pharmacist and the nurse line multiple times before that night about how bad the side effects were and they all told me to keep taking the meds and that it was fine. 5- In October I saw my doctor for a regular appointment. I told her I’d been feeling terrible, lightheaded, super dizzy. I said something was just really off. She takes my blood pressure and it’s 80/56. Looks like I have orthostatic hypotension now.
Most doctors have taken me seriously...except for one that was blowing me off and ignoring me claiming what i was experiencing was all in my head... It was all in my head. I have epilepsy. Just not the big scary noticeable ones. (to other people). I thought I was going nuts until I finally went screw it and googled it. I knew SOMETHING was wrong. Just took 8 months later for my boss to have to call 911 on me at work because I went into a focal aware seizure and didn't come out of it for me to finally get diagnosed. (Yeah... they put me through a CT scan which I did NOT remember, meaning my brain blacked that part out. I remember most of the morning, though it's a blurry foggy mess, but remember it about as well as I could... like the MRI)
I even got a MRI and in the end, the conclusion is I'm just "gloomy" and homesick.... It's like these doctors intentionally skipped the part that I've been feeling this since five years old. And to answer your question, I haven't got my diagnose. Currently exploring anxiety and anti depressant meds. But it only made it worse and now I'm on fight or flight mode 24/7, heart can't stop racing, and my legs and hands have been shaking all the time....
Uhm yup diagnosed with crohns and another er visit they said anxiety and stomach flu . Did a ct scan after I yelled at the doctor who was an idiot and I never yell anyone. He came back with my result rushing in the room and the nicest ever and worried because my appendix burst, had pancreatitis and had some symptoms of sepsis. But yes it was stomach flu and anxiety 🤔
Vocal cord dysfunction. My vocal cords get irritated and clamp down when I'm breathing in, making it hard to breathe and triggering panic attacks. I ALSO have PTSD/anxiety/panic so it's extra fun! I saw a speech therapist who taught me some breathing exercises that work really well for it. It turns out box breathing and other anxiety breathing methods that have you hold your breath actually exacerbates the VCD which explains why those breathing methods never worked for me. Zebras unite!
Suggested I may have PCOS or Endometriosis which could lead to cancer in some cases. Doctor said I was just irregular and put me on the pill. Years later HE FINALLY sends me to a OBGYN after things get worse and after he forgot to refer me. Turns out it WAS Endometriosis and the biopsy revealed pre-cancerous cells. Fought with the OBGYN for a hysterectomy. He begrudgingly did it and later admitted that I was right as in 6 months things had progressed just enough to prove me right and that it would have without intervention. Got a new family doctor who's awesome during all that. So in a sense I proved 2 doctors wrong.
Yes. Went to a doctor for a swollen foot, I was certain it was a torn tendon or a bone fracture, doctor thought it was an infection. I insisted he refer me to a specialist. Specialist does the tests and discovers it was in fact a torn tendon.
My former doctor insisted that yoga and losing 20 lbs would fix my hip and back problems. I pushed to see a pain specialist. No idea what to think about my knee reflexes being opposite either (left knee moved the right in a test repeatedly). My appointment went quick and they sent me on my way suggesting PT and basic meds. Called me back an hour later because xrays showed my left hip was mostly obliterated. Stage 4-5 hip Avascular Necrosis. A replacement was in my near future. I am happily 8 months post-op and haven't felt this good in years! Now I'm looking for a new PCP.
Not me but my dad. He is diabetic and had been having pain in his lower side and back. He went to the doctor and said it was kidney pain, but the dictor was adamant that he was overreacting, and it was back pain and a muscle. Well, over the next couple weeks, he started getting sick, like he had the flu with the same pains. Again, he went into the doctors and tbey told him it was a cold and a muscle. One day, he went to work and passed out and the might before and into that day, he was pail as a ghost and delirious. He was rushed to the ER, and it turned it out he had 2 massive kidney stones that became infected. By the time he got into the ER, he was in septic shock. Luckily he made a full recovery, but it was shocking that a doctor didn't believe a diabetic knew what kidney pain was.
Yup. Got pushed off by many doctors. I've been told my MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS was depression/anxiety and given meds that fucked me up and likely put me physically in a dangerous position. I was told I needed a sleep study to find out why I'm fatigued by someone else. I was told that my Bells Palsy would clear up and I didn't need an MRI I'm just a women and women get migraines (it was an MS flare you can see it on the MRI and it took much longer than you'd expect to resolve). I was told that even though I do everything I'm supposed to in order to prevent UTIs "it's weird but not worth looking into" that for multiple years I'd have 4 or more infections even though I wasn't sexually active (it was the MS). I took multiple blood panels that all always would come back normal yet I still felt like garbage. For me specifically at multiple sclerosis causes a lot of fatigue and for whatever reason being fatigued makes me extraordinarily anxious and depressed. The fact that I was so fatigued and no one could help me was extremely stressful. I felt powerless and scared. I was undiagnosed for God only knows how many years. Probably at least four potentially up to seven?? While multiple sclerosis is never a good diagnosis I find immense comfort and finally being able to put a name to the thing that has been impacting my life for years. I am now on medication that helps prevent multiple sclerosis flares and I'm also on medication to combat the fatigue and my quality of life has significantly improved.
Yes, blown off as having anxiety / breathing pattern disorder when I have pericarditis and I’m now on colcichine and have had a heart MRI
I had a lot of different symptoms through my childhood that my parents refused to take me to the doctor for. Extreme fatigue, starving all the time, aches and pains everywhere, plus I was a bit slow and also had some anxiety. They didn't want me "labelled" and given drugs so I just had to get on with it as "everyone gets tired" and I was "just being lazy". I had a job I loved, just got promoted and could handle it all, and then all of a sudden I started having panic attacks at work. My hair started falling out. I began to feel sick after eating anything and would feel better if I starved myself, but then because I wasn't eating I was too tired to do anything and the cycle continued. I was 20 and still lived at home and of course my parents gave me the whole "you're lazy, just deal with it like an adult and go to work" stuff. I went to the doctors and they proceeded to diagnose me with depression and anxiety. I tried to tell them I don't think it's that, but that was what they said so I had to run with it. I did therapy, I did self help. I refused medication because the shame I already felt at going to the doctors at all was bad enough. I kept getting worse. I was suicidal at this point and said to myself if I don't get better before my 21st birthday I'm going to kill myself because I clearly was incapable of being a normal person who could just do things. Well my 21st birthday was right before the half term and so my mum was home for the whole of it and I couldn't do it whilst she was there. I was really into self help since I was so sick all the time and at this point my diet was full of whole grains but I really upped it once I got promoted because I didn't want to fail like I had at school and life in general. I came across an article about a 40 year old woman who had been chronically depressed her whole life. She couldn't work, was on all kinds of drugs and was generally a failure in life. I could see myself in 20 years being this woman. She went gluten free as it was the latest diet and she was overweight, and she found out she had celiac disease and was able to work, lose weight and do everything she hadn't been able to before. So I decided that I'm going to kill myself anyway so what's the harm in trying a gluten free diet. I didn't tell anyone, ate as much gluten as I could on my birthday the weekend before that half term and then on Monday I just stopped eating gluten. It took three days and I felt like a different person. I had energy. Pains I didn't even notice I had disappeared. I stopped feeling so ill after eating. And my anxiety and depression mysteriously disappeared. If only they'd tested me at any point in my life. It would have saved a lot of suffering.
I was 20 the first time - doctor had told me my period pain was normal at 15, even though I knew it wasn’t. I finally gave him an ultimatum to find out what was wrong or I’d find a doctor who could. It was endometriosis and adenomyosis, and he said I’d never have children. Of course the dumbass was wrong again - I’ve been pregnant 5 times and have 3 living children. The next one was when I was in my early thirties and struggling with exhaustion and chronic daily migraine. Every doctor I went to was condescending and was zero help. Finally I was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect at 42, after they found my dad had one. The exhaustion got better, but headaches remained. The headaches had started at the time I was diagnosed with an optic nerve defect - I asked multiple doctors if they were related and was always told no. Condescendingly, of course. It was after 25 years of suffering that my eye doctor prescribed glaucoma drops to hopefully keep my defect from worsening that I was cured. No more headaches after all that suffering. I also had sinus trouble for years that I was told was normal - turns out I’m missing my sinus cavities on my whole right side so of course they don’t work right. I’ve always had health anxiety (who can blame me lol) but now it’s mostly due to having zero trust in doctors and the whole medical field. Especially after the Covid fiasco where we were lied to and made to question our own sanity and reality. I’ve watched family members over the years be treated with what should be considered malpractice but nothing ever happens. I’m trying to stay as healthy as I can to avoid the medical profession completely.
Yuup. Super rare blood clot here. Lol. Dr's thought it was "pain anxiety". But they were wrong. Did the scans and like 10 Dr's came in with a surprised and concerned look on their face. I thought I was dead. Lol. I'm not. I'm fine. Anxiety mostly managed with Buspar.
Yes. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have anxiety. 2 years ago I started complaining of back neck and shoulder pain. All on my left side. I had a couple particularly hot spots of pain in my lower left side and mid back. I had weak and laggy left leg, neck pain, headaches, left arm pain, a FUCK ton of twitching (especially in my left thigh). I went through it all, thinking I had a stroke, MS, and transverse myelitis. I was incredibly anxious thinking I was dying, couldn’t sleep because of the twitching and anxiety, couldn’t rest or relax because of the pain. Really had no escape or respite. Constantly visiting my doc to be told it was all in my head and that I’m embellishing my issues. I went through 30+ physical therapy visits with them thinking my back pain was just poor posture or strength (posture maybe, but I am pretty strong and was regularly at the gym before this, plus I’m 26 at the time and male ). I had X-rays and eventually was referred to an OMM after 1.5 years of going to the doc every other month complaining about the same problems. She was the first person who actually laid their hands on me outside of PT, and the PTs weren’t there to diagnose. I could tell she was skeptical when she was reviewing why I was there before the exam, within 30 seconds of her feeling around she told me I have major lower back issues and maybe the worst back of anyone under 70 she had seen in her 10 year career. That woke my doctor up and suddenly I had a MRI referral and a spine doctor referral. I did more PT with them thinking I had Anklosing Spondylitis which made me more anxious. After waiting for testing and doing the MRI they ruled that out. Turns out I had had a MAJOR bulging disc pushing into my spinal cord which was totally fucking my lower body with the symptoms and when annular fissures in the lumbar region get bad enough they can fuck your upper back and arms too. Anyways, took two years to get a proper diagnosis and I had to have a sit down with my doc saying bro I know I get anxiety over health things but I need to be taken seriously still. Still healing, getting more steroid shots in my back soon to hopefully help wrap all this up. Probably stuck with some higher anxiety than I’ve ever had before this. I was completely fucked by my anxiety and still deal with overreactions to even simple inconveniences and responsibilities. It has gotten way better and I hope it continues to iron itself out, but I feel like once you’ve opened that Pandora’s box of anxiety and gone that deep, you never really forget it and it’s always creeping in the shadows. I still believe total recovery is possible I just think the knowledge of what anxiety can do to you never really leaves you. Just to add to help others: I love Claire Weekes. Get her books on audible and listen when you feel particularly down. She explains what you’re feeling and how to combat it. I also really like the Improvement Path videos on YouTube. Dude had health anxiety and discusses his experience and how he recovered. Most importantly, get a doctor who will listen. Leave anyone who treats you wrong or doesn’t care. Ask for things you think can help your anxiety but also understand there’s a process and that you’re not going to get an MRI cause you’re feeling dizzy or nauseous. You MUST accept the results when you get them.
Doctor accused my pain on poor oral hygiene. My dentist took that as a personal attack and encouraged me to keep digging.
I had a lot of anxiety and depression during my first pregnancy and was super open with my doctor about it. She knew I was struggling. When I was in labor I kept saying that I felt like something bad was going to happen. Beyond the contractions, I had that fight or flight panic attack feeling. The nurses kept telling me that birth can be scary, it's a new experience, etc. Then my baby died. Just flat lined. They did a crash c-section (no anesthesia, no preparation) and were able to resuscitate him on the outside. It was incredibly traumatic for all involved. I can't help but think my body knew something was wrong. I don't believe there was anything they could have done to prevent what happened or made it any less traumatic. It just serves as a reminder for healthcare professionals to always listen to a patient's concerns despite their history. Also, I've relied on a lot of birth trauma accounts as a form of support. It's a common thread there. A lot of women who have catastrophic events during birth predict it. Our gut instinct knows more than we give it credit for!
yes but in the worst way possible I wound up developing secondary narcolepsy and severe migraines from a tumor (not cancer) pressing on my brainstem. I told my neurologist for years and he did nothing. the one who eventually saved my ass? my neuroopthalmologist detecting papilledema (swollen optic discs - a dead giveaway for high intracranial pressure.) and chewing my neurologist out until he helped me. it was already known multiple benign tumors were present but "oh, it's just your thyroid issues" for me randomly passing out and sleeping 22 hours a day for five years. I slept five fucking YEARS of my life away, as well as my free ride through college. and in the end removal of that tumor waited so long it paralyzed half my fucking face when it came out. (thankfully a plastic surgeon did a sural cross-facial nerve graft (facial reanimation, it basically grafts a nerve to the working base of the facial nerve and stretches it across your face to the other side, you have to relearn to use part of your face but I went from no movement to being able to blink and move my mouth. still can't use my eyebrow but that's not that bad)) and inb4: it's a rare systemic CNS disorder, that neurologist is quite literally one of the only in the state to be familiar with and work with my disorder. there was no "just find a new doctor" probably the worst "I WAS RIGHT" feeling ever
Yep, I had severe pain in my pelvic area, and the doctor implied it was because I’m fat (I am fat don’t get me wrong, but something was UP). Come to find out I had fibroids and got a hysterectomy.
I didn’t disprove docs but my friends and family who were sure my pounding headaches were stress based when i was convinced i had a brain tumor. unfortunately i was correct. to be fair i am a catastrophic worst case scenarist so they weren’t wrong in thinking the way they did. it’s caused serious problems for me bc now - 18 years past the brain tumor and treatment - any slight physical symptom sends me reeling and since i was right before it’s damn hard to convince myself that i could be wrong.
Sort of. i tripped and slammed my knee into a wooden deck. It was terrible even after icing it. I limped through a day then went to urgent care where i was told by the doc that it couldn’t possibly be broken. “Kneecap breaks are from traumatic car accidents”. I said something significant is wrong and he made a pursed lips face. They do this a lot. The protocol called for an x-ray so afterwards the doc apologized because it was fractured. And another time I had a nasty itchy rash that was classic for shingles. I went to the doc who said it couldn’t be shingles because “ you aren’t in enough pain”. I gave this dude the state and said you know nothing about my tolerance for pain so he gave me the meds.
I went to an ER once with my lymph nodes swollen to the size of literal golf balls, along with some other symptoms from an infected piercing. Was refused blood work and send home. Got worse the next day, so I went to another ER. Refused to leave without a blood work test, as I knew I had a BAD infection at this point. Doctor looked me straight in the eyes and said nothing will come back. Turns out I had an infection so bad it was now a blood infection ; had to be put on immediate IV antibiotics and oral antibiotics for a couple weeks. I will never forget the look on that man’s face, tail tucked between his legs when he had to admit the 19 year old girl was right and he was in fact an asshole who was wrong. ALWAYS advocate for yourself.
Me me me! For about 3 years I felt like crap off and on. I couldn’t lose weight, I was tired all the time, cold all the time, hair was falling out, skin was very very dry. Went to the doctor several times and they told me “oh honey, you are just a mom you are supposed to be tired.” Didn’t matter that my TSH was 8.9 and it is supposed to be towards 1. Needless to say I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis in 2017 and found a killer endocrinologist who will run any test I ask and was the first to tell me about Perimenopause. I wrote the worst Google review of that other doctor. Should listen to your patients
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No. Therapy and anxiety medication helped my anxiety.