Social Anxiety

[valliali]

has anyone developed social anxiety as a result of their dysautonomia?

i find that i have panic attacks in response to situations that would normally cause some anxiety. like meeting someone new, a job interview, etc. however, instead of just feeling a little anxious, i have full on panic attacks. i seem to skip the just anxiety phase.

this has translated big-time into social anxiety. i fear having panic attacks, i fear appearing distressed or uncomfortable, and thus, i fear all social situations. so when i am in them, i can't help but panic.

this is crazy to me because i have never had a social anxiety, ever. i was always very very outgoing and confident. i try to hide this from my friends and make up all kinds of excuses to never see them because i know they would be shocked to see how awkward i have become socially.

i have read that panic attacks with a social anxiety is really rare. so does anyone else experience this??

[Guest tearose]

Well, I don't have social anxiety but I have social preparation.

I would preface by saying that this is not when relapsed (serious) or remission (get through 4 hours with only a few rests) So on a normal day, doing 4 hours of regular person activities, I would have to plan. If I am going to someplace new, I need to know if there are stairs, how will I manage, is it a party where people stand around like a cocktail party, will there be a place to sit. I have a seat cane and then I may need to bring that. I wear compression and find skirts most comfortable, if I have no idea if there is seating, and I don't want to take my seat cane, I may choose pants because I may need to sit down on the floor and so pants are better.

This is not anxiety it is a way to avoid having an uncomfortable situation.

best regards,

tearose

[runningshoe]

Pots and anxiety are very intertwined for some of us. When you are out in a social situation it is worse because you fear being potsy or fainting in public. Plus you are probably trying not to be rude by sitting down when everyone else is standing, or bouncing around doing a counter move or whatever you do when you start to feel funky. The worst is being in a conversation with someone while standing and it hits you that you know they are talking but you can't hear or focus anymore because you are going down! Don't blame yourself - this is anxiety producing. Plus everything is "turned up" when you have pots. The best thing I did was get a psychiatrist involved in my medical care. Time, therapy and learning my limits has helped me. I rarely feel the anxiety any more. Good luck!

[Sunfish]

hello -

so sorry that you're dealing with such an elevated degree of anxiety, panic attacks, etc. it must be horrible. while i don't disagree that, for some, dysautonomia symptoms may be a trigger for &/or be very intertwined with anxiety issues, i also want to point out that this is NOT always the case. despite having very severe autonomic dysfunction (progressive neuropathy/ failure) i am thankful that i have never dealt with any degree of elevated anxiety, have never had a panic attack, etc. like tearose wrote about, the story of my life also includes having to be very prepared, & i very much miss the ability to not have to "worry" about the conditions of something i might want to try to do/ participate in, such as if a place is wheelchair accessible (amongst other things). i also don't enjoy the fact that i never know whether i will be able to keep plans i might have b/c i don't know if my body/ health with cooperate; physically-speaking i am very undependable so i suppose that one could say i have to "worry" about that. and if i allow myself to i could easily get caught up in a million & one "what ifs" that are the reality known as my life...what if i get another infection, what if i'm out somewhere & get very ill, what if my IV pump starts beeping in the middle of a quiet church service, what if my J tube dressing comes loose & my clothes become drenched & smelly on one of the rare times that i'm dressed to the nine, what if my drainage bag breaks & grossly spills when i'm in public in a way that is indescribably embarrassing, what if i beat all the odds & live to retirement age & don't have a penny to my name. most of these things have happened to me more times than i can even remember (all of them but the "living to retirement) & i am sure that i could drive myself absolutely nuts thinking about the possibility of when &/or if any or all of them will happen next, as well as a myriad of other "what ifs" that would be easy to come up with, but i suppose i'm lucky that i'm hard-circuited not to think this way. this doesn't mean that such things never cross my mind, & i have also made the conscious decision to not let myself live a life of "what ifs" b/c it simply won't accomplish anything positive. i can be as prepared as possible & do what i can to prevent/ reduce such unwanted occurrences, but some will still happen & i have to do my best to deal with them in the best way i can. but all that said, i'm pretty sure that this reality of having to be prepared & having an inordinate number of unknowns as a part of your life isn't what you are really talking about.

so...with all that said, i hope i'm not making you feel worse as that is NOT my intention! my point in writing what i have written is that i want to stress to you is that how you're feeling is NOT something that has to go along with dysautonomia for you. while your health issues may very well be a huge trigger for you, may have been what caused the onset of your anxiety/ panic issues, etc, you do NOT have to keep feeling the way you are. lina mentioned how helpful it was for her to get a psychiatrist involved in her care & she is not the only one on the board who has found this to be helpful. while there may be a reason that one might be better for you than another, seeing a psychiatrist, psychologist, or counselor (or some combination of the above) sounds like something that would be a really good idea for you as one step toward feeling more in control of your life. many people with chronic &/or serious illness find it helpful to see a counselor of some type to help deal with living a life with illness; i know i have found this helpful in the past as a way of having a "safe place" to vent where i don't have to worry about hurting feelings or monopolizing a relationship in the way that might be an issue with family or friends. while your anxiety/ issues may never totally disappear i am certain that they don't have to be as much of a hindrance in your life as they are now....having a chronic illness is hard enough without dealing with such uncontrolled anxiety, so i really want to encourage you to do whatever you can & get any help you can in any way that you can. & if you see one person & it's not a good fit then see someone else...i know it can be hard to do that given the limited energies off less-than-ideal health, but you owe it to yourself. i would just hate for you to think that the degree of anxiety & panic you're currently dealing with is & as to be "part of dysautonomia" to the degree that you accept it as something that can't be any other way. you CAN feel more at ease despite the all the unexpected things that come with a life of illness.

take care,

melissa

[ramakentesh]

I wqould say that when my POTS is bad im more jumpy - watching a scary movie or something can make me get symptomatic.

particularly if you have the hperadregenic form of POTS, one of the symtpoms listed in the article I read was anxiety.

My doctor said that POTS can make a person hypervigilant and that some of his patients have a co-existing panic disorder.

[pat57]

I feel a certain amount of fear whether I can get through something without causeing a scene. At a certain point (sometimes)I have to excuse myself or pass out. If I fail to act appropriatly (meaning get my BP up) when I'm not feeling well I'll make a big scene. The fear is appropriate tho.

FYI I have OH and NCS, not POTS.

[HoudiniCat]

The day I got POTS was the day I got full-blown, over-the-top, crazy anxiety. The social anxiety was horrible and I feared I would never leave my house as that was the only place the anxiety was tolerable. All I can say is, for me, speaking to a therapist helped ? and then tried some meds ? and slowly put myself into those situations to recondition myself to them has helped. And I totally agree with the other posts about preparing yourself. The more you prepare yourself for the situation and go thru it successfully, the easier it will be next time. I know that sounds easier said than done but for me, it works. It's bad enough to have all these physical symptoms with POTS but then when you start experiencing the mental and emotional ones, it just not fair!

[beggiatoa]

I have social anxiety. It started right about the same time the essetial tremor began. I was 19. In my research, Ive discovered that social anxiety is caused by a problem in the Dopaminergic receptors. For that reason, I've found that supplementing Tyrosine in the AM fasted does a neat job in reducing these symptoms.

I think this is part of a bigger problem, maybe the dyautonomia or maybe it's mercury toxicity or previews epstein barr virus infections. The point is no single solution has been found to treat this and in my mind will not be found until you treat the bigger cause.

I also write a lot in another forum for social anxiety. I'm mostly under the supplements forum under the same name. If it's ok to link other boards, here it is.

www.socialanxietysupport.com

[valliali]

thanks everyone.

beg - do you have any of your research that you are able to share? thanks for the link, i will look for you over there!!

[beggiatoa]

Everything I write I post there. You can search the forums and find my old posts. What's helped best to date, has been Tyrosine. A choline supplement is also effective but only if used occassionally. I'm also experimenting with NAD and has found good results.