Anxiety, Fear And Pots

[mrach]

Dear Sisters and Brothers in misfortune,

I guess I find more help and answers with you than with the medical personnel I am communicating at the moment, so if I bother you with my ?s, please, excuse my ignorance.

My problem is why I am so anxious since these symptoms started it was like a overnight transformation from a very laid back and nonchalant girl I became a frightened chicken. Yes, My POTS started with 3hours of severe tachy, blushing, suffocating, feeling that I am dying and so on and with 5 doctors standing and looking helplessly at me, they just let me go through the whole think under "supervision". I am constantly lightheaded, weak in my legs and so on. My main problem is why I am so anxious to go out, to interact with people standing, to travel, even to go out of familiar environment ofmy misery for the last 9 months. Do you think it is because my brain does not have enough oxygen and that makes me anxious, or it is a part of the symptom, or I am developing generalized anxiety on top of everything, or may be I am going crazy. I feel like trapped, I want to live this life not be a prisoner of my own mind, yes,may be I will never be the same energetic, easy-going person I was but at least some sense of normalcy.

Please, any suggestions how to fight this are greatly appreciated

Maria

[DSM3KIDZ]

I Know how your feeling and it *****!!!! I have alot of anxiety re: this illness and also depression that I NEVER had for even a day before this illness....so I personally think it screws with your mind.

What works for me is confidence. The first few times I go out I'm nervous but after doing it a few times I get confident and than don't have a problem until I have another bad pots episode than the visious circle starts over again and I have to adjust over again.

Hang in there...........I know it's rough the illness alone is alot to handle but than add the emotions it brings it's pretty unbearable.

Dayna

[gillian502]

Well this sounds familiar! I'm the same way, after 3 years of living with this ****, because it seems there's always some new crappy challenge to deal with or overcome. This week it's getting used to a new BB that isn't doing its job; before that it was a different BB and the symptoms that one caused, and before that it was a bad episode of pre-fainting at the movies followed by the fear of ever going out in public again! It never ends, does it? The weak legs you mentioned sound exactly like me, too. I have about 30 minutes of strength in my legs and feet and that's it, I'm done and must sit down. For every hour I'm out I must recover for 3. It's a pain.

As for anxiety, I think we'd be crazy not to feel that way dealing with all this. Let's face it, these are scary symptoms, and they feel life-threatening even when they're not. I wish I could give you a magic cure or answer as to how to deal with the emotional side to all this, the only problem is, I haven't figured that out myself. I guess all we can do is keep in mind that no matter how awful and scared we feel, those feelings do eventually pass, and we're back to baseline again. I just try to keep that in mind.

[mtkim]

I know exactly how you feel because I feel the same way. I was never an anxious person, nor was I depressed. I went to the library with my husband last night and just the little bit of time spent standing in the library caused my heart rate to go up to 140. I was anxious about going to the library, wasn't even thinking of being anxious because the library is one of my favorite places. One minute I'm standing there looking at books and the next thing I know my heart rate is 140, I have the shakes, I'm sweating in the air conditioning, and I have that overwhelming sensation from head to toe that I am going to die. This is when I got anxious, not before all of this started. How can you not get anxious when this happens to you in a public place let alone when you are at home?

I can tell you that I started seeing a therapist a couple of months ago. It is so nice to go to somebody who assures you that you are not crazy, you are not losing your mind, and that this is a very real thing. This week she told me to keep repeating to myself that the anxiety and depression did not bring on this awful syndrome, but the the awful syndrome brought on the anxiety and depression and to also tell this to my primary care doctor. (she's also the nice lady who told me it was okay if I fired my cardiologist for treating me like I was stupid)

I saw my family doctor today and I now have an appointment at University Hospital in Cleveland in October to see someone who specializes in POTS. I will be seeing Dr. Chelimsky's colleague (sic), Dr. Alshekhlee as Dr. Chelimsky did not have an appointment open until May of 2007. HOW MANY OF US ARE THERE ANYWAY? For now I'm going to change the times that I take my beta blocker and see if that helps and if not then we may have to increase it a little bit.

Hang in there, as you can tell; we are all in this together.

Kim

[juliegee]

Hi Maria-

I do know how you feel. My POTS is pretty well controlled, but I had a period almost a year ago when I got severe tachy (180-200) for no reason throughout the day. I was very anxious. I took water and meds with me where ever I went and I planned out constantly what I would do if an attack came at that moment. It almost made me agoraphobic.

Medically, my son's doctor at Johns Hopkins gave us a reason for this anxiety phenomenon. His name is Dr. Peter Rowe and he treats adolescents with orthostatic intolerance. (My laid-back, skateboarder son also developed anxiety with this illness!) Dr. Rowe says that your body recognizes a drop in BP or an increase in HR even before it happens and inappropriately shoots out adrenalin to counteract this psyiology. He was so sweet. He wanted to make sure that my son didn't feel that he was emotionally weak because he had developed anxiety.

I want to make sure you know that, too.

Julie

I know exactly how you feel because I feel the same way. I was never an anxious person, nor was I depressed. I went to the library with my husband last night and just the little bit of time spent standing in the library caused my heart rate to go up to 140. I was anxious about going to the library, wasn't even thinking of being anxious because the library is one of my favorite places. One minute I'm standing there looking at books and the next thing I know my heart rate is 140, I have the shakes, I'm sweating in the air conditioning, and I have that overwhelming sensation from head to toe that I am going to die. This is when I got anxious, not before all of this started. How can you not get anxious when this happens to you in a public place let alone when you are at home?

I can tell you that I started seeing a therapist a couple of months ago. It is so nice to go to somebody who assures you that you are not crazy, you are not losing your mind, and that this is a very real thing. This week she told me to keep repeating to myself that the anxiety and depression did not bring on this awful syndrome, but the the awful syndrome brought on the anxiety and depression and to also tell this to my primary care doctor. (she's also the nice lady who told me it was okay if I fired my cardiologist for treating me like I was stupid)

I saw my family doctor today and I now have an appointment at University Hospital in Cleveland in October to see someone who specializes in POTS. I will be seeing Dr. Chelimsky's colleague (sic), Dr. Alshekhlee as Dr. Chelimsky did not have an appointment open until May of 2007. HOW MANY OF US ARE THERE ANYWAY? For now I'm going to change the times that I take my beta blocker and see if that helps and if not then we may have to increase it a little bit.

Hang in there, as you can tell; we are all in this together.

Kim

[mrach]

Thank you very much for your kind words and explanations....