Does any one suffer from generalized aniety? I try meditation medication deep breathing distraction but not a lot helping! Any suggestions? Infuriating as I have nothing to be anxious about! I do have fibromyalgia and a few other health prob but nothing real horrible! Maybe just knowing if others have it will help.
Ty and God Bless

from my understanding anxiety goes hand in hand with fybromyalgia I am sorry you have to go through it. It is so hard to deal with the pain and the stresses that go with it.

It can go hand in hand with fibro. Fibro causes pain... pain causes lack of sleep.... lack of sleep causes a host of problems.... viscious circle :roll:
So feeling anxious in not uncommon at all :wink:

Welcome to my world. When I was pregnant I had panic attacks daily for 6 months. Couldn't leave my home for 3 of those months because I was afraid the summer heat was gonna kill me. Now how silly is that? My obgyn gave me Xanax to take at the onset of anxiety and it helped. All other meds just sent me spiraling into darkness. I didn't sleep either. Now I only get anxiety when I have to travel outside city limits and I don't know why. So you are not alone honey. Oh btw my 15yr. old son suffered from anxeity and panic attacks when he hit puberty at 12 and was medication until 3 months ago.

I have anxiety attacks occasionally they are not fun I am on meds now and used to have them really bad. No reason other than kids! Take care and try to get the sleep you need I found them worse when I was tired. My last one was last summer but I thought my son had been in an accident- Turned out not to be the case.

My DS was having issues with anxiety and panic attacks and believe it or not, it was caused by the foods he was eating. After eliminating dairy from his diet, the anxiety slowly, but surely went away.

We have since removed gluten from his diet and continue to see improvement.

You would be surprised how many common foods can affect your body. I was.

I also know of several people who have seen a decrease in fibro symptoms by sticking to a gluten-free and/or dairy-free diet.

I hope you find an answer soon. Anxiety can be very difficult to live with.

yes, for yrs and yrs I take meds. every dayand I do not have any other des. some drs. believe the gene is passed on throught family members. Girls are more likely to have it than boys. It's very hard to manage without help so keep looking for drs. who understand. I was house bound for years and years, believe me it takes a tol l, Try and remember know one has ever died from an anxiety attack, easy for me to say isn't it I try to remember that they only last 20 min. but it's a long 20 min. It's been years since i 've had a full blown panic but it's something one never forgets. Good luck and please , please don't give up on yourself or the drs.

I also wanted to add that you may want to watch out for food additives. They can also cause a lot of physical and emotional problems. Here is an interesting article about FD&C Red 40. It is found in lots of pre-packaged food.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/art...ve_having.html

Here is an alarming excerpt from the article, "Red #3 and Red #40 are the two food coloring additives approved for use in food (by the FDA) yet if they were sprayed on weeds they would work as a pesticide."

Even as an adult I am sensitive to Red 40.

The fewer pre-packaged, processed foods we eat, the better. :)

I have GAD too and I noticed that the last few months it has really gotten better and I've tried to think what is different. Finally hit on it.... I have been taking mega doses of Super B Complex. I take them throughout the day as your body can only absorb so much at a time. But your body dumps the B's during stress, when on antibiotics, birth control pills, etc.

I highly recommend trying this. And don't stop if you don't see immediate results. It did take some time before I really noticed a difference. But boy what a difference!

Here is an alarming excerpt from the article, "Red #3 and Red #40 are the two food coloring additives approved for use in food (by the FDA) yet if they were sprayed on weeds they would work as a pesticide."
---------------------------
Drink diet sodas? They have Aspartame, which is so bad they're renaming it Amino Sweet because so many people are getting spooked about it. Aspartame is being implicated in lots of diseases, check them out.

Allergic to MSG? Too bad, it can legally now be in darn near anything and they don't have to put it on the label. Check this out on the Internet, the list of foods containing it is too long to print out here.

To my knowledge, the only real, non artificial sweeteners now on the market are plain old sugar, honey, maple syrup, and an herb called Stevia. And now they've even taken part of it out and got a patent for the partly artificial sweetener and now call it Truvia, which I'll not touch because I'm afraid of it.

Cook at home, real foods that look like they should, not from boxes and shot from guns..try real food.

I suffered from anxiety, St. John's Wort has helped me a lot. I have tried cutting back and the anxiety comes back. It is such a relief to be rid of the anxiety, you feel like you are finally yourself again.

Meds help my anxiety and quilting and sewing!

Youngest DS has food allergies and some cause instant severe asthma attacks.
Dh is allergic to shellfish and oldest DS is allergic to Chicken and poultry but not eggs.
I am allergic to aspartame and some colognes. Instant Migraine. At one time I was waking up during deep sleep and was terrified and paralyzed. It was caused by hormones being out of whack.
Your anxiety could also be caused by a medication that you are taking for another condition. Check with your pharmacist.

Thank you everyone it does help to know I'm not alone I try not to eat a lot of pkg food anymore, careful what I eat no sofa or diet foods filter water!! My anxiety will last for days!!! Very hard to function! Know of any articles of fiber and anxiety? I have it pretty bad thanks again! GodBless

I used to. I suffered from anxiety and depression. I haven't taken any meds in 4 years and feel great most of the time. I still have some of the anti-depressents just in case I feel a bout coming on but usually I just get more rest and it helps. I also refocus. Volunteering to do charity work, working with my church, sewing---anything I can do to take my mind off myself. I don't mean to sound cruel or unfeeling but my worst bouts are when I'm too inward, to focussed on "self". When I quit worrying about "me" and started thinking what I could do for others it helped me. Then when I really got involved in church and focused more on Him, that helped the most. If you aren't involved with any of these things I strongly urge you to do so.

I've only had one anxiety attack in my life and dont want another. my Sister has had several though.
anybody here also have Vasovagal syncope? most people who have this faint at the sight of blood, or any other stressful situation... my son was just told he has this and both of us plus my Sister have prolapsed Mitral Valves. my sister has Fibro and i think i do. my son is a guard in a prison and doesn't need to be fainting at the drop of a hat. any helpful ideas out there?
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vas...yncope/DS00806
now that i'm old-i don't get that melting into the sidewalk feeling anymore.

I tried a good B-complex vitamin and that has helped. If I know I have to be in a crowd of some sort, I will take a benedryl or dramamine to help stay calm. I also started eating fresh fruit and veggies. I also take brocoli capsules. Supposed to help prevent breast cancer also.

I'm so sorry you experience these attacks, they are so devastating to a social life. Good luck with the remedies that have helped everyone here on the forum.

Vitamin D deficiency is linked to BOTH fibro and anxiety. And I have to tell you, as simple as it may seem, it WORKS! I take 1000 mg a day and my anxiety is almost non existant now...I used to have it so bad that my thoughts were scary. I used to wake up in the night with panic thinking I'd left newborn grandaughter in the car, or other crazy things like that. I'd also check the car several times a day to make sure I hadn't. My anxiety is really strange...and I can't control it without Vitamin D. I refuse to take meds, they just cause other problems

Interesting.... I have a vitamin D deficiency and anxiety and fibro. I'm going to give this a try!!

Your anxiety almost sounds like an OCD. I suffer from OCD have thoughts like that. I'm anxious to see if the Vit. D helps with the OCD! Thanks!!

I do not remember ever not being anxious or worrying about everything I said or did. Doctors would say I was depressed, and give me depression medication. It never worked, cause I was never depressed. When I finally ask the right questions and found the right doctor I got medication for anxiety only and it has worked wonders for me. They thought at one time I could get off of it, but the worry and anxiety came back full force. Do not like the physical or mental feeling I get when I am not on medication.

Thanks Tammy!!.....I'm going to try the Vitamin D also.

A new study has found that most Americans are Vit. D deficient. A lot of women in particular, are very badly deficient. We use sunscreen and with clothing and busy schedules we do not get enough sun. So for a deficient person, Drs. are recommending 5000-10000 units or whatever it comes in per day. It will not hurt you! I started taking Vit. D3 from Sam's Club. I take 2 of the 5000 units per day & I do feel better. This also improves our immune system.

I have fibro also and frequently suffer from anxiety. Even though I take meds for it, the meds don't totally take care of the anxiety. I think that any chronic pain leaves a person anxious about how they are going to function, whether they can function at all, what people will think if they can't function etc and on it goes continously.
Most people don't understand fibro and what it does to a person, and some can be very critical. It's just one more pressure we have to deal with. We can be down on ourselves as well for the way we feel, even though we can to nothing about it.
If you have just one person in the family who understands, it is a great blessing, because it's really tough dealing with something the doctors don't even understand, much less know how to treat.
Try to finish a quilt in good time when you can only actually work on it for a half hour or so, and sometimes not at all. How can you work on anything when you can hardly crawl out of bed!

Xanax works for me when I feel the onset of it coming on. When I take it, in about 15-20 minutes I am as relaxed as you can imagine. The holidays tend to make the anxiety level rise anyway with being around relatives that I don't particularly want to be around, etc., so having Xanax to help make it through the holidays as well as the rest of the year I feel has kept me sane.

My Dr. has prescribed over 3,000 units of vitamin D per day for me, and I've been taking it now for a couple of years, and I have not noticed any change in the way I feel. I've had fibro now for over 25 years, and it has affected every part of my life. Even so, adversity builds patience, character and empathy for others, and I hope I have grown to have at least a little of each.

I think allergies to anything can be tricky. Your body's reaction isn't always the classic hives and itching. I think with all the additives in our food and all the things we come in contact with, there are more and more problems with allergies. Who knows how many ways it could manifest? I remember a show I saw years ago on this subject. One thing to look for, especially with kids, is reddened, warm ears.That's another indication of an allergy. There were children on the show who would have severe behaverior problems after eating certain foods. The videos of them has stuck with me for all this time!

Fibromyalgia does come with a whole slew of possibilities. That's one of the problems with it, after a while we start blaming everything on the fibro. I know I tend to now after living with it a good part of my life.
I think a lot more people are having problems with depression and anxiety because of the time we are living in. There are so many changes going on, it scares a lot of people and causes anxiety. I have more problems with depression. It also goes along with fibro...such a fun syndrome to have!!
I hope you find ways to cope. We are here for you.... :D

I know, it does kind of sound like OCD, but it's different than that I think, because I only got it with the baby, and only because I was so afraid to forget her somewhere LOL! So I would constantly check, because I didn't have her all the time...

Add me to the list of Fibro/Panic Attack folks. I suffered the panic attacks for about 15 years. I couldn't drive, go out by myself and forget going over bridges on in tunnels. My doctor also put me on Xanax, which I still take all these years later.

I've read that putting a large rubber band around your wrist and snapping it really hard when you feel an attack coming on will help stop the attack. I've had good success with just concentrating on my breathing, slowing it down as best I can.

I feel for you and you're not alone.

You most likely have a parasite problem. You are sop right about adversity though:>)

my son was diagonosed with Vasovaga Syncope recently. has prolapsed mitral valve too. all of us do. anxiety seems to go with these too. at least in our family.

Mine manifests itself in many different ways. The weirdest being that every time I hit a bump in the road I think I've run over or hit someone. I've been known to circle back around to make sure there are no bodies laying there! But the main OCD is my trichotillomania. (I pull my hair out). I've been searching for over 20 years trying to find something that helps...nothing does. I take handfuls of meds every day but it only helps with the depression, anxiety and sleep problems. It is just a matter of acceptance now.

You might really notice a difference with Vitamin D...not only that, it cuts certain cancer risks by over 80%

yes my dear there are millions of people who suffer from anxiety attacks i am one who when i had my first major attack that i could not get under control went to a doctor who told me dont worry you have the flu bug go home and rest well that did not help and with that i lost 10 years of my life i would not go anywhere was scared to death of leaving my home even to go try picking up a gallon of milk for my children at the store. i was very confused, angry,and depressed. i had to depend on others to help me with getting my erands done for me not fun at all. i had final seen how it was affecting my children and felt i needed to get to the bottom of this. i have seen doctors and hypnotsis , emergency room visits and finally had found a doctor who tryed different meds intil we could get it under control. it is not something you can ever control and you never know when it will flare up my doctor tells me dont worry no one has ever died from it although you feel like you are just remember when it flares up you must remember to concentrate on your breathing and focus on one thing it is very hard but you can practice it at home. i am told that the anxiety attacks have to do with your estrogen levels try having them checked especially if you are post menopausal. and remember if you need there are so many people who are trained in this field that can help you out keep you chin up you definately are not alone

Oh my gosh I could write a book on this one. I had my first full-blown panic attack when I was 20. They have been a problem for me my entire adult life but things are better.
Without making this a very long story I will tell you some things I have learned:
In my case they run in my family. Several sibs, my Dad, and my son.
I've had lots of cognitive therapy. My attacks almost always come from my thinking, whether I realize it or not.
I have to be careful with caffeine ( coffee addict here), getting the proper sleep, avoiding stress as much as possible.
I pray and meditate,and do yoga. Deep breathing is SOOOO helpful!
A healthy diet is a must for me.
Getting "out of my head" is a good way, for example focusing on something or someone else. Plus it makes me happy.
Medications when needed. Xanax has been a lifesaver for me.
This post is getting way too long but I've been physically healthy my whole life but the anxiety and depression are absolutely terrible. I feel good most of the time but really need to make sure I'm fit physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
I wouldn't wish anxiety or panic attacks, whatever you want to call it, and depression on my worst enemy.
HUGS to all, Sue
PS. At one point in my life I couldn't drive for 5 years!! I still have trouble with freeways and some days just driving anywhere can be hard but I do the best that I can.
Thanks for letting me share all this with you :)

I read this thread and realised I needed to check the expiry date on my Xanax! (January 2012). I try not to use it too often, but it is like a safety blanket for me. I rarely go out unless it's local errands or someone else is with me and I only drive locally. I have done the CBT but didn't find it all that helpful to me. I know the vitamin D is a big problem as we get so little sun and the winter days are very, very short. Perhaps I may try a larger dose of it! I rarely get the panic attacks any more though I do still have anxiety problems. Just having to pick up a telephone is very stressful for me, I love email and text messaging!

I wouldn't worry about the expiration date. Many medications are good far beyond the exp date.
In my loooong post I forgot to mention how helpful sun is and we don't get enough either! :)

I read this post a day or so ago and haven't been able to stop thinking about it. You are a very wise woman. I have been spending to much time focused on my aches and pains, etc. We have been blessed in these hard times with keeping our jobs and having our wants met. We do help my husbands kids, but sometimes I think they expect it. I've decided I need to pay it forward to a stranger, I'm working on that. Just wanted to say thank you for your powerful words.

I thought I'd stop and post here a minute. I used to have Panic Attacks really bad after having my last child. I had no idea what it was. Was taken back to the doctor and my BP was good and he couldn't find anything wrong with me. I never told anyone again about how I was feeling. I started noticing that my panic attacks would get really bad while traveling somewhere, and I would feel like I was gonna open the car door and jump out! That's how crazy it made me feel. One day in my home, I started to cry and pray as I was entering the shower. I told G-d that if this was the way it was gonna be that I was ready to die. When I got out the shower, I noticed the panic attack was gone. They never came back again! PTL... I know he healed me.

So back in Sept/Oct last year I started waking up with my heart beating fast. It was like someone said BOO to me or something and woke me up. I began to wonder what in the world? In May that year our landlord locked us out of our business illegally and I have to say I was stressed about that but didn't think this is what caused this. Then, the day after Thanksgiving last year someone attempted to burn my house down. Lived with my parents for 4 mos. Those anxiety attacks were still there, and especially if I had gotten upset that particular day. And just a few days before this Thanksgiving, my husband and child was in a wreck and totaled my new car. Talk about Anxiety? Well... I haven't been to a dr in 13 years for anything. I've watched him heal my husband of an incurable/inoperable cancer so I have so much faith and trust in him that I do believe one day this problem will go away. If not, I'll HAVE to see a doctor.

I find that this happens the most when my mind just won't slow down. It starts to think so much that when I start to fall asleep, my mind thinks about something and wakes me up. Most of the time it seems to be something stupid that doesn't even make any sense. I do believe alot is hormonal but alot can be passed down too as most of my family are on anti-depressants. I keep fighting NOT to have to go on medication and will keep fighting. I find it best just NOT to try and sleep when I am like this as I am calm unless I sleep and wake up startled. Some nights though, I fall asleep crying and praying to G-d and then I wake up the next morning thanking him that he provided some good rest for me.

One more thing before I close. Please don't be like me and worry about going to bed for fear that you are going to have a bad night. If you have one, then read something, get on the computer and read the boards... when your body gets really tired, it WILL shot down and sleep. Most of all, just whisper a prayer.. He's always so near :)

Hugs to all of you who have this problem!

Dixieldy - the fast beating heart is probably heart palpitations. I bet you are going through peri menopause. I started having these myself. And then a few years later came the hot flashes. I'm on prempro now and wouldn't live without it. Really did change the quality of my life.

There are many things that will cause anxiety and a lot of them are medical problems that should be addressed. I urge everyone to see their dr about it. And take those B vitamins!!