Just remember this very best advice anyone can ever give you:

You can do it.

Been awhile since I posted here. In the past, reading other peoples experiences here and on other like forums have helped me in the fact that I am not completely alone with my struggles. My purpose of commenting ofcourse is to offer others the same bennefits if possible. I quit marijuana over 3 months ago as each session resulted in severe anxiety and acute fear of loosing my mind over the past several years. I stayed sober from alchohol from late November through the middle of January and although the process was difficult as I continued to suffer from periodic anxiety/depression, I did well with exercise, diet etc., and was releived that I was not dealing with the extreme “episodes” after binge drinking(15 to 20 beers). In early February I went out for my birthday and got shitfaced. . period. . .(approx. 10 SAKI Shots, 5 Draft Beers and approx.10 to 15 bud lights) At the time I thought, ” I deserve this. . I’m 38, a great Father with a beautiful Family,business etc.,”I can handle a hangover now that I am fit and I have been alchohol free for months, ITS MY BDAY right?” WRONG. The next day I not only had a break down, but I now have new and even more sinister symptoms of acute anxiety, like the fear that I am going to snap and hurt one of my children, which I would never do! On top of this I had to go that day with my 70 year old Father to a Doctors appointment in an absolute state of acute fear to be reminded that my Dad suffers from schizoaffective Disorder, which reminded me of a very painful childhood being ashamed of my Father and being told by my mother that I was just like him. For the next couple weeks I obcessed over the thought of being like my Father and met up with a very old and familiar friend of Depression. Racing thoughts, incredibly detailed dreams in between sleeplessness, twitching, obcessive negative and worried thoughts. . OH MY! I thought I needed a vacation so I took my family skiing this last weekend and by the second night with a nice cozy bar by a fire place at my disposal I easily AGAIN talked myself into beleiving that it would be different now that I was on vacation. I had a few Blue Moons and felt GREAT!!! It’s like the remedy to my whole problem at that point. I was in Heaven, , no anxiety, dancing, snow ball fights. . HEAVEN. I could barely get through the next morning. .shaking, severe obcessive mental self punishment with negative thoughts. . . HELL. Later that day it was almost like clockwork, I began a with a cold brew at about 3pm after I muraculously began to feel better after snow tubing later that morning. Fresh snow was falling and I was ready to charge the mountain early the next morning with my kids. By midnight, after being the big hit at the bar, I was probably on my 15th or 16th Warsteiner and headed to my room subconciously trying to block out the inevidable catrostrophic events of the following day that were sure to start unfolding first thing in the morning. And needless to say it was my absolute worst episode yet. I failed to take my children to the mountain as promised, I cried like a baby to my wife, I felt extreme chest pain, and as the day went on the symptoms got worse even with the ingestion of several Valiums. I spent hours reading the internet about mental disorder symptoms as hypochondria seems to be a part of my mess when it gets this bad. 3 days later I am still NOT AT ALL OK. . Need I go on? So whats my point? Well, to those of you guys that are in the stage of beating urself up the next day, or being able to take a xanax and sleep it off, being able to change what you eat the night before to help etc., BE THANKFULL that you have not reached a worsened and/or hightened level of anxiety if it is in fact what you are suffering from versus just being hungover. BUT know this. . I am trying to help not trying to scare anyone and in my opinion, Telling someone who truly suffers from this hell that they can quit for just awhile is very dangerous advice. If you are already feeling any level of anxiety and/or alchohol related depression etc., drinking alchohol at any level WILL worsen your condition. . . PERIOD. Most theropist ARE quacks I beleive that, but if you dont want to end up in their chair, then heed the warnings that your system is giving you. I have watched my Father suffer for his entire life being mis-diagnosed, put through shock theropy and fed harmful drugs that now have left him labled with a multi complex disorder that no one really knows how to treat.My Father started compaining of only anxiety after Vietnam and self-medicated with ALCHOHOL. . . . ??? All I know is that I am done. . I plan to join AA tommorrow and put an end to this forever. . for the sake of my family, Children and most of all, My Dear old Dad.
God Bless all of you and I truly hope you all finf comfort and peice of mind.

I feel like I need to find a primary care physician who I can really talk to about my anxiety (for some reason, I have to convince my doctors that I HAVE anxiety, because I come across as a very upbeat, positive person)…that could reassure me over and over that this is probably nothing to worry about.

That…or is there some kind of post-cancer therapist out there? Because even when I tried therapy, the first thing they would say when I would bring up any physical symptoms would be “well, double check with your doctor to make sure it’s nothing…”

Haha.

Oh well, I CAN tell myself that MOST of the time it’s nothing

good luck and email me if you need to … Cathy

I still do experience the occasional mild wave of anxiety and panic, like if I feel a pain in my arm or my chest I tend to go into freak-out mode but if I just close my eyes and take some long deep breaths I find that my anxiety goes away pretty quick.

I hope that this can be of some help to anyone who is looking for a bit of guidance. It’s great to have found a forum like this that has a small community of us that just want to help each other. Take care of your body because you only get one!

It’s amazing the symptoms you have compared to the same ones I have. I’m 25 and I feel like I’m going crazy because, it doesn’t matter how many doctors or specialists I see, they say that nothing is wrong. I’ve been dealing with the symptoms you have for about 4 years. I am in the military and I try to stay as active as I can to maintain the physical standards I need too. It’s the feeling of running that I do miss the most as well. I decided after my deployment that I am going to continue working out and only try to start slow with progressing the level of exercise slowly. I’ve noticed that I can run 2 miles and most of the time I feel fine. I try to push through any heart palps or flutters I have, because like I said, the doctors do just tell me that it’s anxiety and I’m not going to die from it. I’ve had the same tests you have and everything is normal. The only thing that keeps me wanting to learn more about anxiety and how to deal with it are people I can relate to. Keep up the working out Ray, they do say that exercise is the best way to deal with anxiety.