Physical symptoms of anxiety

[rachel23]

Hi,

I’ve suffered from ocd on and off for many years. Each time I recover, normally after spending 6-8 months in ocd hell, I feel really good, live a happy normal life and my obsessions barely bother me. If I get them , which is rare, I’m able to simply dismiss them.

ive been doing very well for about 6 months and then bam, ocd just hit again a few days ago. It started with an awful thought that I just then ruminated about over and over and then couldn’t sleep that night and it’s just spiralled from there. I’ve gone from being happy, loving life and feeling content 4 days ago to not being able to sleep, so scared of life and wondering if it is going to last again for month and months. I’m also feeling panicked physically all the time, my head is wired and apinning, my vision has gone blurry etc. It makes day to day living hell and I don’t even want to do anything or go anywhere. I’m so shocked , scared and devasted at how quickly this hell has come back.

im trying so hard not to go over the thought and just let them be as that is how I got better before, although this took about 6-8 months.

what can I do about the physical symptoms of anxiety? Does anyone have any advice, I’ve tried breathing, yoga , meditation etc but my mind and body just feel wired. Just been to the doctors who wouldn’t give me diazipam (it worked before) but have given me propranolol which I’ve never had before.

any advice is welcome! Thank you 

 

[taurean]

Propranolol is helpful. It's usual use is as a beta blocker to bring down high blood pressure but it also works well in this capacity. 

I have it prescribed if I get into a similar state to what you describe Rachel. 

But the best psychological method I have found to break free from such an anxiety cycle is mindfulness. 

This book will help you understand what is going on. "The mindfulness workbook for OCD" by Jon Herschfield and Tom Corboy. It teams CBT and mindfulness together. 

When we learn how to switch focus from the active "doing" part of the brain to the benign "just being" part of the brain, we shift away from the obsessions and compulsions. 

Learning how to slip into the mindful state showed me how to switch away from constantly-Repeating OCD intrusions in my mental chatter, which would keep me stuck in episodes of OCD. 

Another little gem of a book is "Mindfulness on the go, peace in your pocket" by Padraig O'Morain. 

[PolarBear]

Take a step back and reread your post. You got an intrusive thought. And then you immediately reverted to old, bad behavior and did compulsions. Physical symptoms followed.

If you didn't do the bad behavior, you wouldn't have the physical symptoms.

[Wonderer]

On 06/03/2019 at 15:13, PolarBear said:

Take a step back and reread your post. You got an intrusive thought. And then you immediately reverted to old, bad behavior and did compulsions. Physical symptoms followed.

If you didn't do the bad behavior, you wouldn't have the physical symptoms.

I agree somewhat but sometimes the physical symptoms last a long time after the OCD is under control, I got my OCD under control and still to this day I have physical anxiety at times although they’ve gradually come down to a very minimal level, the doctor told me that my body was conditioned to be on high alert because of the severity of my anxiety. Once I accepted that they were just false alarms I began to get along with my symptoms, it didn’t happen overnight but eventually they will settle, best thing to do is to not fight against them because then it making them relevant, just accept the symptoms but continue to do everything u normally do without allowing them to stop u living life.x

Edited March 7, 2019 by Wonderer

[rachel23]

Thank you for your replies x