OCD's Physical Side Effects

[ivybasil]

Hi all! Hope you're doing okay. Wondered if I could ask for some advice and experiences about physical symptoms of anxiety. As much as I think I could cope with the unwanted thoughts in my head right now, the physical symptoms of anxiety are flooring me something terrible right now! 

It's like someone has just switched something off in my brain and food just isn't interesting/appealing and is a chore. It took me hours to eat lunch yesterday, and the morning I spent 40 minutes trying to eat a banana was just ridiculous. I am eating though. I've had a sensible, substantial dinner the last two nights, and a proper lunch most days, with help from family. I keep having tummy trouble and I just feel exhausted! I perk up a bit in the afternoon but it's just sort of waves of anxiety! Racing heart, breathless, sweating, the works. 

But I feel weak and shivery. When the anxiety peaks, it's like someone has tipped water over my head and it's like a wave going through me. I'm trying but I feel like my body is just disagreeing with me! 

How do you strike a balance between allowing your body to feel ill, and just trying to keep active? 

For example, I've felt too ill in the morning to drive any distance so it's putting me off going to uni. That sort of thing.  

A good old dose of health anxiety also has me going "am I ill?"  I do have to repeat a blood test for inflammation so there's a chance I maybe l am feeling a bit ill, and I do have a fatigue condition but this feels harder to manage. Just looking for advice about how to get through this! Thank you for reading  

[Lollipop]

How are you today @ivybasil?

[Handy]

Chronic anxiety is not normal.  Did you get a blood panel to see if you’re getting nutrition & proper thyroid hormones?

[ivybasil]

On 12/08/2021 at 21:18, Lollipop said:

How are you today @ivybasil?

Hi Lollipop, I've been struggling a lot this week but trying to take it one day at a time  It helped just to have shared this, I think. I managed to go to work the last couple of days though, and being busy seems to be helping. It's just that my anxiety levels don't feel very steady at the moment and I'm struggling to eat in the mornings! Just trying to accept it and eat when I feel more able later in the day. It'll pass, I think, but in the meantime it's exhausting! Hope you're doing okay? 

[ivybasil]

16 hours ago, Handy said:

Chronic anxiety is not normal.  Did you get a blood panel to see if you’re getting nutrition & proper thyroid hormones?

Hi! Thanks for replying. Ironically, I had bloods done the day this got really bad as I was feeling ill the week before. All my nutrition and hormone markers have come back within normal range. I have to redo the test for an inflammatory marker, so I could have been fighting off an infection of some kind. I was a bit worried about thyroid function and stuff too. I do think I need to make another doctor's appointment and review my OCD treatment properly again.