Today is a little public service announcement about anxiety. For most of my life, I have been lucky to be free from physical and mental health concerns. Here and there, I have had symptoms appear and then disappear after a short time, but I’ve had it pretty good all things considered.

However, it would appear some combination of starting school and undergoing two health emergencies in the past year are a recipe for some anxiety. About 8 to 10 years ago I experienced some shortness of breath for brief stints here and there. I was tested for asthma and generally given a clean bill of health. Since I have a family history of this same symptom, I stopped obsessing and over time it went away.

Fast forward to this past summer and fall. In the past few months I have experienced intermittent shortness of breath, heartburn-esque symptoms, chest and back and rib pain, and a sore neck. After seeing close to a dozen doctors (not including hospital time) in the past year to address these and other unrelated concerns (including eye problems and iron deficiency), I finally made an appointment to see a doctor a week or two ago about the chest pain. I wasn’t concerned that I was having a heart attack, but I just wanted to know that I didn’t have some kind of freak lung infection or other scary abnormality.

Within the context of this doctor visit, I became emotional. I admitted to the doctor (not one of my regular doctors) that I was worried about my health but not sure why. After examining me and asking a litany of questions, he basically told me that he could refer me to someone to discuss this anxiety. He did, however, send me downstairs for a chest and rib x-ray to rule out any of the “scary stuff” I mentioned above.

Not my personal x-ray… just a picture from the web

As he predicted, the x-rays were normal. Now I’m left with no more answers from before, but arguably one of life’s biggest NEW stressors to add into the mix- an $800 x-ray bill (no not counting any of the other doctor visits or labs).

So tell me this, my friends- after all, I’ve been quite honest and forthcoming with my personal feelings and symptoms….

What are your experiences with anxiety or physical manifestations of stress? Do you suffer from annoying physical symptoms like these? Do you have ways to share about how to deal with it?

Meri