Hello everyone,
My name is Rachel and I am a recovering hypochondriac with GAD and PD. After a very rough 5 months, I was doing pretty well the last few weeks until the other day. The anxiety is back and I am back to constantly fighting the sense of impending doom. My face, head, neck, shoulders and now my arms are tense and sore. My chest is tight, my resting heart rate is on the high end of normal and it feels hard to breath but it isn't. My stomach has been upset, I am bloated, have heart burn and acid reflux. One part of my brain is screaming "You're dying!" while the other more rational part of my brain is calmly saying "No, you are not dying, those are classic symptoms of anxiety. All of your systems aren't shutting down all at once. Calm down, drama queen."

I believe there are 4 roots to my problem. 1) I hurt my foot last week so I haven't been able to exercise and haven't felt like getting up and cooking something healthy to eat. 2) We had a water main break in our area so we have been under a boil advisory for a few days, so my water intake has went down and my pop intake has went up. 3) This was the last week of the winter semester. 4) April 30th would have been my late fiance's 32nd birthday.

I have been pushing myself to fight the anxiety and accept that it is just anxiety. I do not want to leave the couch, let alone leave the house but I pushed myself to go to a friend's house, meet two people from Facebook to buy a new pair of shoes and bathing suit (no worries, I took my boyfriend and met in very public places for safety reasons), and go grocery shopping. I keep telling myself that if I can just accept its anxiety and relax I will start to feel better. (Not working yet.) I plan to resume exercising tomorrow and will be having Sunday dinner with my mom (its like Mini Thanksgiving: a baked stuffed chicken, with a bunch of side dishes). The boil advisory was lifted today so I will be drinking more water. The semester is officially over and I have gotten past April 30th.

I am confident that I will start feeling better in a few days, especially since I took the time to express my feelings on here. Thank you to anyone who reads this. I really just did it for therapeutic reasons, but if anyone has any advice or encouraging words please feel free to comment.