Nice post, great story,

Your experience reminds me much of my own over the last few years. I too have drastically reduced the amount of worries that I carried over this time. Your list of symptoms is very familiar to me as well, having had all of those regularely, including the weight loss.

I've also gone through the "alternative" phase where I was desperately searching for other forms of therapy and treatment, not for my anxiety but for Crohn's. Tried the herbs, the diets, the lifestyles and the "ways of thinking differently" but nothing worked. I don't regret taking any of it, but I realise that it was a mistake on my part. At one time I was taking about 10 different "herbal supplements" to try and find some relief. I am just thankful that the alternative route is largely filled with crap that doesn't work, because if those pills and tablets that I'd taken actually did something I might have damaged myself. But that's a learning experience and I won't ever be making the mistake of actually believing that homeopathy, Chinese medicine, herbs and plants will cure me of my problems! One such quack I fell for was making claims about how eating only raw vegetables will cure every disease known to man, along with drinking "ionized" alkaline water. Looking back, I'm absolutely ashamed of myself for being so easily duped by what I now see clearly as bullshit!

I find your list of methods interesting. What's more interesting to me is that your approach is a completely different one to that of my own. Only a few of those are simliar to me, and those are eating better and exercising more... probably something everyone should do.

I've said this in the past, that you've got to know you're alright, but I never truly believed myself when I said it. From an intellectual point of view, I understood that these symptoms were harmless, but that wasn't enough to convince me I was going to be fine. There's something else at work in trying to come to the realisation that we're not in harms way, and it isn't  intellectual reasoning. I firmly believe that learning and understanding about the symptoms we present goes a long way in helping us to come to terms with what's happening, but taking that knowledge and information, along with the facts, and then actually assuming a position in which you know without doubt that you're fine, is something that I still ponder. I don't know how I did it and I would really like to find out just for the sake of knowing. It bothers me that I don't know why, but at the same time I'm truly thankful to Dr. Rane and the forum members for being around when we need them.

You should join the RLRs thread "Here's a Question for All of You" and share your experiences in there.

George.

Thanks for your insights George.  Yes, what works for some won't necessarily work for others.  What I wanted to point out here is that the things that controlled my symptoms unknowingly were addressing the cause which I didn't recognize because I was so focused on my symptoms.  When I look back I noticed that all the things that worked for me shared one thing in common.  They all worked on reducing the underlying anxiety that I didn't believe I had because I never felt stressed.  The only stress I had was around me focusing on my health all the time and worrying about the palps.

In retrospect, I went through my due diligence and saw my doctors and specialists. Intially I kept going through the phase that they had missed something.  I then realized, at some point I actually have to have to believe the doctors who are treating me.  With that epithany, I sustained my disbelief that it wasn't caused by anxiety and focused on the fact that the palps couldn't hurt me.  At one point, I was encouraging the palps to happen to prove to myself they won't hurt me.  I'm actually in a mindset now that I welcome the palps when they happen especially after reading about someone who had an abalation (sp??) and the problems that occurred after he got rid of the palps but felt worse after.  He also wished the palps would return.

So in summary the things that helped me infact cured the anxiety that I didn't believe I had.

Regarding the question on acid reflux or GI problems.  It was part of the due diligence as I believed I had it.  After seeing my GI specialist, they told me I had no problems.  I accepted that and I didn't question if he had missed something.

With respect to anyone who has chest pains and believes they "may have acid reflux", I'm not quite sure how acid reflux gets confused for other types of chest pain(s). I've had mild, moderate and severe reflux over the years and never once mistook it for some other kind of pain. It was quite clearly a mild-severe burning in the throat. A corrosive acid in the gullet is not really mistakable is it? Sorry to be abrupt about this, perhaps it's just me.

Hi Typer.