Help, What's wrong with me! Stress? M.E.? Lupus?

[Lalafedup]

I've been ill for nearly two years now with depression and anxiety problem and am on medication for this.

But what i'm asking about is... for the last 8 or so months i've been suffering with a number of physical symptoms, my doctors said it could be stress but things are getting worse and worse and i just wondered if anyone has a clue as to what could be wrong...

I'm tired all the time, even after sleeping all day i'm still exhasted. If i try and resist sleeping i can headaches and dizzy. I get stomach pain daily now and yellow diareahha pretty much every other day. I get migraines, my muscles ache. My physical abilities vary so much from day to day. One day i can walk and walk, another day i can't walk upstairs without needing a rest.

I get rashes a lot in the evening which itch like mad and come up in hives which then disappear again over night. And the other day i got a burning sensation in my chest and throat (like really severe heartburn) followed by violet vommitting for hours.

I really don't know where to turn my doctor keeps putting it down to stress but even when my stress levels are low i feel awful. If it is stress then how can i help myself stop the physical symptoms. Anyone got any clues?

[Eve]

What is your diet and daily routine like?

Do you work or study or similar and do you get any exercise?

Have you been abroad or had a bad illness in the past few years or had a major event like a death?

Could you be making some of the symptoms get worse themselves eg if you sleep more your body sometimes craves more or might kick off into a migraine and make you achy, especially if if's used to getting more sleep than normal.

Has your GP done any tests previously like blood tests? Things like lupus can be picked up (or indicators found) in blood tests as can any problems to do with your liver or infection, anaemia etc...

If so, did they pick up on anything or come back normal?

Have you been referred for any therapy or prescribed anything to help your anxiety?

Could you make a diary to show your GP of your daily routine, diet and how you feel. It may help you both figure out what might be causing what and how to help you better.

[LaughingGirl]

I think you should go back to your GP and insist, you get some blood test done, or a referal to the hospital.
I know stress causes a lot of different types of symptoms,
I have had different things that have happened to me over stress,
I think you should be checked out.
Hope you feel better soon.

[nannon]

I have the tiredness you express and the physical exhaustion. Like you say one day I can walk for aged and feel fine but some days getting up the stairs is a problem and my breath gets caught in my chest. Headaches are almost constant dull achy ones because I am concentrating on staying awake to much. I have also been known to collapse out of pure exhaustion.

Sometime my right arm will 'stop' working; I can�t pick up a bottle to drink out of. This usually happens on days where I am extremely tired.
And I have had symptoms like this for two years and finally diagnosed with M.E. a couple of months back.

M.E. is typically, strangely enough, associated with Irritable Bowel Syndrome which could maybe explain the tummy aches and upset tummy. And also very linked with stress and depression. I think my M.E. and all symptoms do flare up when I am stressed, as when I am stressed I start to worry about getting ill and it turns into one nasty cycle! If I can't fall asleep I start to panic that I will be tired the next day, and will get ill etc which leave me exhausted than ever!

I have occasionally had a rash but to be honest i am not sure if that is linked - however my sometime my exzema flares up more that usual on my arms.

i think would have diagnosed Lupus by now if it was that - and also a big factor of lupus is hair loss (I had alopecia when i was younger and they thought it was lupus!) They would have found taht through blood tests i think as it is when you body produces a ....virus? that attacks your own immune system.

Have they checked for glandular fever? This is what i had originally a couple of years ago and due to not resting it developed in to M.E.
cont.....

[nannon]

I have been told there is no way to treat it, but because I do really suffer with stress, OCD's, depression they want me to try cognitive behavioural therapy to change my thought patterns.

I hope you get a diagnosis of some description soon, and hope it is not M.E!! Although I know there are much worse illnesses out there, life threatening ones, I must say I am struggling to come to terms with the fact that I have this and they cannot tell me if I will get better! Am only 23 and feel like an elderly lady some days!!! But the worst thing is not knowing what it is! I eventually asked to see a specialist - maybe you should as well. I went to see a blood and tropical disease specialist...

Feel better soon,
x

[Lalafedup]

Thank you so much for your answers.

Nannon - I really know what you mean. I'm 28 and i feel like an oap most days!