yep, went through a spell of it when doing course work ( work related )

email me if you want more info, rather than on here.

hiya debz.  I had something similar with all those sypmtoms plus I also had overbreathing (where you don't think that you will breath if you don't think about it, but then you breath too much oxygen and get a bit dizzy and the floor feels like it's moving.  I was ok when I was asleep, and when I was exercising.  The quacks couldn't work out what it was: they put me on beta blockers, and then travel sickness tablets for the nausea and moving floor.  I gave up going to see them as neither helped.

I found out by a process of elimination,that I had an intolerance to caffeine.  I'd drunk coffee, tea, coke, redbull, proplus etc fine for years.  But as with anything, sometimes too much can either stop something from having any effect, to your body becoming intorlerant.  I think what was happening was that the caffeine was making my body produce too much adrenaline, which it does naturally when you go into fight or flight mode.  Because, I was doing neither of these it caused the effects of anxiety.  That's probably why I was ok when I was exercising.

Just stopping taking caffeine can cause other effects - headaches etc.  Maybe reduce over a week and then have a day when you don't drink tea, coffee or coke and see if it helps.  If not then it's probably not caffeine, but might be worth a try, as I've found a few other people that have had similar symptoms when they'd been fine drinking coffee and tea for years.  Oh and btw Green tea has quite a bit of caffeine in it too.  Fruit tea, red bush tea, herbal tea etc are ok.  De-caff tea and coffee still have a small percentage of caffeine so 3-4cups can give the same effect as one cup of regular.

Hope this helps, and you feel better soon and try to relax. 

propanalol is used to prevent panic attacks so I assume that is what your GP thinks you are having.  Have you mentioned to your GP that it is fine when you exercise, they might refer you to an exercie program.  Which with your recent health problems would be a good way of building up fittness without over-working yourself.  When I was building back up to fitness (I lost everything and tried to cycle to Rivi and died) I used a heart rate monitor to ensure I wasn't pushing too hard.

If you have any sort of illness the body tends to shut down and concentrate on geetting better, hence why you often feel run-down for a long time.  Physical illness often goes hand in hand with mental illness.

I've emailed you as well Debbie.

deb don't be sorry thats what we r all here 4. Anxiety and illness are interlinked, but first they must exclude physical illness by a good check up. I am doing part of my msc on pyschosocial aspects for my cancer patients, often feeling down or fretful goes hand in hand with fatigue.... I actually just had a fascinating lecture looking at the link between exercise and improving anxiety, firstly enjoy exercise as it can create a feeling of socialising and wellness and can slow down fatigue (sounds unlikely I know!). Maybe you also need to look at what is linked to the feeling of panic is it a bad illness experience, is it stress or family issues for example and explore how this can be overcome, have you got anyone close or access to counselling. There is an NHS programme:

http://www.expertpatients.co.uk/public/default.aspx?load=ArticleViewer&ArticleId=500

excuse the term expert patient, what it actually means is taking control back of your well being and becoming an expert of yourself, it involves relaxation and all sorts...