Anxiety and Chemo

whippetiggy

I have had anxiety for many years. Anyone else? I feel that chemo makes my anxiety worse. I find myself having a lump in my throat, heart palpitations, tenseness. Does anyone else experience this?

Summer2016

Hi. I had never experienced anxiety not even through my BMX. Chemo has become a different story for me. I believe it is partly due to the 10 years of hormone based migraines that I have suffered. Intense head, neck pain with congestion and a feeling of my left eye being about to pop out of my head. And oh yes throwing up for hours. This occurs either before during or after my period every month since age 39. This is exactly what has caused me to fear chemo----I'm tired of throwing up for hours and all the head and eye pain, therefore I worry that chemo will be that and perhaps even worse for me. And when I began not sleeping not eating and obsessing over it, I knew it was time to ask for help when deep breathing etc....didn't work. I finally discussed it with my Oncologist who gave me Xanax. I just started taking it today and I already was able to focus on other projects and relax a bit from the chemo obsession. I even took a 20 minute nap! I realize others on here have been able to handle chemo with yoga, meditation and relaxation techniques alone which is very encouraging. We are all individuals leaving us to deal with life events differently. I hope others one here will share their ideas and techniques that have helped them. I wish the best for you and wish you peacefulness at this time!

whippetiggy

Thank you. I've been doing Reiki and it works for that day, but the longer I get chemo, the more anxiety I get. Or so it seems that way. I'm going to talk to my onc. this afternoon and see what he says. I wonder if this is normal. I would imagine chemo could give anyone anxiety.

jumbledbamboo

Bring up the heart palpitations just to be sure it's not any reaction to the actual chemo and you don't need extra benadryl. So on that note. I took Xanax and slept. Every time. I completely understand.

whippetiggy

I've had palpitations for 20 years. Had them checked before chemo also. They keep checking on my heart. All has been good. I'm sure it's just nerves. I really need to get Xanax.

stephincanada

Does your blood work indicate that you might be anemic or iron deficient (low ferritin? I had pretty severe anemia last year and had heart palpitations/anxiety. I noticed that they completely disappeared after I had a series of iron transfusions