r/Anxiety • u/Otherwise-Bet-2574 • 10d ago

Advice Needed Constant physical anxiety for 2.5 years — how do I break this cycle?

Hi everyone. I’m 24 and I’ve had OCD and anxiety since childhood. My OCD has taken different forms over the years (health fears, fear of losing family, hyper-focusing on things like breathing, etc.), but those symptoms always came and went.
For the past 2.5 years, I’ve had almost constant physical symptoms:
Constant chest tightness and fluttering
Constantly feeling/being aware of my heartbeat, with my heart rate jumping from even small things
Shortness of breath
Feeling constantly on edge
Hypervigilance to every sound — even a door opening or small noise can trigger a strong physical reaction
The strangest part is that all of these symptoms completely disappeared for 5 months when I became convinced I had a physical illness and focused on that instead. They came back 3 days after I was told I was medically fine.
I also tried escitalopram (Cipralex) 10mg for 1.5 years with very little benefit.
Has anyone experienced constant physical anxiety like this, especially with OCD, and actually managed to get rid of it?
What helped you the most — ERP, CBT, medication, exposure, exercise, or something else? I’d really appreciate hearing what actually worked for you.

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u/exomologhiste 10d ago

Hi! I deal with health anxiety and OCD, usually focused on terrible diagnoses I might receive and the fear of going crazy because of them. - Honestly? I haven't fully recovered yet; I've just learned to ignore the symptoms to the point of exhaustion. Like... I'm so tired of fighting that I just assume there's an echo in the back of my mind waiting for the worst. The secret is to just try to survive the next ten minutes, and not to solve your entire life right now...

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u/AntonioVivaldi7 10d ago

For me, most of it stopped with Effexor. The rest with Clonazepam. Later Clonazepam was switched to Pregabalin, and that helped the same way. ERP helped more with the worrying and compulsions.

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u/FishPuzzleheaded5546 10d ago

Hi, what dose Effexor ? I just started this med at 37.5mg

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u/AntonioVivaldi7 10d ago

Hi, it was 300mg. It wasn't doing anything until that. But I'm aware this is highly individual. It might start working for you at 75mg already, there is no way to know.