Coping With Anxiety

What happens when everyday worries get out of control?

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I have known Marion for a while. She has said that she has “always been a worrier” – about school or friends, job, family, house, money, anything and everything.

She came to the surgery a few months ago, worried because she had started to have palpitations. She was aware of her heart beating faster than normal for a few minutes. This had been happening for about a week and when it came, she felt all sweaty, shaky and sort of panicky.

Marion was worried about her heart, but I was also worried about her worries! We organised some investigations and these all came back as normal. Once we’d ruled out the physical causes we could concentrate on what else could be causing her palpitations.

Marion’s description made them sound like a panic attack. They began after a round of redundancies at work and her beloved cat dying. Marion had been feeling much more anxious than normal, and normally she was anxious!