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Suggest Remedies For Anxiety, Guilt And Phobia

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Posted on Wed, 23 Mar 2016
Question: Need help on physical symptoms
doctor
Answered by Dr. Saddiq Ulabidin (1 hour later)
Brief Answer:
Need to monitor symptoms and run few relevant tests as mentioned

Detailed Answer:
Hi! Welcome to health care magic!

Thanks for sharing your concerns with us.

It is sad to know what you have been going through and all the discomfort you have faced in the recent months. I will try to extend my expertise in order to help you in the best way possible.

We have to take your issues one by one. Your query was pretty short one so I had to back in your previous questions to get some help. Doctors before have indeed have been pretty informative and helpful and discussion which have been done are intended to help you in best way possible, but as there is allways scarcity of followup questions and limitations in online forums, so for extended discussion many follow ups and supportive discussions are needed. So in that spirit, I would just add few things here.

Here I would like to start with your issues one by one.

First of all, this all started about 5 months ago so first thing is pretty clear that you were doing all good before that so this is very important. Then it all started with the experience of unprotected sexual exposures so your concerns regarding HIV or other STDs was imminent. Since in your case there is no rash around genitals ( that off and on redness on skin is nonspecific ) and evidence of other systemic involvement is still not yet proven and all the work up has come out negative.
So that potentially excludes the possibility of all these. However since your concerns are so high that I would rather say we can keep these in list until a repeated tests also turns out to be negative. Though the reliability of these tests is beyond question but the gravity of your concerns is so high that it has started to affect your daily social and family life. If we take that into account, in my opinion there is no harm to repeated HCV PCR and STD screenings alongwith other blood works including CBC and CD4 counts.

Next things to be addressed are your symptoms like shortness of breath or palpitations which have troubled you the most. Since EKG was normal, the second options to rule out the triology of heart, lungs and blood in mechanics of respiration can be investigated further by a thorough chest examination, Xray chest, Echo cardiogram for ejection fraction of heart and any valvular abnormality and pulmonary function tests. If these all are normal then we can safely attribute it to your anxiety as it does lead to such symptoms in many individuals and that can be later tackled by anxiolytic medications after careful discussion with a psychiatrist.

Other issues of lethargy, feverish feelings or lymph nodes or generalised feeling of being unwell can't be ignored either. Though normal ESR and ANA have ruled out chronic or auto immune disorders significantly but repetition of these basic tests, careful fever charting and consultation by a infectious disease specialist and full body examination for any lymph node or even screening by a CT chest and abdomen can be done. I would again dare to say that by saying repetition I don't mean to suspect integrity of those tests but again atypical presentations of the disease does occur in very few individuals and pyrexia of unknown origin is a recognised entity in medicine and needs extensive work up if thermometer shows even milder degree rises.

Finally comes the question about your troubles regrading facing the family and dealing with them with the same confidence as you had before. Brother you need to get over with the guilt of that exposure to social sex workers and you need to move on with your life. You just need to remain more concerned about avoiding such exposures in furture to avoid such troublesome. You can discuss your phobias with a good clinical psychologist and during all the work up for the diseases you are concerned about you can keep close liason with him and share all your non objective fears and phobias with him. If needed he would refer you to a psychiatrist for some anxiety screening. But all in all it is going to be very great advantage for you. Meanwhile extensive your social life, take some time out with your family, go on a drive or hang put with your friends and take some yoga class or join some exercise group and in some time you will start to experience the differences in you.

Wishing you a great and healthy life ahead. If you have any more questions, you can reach me directly through my profile any time in future. Best regards.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Deepak
doctor
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Follow up: Dr. Saddiq Ulabidin (3 hours later)
Dear doctor,

Thanks for your valuable advice. Doctor i am really afraid of going for another rounds of test.
So far i would like to correct, all my post encounters were protected intercourse of 4-5 mins XXXXXXX but unprotected oral ( french kiss ans bj - one time). I was drunk most of the time so not able to check the integrity of condoms but as far as i know ...all were intact.
1.From day till now i dont have any ars and other symptoms except deep guilt and anxiety.
2. I was not able to sleep 2-3 months till the time my tst came negative at 87days mark.
3. Hiv pcn rna and antibody negative along with hep b ,c and vdrl at 87 days mark( 3 months 3 days).
Ana , esr , arthitis , vit d , uric acid , tsh performed at 120 days
4- What i feel my problem is not hiv rather than fear of hiv and anxiety. i need help from physcological specialist on how to deal with that.
5- i was checked my 5 internal medicine doctors ( from appollo , XXXXXXX , fortis , vedanta etc) and two hiv specialist doctors in this forum and none of them recommending me further testings.And suggesting me free from last episodes.
6- I want last opinion medically and fact sheets as per scinence that m good to forgot such fears and free to go back to my family and ways to get rid of these anxiety symptoms ( mild pains anywhere in body, feeling heat , feeling mild fever , palpitations , SOb etc) with out anti depressents like xanax and ceprelax.


Please let me know what would be your opinion.m in saudi and need to go back to home country for further test ( if u recommend)
.
doctor
Answered by Dr. Saddiq Ulabidin (22 hours later)
Brief Answer:
You need to see a clinical psychologist for your anxiety, guilt and phobias

Detailed Answer:
Hi! Thanks for such a valuable feedback. It is good to know that those encounters were safe as far as you can recall. Do that along with normal blood screens essentially rules out all those debilitating illnesses. Now what is left , as you rightly mentioned, is your guilt. You need to overcome that as most of your other symptoms appear to be driven by that. For that as you have mentioned the anxiolytics which you are taking, the most appropriate measures would be to combine pharmacological measures with non pharmacological measures, which include pyshcosupportive approaches including sessions with a counsellor or a clinical psychologist and group therapies or behavioural modification therapies.

These all will help you to overcome your issues in a sustained and more potent ways. You can pay them a visit on coming back to your country but of the gravity is so much that it is interfering with your work then either you should seek councel there or arrange a visit to your country at the earliest. Wishing you a speedy recovery. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. Regards.
Note: For further follow up on related General & Family Physician Click here.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Sonia Raina
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Answered by
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Dr. Saddiq Ulabidin

General & Family Physician

Practicing since :2011

Answered : 3941 Questions

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Suggest Remedies For Anxiety, Guilt And Phobia

Brief Answer: Need to monitor symptoms and run few relevant tests as mentioned Detailed Answer: Hi! Welcome to health care magic! Thanks for sharing your concerns with us. It is sad to know what you have been going through and all the discomfort you have faced in the recent months. I will try to extend my expertise in order to help you in the best way possible. We have to take your issues one by one. Your query was pretty short one so I had to back in your previous questions to get some help. Doctors before have indeed have been pretty informative and helpful and discussion which have been done are intended to help you in best way possible, but as there is allways scarcity of followup questions and limitations in online forums, so for extended discussion many follow ups and supportive discussions are needed. So in that spirit, I would just add few things here. Here I would like to start with your issues one by one. First of all, this all started about 5 months ago so first thing is pretty clear that you were doing all good before that so this is very important. Then it all started with the experience of unprotected sexual exposures so your concerns regarding HIV or other STDs was imminent. Since in your case there is no rash around genitals ( that off and on redness on skin is nonspecific ) and evidence of other systemic involvement is still not yet proven and all the work up has come out negative. So that potentially excludes the possibility of all these. However since your concerns are so high that I would rather say we can keep these in list until a repeated tests also turns out to be negative. Though the reliability of these tests is beyond question but the gravity of your concerns is so high that it has started to affect your daily social and family life. If we take that into account, in my opinion there is no harm to repeated HCV PCR and STD screenings alongwith other blood works including CBC and CD4 counts. Next things to be addressed are your symptoms like shortness of breath or palpitations which have troubled you the most. Since EKG was normal, the second options to rule out the triology of heart, lungs and blood in mechanics of respiration can be investigated further by a thorough chest examination, Xray chest, Echo cardiogram for ejection fraction of heart and any valvular abnormality and pulmonary function tests. If these all are normal then we can safely attribute it to your anxiety as it does lead to such symptoms in many individuals and that can be later tackled by anxiolytic medications after careful discussion with a psychiatrist. Other issues of lethargy, feverish feelings or lymph nodes or generalised feeling of being unwell can't be ignored either. Though normal ESR and ANA have ruled out chronic or auto immune disorders significantly but repetition of these basic tests, careful fever charting and consultation by a infectious disease specialist and full body examination for any lymph node or even screening by a CT chest and abdomen can be done. I would again dare to say that by saying repetition I don't mean to suspect integrity of those tests but again atypical presentations of the disease does occur in very few individuals and pyrexia of unknown origin is a recognised entity in medicine and needs extensive work up if thermometer shows even milder degree rises. Finally comes the question about your troubles regrading facing the family and dealing with them with the same confidence as you had before. Brother you need to get over with the guilt of that exposure to social sex workers and you need to move on with your life. You just need to remain more concerned about avoiding such exposures in furture to avoid such troublesome. You can discuss your phobias with a good clinical psychologist and during all the work up for the diseases you are concerned about you can keep close liason with him and share all your non objective fears and phobias with him. If needed he would refer you to a psychiatrist for some anxiety screening. But all in all it is going to be very great advantage for you. Meanwhile extensive your social life, take some time out with your family, go on a drive or hang put with your friends and take some yoga class or join some exercise group and in some time you will start to experience the differences in you. Wishing you a great and healthy life ahead. If you have any more questions, you can reach me directly through my profile any time in future. Best regards.