One of the really tuff symptoms on Dercums Disease is anxiety.
It does feel a little different from normal anxiety – so I feel anyway. I can of course only speak for myself. I know anxiety is a big part of how Dercums influence my daily life, and I have to work on it constantly, to not let it interfere with my happiness.
Inner turmoil
Inner turmoil seams to be my biggest source of feeling anxiety. It can feel almost like being shaked from inside or as constant being
touched by electric shock. For many years I thought it came from histamine or food allergies, and it is very bad in the pollen season. So some has to do with allergens in the environment. I will write about food that I have to avoid in another blog post later, but I know that food plays a big role in the anxiety feeling, when having Dercums.
Meditation and taking it easy without stress does help to, so it is not clear to me where the inner turmoil comes from. Is it physical or psychological?!
It is not possible to remove the inner turmoil completely – at least not for me, and I believe it is hard to differ inner turmoil from anxiety. I might not have anxiety at all, but a feeling of a constant small panic attack in my body. This makes me anxious for trying new things, trusting myself and many other things. So it is a source of a lot of spend mental energy.
Confusion
Confusion is one of the cognitive challenges in Dercums to, and it does not make anxiety better. I have a feeling, that confusion can come from using a lot of energy on tackling anxiety, so maybe it is the other way around. But being a little confused is like not really being prepared for the next thing that will happen, and making me a little anxious about trying new things.
Stress
People with Dercums tend have very low resistance against stress. Some are extreme, and feel stress even from the smallest challenges. It is not always rational, and it takes a lot of effort, to not go down the stress rute.
Stress is known to lead to anxiety, and I believe that stress has to be a main focus point for people with Dercums. It is SO important to create a stress free daily life.
Pain
Pain is ofcourse a source of anxiety. It can be so frightening to feel pain! Especially if you don’t know the reason. Pain in Dercums often come and goes and moves around. A sudden feeling of a knife in the leg, of course gives a psychological response to.
Smaller pain are also building up stress in the body, so again, it is a strange circle of symptoms that builds up each other, making a cocktail-feeling of anxiety that is difficult to treat.
Insomnia
Not being able to sleep or having difficulties falling asleep or waking up to early, really puts stress on Dercums-patients. I believe this makes us more adaptable to anxiety.
