Q:
Do I have an anxiety disorder?
I'm a 19 year old female and for the past two months or so I cannot seem to keep my worrisome thoughts under control. I worry about things that are VERY unlikely to occur. I don't worry all the time but when I start to have these thoughts they seem to domino, and once they start I have a VERY hard time trying to logic myself out of panic. This has never happened before.
Also,
my stomach is almost always upset
I have soft stools
I have chest pains (in the middle and to the left of my chest)
Sometimes I wake up a good hour before I have to get up and cannot go back
to sleep
Decreased appetite
Now I'm worried this will affect my period. I'm on hormonal birth control (nuvaring) and I'm supposed to start my period on Saturday. Will all these anxious feelings disrupt my cycle?
A:
Yes, this sounds very much like an evolving anxiety disorder and it warrants a discussion with a counselor or mental health provider to look at ways to help your symptoms. It is possible for anxiety to disrupt your hormonal cycling, but if you are using hormonal contraceptives, that can tend to override the influence of the anxiety on your menstrual cycle. If your period is affected, it is not a problem, but is inconvenient, and can tend to cause pregnancy worries because of erratic bleeding.
~The Doc
