Increased anxiety causes VSD, neurosis and other psychosomatic problems

VSD and phobias

Phobias prevent a person from living. They become aggravated when the nervous system is subjected to severe tension, for example, as a result of stress or overwork. The same thing happens during attacks of vegetative-vascular dystonia - due to a malfunction of the autonomic system, obsessive and groundless fears suddenly appear and need to be fought.

Among the complaints of patients with VSD the leading ones are:

• fear of death;
• fear of attack;
• fear of open spaces;
• fear of crowds;
• panic in the subway;
• fears of illness.

Most often, patients are haunted by the fear of death with VSD. The patient may worry about both his own life and the lives of his family and friends. This condition is quite understandable: when the pulse quickens, breathing problems and disorientation are observed, the patient is afraid for his health and from this the fear of death is born. Since attacks can become more frequent and their symptoms worsen over time, fear takes deeper roots.

Often, patients with VSD develop a persistent fear of the next attack. This is due to the fact that without proper treatment, the vegetative crisis intensifies and the number of frightening symptoms increases. Fear of a new attack aggravates the patient’s condition, since, due to the destructive effects of psycho-emotional stress, the load on the patient’s nervous system increases many times over.

The peculiarity of such conditions is that they are acquired as a result of autonomic dysfunction and intensify with the worsening of the symptoms of autonomic disorder.

There is no need to endure and continue to live with fear. It is quite possible to get rid of it on your own, without medical help.

Enjoying life without vegetative-vascular dystonia and anxietyPavel Alekseevich Fedorenko

Vegetovascular dystonia (VSD)

Let's look in more detail at what it is. Let's remove misunderstandings and myths associated with this phenomenon from your head. Why am I now touching on vegetative-vascular dystonia? Because many people, firstly, do not have a correct understanding of what it is. Secondly, many people confuse panic attacks with VSD and anxiety. Some people do not have panic attacks, they have increased anxiety accompanied by symptoms of VSD. They experience obsessive states and obsessive thoughts.

To generalize, with both panic attacks and VSD, the main problem is increased anxiety. It is anxiety that provokes many vegetative reactions. Firstly, we will look at specific recommendations on how to remove this anxiety (in the second part of the book). Secondly, we will work directly with a panic attack (the book “A Happy Life Without Panic Attacks and Agoraphobia”), because this is a separate problem, I would say, closed.

How does vegetative-vascular dystonia appear? Let's say you lived for yourself and lived without knowing grief from any symptoms. Yes, very rarely you could feel dizzy, your stomach could hurt, your heart rate could increase, but you didn’t attach any importance to all this. You lived an ordinary human life. You might have thoughts like: “What if I die? What if I do something wrong?” But you didn’t “get hung up” on them. You switched to something else, and everything went away.

But one morning you suddenly woke up and felt pain in your chest on the right, for example. For some reason it seemed to you (and you also smoke) that something was wrong with your lungs. You scroll this thought over and over in your head. At the same time, you also pass the session. You don't sleep before an exam - you're anxious. Come back from the exam and go to the toilet ten times in 20 minutes. It would seem that after a sleepless night, just sleep. But frequent trips to the toilet keep you awake. And you don't understand what's happening.

Naturally, your pain gets worse. You browse the Internet to read or hear what is happening to you. The conclusion you draw is disappointing: lung cancer. You begin to look for symptoms of the disease in yourself. Chest pain on the right is getting worse. And you think that everything is exactly like that - you were not mistaken with the diagnosis. At some point you feel an increased heart rate and get scared by it. It seemed like it wasn’t there, but then it appeared. You experience dizziness, unsteadiness, and weakness in your body. And then you get stomach pain and you start to feel nauseous.

Finally, you go to the hospital and they tell you: “Yes, you have VSD. Here, take anaprilin, and the heartbeat will go away. You're just worried. You have a session, exams.” VSD? What is this? Like this?

You don’t understand what’s going on, and you’re surfing the Internet more and more. In such cases, many people end up on the “Anti VSD” forum and others like it, which ultimately worsen the condition tenfold. You start watching videos, reading about some symptoms, and following the doctor’s recommendations. You feel better for a while. But the symptoms do not go away.

At some point, you experience a malfunction of the heart, the so-called extrasystoles (I had more than 20,000 extrasystoles per day). You don't understand what's wrong with you. You experience back pain and dizziness. You look at the world, and everything seems to you like in a movie. And then the thought arises: “What’s wrong with my brain in general? Maybe I already have brain cancer or am I starting to go crazy? You begin to think about your heart: “What if I have a heart attack or something like that could happen?” Gradually you limit yourself in physical activity.

Doctors tell you that there is nothing wrong with you, you just have VSD. But this abbreviation doesn’t tell you much. You do an ultrasound of the heart, an MRI of the head, and check the stomach to find out what is wrong with you. But the doctors tell you: “Everything is fine. We don't find anything." And one day, in some situation, you develop wild fear. Your heart is pounding, you are afraid of panic and think something like: “Well, that’s it! I'm dying."

You read somewhere that people have heart attacks even at a young age. You remember this, and then a wild panic overtakes you. You run in a vicious circle and end up in panic disorder with agoraphobia. You start carrying pills like anaprilin or phenazepam with you. Previously, you knew nothing about such people, but now you have become close friends with them. You experience new symptoms - one replaces another.

Hellish pain appears in the chest and back. You experience heaviness in the stomach, intestinal upset. Your heartbeat is rapid, and when you get up, everything goes dark before your eyes and you feel dizzy. You don't understand what's happening to you. All this is familiar to me firsthand. I have encountered all this myself. This is how panic disorder with agoraphobia is formed. My symptoms were dominated by cardiophobia.

Whenever you feel bad, you become fixated on your problems and don't understand what's going on. You are tormented by numerous questions. You go online or to the doctors again. And they say: “We don’t know what’s happening to you.” Meanwhile, you develop an anxiety disorder, derealization or depersonalization. Moreover, many doctors do not even know what this word means.

Let me give you another example. Let's say you are in high school or college. You got nervous and something hurt. You went to the doctor. They took your blood pressure, and your reading is 180. And they say to you: “Wow, so young! Now you're going to have a heart attack. Go to intensive care immediately!” Reanimatologists are called. The boil is rising. After this you begin to fear high blood pressure. And now you measure it every now and then.

Now you are afraid to leave the house. The main problem is no longer derealization or palpitations, but blood pressure. This is exactly how VSD began with one of my clients, and now friends, who lives in Moscow and studies in the 11th grade. The doctors themselves brought the matter to the point that he developed panic disorder and agoraphobia. Imagine: they told a guy who had lived in the world for 16 years that he had a heart attack, even though his heart was healthy!

They simply explained to him incorrectly what exactly his problem was. After that, in one year he called an ambulance more than 500 times. Think about it: more than 500 times! I had never heard of this before. But it's true. The guy managed to solve his health problem. Recently, while talking with his mother on the phone, I found out that he had already entered college!

Think for yourself, how afraid do you have to be to call an ambulance more than 500 times a year? This guy felt panicky fear for his heart. He literally shouted: “Mom, ambulance!” Her mother called her, and the ambulance arrived. Over and over again, until they gave him a laxative, because they were simply tired of driving along the same route. The doctors were tired of constantly going to the alarmist’s address, while there were many calls for other seriously ill patients. The guy was simply given a laxative at night to “relax.”

There can be many symptoms of VSD. And medical examinations that say that, judging by the tests, you do not have any problems, while your condition is simply terrible, are not an indicator. If you feel heat in your body, tingling in your limbs, see spots in front of your eyes, sweat, if you have ringing in your ears and feel dizzy, all this indicates health problems. At the same time, you are constantly afraid: someone might lose consciousness in public, someone might not get to the toilet on time.

Norm or pathology

Being afraid of something is absolutely normal behavior for a person. However, fears can be justified or unfounded. Reasonable fear is an instinct of self-preservation. Having received a burn, a person begins to handle fire carefully. He is afraid of getting burned again, and this is absolutely normal.

Unreasonable fears underlie phobias and accompany various mental disorders. The fear of death in an absolutely healthy person is unreasonable.

If panic accompanies a person constantly, we should talk about an unreasonable feeling that should be gotten rid of, since it not only poisons life, but also negatively affects the nervous system.

The root of phobias in VSD

An unreasonable feeling of fear does not arise just like that. This usually happens to those who are experiencing an attack of VSD for the first time. Suddenly, a healthy person began to have problems with lack of air, his heart began to pound and he developed a pre-fainting state. At the same time, the patient gets scared, and this is an absolutely natural reaction of the body.

Fear of death is natural for a person, but only when something threatens him. Patients with VSD often develop causeless thanatophobia, which imposes significant restrictions on their lifestyle. Thus, people with this phobia are constantly afraid of dying - as a result of an accident, asphyxia, illness or accident.

Fears with VSD are simply a manifestation of neurosis. A phobia has no objective causes, therefore it, as such, does not exist, and the patient himself imposes these fears on himself.

This contributes to further disruption of the nervous system. The patient lives in constant stress, expecting death at any moment. As a result, such a disorder of nervous activity is a neurosis that must be treated.

Neurosis provoked by the fear of death is characterized by the following symptoms, which are expressed in one way or another in every patient with VSD:

• mood instability;
• emotional stress;
• fixation on fear;
• irritability;
• increased sensitivity.

Having gotten rid of neurosis, the patient gets rid of fear itself. This is difficult to do, it will take a lot of effort and time, but the fear will go away completely.

Causes of fears

Phobias tend to worsen during times of severe stress on the nervous system. With VSD, fear hormones are released into the blood, which remain in it for some time. After the first attack, a person is afraid that these panic attacks (PA) will happen again. A vicious circle is formed - the more the patient is afraid of these attacks, the more often they occur.

Main phobias in people with VSD:

• fear of death;
• fear of another attack;
• fear of going crazy with VSD;
• fear of crowds and being in open and closed spaces;
• panic attacks (PA) in transport.

In addition, signs of VSD are:

• headache;
• weakness and chills;
• sleep disturbance;
• cardiopalmus;
• increased body temperature;
• dyspnea;
• lack of air.

In this condition, there is an intense release of adrenaline into the blood.
If at least 4 symptoms are detected, especially when there is a fear of death during VSD, the patient is worried about a panic attack. The patient begins to worry about his life. This condition is explained by the following: when the pulse increases, breathing failures occur, and the person becomes disoriented. Over time, the symptoms of the attacks intensify, and the feeling of fear takes deeper root. During PA, the following happens:

• strong fear appears;
• adrenaline is released;
• panic arises, which further increases the release of adrenaline;
• a panic attack occurs.

Why is fear dangerous?

Fear in VSD is a dangerous and poisonous condition, and should be avoided by all means possible. Captured by this feeling, a person begins to impose certain restrictions on his life, for example, minimizing social contacts.

The feeling of anxiety can be temporary or intrusive. With autonomic dysfunction, panic attacks often develop that accompany a vascular crisis.

A panic attack is characterized by a complex of psycho-emotional and somatic symptoms that are superimposed on the symptoms of VSD and poison the patient’s life. There are often cases when, due to illness, a person becomes withdrawn and gloomy, he is tormented by constant fears and internal tension. All this negatively affects the nervous system and provokes its exhaustion.

Causes of VSD

External factors causing the development of VSD are acute and chronic psycho-emotional stress; iatrogeny; infections (tonsillogenic, carious, bacterial, viral); physical and chemical effects (brain injuries, chronic intoxication, hyperinsolation, vibration, ultra-high frequency currents, ionizing radiation), alcohol abuse; overwork.

The interaction of internal and external factors leads to disruption at any level of the complex neurohumoral and metabolic regulation of the cardiovascular system, and the leading link in the pathogenesis of VSD is damage to the hypothalamic structures of the brain, which play a coordinating and integral role in the body. Neurologists, neuropathologists and reflexotherapists believe that the leading role in the development of VSD is given to hereditary-constitutional factors, which manifest themselves in the form of functional insufficiency of the regulatory structures of the brain or their excessive reactivity; features of the course of a number of metabolic processes and altered sensitivity of the peripheral receptor apparatus. Dysregulation manifests itself in the form of dysfunction of the sympathoadrenal and cholinergic systems, histamine-serotonin and kallikrein-kinin systems, disorders of water-salt and acid-base states, oxygen supply to physical activity, and decreased oxygen in tissues. All this leads to the activation of tissue hormones (serotonin, histamine, catecholamines) with subsequent metabolic disorders, microcirculation with the development of degenerative processes in the myocardium.

How to get rid of fear

There are two ways to overcome fear: with the help of a specialist (psychotherapist) and on your own. Each method has its own characteristics and disadvantages.

If the patient is not confident in his abilities, he should seek help from a specialist, but this path will not be easy. You can get rid of a phobia through individual sessions or group psychotherapy sessions.

To get rid of fear on your own, you will need to spend a lot of effort, but the advantage of this method is obvious - taught by experience, the patient will not leave the phobia a chance to take over his thoughts again.

To start fighting a phobia, you should remember one main rule - a person’s whole life depends on his way of thinking. Therefore, you should get ready for the fight. You need to get rid of doubt and uncertainty and be confident in your victory.

Rules for getting rid of fear

To get rid of a phobia in vegetative-vascular dystonia, you should follow several rules:

• learn to relax;
• normalize your own schedule;
• master breathing exercises.

The first thing you need to realize is fear itself. You need to understand what causes it. Awareness of fear is already half the success. Feeling how this destructive feeling takes over thoughts again, a person should relax and concentrate on the external. You need to take your mind off your own thoughts.

Normalizing your schedule and adjusting your lifestyle will help you get rid of factors that have a destructive effect on the nervous system. An eight-hour workday should be adhered to. Every day you need to set aside a few hours for yourself. This time can be spent walking, going to the gym, or practicing your favorite hobby. It is important to spend several hours every day relaxing, throwing away all worries and worries. Night rest should be 8-9 hours. It is also important to stick to a schedule - going to bed and waking up at the same time every day.

Learning to fully relax your own body is a difficult task, but it guarantees an improvement in your psycho-emotional state. To relax, it is recommended to do yoga. It is also important to master breathing exercises - they will come to the rescue during the next attack and help you pull yourself together in order to achieve a final victory over fear.

How can we defeat VSD ourselves by eliminating the causes of its occurrence?

So, having understood the causes of vegetative-vascular dystonia and eliminated them, we can understand how to finally overcome VSD, and therefore forget about its unpleasant symptoms forever.

Spinal problems

All kinds of diseases of the spine - osteochondrosis, hernias, curvatures and other problems are the cause of not only VSD, but also many other human diseases, decreased vitality, and imbalance of many body systems.

A healthy body is impossible without a healthy spine, you must understand this.

By compressing blood vessels and nerve fibers that connect to the brain and other organs, an unhealthy spine causes many symptoms of VSD. Even panic attacks and other mental problems can occur due to poor blood supply to the brain and compression of nerve endings.

You can put your spine in order only with the help of light physical activity on it, that is, gymnastics, as well as with the help of massage, osteopathy or manual therapy. To apply high-quality massage or osteopathic methods, you need to contact specialists, but no one will do gymnastics for the spine for you.

I will say more, as soon as you start performing such gymnastics every day, after some time you will solve a lot of problems, not only defeat vegetative-vascular dystonia, but also get rid of other diseases that do not seem to be related to the spine and you will do it yourself. Everything in our body is interconnected. It is no longer a secret to anyone that many diseases are a consequence of diseases, curvatures, hernias and other problems of the spine.

Static hatha yoga asanas also help well, but I still recommend performing the exercises in dynamics. With a slight movement without pain, you can put the spinal column in order. An ideal option when you perform hatha yoga asanas in motion without stopping or when one asana smoothly flows into another.

Special gymnastics are also used to treat the cervical spine.

Weak vascular tone and weakened nervous system due to poor lifestyle

If we lead an unhealthy lifestyle and often experience stress, then the blood vessels weaken, the nervous system becomes unstable, and the balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems is lost. As a result, we begin to experience the well-known unpleasant symptoms of VSD.

We will talk about stress separately, because this is a very important point in getting rid of vegetative-vascular dystonia.

Now it is important to understand that a bad attitude towards your body often leads to VSD, and to get rid of it you just need to take the path of gaining health, start leading a healthy lifestyle, and stop abusing your body.

Of course, not everyone’s disregard for their health leads to vegetative-vascular dystonia, but there is a category of people for whom a small malfunction in the body is enough for VSD to immediately knock on the door.

1. These could be bad habits: alcohol, smoking. They destroy the entire body, and the nervous system fails very quickly. Smoking constricts blood vessels. Alcohol leads to damage to both blood vessels and nerve cells, and to the death of the latter.
2. A sedentary lifestyle, for example, constantly sitting in the office at the computer, at home watching the TV. To be healthy, the body must move; this is the only way the blood vessels and nervous system will always be in good shape.
3. Poor and unhealthy diet.

We often eat unhealthy food, which, instead of giving us strength, takes away our energy, leads to obesity, and pollutes our body.

Read the article about the top unhealthy foods.

Also, many people have the habit of eating quickly, without chewing their food thoroughly. And if while eating we think about bad things and experience stress, then this will lead not only to problems of the gastrointestinal tract, but also to vegetative-vascular dystonia.

Many people are allergic to certain foods, which are often considered harmful. The person doesn't even know about it. Now you can find reviews of people who stopped eating flour products and their symptoms of VSD, as well as panic attacks, went away.

They simply stopped consuming gluten, which is present in wheat products. You can read more about the dangers of bread by following the link.

It has long been known that constant consumption of coffee and tea, as well as large amounts of refined sugar, can cause nervous system failure, that is, the occurrence of VSD.

4. Lack of sleep, constant hard work, lack of rest.
   If you work a lot, do not devote time to proper rest, sleep little, the sympathetic nervous system begins to wear out, and the parasympathetic system does not turn on. Of course, such incorrect operation will cause a malfunction, and then signs of VSD will appear.

   Sooner or later you will begin to feel a loss of strength, and then you will develop chronic fatigue syndrome along with VSD. If you don’t do anything, if you don’t start to rest properly, your body won’t survive. If you get a more serious illness, then you will certainly rest, but in a hospital bed.

So, in order to forget about VSD forever and start living a normal life, we need to strengthen our blood vessels, strengthen the nervous system, and restore the balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic. To do this, first of all, you need not only to eliminate those unfavorable factors that I just mentioned, but also to train your blood vessels and nervous system.

Of course, we have enormous reserve forces, the body’s ability to self-heal. If we eliminate harmful factors, stop poisoning and mocking him, he will begin to gradually restore himself.

But to speed up this process, you will still need to help him.

What will need to be done?

Now you'll find out.

But first we exclude harmful factors.

1. Let's stop drinking and smoking. This is unconditional, you must understand this. You can read how to stop drinking here.
2. We exclude harmful foods from the diet. Read the article about which foods are harmful to the body by clicking on the link.
3. We reduce, or better yet completely eliminate, the consumption of refined sugar during recovery.
4. We reduce, and even better, completely give up coffee and tea. It is better to drink chicory or fireweed tea.
5. Also consider avoiding flour products that contain gluten.
6. Reconsider your attitude towards work, adjust your sleep and rest schedule.

By doing this, you will give the body the green light to heal itself.

Next you need to help the body and start training and recovery yourself.

1. Walk outdoors every day.
2. Don't forget about physical activity. It must be remembered that heavy sports are not suitable for those who suffer from VSD. But he is not needed. Daily walking in the fresh air will be enough to significantly alleviate the condition and even for many to completely get rid of dystonia. Skiing, cycling, and swimming are also very useful. The main thing is to give the body a light load, and not to sit constantly at the computer at work.
3. As I already said, you need to perform hatha yoga asanas or gymnastics for the spine in the morning. The same gymnastics will not only restore the spine, but also give a slight load to the body, which is very important for vascular health.
4. Many patients with VSD note the beneficial effects of contrast showers. It trains blood vessels very well, thereby helping to get rid of dystonia, and generally heals the entire body. You can read about contrast showers here.
5. Eat right and healthy food. Your diet should be varied, excluding junk food. Eat more fruits and vegetables. Avoid excesses, as well as any newfangled diets and techniques. Don't go to extremes. You don't need to be a full-fledged vegetarian, raw foodist, or anything else. In our Russian climate, such methods are not suitable for everyone.
6. Savasana and yoga nidra will help you restore the balance between sympathy and parasympathetic. Many got rid of VSD just by simply doing them.

Medication methods

Features of the psycho-emotional state in VSD are determined by the state of the nervous system. Drug therapy prescribed for panic attacks will help speed up recovery and get rid of unpleasant symptoms.

For this use:

• sedatives;
• antidepressants;
• nootropics;
• tranquilizers.

The most gentle medicine is sedatives of plant origin. They act delicately and require long-term use. It is better to take such drugs before bed - this will help get rid of insomnia and have a better rest at night.

Antidepressants improve psycho-emotional state, relieve stress and internal tension. However, to obtain the necessary therapeutic effect, these medications must be taken for a long time.

Nootropics are prescribed to improve intellectual abilities in various disorders of the nervous system, including panic attacks and vegetative crises. These drugs improve cerebral circulation and relieve some of the symptoms of the physical manifestation of fear - disorientation, rapid heartbeat and increased blood pressure.

Tranquilizers help fight phobias, depression and other mental disorders. These drugs act effectively and quickly, but have a depressing effect on the nervous system, causing drowsiness and inhibition of reaction. The disadvantage of the method is that the body gets used to such medications and when you stop taking the pills, withdrawal syndrome is possible, when the initial symptoms of a nervous system disorder return.

Why do panic attacks occur during VSD?

The provoking factor (trigger) that sets off a chain of vegetative and mental disorders in the body can be psychological trauma, hormonal disorders and external influences. An interesting fact is that repeated crises do not always occur for the same reason that caused the initial attack.

The most common psychogenic triggers are:

• family quarrels, separation of spouses;
• conflicts or problematic situations at work;
• illness of a loved one, death of friends, relatives;
• negative information in printed form or in video materials.

Hormonal disorders, against the background of which VSD with panic attacks develops, can be periods of puberty, menopausal decrease in hormone synthesis, pregnancy, childbirth.

Sometimes patients note deterioration associated with the menstrual cycle, the beginning of sexual relations, abortion, or taking hormonal medications.

External reasons for the development of crises are poisoning with alcohol, drugs, certain medications, changes in climatic conditions, fluctuations in atmospheric pressure, magnetic storms, and prolonged exposure to the sun. Strong mental or physical stress can also be an irritant for patients with dystonia.

What is important to know

Medicines effectively help with disorders that accompany VSD, but they have one significant drawback - the patient gets used to the fact that the pills help to calm down and does not consciously fight the problem.

It should be remembered that medications should only be prescribed by the attending physician. Self-administration of pills without control can lead to the development of various complications, as well as aggravate the course of the disease.

A feeling of uncontrolled fear may indicate various mental disorders and organic pathologies. Before starting treatment, you should undergo a comprehensive examination by a neurologist, which will help make sure that the phobia is a consequence of VSD and not a symptom of another disease. After confirming the diagnosis, you can begin treatment, both medicinal and independent, aimed at learning to control your own emotions.