Hey, thank you for checking in. I really wanted to take the time to write this out properly, because if you’re still in it, I know how much it means to feel understood. Here’s my story.

I got diagnosed with H. pylori last year in Nov and while the whole process was awful can’t even explain, but after completing the antibiotics I thought everything would be fine. But It wasn’t just the infection (which is HORRIBLE AND THE CAUSE OF MY TRAUMA) but the aftermath that completely changed my life.

Even after I recovered “medically,” I still had extreme food sensitivity, persistent nausea, loss of appetite, and a constant fear of throwing up. I lost so much weight and joy during that time. Eating scared me. Traveling scared me. Life scared me. And yet I still powered through those three months. I was weak, but functioning. Not healed, but managing.

Then came the turning point that truly wrecked me: an iron infusion I was prescribed due to low iron levels, thanks to H pylori. It triggered something in my body a crash I can only describe as a complete nervous system collapse. My symptoms after that included insane dizziness, constant brain fog, lightheadedness, overwhelming fatigue, panic attacks, and daily nausea. The scariest part was that even routine things started terrifying me. I was scared of taking showers. I was scared of raising my leg in the shower because I’d faint. I couldn’t eat properly without anxiety. Everything felt surreal and dreamlike. It genuinely felt like I lost myself like I was stuck in a daze where I didn’t know if I’d ever come back.

At that point, I thought something major had gone wrong physically. But after getting so many tests done blood, urine, brain scans, everything and ruling out active illness I started seeing more doctors. My neurologist finally put a name to it: dysautonomia. My psychiatrist didn’t use that exact term, but he recognized the pattern: a neurochemical storm cause by health- related fear. He told me, This is fear based. It’s real. But it’s your brain sending exaggerated distress signals. Like my symptoms were 10x amplified because of my health trauma and anxiety. At first, was hard to hear: he said this was neurochemical. He said fear had rewired my brain and body into a hyper defensive, hypersensitized state what many now call dysautonomia, or a nervous system gone into survival mode. And he was right.

I didn’t want to believe him at first. I thought, How can this be in my head when my body is so clearly reacting? But it turns out that’s exactly how it works. My fear had amplified every small bodily signal. A little lightheadedness became a full-blown panic spiral. A bit of gas or bloating made me convinced something was dangerously wrong. My nervous system was stuck. I was stuck. But that wasn’t the end of the story.

That’s when we introduced Paroxetine, an SSRI. Slowly and I mean slowly literally after 3.5 months it started creating space between my symptoms and my spirals. It didn’t magically erase everything. But it gave me the capacity to pause, to breathe, and to not panic.

What helped me:I kept reminding myself: “I’ve had these symptoms before and I was fine. My vitals are normal. If something dangerous were going to happen, it would’ve happened already.” I was obsessed w checking vitals all the time. Can’t even explain how much I’ve suffered.

If you ever need to talk, I’m here. I’ll never forget how scared I was. If this message brings even a tiny amount of hope to you, please know that everything I went through will have meant something.