Anemia-provoked anxiety

February 26, 2021 11:51 AM

I've had chronic iron deficiency for many years, and am scheduled for another round of IV iron starting a week from now. When I get really low it starts to cause anxiety. I was doing fine on the anxiety front but I just had the most godawful 12-day period and lost a ton of blood and it seems to have been the last straw. What can I do about anxiety that's purely physical? Meditation, watching All Creatures Great and Small with my dog on my feet, etc., don't have any effect at all, because it's not actually a mental thing.
posted by HotToddy to Health & Fitness (21 answers total)

Sometimes I get things like this & what helps me is to reframe it as being sick right now. I am sick right now & don't feel well, that is why my heart is racing & my brain thinks we're scared. I can't do very much today because I'm not feeling well. Because I lost a lot of blood & don't have enough iron, my chemistry is all out of whack and I just can not be very effective until that's resolved. When I feel my brain give me signals like there's something to be scared of, I know it's just a symptom of my chemistry being off balance temporarily. Reframing helps me not get carried away by the feelings.
posted by bleep at 12:28 PM on February 26, 2021 [6 favorites]

I hope this doesn't seem like a tangent, but why are you having 12-day periods where the only treatment is to give you IV iron? I do apologize if you've already gone through all this, but in my experience women are often not told that these kinds of menstruation issues are not normal, should be carefully investigated, and may be treatable. (The amount of misery I lost to no one explaining certain things to me--!)
posted by praemunire at 12:32 PM on February 26, 2021 [3 favorites]

Wow! I'm sorry I don't have any advice, but will be watching this thread with interest, as I suspect I'm in the same boat.
posted by too bad you're not me at 12:33 PM on February 26, 2021

Response by poster: It’s due to a fibroid in the uterine wall, but I’m close (likely within the year) to menopause, and it’s already actually shrinking, so I’m just trying to wait it out. It’s not normally this bad—as I said, I was doing okay until this latest turn of events. But actually I would say that this is not exactly abnormal for perimenopause, at least according to my reading. Seems like having everything go batshit before drying up is the norm.
posted by HotToddy at 12:42 PM on February 26, 2021 [2 favorites]

(Seems like having everything go batshit before drying up is the norm. Yeah, that's what I think a lot of us are told, and thus suffer unnecessarily. But it sounds like you've gone into it, so NVM.)
posted by praemunire at 12:45 PM on February 26, 2021 [2 favorites]

I don't suppose you may be open to consuming some products made of... animal blood? Pig blood curd may be available in some Chinatowns. British equivalent is "black pudding".

As for what to do about your state of mind... Have you thought about starting a gratitude journal?
posted by kschang at 12:52 PM on February 26, 2021

Vigorous physical exercise makes a big difference for me (running in my case, yoga also good), but YMMV.
posted by penguin pie at 1:03 PM on February 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

Acupuncture has been one of the only things that helps chill my anxiety. I've found a good rhythm where I go in either the week before or after my period, and it helps blunt the severity of my anxiety. My acupuncturist recommended black strap molasses every day to help with my iron deficiency, and following that diligently gave a major shock to my system. It helped curb a lot of the anxiety and depression, for like the first time ever. That might not be the right solution for you, but I was genuinely so surprised to get some relief after so many years.

Long-term management doesn't solve in-the-moment spikes, though. You really want to flush out the cortisol in your system that's causing your fight-or-flight anxiety feeling. Deep breathing is super important; it helps to find your favorite breathing gif to guide you. Progressive muscle relaxation helps your mind focus on bodily sensation, which brings your brain back from a spiral. A full body scan just noting all the sensations you're experiencing can help as well; I like to go through inch by inch and really focus on how my toes are feeling in my shoe, how the shoe puts pressure on the inside of my ankle but not the outside... very slowly. Physical sensations do a lot to slow down the brain panic, and that eventually stops your body from producing so much cortisol.

It also took me a very, very long time to realize that a successful anxiety tool doesn't end the feeling, but prevents it from getting worse. If I'm already feeling discomfort, it's because something went wrong ages ago and I can't fix that now. Long-term management is for prevention; deep breathing and body scans are just to prevent it getting worse in 2 hours.
posted by lilac girl at 1:19 PM on February 26, 2021 [4 favorites]

Is it possible for you to get a small prescription for benzodiazepines (Xanax, etc.)? I find when my anxiety is purely physical, that's the best way to get it to shut up and go away.
posted by fiercecupcake at 1:20 PM on February 26, 2021 [6 favorites]

Drinking a lot of liquids helped me, especially juices and sodas because you've just lost a lot of liquids and tissue to replace. Chocolate by the pound. And just taking it the hell easy because losing that much is a shock to the body. Watch your balance, it can get to you via light-headedness too.

(Also, tranexamic acid is The Bomb for stopping bad fibroid-related periods.)
posted by I claim sanctuary at 1:32 PM on February 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

I don't know if this will be at all useful, but there was a recent Ask about what it's like to have a panic attack, and some of the commenters mentioned submerging their face in cold water to trigger the mammalian dive reflex to counter the attack. So I was thinking that some of those techniques might be useful in your case where it sounds like it may be a physiological thing involving your sympathetic nervous system.
posted by heatherlogan at 2:08 PM on February 26, 2021 [2 favorites]

Sometimes I get an anxious belly feeling that doesn’t go away with exercise or anything, and I take a small amount of cbd, usually a tincture or a gummy.
posted by jeweled accumulation at 2:13 PM on February 26, 2021

I find walking/pacing to be helpful, particularly if I haven't otherwise managed to get much exercise recently.
posted by plonkee at 3:03 PM on February 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

First of all from one anemic anxious person to another, just want to say I am sorry you’re feeling this way and it’s so real and so awful! Treat yourself delicately because like, your body is trying its hardest but doesn’t have the resources right now. Can you add lots of iron rich things to your diet?

I’m lucky because a lot of them are my favorite foods. I love chopped liver, which has liver of course plus eggs and onions, all of which have different forms of iron that help each other get absorbed and utilized more effectively than just alone. This can stress my GI system if I overindulge but it makes a noticeable difference. If chicken liver is a no, mussels and oysters have a lot of iron too. A nice bowl of steamed mussels with crusty bread for dipping and a kale Caesar salad on the side to get your heme and non-heme iron sources? Sardines and dried fruits (my favorite is dried figs) are also more accessible, less perishable sources. So is tofu, and enriched cereals. Try to eat something with some vitamin C at the same time, to help absorption. That can just be lemon in a salad dressing, tomato sauces, a small glass of orange juice.

Engaging with food in a conscientious way like this has a big added benefit for me in that focusing on it provides an anchor for my anxiety. Makes me feel like I’m doing something about it and can help stop that negative feedback loop. And really good or special food can distract me from how poorly I feel.
posted by Mizu at 3:51 PM on February 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

Progressive muscle relaxation targets physical anxiety and may help.
posted by shadygrove at 4:05 PM on February 26, 2021

Seconding the suggestion to ask your healthcare provider for a prescription for a benzodiazepine tone used on an as-needed basis. It will absolutely improve your symptoms.
posted by little mouth at 5:32 PM on February 26, 2021

Chamomile might help in a subtle way. Celestial Seasonings Tension Tamer tea is also pretty good.
posted by Comet Bug at 7:47 PM on February 26, 2021

Oh no. I have the physical anxiety response from low iron too, and also from gut issues. Doing things to address the physical symptoms helps a bit for me - walking or rowing to get my heart rate up; deep breathing exercises; and hot baths followed by stretching.
posted by t0astie at 1:50 AM on February 27, 2021

Do you know what your vitamin d levels are? I had pretty severe anemia, and that coincided with low vitamin d. It also coincided with anxiety for me. I don't know if the two are related. There seems to be some evidence that low vitamin d is related to anxiety though. Might be worth checking.
posted by Zumbador at 4:15 AM on February 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

I don't know where you live but... weed really can help.

Also vitimin d mentioned above, I second it as a fellow anemic.
posted by wellifyouinsist at 8:00 AM on February 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

I found that a can of baby clams (whole) added to pasta sauce is a boost to low iron for me, and they hang out easily on a pantry shelf. They are inexpensive and are earthier (mushroom like) than other canned clams.
posted by childofTethys at 8:06 AM on February 27, 2021