So just for some background, I've always had a tiny bit of an anxious tendency, but nothing that ever really took over the way it did in the past year or so. Basically last summer one day I saw a rash and bruise on my wrist, decided to google it for some reason and spiralled into some health anxiety over all kinds of horrible illnesses. This caught me by surprise because I'd never dealt with anything like it before, had the intense unbearable dizziness, stomach problems on and off, brain fog, racing thoughts, couldn't sleep, etc. for months on end. This all happened the day after I did a lot of physical activity so of course I developed an aversion to doing basically anything physical.

Fast forward to now, I've had a ton of tests and aside from some incidental findings and high blood pressure (which I'm on medication for, but I still think could be brought on by the anxiety honestly, because it jumps around so much) my doctor hasn't found anything wrong with me. I've started some introductory CBT stuff and started doing some reading and I feel like I've made progress, I don't actually mentally \*feel\* anxious at all, I'm able to interrupt the negative thought patterns and the dizziness is all but subsided. The issue is that I still have these physical symptoms that won't go away (veins in my hands and arms bulge out seemingly at random and my hands and feet burn, I wake up feeling exhausted, my face /neck are so tight all the time). My doctor is great and has told me that while he wants me to try to get ahold of this without medication first, he's absolutely prepared to start me on something for the anxiety if I need it. 

I guess the issue I'm having is that if the mental symptoms have improved so much without the medication, will medication really help the physical symptoms go away? I've heard people say that the medication helps the mental aspect and in turn the physical aspect will be treated, but I feel like the mental part was easier for me? Or something? I realize that of course the physical symptoms are making me more anxious even subconsciously and probably self perpetuating, but I don't know. I guess I'm just wondering if anybody has been in my boat and how the medication helped with the physical symptoms they had?