8 Symptoms Doctors Often Dismiss As Anxiety
When Vanessa Walilko was in her late 20s, she got strep throat—and then she got it again and again. Because she’s allergic to strep bacteria, she says her illness turned into scarlet fever several times within a few months. Soon, she started having heart issues. After spending a day in the sun selling jewelry at an art fair, she nearly passed out. A friend rushed her to the emergency room, where a doctor asked if she had a family history of people dropping dead in their 20s. When Walilko said no, the doctor told her to learn to better manage her stress and sent her home.
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“I don’t know if I can convey how smug and flippant he was,” recalls Walilko, 41, who lives in Evanston, Ill. “It was unreal—I was so glad my friend was there with me, because I was pretty delirious. I had to check with her: ‘Did I catch all that?’”
Walilko knew something was wrong—yet says clinicians continued to brush off her symptoms. After doing internet research, she figured out..