welcome to HCM!
I have read your question carefully and I must say that it is very well written.
From what you wrote and from my clinical experience , I can say that you have symptoms of
lethargy,
depression , breathing problems ( most probably due to anxiety), visual problems. You used to be anemic but now fine.
now, according to me - you have two sets of problems ---
1. psychological and
2. organic.
The psychological or psychiatric illness looks like combination of anxiety and depression. Youa have been on desvenalafaxine ( prestiq) but looking at your symptom profile , I must say that it is not working at all. Had I been treating you, I would have gone for some other drug....there are many better and effective choices available, which also donot carry any major side effect.
Second peoblem is organic / physical problem. It looks like that you have
postural hypotension, as you feel almost black out,
dizziness occasionally, and weak. Every time you get up, you take few minutes to gain some balance.
You need to get some test done like- blood pressure reading both sitting and lying down position,
thyroid,
hemoglobin. they would check the cause behind this symptom.
Your breathing difficulty and heart aches is actually due to psychiatric problems, as your doctor says. I can understand that you really problem in breathing and you feel choked, but it has a psychological basis rather than physical one. Such breathing problems are frequently seen in such patients in our clinic. With proper medicine this will certainly go away.
### You could not proceed with medication as it needs a silent state of mind and it is not concentrating on something.....
meditation is relaxing....when you have so many issues, you have breathing difficulty, etc., how can you relax? this result in strained meditation and there is headache....ok, so first get better with drugs and then enjoy meditation. No doubt meditation is very good , but only in a proper way with a proper state of mind.
Hope the reply is useful, get well soon!
feel free to ask more questions
Dr. Manisha Gopal
MD psychiatry