Q: I am 25 years old. Two years back I was handling the household and office work. I was working for a firm which would demand a lot of work from me resulting in the job becoming stressful. One day while chopping vegetables I fainted and fell on the ground. Later I was asked to leave that job. My sister was diagnosed to have tuberculosis. Due to anxiety I felt uneasy and giddy. Its been two years since this happened. After the anxiety I used to get backache. I consulted so many doctors and got X-ray, CT scan, blood sugar test done but all my reports were normal. The doctors gave different answers - Anxiety attack, depression, postural defect etc. I still feel slightly giddy at times when my mother-in-law argues. She is very domineering. For the past one year she is not able to get her younger son married as a result she fights with me quite often. My feet tremble. I can't balance myself. Please advise me what to do?

A:From your letter it is clear that you have gone through a lot of stresses! Have you been looking after your health - for instance regular food intake, adequate rest and exercise and in view of our climate, good water intake? When one is stressed it is very easy to neglect these basic things. This may have led to your first episode of fainting and giddiness, which continued to feed on itself as stresses continued. You do seem to be worried and anxious from the tone of your letter. Discussing your life situation and trying to solve your problems in as mature a way as possible is the best solution. You can do this by either trying to resolve your problems your self (possibly by making a list of problems and their different possible solutions), or talk it over with a sympathetic relative ( maybe your husband) or consulting a good clinical psychologist who can take you through a course of psychotherapy or undertake counselling for you. Medication, if at all can only be a partial and temporary solution for a problem like yours, based in real life stresses. Yogasanas and meditation also help people in situations such as yours.