Health Anxiety, vision problems, hot flashes. Expert opinion needed!

Mental health
1

My name is Sean and i'm a 34 year old male in fairly good shape (215 pounds). I run 2 miles per day. Last year was pretty stressful for me searching for a job, bills, new job, etc. I felt alot of stress and some anxiety but I always seemed to manage my emotions without loosing control, and I can shamefully admit that I medicated with alcohol most nights to take the edge off.

Well in October of 2014 I lost my grandfather who helped raise me so he was basically like my father. I took it kind of hard and wept for a day or so but THOUGHT I was over it because he doesn't have to suffer anymore. Well on December 17th I woke up with a slight hangover so I decided to take a BC powder for my headache.  I began feeling anxious which I attributed to the over consumption of alcohol so I took some bach rescue remedy and some Lithium Oratate which I heard is good for anxiety.

Well 15 minutes later I became very warm (hot flash) followed by a fast heart palpitation which landed me in the emergency room. I told the doctor the only medicine i'd been taking is Prevacid and amoxicillin from the dentist. I have continued to get palpitations, and hot flashes with new occuring symptoms ever since. I've been tested for everything under the sun from a MRI, MRA, Gall Bladder scans, Stool Test, Chest X-rays, heart echo, eye test, bone scans, blood word, etc. The only thing they have found is that my thyroid is in NORMAL range but on the hyperthyroid end 0.56 (0.34 being abnormal), my testosterone is in the NORMAL range but is on the low side 347 when it should be in the 600's. I was also low in Vitamin D 23 (with 30 being low) which I have been supplimenting for.

My symptoms have expanded over the last few months and now i'm experiencing the following, at different times:

Hot Flashes / excessive sweating

Heart palpitations

Extreme Anxiety

Eye Floaters

Weird vision/ unreality/ wierd head/brain numbness or pressure

Cold or tingling hand and feet

Muscle twitches in random areas

High frequency ringing in ears (only occured a few times)

Neck and upper back stiffness/ popping (No Pain)

Googling my symptoms has made everything WORST and pushed me to what now feels like a nervous breakdown.

Although I have tested negative for lyme disease, (Elisa/ and western blot), a guy from another website still insist that I have lyme disease.

I would love to hear from some of the more experienced anxiety sufferers to see if this is indeed health anxiety or something else.

Thanks, Sean

 

2

I feel your pain lastvyear was VERY stress full for me my father died of liver cancer (alcohol related), I got divorced, my son was diagnosed with autism, I had two surgeries for a hydrocele (and ensuing medical bills) that were successful but left my testicle 2 times its normal size (which pretty much eliminates any form of future realtionships for me) and I was homeless for a few months. During this time(around July) I started to get fatigued which is not normal as I am an avid gym goer and im in pretty good shape (I'm 37 years old) I thought I might bebover training as I had been doing doubles at the gym (strength in afternoon cardio at night) so I cut out a day or two at the gym.the fatigue never went away and in September I started getting major "brain fog", extrem thirst, joint pain, extreme hunger and anxiety attacks. I had blood work done it came back normal so I went to neuro she said she didn't think it was neurological ans sent me on my way so I went to endo she did blood work as well and it came back normal. Most recently I have started getting very itchy, my vision seems "off", brain fog is worse, I have muscle spasms in my quad and tricep,upper and lower back is always sore, pulsating tinnitus and I often wake up in the middle of the night feeling like I cant swallow which only makes my anxiety even worse. Im kind of at a loss what to do I cant afford to keep having tests done as I have a 2000 dollar deductible and so far all tests have come back normal.

3

Hi sean, what you're experiencing sounds alot like anxiety, its good that you've gone and got yourself checked out. Trust me do NOT google symptoms anymore, i google my symptoms every single day because anxiety effects with my daily life (bearing in mind that i'm only 14 years old) and it comes up with things like heart failure and stuff. None of the stuff you google is true which can worsen your anxiety. I think i have GAD but i havent been confirmed. If it helps to know what i get then i can list my symptoms for you to reassure: 

- shallow breathing (feeling like i cant breathe and gasping for air) every day 

- heart palpations 

-heart beating extremely fast all the time 

-chest pain and a tight feeling 

-armpit pains 

-shaking/trembly feelings 

-sweating in cold and hot 

-feeling dilusioned in my head and feeling weird like im here but im not 

-trouble with staying asleep 

- panic attacks

I hope this helps and i hope you feel better soon, hopefully you get down to what you think it is to keep your mind at rest. 

4

Thanks Ella14984 that makes me feel somewhat better. I also have sharp chest pains from time to time which I forgot to mention.

patsfan5777 I hope we both find out a solution to our problems because things are getting unbearable. I do suspect that this is anxiety but i've ALWAYS been able to shake it with anxiety tricks i've acummilated over the years (welcoming the anxiety, etc), but this feels like another level that I wasn't prepared for.

I'm sure that Google is to blame for alot of it. When I started using google for symptoms they were only chest pain, heart palpitations, and hot flashes. Now as you can see from my list I have accumilated quite a few more since then, which are probably all due to panic (fearing the worst). I believe the first 3 are due to a hormonal imbalance of some sort that my natural doctor is trying to get to the bottom of.

 

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I completely agree, i think google is sometimes the big problem here, us people with anxiety tend to think of the worst things and believe the negative which makes us work ourselves up and question if there's something else that is really wrong! I hope you start to feel better soon,

all the best! 

6

I started off with a bad neck Sean,and by the time I'd finished googling I had ALS.

1) Twitches (everywhere, but mainly my thumbs,fingers,biceps and thighs)

2) vertigo

3) hallucinations (red traces)

4) insomnia

5) numbness (face)

6) Cramping (legs)

7) loss of appetite

8) Brain fog (I would mumble my words)

This was all down to googling my symptoms.Ella is right,you sound like you've got GAD.

7

Hell fire Ellie, someone of your age shouldn't be worrying about their health. When I was 14, I didn't have a care in the world.

8

Hi Sean, all your symptoms sound to me to be anxiety related, ive no doubt that your GP would confirm this and perhaps prescribe medication to help you through this episode.

N 

9

I guess i can't help it, im just unlucky, im the only person i know experiencing this at my age but its because of a family trauma.

10

Wow we must be related lol. Well it's weird how you can worry yourself into acual bodily symptoms. If you would have asked me about anxiety 4 months ago I would have told you that anxiety can be beaten fairy easy (I beat it before thanks to an anxiety program) and it's easy to control with acceptance (don't fight it) and positive thinking....boy was I wrong.

Now I see that there are different LEVELS of anxiety, some which affect the self conscious body. Not only do you need to concuer it mentally, your body (In itself) also has to be retrained not to be anxious.

11

Thanks mate, my doctor actually did prescribe me antidepressents to help me cope while we figure things out, but it's very hard for me to take them. I have lexapro and lorazepam. I haven't taken any of the Lexapro. I've only been FORCED to take 2 lorazepam 5mg over the last 2 months when things got extremely bad and i needed to function, other than that I don't take them because I don't want to become dependent on them and now I have a NEW problem.

We don't have anxiety because we are Benzo or antidepressant difficient lol, so there is an underlining cause that we need to figure out thats making us this way. You may be deficient in one thing and I may be deficient in another. My natural doctor said people suffer for years sometimes before they realize that it was a thyroid, pituitory gland, adrenal gland, iintestinal infection, mold, hormone imbalance, etc that's driving their body out of wack.

I have to see her again friday to get some of my test results, so hopefully I can find the answers as well as solve problems for someone in a similar predicament.wink

12

Meds never worked for me,took them for 3 months and got nowt from them. My anxiety from beginning to end (I say end,I mean when I felt normal,I still suffer slight bouts of anxiety,but they're getting less and less and they're very mild) lasted about 12 months,but there was a peroid of about 4 months where I was in a very dark place.Couldn't sleep,eat or keep still (due to the cramps in my legs). Are you getting a really bad butterfly sensation in your stomach? I started taking 3 One-A-Night Nytol tablets just to get 3 hours sleep. Anyhow Sean,that was 9 years,it can be beaten,but you've got to drum it into your head that your symptoms are all caused bu anxiety rather than some deadly disease.

13

Thanks Pablo,

I would actually rather this whole experience be something benign as anxiety or maybe even a minor hormone imbalance and not anything else. I think the worst thing i've done was post a thread on a well know lyme disease forum trying to eliminate that possiblity (marking down my check list), and posting on their was the biggest mistake that I've made.

Everyone has names like Lymeanator or Ms. Lymie lol, and they are all talking about how  Lyme complex is a LIFE time fight and their is NO CURE and that I DEFINATELY have it based on symptoms. I was told the two negative lyme test that I took were no good and that I still probably had it.

They said things like you probably have Lyme bacteria in your eyes which is why you see the floaters, and the lyme disease has penetrated into your nervous system creating all the different symptoms you're experiencing including the anxiety. It affected me so much that I talked my doctor into prescribing me a month of doxycycline antibiotics and I actually just finished my second week of that (with no symptom improvements), but I do have 2 weeks of it left.

I am going to stop surfing the web, and keep a positive mind frame from here on out.

 

14

I remember checking out twitches on YT,and some guy who had ALS told another poster who was suffering from twitches that he could have ALS, because that's how his illness started. I felt sorry for the guy with ALS but I still told him he was bang out of order. Some people want to share their misery. I went the Dr convinced I had MS,she asked me why,and I told her my symptoms. She said an Elephant and mouse are both mammels,they both have 4 legs,2 eyes and a tail but they're nothing alike.I remember coming out of her surgery thinking,wow she's right,and it was at that point I started to get better.

15

Wow thanks man my ears have been dying to hear something positive.

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Hey sean, i'm 21, and for the last 6 months i've had ALL of these symptoms, and constantly as well, they never go away. Ive had so many tests, blood tests, heart monitors, MRI, echogram, the lot, and everything is apparently perfectly normal, when i know full well something in my body is NOT normal. 

i've seen so many different doctors, and they've all told me i'm fine and maybe its just anxiety... I never heard of anxiety before, i thought anxiety was just something that happened when you got abit scared about something!! but i did my own research for absolutely ages as i thought i was genuinely going to die, and i think i have health anxiety, the doctor did diagnose me with generalised anxiety disorder, and thinking about it now i always have been an excessive worrier but just never realised it ! after 6 months of doctors and tests ive finally started to believe i do have anxiety. my worst symptom is my vision. its always blurred. it feels as if if just rubbed my eyes cosntantly, and theres like black dots everywhere. i constantly feel as if im not real, like im dead and someones in my body and im not in control, just watching from the outside looking in at my body. sounds ridiculous. i dont have the typical symptoms of someone who is anxious as in im not socially anxious, im quite confident, so thats why i never believed i had anxiety. but i think i do have it quite bad. what is your vision like? thats the only thing i am so worried about, i would do aanything just to be able to see like a normal person again, and feel real!!! been to the options and they said everythings fine, i can read clearly but its just as if ive got a permanent hangover and my head is spinning, and eyes cant ajust !! also i just feel "weird", like i cant explain it, like my body feels hollow, and im so aware of my blood running round my body!! is that the same for you ???

Maybe we do just have health anxiety, but its so hard accepting it isnt it!!!

youre NOT alone, i've felt so lonely for ages but after looking at all these sites it seems so many people have exactly the same thing. 

 

17

Ive also had these symptoms among other ones and im.starting to come to the conclusion of anxiety. What that perosn your referring to was not.just Lyme disease that is very sudden and you very clearly know you are sick. He is referring to a while nother disease known as chronic lymes disease, which is basically a recurring of symptoms after the initial lymes disease. Theres a huge controversy over this and most doctors d9nt even recognise it as an actual disease. Not saying its not just im going through the same exact thing as considering lyme as an option but the more i look into it the more i realize holes in information and symptoms. I have exactly the same symptoms as you with also headaches, and the stiffness and twitches has turned into a dull achey pain. Bit try your hardest to realize the initial cause of your symptoms ive very rarely had a time where i couldn't explain it at all besides the eye floaters but which ive had for ever since i could remember.

18

HI Everyone, 

Amazing to find this thread! I started to experience everything that you have described since living in London where I moved about three years ago. I do have Ankylosing Spondylitis and uveitis which is an autoimmune issue and covers my stiffness. However, mentally, a year ago I had a complete breakdown alomost at 34 years old. I developed a huge amount of anxiety after hearing some bad news about my friend and really struggled coping with any for of change. I became really OCD and anorexic and eventually had to stay with my parents for a year to try and get back on track. Now I am still a bit depressed and anxious, I have brain fog daily, sudden onset of that adrenalin feeling at times, inability to think etc. What's worse is that I have also become paranoid about my health which I am always researching (partly because I love medecine and really wanted to be a dentist growing up) and I have become totally paranoid about chemtrails and that we are all being srayed with chemicals. I even spent months going around London taking photos of them and planes which I believe were spraying chemicals. before I really had the breakdown I was admitted to Charing Cross hospital for hypokalemia because just about ALL of my potassium ran out of my system. The Doctors have no idea how I was able to walk into the A&E with a letter from the out of hours GP saying I needed to go urgently to hospital following a blood test I had on that day. He came at 3am to tell me!  Anyway, long story short, I've now found out that hypokalemia is an indication of barium poisoning together with some of my other symptoms which has just fanned my paranoia about chemtrails. I'm now considering taking lithium on top of my antidepressent which just isn't controlling this anymore! Thanks so much for sharing. Please undersand I am not a loopy person. I have been working for a well known financial services firm in London and had an otherwise good life but this is definitely ruining my life!

Best, Elide

19

Hi Jade,

I'm so glad that you shared your symptoms because I am feeling exactly the same. I just don't feel like a proper human being anymore. Something has drained all my life and now it's like I just live on autopilot, completely unable to engage fully with life. I've started to wonder whether I'm ever going to re-engage and live like a normal person again. Something has definitely happened and I really feel like most doctors just think I'm neurotic but it's absolutely really happening. I'm beginning to doubt everything I think and feel which makes me unable to know what is real or not with anything but in my heart I know that I'm still in my head but I just can't join all the dots anymore. It's like I'm just going through the motions of life and coping day to day. 

We can get through this!  So wonderful to have support on here.

Best, Elide

20

Hey elide

So sorry that you're experiencing it too. It's horrible isn't it. I've had this for about 10 months now, and it has got a lot better than what it was. I have therapy now and I'm on citalopram. Have you been diagnosed with anything yet???

I think I have depersonalisation and derealisation, I can see perfectly fine so I can read the bottom line at the options, but, it's just all so cloudy. So I don't need glasses, I know it's the anxiety. I just wish doctors knew more about anxiety I really do, no one seems to know anything sad I'm getting so fed up of having it now, but I'm trying my best to keep positive because I know that's the only way I will get better.

What are you symptoms like??? A lot of my physical symptoms have gone such as pins and needles, but I still feel unreal and hollow x