Is this Anxiety?

Mental health
1

Hello All, 

I wonder if somebody might help me solve a problem I've been having, I'll try keep it breif. 

Yesterday I went for a routine eye test. I felt fine when I walked in, if a little nervious. One member of staff did some pre tests and I started to feel a bit tense and shaky. 

The actual optician called me into her office and sat in the chair. I instantly started to feel very hot, and started to sweat a bit. At this stage she had only asked me to cover 1 eye and look at a symbol on the wall and tell which one was clearer (red or green side). 

She then put the glasses on me without any test lenses in, instantly I started to feel light headed, a bit hotter and sweating a bit more. My eyesight became very hard to focus and shaky. We stopped, she gave me some water and put the AC on. After a few minutes I was feeling better.

She then put some test lenses in and asked me to tell if I could see these dots and if it was blurry. After that I don't really remember much but I woke up on the floor having fainted, fell out of the chair and hit my head pretty hard on the wall. I woke up feeling a little sick (subsided quickly) and had a stiff neck from the fall.

I was taken to hospital and was given a blood test (the symptoms started to reoccur when they put the canular in, but I did not faint), a urine test, ECG, CT and blood sugars. After a few hours wait, the doctors said that I was all clear and no problems had been detected and prompty kicked me out. 

Out of the last 4 eye tests I have had, 2 I have fainted and 2 I have come very close but stopped the test before I did. Last time I passed out, was when I thought I had chipped a tooth (dentists are my worst fear), I passed out before I could check the tooth. I was taken to hospital but discharged some time later with no tests being done. The paramedics took blood pressure, ECG and that was all fine. 

I passed out when I had my last blood test done, with exactly the same symptoms. 

I will go and talk to my GP about this but I just want to know if that is likely to be a complete waste of time and if not, see if I can't help speed things up a bit. I really don't want to be subjected to more blood tests and CT scans if I can avoid it. 

If this is Anxiety, is there any help that can be offered? I really need to get a valid eye test done but it's impossible right now and I can't risk this happening again.

Thank you for time.

Regards

Adam

2

It could well be anxiety related, or a spike or drop in blood pressure or blood sugar. The good thing is that nothing serious was indicated at the hospital. If it persists visit your GP I would say. Regardless of anxiety or blood sugar etc its best to follow things up. I have had similar to what you describe, oncemfrom pure anxiety and once from not eating and having low blood sugar, so it could be either

3

Thank you for your quick response. 

When I first had this, I was my lunch break from work and the optician suggested this as a possibilty (I had not eaten since breakfast that day). When I returned for a retry, I had a large bottle of coke and a banna before and I managed to get through.

This made me think it was blood sugar related so yesterday I had a can of coke around 30 - 40 minutes before and I had breakfast around 1 hour before my appointment. I'm not sure if I left it too late before the sugars could be in my blood.

The paramedics took my blood sugars around 40 minutes AFTER I first fainted and they said it was fine (I didn't see the figure) so I wondered if it higher before I fainted and tailed off, or increased to a higher value at the point they took the blood sugars meaning it was low before I entered the opticians. 

I really have no clue how long it takes for a 330ml can of coke to do raise blood sugars. 

I am trying to get hold of my GP now, but they seem to be on holiday.

Thanks again for your response.

Adam

4

Bear in mind sugary drinks are not a good way to control blood sugar, it will make it spike then drop suddenly before it builds up again. Yes a blood sugar reading 40 mins after is pretty much useless

5

Hi,

How you doing, not very good here very shakes but what's new.How have enjoyed the football especially England.

Just trying a gluten free diet because of supposedly IBS has not given me any energy could still go to sleep in the day but don't .Vitamin D is suppose to help which they have found I am low on.

we will get there in the end we hope.

Nice to see you on.

6

Hi agree it' sounds a bit like anxiety. Try not to worry. Have s chat with your gp about anxiety. And to see what happens next. But don't be working yourself cause that will make you feel worse. Take care

7

Thank you for pointing that out - I should have made that realisation. I guess something like porridge with honey and banana is a better choice so sugars are released slower. 

8

Exactly yes, things high in sugar are good if u feel that ure suagr is dipping, it'll bring u up quick but then as u say u need something slow release to stabalise things

9

Thank you for your reply and thoughts. I thought it might have been as the doctors ruled out anything medical with the tests they did. 

I am trying to speak to my GP and will see what they suggest.

With a lot of things medical related I automatically think the worse. Dentist's = root canals. Blood test = high cholestoerol and/or diabeties. 

I had my first CT scan yesterday and my first thought in my head was "they'll find something". It's not a good path to think and I have no clue why I automatically think it.

Thanks again.

10

Its a very normal way to think with anxiety, especially health anxiety which often is part of anxiety in general. I'm the very same, the slightest sensation means something unknown and terrible is happening.  A visit to your gp I think will definitely help, perhaps ask for a referal to psychotherapy. GPs should never diagnose mental health issues without psychotherapy support

11

Hello All, 

Thank you for your responses. I managed to talk to my GP today and explained the issue to her. 

She seemed pretty confident that as I had no medical issues detected in my tests it was an Anxiety attack and classed it as "Anxiety disorder manifested in medical situations" (not sure if that's an offical name for it or not).

She has prescribed some Propranolol which she has suggested I take 1 tablet around 2 hours before I go into these sorts of environments which should help keep me calm during these situations, so at least now I can re attempt my eye test and hopefully not bury my face in the wall or carpet. 

She has also given me a referral form for my hospitals therapy department in the hope I can get and fix the root cause of the issues.

Thank you all once again for your advice, hopefully I can resolve this. The more I think about Anxiety, I'm questioning wether it appears in other situations also but with milder symptoms. 

Regards

Adam 

12

Hi I am glad you saw your doctor. One thing I would say is that drug in the valium family. If so be careful you don't get hook on them like I did or am still. My doctor put me on diazepams and that's a valium. Belive me you don't need that. I was put on diazepams 7 years ago I am now coming off them and it's been so hard. I was on about 48mg diazepams a day a year later im now to 27mg. It takes year's to come off any kind off valium so please look in to your meds. Look up and read about it cause I wish I did years ago. Take care