Anxiety w/ multiple worrying symptoms

Hello,

To get a few things out of the way, just my statistics;

Stats said...

Male
24
6'
275lbs

Rx:
Atenolol 50mg
Ambien
Xanax 0.25 mg
Once-A-Day Vitamins

Dx:
General Anxiety Disorder

I have been dealing with anxiety for about a little over a year and a half now. I always knew there was something going on but not until recently (within this past year) did I get diagnosed. It started Nov 2011 when I went to the ER for, what I know now, a panic attack. I had heart palpitations during this time, something I had experienced before but never to this severity. I also experienced other symptoms I now know as things anxiety can cause; lightheaded, elevated pulse, sense of impending doom, chest tightness, trouble breathing, and a plethora of the symptoms you feel from having an allergic reaction. I given an EKG test and was told there was nothing wrong with my heart and I didn't have any damage (which is good because the symptoms I felt are eerily close to what you might get from a heart attack. The ER told me that I had bronchitis, gave me a breathing treatment, and sent me home. I was referred to a GP for a follow up and have since been seeing him fairly regularly. He first prescribed me Xanax and that worked ok for awhile but I am admittedly prone to pill addiction so I told myself I had to get off the prescription and asked my doctor what else I could do. He put me on Atenolol 25mg and referred me to a counselor. This did the trick again for quite some time. With the Atenolol 25mg treatment he also prescribed me Hydroxyzine 50mg. I actually prefer the Hydroxyzine 50mg to the Xanax 0.25mg, it treats some of the allergic symptoms and I feel overall is better because to me it isn't addictive (I don't take it very often but in instances when I think I need to). Anyway the trip through finding my diagnosis went on and the doctor put me through more tests; another EKG, a 24hr Holter monitor, blood work, and an ultrasound of my heart/abdomen (man that sure is painful when they do that..I feel for pregnant women...). Nothing came back, everything came back clear. So everything had been pretty good for awhile, the medicine was doing its job, my counselor and me felt it was time to halt the counseling for the time being, I was beginning to work out and eat better....and a tragedy hit my life. One of my really good friends died (age 24) in his sleep. This is one of my greatest fears and has basically put me into anxiety relapse. I went to the ER not long after my friend's funeral and they put me on Atenolol 50mg. My doctor had wanted me to cut down to every other day at 25mg because my BP was doing good and my pulse was holding at 70 (really great for me, normally my resting pulse is 90+). But when I followed up with my doctor he suggested I continue with the Atenolol 50mg. The doctor is now seeing me bi-monthly to follow up on the anxiety.

The thing is....as of late I have been having a lot of issues and anxiety related.
I am not sure what it is, but now the following things cause me to have heart palpitations;
Whenever I eat out at a buffet (Chinese in specific is the worse)
Whenever I eat anything with a lot of sodium
Whenever I drink a caffeinated drink (soda specifically, regular tea and green tea seem to be fine in low moderation)
Whenever I am up past 1am
Whenever I drink too much, or really at all

Some of the symptoms I have been dealing with;
Tingling sensation in the right/left hemispheres and the back of the head (not all at the same time)
Flu/Head Cold symptoms
Elevated pulse (80-100 resting on Atenolol 50mg) and Blood Pressure
Trouble sleeping

I feel really healthy in the morning/afternoon but at night I start feeling crappy. I don't have a problem exercising/walking either..

Anyway,

The reason I am telling you all this I wanted to know what you think and what you could recommend based on your experiences. You know it is so worrying to have anxiety problems..it feels like you are constantly on the verge of death...even if you have a fairly clean bill of health.

What do you suggest??

Rxclusion,

Hello and welcome to HealingWell and the A & P Forum.  I am sure you will find the member to be kind and supportive, wise and wonderful. 

Due to the many issues in your post I will be back after a bit and see if I can offer you any advice that is specific to your situation.

I am sure you will be hearing from other members soon.

do NOT eat food containing MSG (monosodium glutamate). chinese food is the worst for MSG, it's a flavouring they use in basically all of their food. honestly, from my experience when i eat MSG i get multiple symptoms, and they all scare the crap out of me. before i knew it was MSG, i thought i was dying. heart palpitations, chronic migraines, dizziness, generally feeling unwell. i've read that it can also make anxiety disorders worse.... i would definitely cut that out of your diet completely. it's much worse than you think, give it a quick Google.

it seems we are opposites. i get really anxious in the mornings. i get a lot of the same symptoms as you, tingling in the head ( i especially get pressure in my head, it's horrible), trouble sleeping, elevated blood pressure (and i'm only 21!!).

there are a lot of natural ways to deal with anxiety symptoms. first, a healthy diet can go a long way, and it's helped me a lot to clean up my diet (avoiding too much sugar, salt, caffeine) and eliminating dangerous foods like MSG, aspartame, sulphites, artificial flavours or colours. also, getting regular exercise, trying to get on a regular sleeping pattern (although it can be tough sometimes). meditation and breathing exercises have actually helped me a lot. i recently got into them, and when i get to a really bad state of anxiety, i lay down, close my eyes, breathe, and listen to a meditation track (they're easy to find online, i even downloaded some free apps on my phone). don't knock it til you try it, it actually works! i manage to get back into a calm state after meditation usually. i hope this helps! you're not alone, millions of people are struggling with the same thing. relax and good luck!

Hello,
Just an update, as noted in other post. I went to the ER last night and they alleviated some of my fears. They took a cat scan and everything came back clear. I've continued my medication, although I felt like crap today. My pulse was pretty low 45-48 for most of the day, caused me a little panic but I slept off a little bit of it. I had an appointment with mt therapist today and WHEW did it help. I got to express a lot of concerns and he helped me realize a lot of my fears with anxiety are without a solid base. I have plans to continue seeing him every two weeks so I think it will be a big help. I'm going to mention CBT to him during my next visit so that should be fun. Anyway the migraine medicine works really well with relieving me from my head pains.My only concern with it and the Zoloft is they are lowering my pulse pretty low during the daytime. The LVN's I work with suggested I keep a log of my BP in the morning and take half of my atenolol if my pulse is already low, which one of them mentioned Zoloft can bring your pulse down. I'll confirm with either my doc or pharmacist tomorrow on whether they would advise that. I wouldn't mind going to a lower dosage of Atenolol honestly, 50 mg seems like a little much and while I know there is less risk with hypotension (low bp ?) it is still not completely comfortable to have my BP so low when I already have a normal bp, just an irregular pulse.

Anyway we'll see how things go!

-Rxclusion

The list you made of the things that cause you to have palpitations?

Those things can cause palpitations in a person who does not have issues with anxiety, so I wouldn't necessariily chalk it up to the anxiety but rather to the individual cause.

MSG, too much sodium, lack of sleep/fatigue, thinking too much aka stress...

I think if you work on avoiding those things, you'll see a decrease in that issue.

Sorry about last night:(

How are you feeling today? Better I hope. I am sorry about your treatment at your ER. If it is possible, try to breath through any future attacks...even if it seems to be very physical in nature.

You can look back on the other experiences and remember, though they were scary and you were miserable...you made it through them.

Try to put your trust in your PCP and the new medication regime, as well as your coping mechanims to get you through, so that you won't have to deal with the attitudes of the attendings at the ER again.

Hoping for a better evening for you tonight.:)

S.C.

Thanks SCat! I will definitely consider moseying over to the migraine forum and seeking advice from them. I think I can manage to power through the next big attack, definitely with the experiences I've had in the last two ER visits. It's hard because one of my main anxiety triggers is my fear of death and dying during my sleep. I didn't mention the headaches because they are rare. I have had them in the past but honestly ignored them because I was afraid I would get bad news (like that I'm living with a brain tumor :/ ). Fortunately though that doesn't seem to be the problem. Yeah I'm definitely not looking forward to this $450 ER bill from my last three visits, but if that is the price I have to pay for peace of mind so be it. I appreciate your advice and everyone else's and here's to a stress free night!

-Rxclusion