Physical Symptoms of Stress and excessive Anxiety

Hello,

I usually post over at the Lyme boards, but I have been wondering if a lot of my symptoms are due to excess stress and anxiety or Lyme.

I woke up 3 months back feeling like a pressure in my head, like a bomb went off. In the morning I felt chills, excess sweating and blurry vision. A few days later I had a nightmare and felt like a lightening surge into my head and my left arm. My heart rate also increased. After that all hell broke loose and I started feeling these symptoms-

Panic attacks before going to sleep
Headaches
Skin ultra sensitive
Indented marks on skin
Gingiva became darker in color
Fordyce Spots on gums and lips
Fatigue
Yellowish tinge to skin
Tingling and burning fingers and toes
Heat intolerance

I went to a Various doctors to rule out as many things as I could. I even went to Lyme specialist as I was but my tick in 2010 but had Doxy for 2 weeks. Tests since then all negative. He even tested me but all negative tests but he started treating me with Doxycycline. I have developed significant depression since and I feel there is no way out. All results are negative and my infectious disease doctor says maybe to look at the path of depression and anxiety since blood work has been fine.
I want to know can these symptoms be associated with really bad anxiety and stress. I am an anxious person by heart.

Hello Larry, my infectious disease Doctor said to see a psychiatrist. But can all these symptoms really manifest due to anxiety/stress. What medication is recommended for this?

Hi Sam,

Your symptoms are so awful that it is enough to cause anxiety. Just being diagnosed
with Lyme disease could have started it. Is the Lyme disease under control or are any
of these symptoms related to Lyme disease? Pressure in the head is a symptom of
anxiety that I also suffer from and heat intolerance as well as fatigue.

Hopefully, you will find the proper medication to help with this, but it may take a while
to get an appointment with a psychiatrist. My choices have been very limited due to
my medical insurance so I'm being treated by a GP.

In the meantime, your primary doctor may be able to give you something to relieve the anxiety.


Good luck.

Hi Sam,

Is this LLMD an on-line doctor? You said he diagnosed you based on symptoms.
Doctors make a diagnosis for this kind of a disease according to a
number of diagnostic tests. If your tests were all negative and the infectious doctor
says he can't pinpoint it, then you probably don't have it.

Do you have a primary doctor who can make a referral to the proper specialist.
It sounds like it could be anxiety so I wouldn't rule it out, but it could be something else,
maybe neurological.
If you don't have a primary, I'd start there as a first step, and he/she can also
prescribe anxiety medication.

The LLMD is a really good Lyme specialist here in NY. Apparently he and others who treat Lyme treat many people based on symptoms as sometimes the tests come back negative, like in my case.
I have s primary care doctor who does not agree with this and neither does the infectious disease Doctor I went to, but it's accepted in the Lume community. So far I have been to my Primary Care Doctor, dermatologist, infectious disease specialist, endocrinologist, rheumatologist, neurologist and the Lyme specialist. Every test comes out negative. I just don't know what to do. Could it be a mystery illness, Lyme or something stemming from my mind.

Many primary doctors will prescribe anxiety medication. Your doc will tell you
if you need to see a psychiatrist. Are you still taking medication for Lyme disease?
If you don't have it, the medication may be harming you. This is something that has to be
discussed with your doctor.

I'm sorry to hear you are having such a hard time finding the right diagnosis
and treatment. You clearly are suffering from anxiety so should
be treated for it, although Lyme disease or something else may be contributing to
your symptoms. I'm surprised that it has taken so long for a doctor to suggest that
it may be psychological or that your P-doc didn't prescribe anxiety medication. There's
a lot of different depression/anxiety medications but it's not the same for every patient.

Your doctor will choose the best one for you based on your medical history or refer
you to a psychiatrist for evaluation.

Sam you are on a good medication my wife has been on it for thirty years and no harm, ativan is a longer acting drug than xanax, my need for xanax was that it would shut panic down in minutes, Peace

Larry***