Hi and thank you for the quick reply.
Here's a more thorough breakdown of my time with anxiety.
I'm currently taking Lexapro for generalized anxiety/panic attacks. I am 37, and I've had anxiety issues since I was 22. At that point, I had decided to move to Florida for the summer. After a month or so, I began experiencing acid reflux (for the first time in my life), severe constipation (for the first time in my life), and no appetite. I moved back home (WI) and was diagnosed with anxiety. They prescribed me to a med and I eventually started feeling better, aside from difficulty sleeping. I've battled anxiety, but generally, the symptoms have always been "panic attacks", insomnia, and random tingling, and initial fear of having a heart attack. However, in August of 2014, I came down with meningitis. I was in the hospital a few days, until they found it was viral, then they let me go home. At this point I went into a sever hypochondriac state. My doctor said that a healthy person in my age only had about
a 1% chance of getting viral meningitis. I began to assume that if I could get sick with that, then why should I assume I'm not sick with other rare issues. My doctor increased my escitalopram dose, and I kept forcing myself to get out of the house. Eventually, I began functioning at a fairly "normal" level. In early 2016 I was leaving my place of work and driving home on the highway. I suddenly became very dizzy, my left arm became tingly/cold, I had dissociation and I had a major panic attack. I pulled off of the highway and did some breathing exercises and laid down. Eventually, I was calm enough to drive home. I continued to have issues driving on the highway which was strange since prior to this incident I often felt most relaxed while driving. I began to notice that driving on the highway was most problematic at night when I had to look into the headlights from the cars on the other side of the highway. The feeling was of being overwhelmed, as if the lights were too much for me to take in. I'd find myself constantly squinting my eyes or closing one eye. I also began having tingling/dull sensation in my front right forehead/temple/ and sometimes the right side of my head. I went to my doctor and he sent me to a neurologist who did an MRI. The MRI was normal, and then he had me do a sleep study. The sleep study came back that I had sleep apnea and I've since been using a CPAP machine every night. The machine helped in that I was less tired and my symptoms slightly diminished. The neurologist then suggested it may be a migraine so he put me on migravent. After a couple months and no changes he felt it may be anxiety related. Since then I've continued to have this issue, and I still have trouble driving at night. I also struggle with any flashing lights, like police cars/concerts. I'd always previously had some discomfort with flashing lights, but it's certainly become more pronounced. It seems to worsen the tingling/pressure/dull feeling in my forehead when driving or in these types of "sensory overload" situations. I'm worried I'm going to someday have a seizure, but my doctor feels I don't present like a person with a pr
opensity for epilepsy. My doctor just prescribed me to add buspirone twice a day to my meds. I took one so far, and it made me more dizzy and anxious but I'm hoping it'll get less problematic in the future. I've also been waking on anxious recently, which is what prompted my physician to add the buspirone. Also, as of 2 weeks ago, I've been seeing a counselor on a weekly basis to learn more coping strategies/techniques.
Post Edited (FredRoberts) : 6/22/2017 2:31:04 PM (GMT-6)