Physical Symptoms... do we alll get them?

So, all of my anxiety came on 2 years ago. It began with dizziness when standing up and burning headaches along with on and off feelings of unreality.

As these symptoms became more frequent - I was scared beyond belief! Went to doctors who told me I had an ear infection and put me on antibios and sent me on my way. But the headaches wouldn't stop, nor would the feelings of unreality - I was sure I was dying.

Then came fatigue, weight loss, tingling in extremities, muscle twitches, numbness... and more and more fear.

I went to the ER, had a Cat scan and was given meds for migraines though my IV and told I had anxiety.

I spent months feeling like I was about to die - I was so scared and my symptoms would come and go, but never would go away completely.

I fought my insurance company for months and finally was allowed to have an MRI of my brain (w/o contrast though) and of my cervical spine. Everything checked out fine (other than a small bulge between c5&c6 in my cervical spine)...And the headaches stopped, as did the tingling and numbness.

But the feelings of unreality didn't.

Over the last year I have dealt with those feelings (depersonalization) and a variety of on and off physical symptoms - buzzing sensations in toe, burning sensation on skin, palpitations, aches and pains...

Does this happen to others with anxiety a lot?

I emailed my GP and asked her could this really all be anxiety and her response... induced anxiety! She said it is possible to anxiety to cause some of these symptoms HOWEVER she felt it was too soon to just attribute it all to anxiety; that it could be something that takes a while to come through and diagnose. She said MS is one of these types of issues that could takes time to diagnose, but that there were others as well.

WHAT?!?

Now I'm anxious about her mention of MS!

I saw a neurologist last week. The blood work he ordered came back all normal. I go back for an EMG next week and he said he may possibly send me for an MRI depending on my EMG results.

Thank you so much Merrida :)

It's all frustrating and very disconcerting to hear a response like that from my doctor... although my first GP immediately said it was anxiety and I got upset and stopped seeing him because I felt like he was blowing me off. :/

All of this began for me 3 months after a traumatic event in my family, (which I tried very hard to push down my feelings about - you know, to seem strong) and one month after ceasing birth control which I had been on for the better part of 21 years (minus the 4 yrs for both of my pregnancies).

A part of me says/feels of course this is anxiety related! But another very fearful part of me says/feels, but what if something really is wrong.

I really want to be well...

Post Edited (searching1) : 8/8/2014 6:13:03 PM (GMT-6)

I have a lot of similar symptoms and a lot of similar feelings about them. I sometimes feel dizzy and off balance, short of breath, anxious, tired, palpitations, weird aches and pains in random places... the list goes on. Last year for months I delt with a new symptom almost daily that scared the crap out of me. My chest, and sometimes arms and neck/jaw area would feel like it was hot or burning. It felt like my skin was on fire but it looked normal and I did not sweat. I was sure that it was caused by something other than anxiety and I went to the doctor many times. It went away at some point but I still get tons of other symptoms. Im still trying to come to terms with the idea of them being caused by anxiety.

Oh and random headaches. And once in a while heart skipped beats (too much caffeine, not enough sleep, or overindulgance in alcohol).

I did Merrida.

They blew me off saying that BC pills wouldn't cause any of my issues and that BC could actually help me and I should go back on them.

I told them we didn't need me to be on them anymore as my hubby had a vasectomy and that I was experiencing depression during my placebo week (which is why I stopped taking them)... their response (2 different ob/gyns) - get back on BC pills, but this time don't take the placebos, just keep taking the packs back to back or do Seasonique or something like that.

I wanted to scream... how could synthetic hormones taken for so long be good for me? better than not being on them? wouldn't it mess with my natural ability to produce these hormones properly?

A friend of mine who is in med school thinks a lot of my problems are due to a thyroid issue possibly sent off by stopping the pill and not being able to naturally re-regulate...

After I'm done with the neurologist I am heading to an endocrinologist.

I've had my thyroid checked 3x in the last year. The first test last summer came back "normal" at 3.28, but came back "borderline hypothyroid" twice this summer at 3.57 in June then at 3.68 in July.

I've looked into the thyroid thing and there seems to be a lot of debate over what exactly "normal" should be as the range can be .03 - 3.0, or 0.4 - 4.5, or 0.5 - 5.0 depending on the doctor and on the lab. Those are really big ranges!

I also checked my history of blood work with my original GP and he never tested my thyroid so I have no idea what it used to be before all of my symptoms began.

The thing we need to remember with anxiety is *how* it debilitates us,...not *why*... Heck we could ask "why" forever and ever.

Anxiety is powerful because it can duplicate the symptoms of so many different illnesses, and we, as anxious people, are already pre-disposed to being ultra sensitive. It's easy to let that flood of adrenaline just take over and spiral out of control.

This is where coping skills come in so handy. Often times, if we can ride out those initial ten minutes of a panic attack, we can ride the waves out as well!











M.