Anxiety or something else?

[Andrewk2424]

Hey everyone, Around last fall sometime maybe around August/September I started to get very weird random feelings all throughout my body. It just hit me like a ton of bricks one day and scared the living hell out of me.

For a little background on myself, I have never had any medical problems in my life. The most i've ever had was a very bad throat virus in 2010 and I was in the hospital for three days. Other than that and separating my shoulder in football, I've never had anything wrong with me and my doctors have always told me i'm as healthy as anyone they have ever seen. I'm 26 years old, have a newborn baby girl (I absolutely love her to death) and other than not getting much sleep the last month and a stressful job, I live pretty stress free.

Anyways, I started getting these very very bad chest pains that were almost crippling. I went to my doctor and got everything checked and he even sent me to a Cardiologist for reassurance, everything checked out more than fine. So I chalked it up to me being stressed but the symptoms kept getting worse. The best way I can describe how I feel isnt dizzy or lightheaded, its almost as if Ive been constantly buzzed, not drunk, but a buzz, since around September. Some days are way, way worse, sometimes during the day I almost feel normal but I never get back to that "normal" feeling. Ive also had random nausea, very bad tinnitus randomly, my ears hurt, it feels like since then ive had mucus constantly in the back of my throat and in my nose, and now sometimes my left ear makes a very weird almost quick thumping sound then goes away and comes back. Sometimes i go weeks without hearing it, other times it non stop all day. I would also describe a lot of head pressure. Almost as if I was sitting upside down and blood rushing to my head. The other best way I could describe how I feel is, you know that feeling when you JUST wake up, you feel out of it or very weak? Thats how i feel and how my eyesight feels. Its not blurry or double vision, its more slow I guess you could say its weird.

My anxiety I will admit was pretty bad about 6 months ago, but I honestly believe its a by product of something else going on. I convinced my doctor to get me a brain MRI because I was having pretty bad headaches too. The results came back to a left side Very, VERY small Acoustic Nueroma, or vestibular schwannoma. Like the size of a pin head. My doctor sent me to a nuerosurgeon and he told me he wasnt concerned and that there isnt even anything there, if anything it was just a lesion on my nerve thats probably been there my whole life. So, that anxiety is gone for now I guess. But, of all the tests that have been run NOTHING is coming back abnormal. NOTHING. But I cant seem to figure out why I literally went from being a ridiculously active 26 year old, apparently health as anyone, to now where i barely leave the house.

I recently found what a CSF leak is and in all honesty, everything I have almost fits those symptoms to an absolute T. Could that be whats causing this? I'm literally desperate for answers at this point. I NEED to go back to how I was a year ago and feel normal again. I know anxiety is a big aspect of this and I'm not disagreeing whatsoever, but my physical symptoms have been nonstop for almost 9 months now and are absolutely ruining my life. I'm constantly dreading doing anything other than laying here or going anywhere for fear that I'm going to drop and have some serious medical emergency and need to be rushed to the hospital. I love my wife and my daughter to death and I just want to be here for them and be the best father I can be. I don't want my daughter growing up without a father because some doctors are missing something.

I need help with this situation in the worst way.

[Dorsey]

Hi Andrew don't be scared i have been suffering anxiety for 21 months not a day goes by that i feel normal it's so debilitating. I can have weird sensations through body legs tingle sometimes i feel like I'm going to just drop dead. 9 months ago i could barely stand in the shower as i felt so ill. Alwa ys told just anxiety. The mornings can be overwhelming stars about 2 hours after i get up i have to force myself to do things aand tell myself you can do it. Doctors don't seem to be much help always seem to shove another tablet on me and they never seem to help. I always try and make myself do something and i find that water helps. Hope this gives you a little peace of mind.

[Jeff1943]

Andrew, I don't know what a CSF leak is and I don't need to know because you haven't got one. How do I know this? Because you've had an MRI scan of your brain, the most detailed scan you can have. And nothing of any consequence was found. Nothing.

But now you're doing what so many of us do. We think we know better than health professionals who went to medical school for 5 years. We think we know better than what an MRI scan shows.

What you're trying to do, Andrew, is cure yourself of an illness you don't have. I have to tell you that you can't cure yourself of an illness you don't have no matter how hard you try. So put this CSF business right out of your mind now.

You say your life is stress free even though you've just become responsible for another human being, you're not getting much sleep and you have a stressful job. Andrew, all that adds up to stress and anxiety overload. All the symptoms you've described are well-known symptoms of health anxiety frequently mentioned here. They are among the classic symptoms of anxiety. They are caused by your nervous system becoming over sensitised due to stress and over work and the impact of fatherhood. In that sensitised state your nerves start playing tricks on you causing the symptoms you describe. So those symptoms, uncomfortable though they are, are not real symptoms of real illness they are fake symptoms caused by glitches in your nervous system.

May I suggest that you switch your attention away from these fake and fraudulent symptoms of illness and redirect it firmly to the true cause of your woes: your over sensitised nervous system. Because if you can fix that then before long all your unpleasant symptoms will fade away.

But that can't happen whilst you're stressing and obsessing about fake illnesses because the fear hormone you're pumping out in copious quantities is what's keeping your nerves sensitised. Only when you stop frightening yourself half to death will the flow of those fear hormones dry up and you will start your recovery.

To achieve that you must stop fighting your symptoms because fighting causes even more stress and tension. You've been fighting this for a while, right? Has it done you any good? Clearly the answer is a resounding No.

Your recovery begins when you start doing the opposite of fighting which is to say start accepting these symptoms calmly and as fearlessly as you can in the certain knowledge that these symptoms are unimportant fakes and you now know a way forward. That way forward to recovery is to accept the symptoms utterly for the time being with no thought of resistance. When they come just let every muscle go limp, first your jaw muscle, then your limbs, then your body and finally imagine there's a large muscle in your head and imagine that going limp and relaxing too.

Do not flinch from the symptoms and try to avoid them or blank them out, you must face them and pass through them accepting them as you go. Andrew, you are not going to feel like this for ever, you will recover your quiet mind, you will enjoy life again, your anxiety is developing along normal lines just like everyone else. But to achieve that recovery you must accept your doctor's verdict without question, stop fighting your anxiety and practice accepting it to stem the flow of the hormones of fear that are maintaining the sensitivity of your nerves.

All troubles pass and so will yours.

[Andrewk2424 in reply to Jeff1943]

Seriously, thank you for your reply. That helps a lot! It’s been a tough last few months, but I needed something like that. Thank you very much!!!!