Brain Tumor Fears

[Zesane]

Hey guys.

(Sorry if my grammar may seem a bit choppy. English is not my first language).

I'm running into alot of anxiety. I feel like I'm losing my mind at this point.

I have been experiencing neurological symptoms that seem to come and go by months. It all started on Thanksgiving. The very first symptom was a strange headach. It was dull yet slightly painfull. What followed afterward was strange weakness feeling in my sholdure and jaw. These symptoms suddenly went away the after. A week I had expreinces no symptoms. In the beginning of December, I began to experience these same symptoms again.

All day I could not keep my mind off of these symptoms. I eventually succumbed into a full blown panic attack. Those specific moment felt like I was about to die.

The symptoms continued throughout the month of December. During this time I was able to go to my family doctor. He seemed to shrug it off.

They took my blood, which turned out to be normal.

My anxiety not stopping either. These symptoms would occasionally relive than come back. There are period where these symptoms would become stronger and new ones will form. I began to expreince strange dizziness. My balance also felt slightly off. I could not keep my mind off of it.

After Christmas, my symptoms seemed to have completely vanished. The symptoms seem to have been gone for a good month or so. Somehow everything felt better and I thought that was the end of that.

Boy was I wrong.

The symptoms all returned. And back came my anxieties of impending doom.

I did notice that these symptoms returned when my period was beginning to start. It did get worse when I was on my period.... I don't know if that matters.

I'm still very worried that I have a brain tumor. I feel like that my family and friends think im going crazy, but they just dont understand. I'm scared and have no where to go...

[Calm_mama]

Hi Zesane,

Your blood tests were normal and that is good assurance! I assume they checked a complete blood count, chemistries and a thyroid. If these are normal and the docs exam was normal then this is strongly supportive of all of this being anxiety. Anxiety can increase in women before and during their periods due to some hormonal changes, but mostly it's due to the physical symptoms that accompany your period (headache, cramps, leg pains, etc etc) which can trick your amazingly good anxiety into thinking there's a problem and that it needs to protect you. When your amazingly good anxiety perceives a threat- any threat, it does its job- which is to stimulate the secretion of chemicals that put you into fight/flight mode. This means sensations (more "symptoms") which are completely harmless and normal for the circumstances, but which can cause your anxiety to react even more if you don't understand what's going on.

The trick to stopping the cycle is acceptance. Acceptance requires 2 things - psycho-neuroeducation and changing your mind about what you are experiencing. I have a lot of good resources on my profile that promote and support the acceptance approach to recovery. I'd start with this: jonabram.web.unc.edu/files/...

Then move on to everything by Dr. Claire Weekes, the ultimate anxiety expert. I have some of her references on my profile, but there are others on the internet and through amazon. Her books are translated into many languages, so perhaps you can find yours (although your English seems perfect ). I'd also consider therapy, which can help you move towards changing your thinking and beliefs about what is happening to you. When people make this change and practice new thinking and a new perspective, the nervous system becomes desensitized, the symptoms slowly but surely melt away, and recovery is assured.

Believe it or not, your doc is giving you a gift with his nonchalance. He's delivering a form of cognitive behavioral therapy to you. He is an authority on health, and his nonchalance, while frustrating to you right now, is sending you the message that this is nothing to fret over. And he's right. When you adopt that same attitude- that there's nothing actually wrong, that this is all anxiety and a great big nothing, you are moving in the right direction. I, too, have been furious with docs for not taking my symptoms seriously. In hindsight, they gave me a gift by downplaying symptoms I thought were catastrophic.

Your story is very common You are not alone at all. You can recover.

[Miniwheats]

Zesane, everything you have described in your post smacks of anxiety. I had alot of the symptoms you described and it wasn't until I exhausted all specialist opinions that I settled down and chalked it up to anxiety. But then the fears came back, along with some new symptoms. It was with the help of a psychologist that I got better. Having said that though, I don’t think I ever would have been convinced that it was just anxiety had I NOT gone through all the testing and the multiple specialist appointments. Your brain wants hard evidence that your symptoms are all due to anxiety, and nothing fuels anxiety more than someone telling you you're fine without hard evidence to prove it. Even though I am 99% sure that your issues are anxiety related based on my personal experience and everything I've read on the subject, you don't have that same experience to relate to - I'm just another person telling you you are fine without any hard evidence to prove it. I'm not saying you should start panicking and all that because I don't think it's warranted, but ask yourself what kind of evidence will put your mind at ease and then go get it. Is it an MRI? Is it a trial with a psychologist to see if therapy rids you of your symptoms? Is it more reading about anxiety and panic attacks in order to have a better understaning of their physiological effects? Is it an opportunity to have detailed questions answered by your doctor? I don’t know. What I do know is that brain tumor symptoms do not come and go. They start, get worse, and don't relent until something is done about it. I also know anxiety can produce some of the wildest and whackiest symptoms I've ever experienced! It has an uncanny ability to produce the exact symptoms we fear the most😒