My First Post (Psychiatrist in Columbus, Ohio)

[DrZafirides]

Hello everyone. My name is Peter Zafirides. I am a psychiatrist in a group private practice in Columbus, Ohio. It is a privilege to be part of this group. I really am really blown away by the depth and reach of AnxietyForum. Every one of you should be incredibly proud of the community you have created here. As physicians, we do our best to do right by our patients. In my opinion though, so much healing can come from the validation and acknowledgement that communities like this one provide.

Your collective strength to persevere in the midst of so much adversity is so inspiring to me. Never forget how powerful you are.

I hope to be able to meaningfully contribute to the conversation in this forum. Thank you for having me as a member.

Kindly,
Peter Zafirides, MD

[trinidiva]

Thanks for joining the group. Your insight, from a medical point of view would be greatly welcome here!

[jlong329]

Hello Dr. Here is my story and I don't know if it's anxiety or something more
Serious

In Nov 2011, after coming back on my lunch break, I started feeling a little dizzy so I started looking up the symptoms on webmd and to no avail, heart attack symptoms came up. At that time I felt like I ha to get out of there so I got up and started walking to the restroom, on the way to the restroom I started experiencing those same symptoms that I saw online. Crushing
chest pain, my whole left side was tingling, fast heart beat, hot flashes and just some other crazy symptoms. I called 911 the paramedics came and took me to the hospital.

I was in the hospital for 5 days, they ran every test under the sun. They did a cardiac cath, echocardiogram, EKG, X-ray, MRI of the brain, countless of blood test, and all of the test came back negative. That was Nov 2011, since that day, I have not been the same. I've been to numerous of cardiologists, neurologists, endocrinologists, I've been to the ER at least 7 times, have done additional testing for thyroid, parathyroid, pheochromocytoma, ultrasound of the carotid arteries, Lung VQ scan to check for blood clots, an again everything comes back negative.

All the doctors are telling me the same thing, that I experienced a panic attack and now suffer from
Anxiety from the feat that the panic attack will happen again. What I don't understand is the symptoms that I am feeling. From the moment I wake up till the moment I go to sleep, I feel tingling in my face, my right side of my face twitches alot, I feel flushed all the time and feel like I am sweating on my forehead, I experience chest pain and all sorts of crazy symptoms, but the constant tingling and constant ligheadedness is what gets me. I am always feeling like I'm going to pass out and die.

Sorry for this long entry, I just want to know if anyone has experienced this and if this is all attributed to anxiety. Can the doctors have missed something and I actually have something more serious? And if it is anxiety, how long does it take to get back to my pre Nov 2011 life?

[brittany09]

Hi,glad you joined. Advice from a doctor would be extremely helpful here :)