Strange past 2 weeks, would like some advice

[adavis30]

Hi all, im new to this forum and would like to tell a little about my experiences. So basically im a 20 y/o male and I just finished my second year in college. I also participate in NCAA cross country and track which in addition to being an engineering student adds up to a lot. So the reason I write here today is to ask for some advice regarding my past two weeks. Firstly, I dont really remember dealing with symptoms related to high stress or anxiety other than during then end of last school year I had a tight throat and stomach problems which went away as the summer went on... but never really thought anything of it. Fast forward to 2 fridays ago where I had just finished finals and was ready to celebrate/head home. At this point I felt fine and my runs were also feeling fine. That night I drank a good amount (probably around 7ish drinks over the course of an hour and a half), had a good night, and sobered up before I went to bed at like 4am. (NOTE: I drink at most once a month) I wake up at like 9am (after drinking i can sleep much) and simply browse the web for awhile. After an hour or so of sitting I began to feel a numbness/tingling take over the right side of my face followed by a sudden feeling of lightheadedness (as if i would faint). I went to our university hospital where they gave me IV, a blood test, and a quick lookover. He said the numbness was from likely bumping into something the previous night and the faintness was a hangover. I was skeptical but relieved to be feeling better and to be able to go home. The next morning i felt dizzy but after i slept a little more, felt fine. The next day (once being home from school) I saw my doctor and told him about everything and his response was that I had been really stressed from finals and was tired and the little episode was just a manifestation of that. So feeling better, I began running again but after a few days I felt exhausted and the next morning had lightheadedness again. Now this is where I began searching on the internet for my symptoms (I now understand this is bad and how it can create psychosomatic symptoms) which led me to believe I had brain cancer. With this in mind I began FREAKING and got even more dizzy. I went to the doctor again (last friday) and told him I felt worse (didnt mention brain cancer because I understood to a degree I was being rash) and he said I had anxiety through the roof and needed to relax and just take it easy. So I did and definitely felt better but when i saw him again (this monday) I wasn't 100% and the only real remaining symptom was head fog and a difficulty focusing. Keep in mind that each day up to this point I would look online at symptoms and each day get even more and more afraid that I was dying. On monday he said the same thing and that this was common for full-time students after finals who have a lot on their plate. So after this visit I figured "well if this is only high anxiety I might as well say 'fuck it' and get back to my life and eventually I will feel better." So I began playing video games again (staying up late) and running. At this point I was still very anxious about having some life threatening illness and each day had like a 5-10 segment where I started to hyperventilate and had to go lay down to ease it. Following each time I had an anxiety spike I would feel either extra dizzy or have a tight throat a few hours later. Each time I have run (once a day for the past 3 days) I have felt fine, albeit a bit tired in the beginning. Also I accidentally stayed up really late two and three nights ago (lost track of time playing games) and ended up getting little sleep. Today I felt in a fog again (as I have most days) and have already asked a cancer forum whether or not my symptoms reflected those of a brain tumor (all my reply posts said it sounded nothing like it). So the whole purpose of my posting here is to pick the minds people who understand what anxiety can do and to just in general see if what has happened to me in the past two weeks make any sense. The reason I am so shaken is I have just never dealt with anything like this and two weeks ago before finals I felt great. I will honestly appreciate any and all advice that I can get. Thanks for your time.

[Judie]

Hi all, im new to this forum and would like to tell a little about my experiences. So basically im a 20 y/o male and I just finished my second year in college. I also participate in NCAA cross country and track which in addition to being an engineering student adds up to a lot. So the reason I write here today is to ask for some advice regarding my past two weeks. Firstly, I dont really remember dealing with symptoms related to high stress or anxiety other than during then end of last school year I had a tight throat and stomach problems which went away as the summer went on... but never really thought anything of it. Fast forward to 2 fridays ago where I had just finished finals and was ready to celebrate/head home. At this point I felt fine and my runs were also feeling fine. That night I drank a good amount (probably around 7ish drinks over the course of an hour and a half), had a good night, and sobered up before I went to bed at like 4am. (NOTE: I drink at most once a month) I wake up at like 9am (after drinking i can sleep much) and simply browse the web for awhile. After an hour or so of sitting I began to feel a numbness/tingling take over the right side of my face followed by a sudden feeling of lightheadedness (as if i would faint). I went to our university hospital where they gave me IV, a blood test, and a quick lookover. He said the numbness was from likely bumping into something the previous night and the faintness was a hangover. I was skeptical but relieved to be feeling better and to be able to go home. The next morning i felt dizzy but after i slept a little more, felt fine. The next day (once being home from school) I saw my doctor and told him about everything and his response was that I had been really stressed from finals and was tired and the little episode was just a manifestation of that. So feeling better, I began running again but after a few days I felt exhausted and the next morning had lightheadedness again. Now this is where I began searching on the internet for my symptoms (I now understand this is bad and how it can create psychosomatic symptoms) which led me to believe I had brain cancer. With this in mind I began FREAKING and got even more dizzy. I went to the doctor again (last friday) and told him I felt worse (didnt mention brain cancer because I understood to a degree I was being rash) and he said I had anxiety through the roof and needed to relax and just take it easy. So I did and definitely felt better but when i saw him again (this monday) I wasn't 100% and the only real remaining symptom was head fog and a difficulty focusing. Keep in mind that each day up to this point I would look online at symptoms and each day get even more and more afraid that I was dying. On monday he said the same thing and that this was common for full-time students after finals who have a lot on their plate. So after this visit I figured "well if this is only high anxiety I might as well say 'fuck it' and get back to my life and eventually I will feel better." So I began playing video games again (staying up late) and running. At this point I was still very anxious about having some life threatening illness and each day had like a 5-10 segment where I started to hyperventilate and had to go lay down to ease it. Following each time I had an anxiety spike I would feel either extra dizzy or have a tight throat a few hours later. Each time I have run (once a day for the past 3 days) I have felt fine, albeit a bit tired in the beginning. Also I accidentally stayed up really late two and three nights ago (lost track of time playing games) and ended up getting little sleep. Today I felt in a fog again (as I have most days) and have already asked a cancer forum whether or not my symptoms reflected those of a brain tumor (all my reply posts said it sounded nothing like it). So the whole purpose of my posting here is to pick the minds people who understand what anxiety can do and to just in general see if what has happened to me in the past two weeks make any sense. The reason I am so shaken is I have just never dealt with anything like this and two weeks ago before finals I felt great. I will honestly appreciate any and all advice that I can get. Thanks for your time.

Hey Adavis30, welcome and you certainly came to the right place.There is a lot of empathy, sharing and knowledge that reside on these pages and your path to recovery. You're obviously a bright guy so the logistics of the mind/body connection is easy for you to comprehend. Unfortunately initially logic often withers in the face of fear, you can fix that. Anxiety Disorders can result from numerous reasons from the obvious and often transient too much stress ( exams perhaps ? ) to more complicated issues of underlying low self esteem, depression, repressed feelings, separation etc. Thinking about and addressing what may be causing the anxiety might be helpful. Let's assume that you were just plain stressed from exams. The partying, stress of exams and not enough sleep , literally running on empty could have been enough of a catalyst. The mind uses the body to relay it's messages such as " enough I am tired " " I don't want to run I want to rest" . When you ignore the mind it sends out some horrific symptoms to make you stop and take notice. What happens next are the symptoms of the attack, fueled by fear and the relentless pumping of adrenaline from the adrenal glands. At this point if the sufferer could just recognize that fear as harmless and the symptoms as meaningless, they would dismiss the sensations, deep breathe and successfully stop the attack and gain confidence to master any future assault. I have yet to meet anyone that has successfully done this in a first attack or even in the first couple. Fear is a difficult obstacle to overcome, especially the fear of death. ( often the core of anxiety ).That is why I often take the approach of reassuring others on the Forum of what is going on with symptoms. People are scared and they need to slowly build confidence and they do. I also will always use logic to balance the illogic of anxiety. Personally I believe that when Anxiety surfaces it's simply that the mind/ body is out of balance ( Rational thought has become irrational) for a number of reasons. You feel well when you are running because your body is channeling that extra adrenaline ( energy) when you are at rest the adrenaline caused by the reactive fear is in search of the enemy to fight, there is none so all that energy heightens the awareness of the nervous system, you begin to breathe quicker, shallower ( hyperventilation syndrome-throw off the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide resulting in light headiness, fog, tired legs etc..) you become on edge, acutely aware of all bodily sensations ( harmless extra heart beats, twitches, dizziness etc ) After all think about the logic here, your body has been tricked by your mind into believing it is under attack Scary stuff but kind of fascinating the power of he mind. Anxiety sounds pretty complicated,it is not. Basically the first attack is random, you have pushed yourself too far and your mind/ body connection is telling you so. That would be fine " if "we could accept the message, make positive changes and move on. We can't, not quite yet anyway for one reason and one reason only we " fear " the attack and with each subsequent attack after that we build that fear and that fear is relentless. The reality is the Anxiety Has an easy cure, just not always easy to master. You have got to look that Anxiety square in the face, accept it,stand up to it as you would a bully, challenge it as you would a Bully and watch it wither. Your thoughts are negative and that feeds self doubt and fuels anxiety " I am dying" I feel horrible" " this is a brain tumor", negative thoughts but thoughts aren't concrete, they're changeable " Dismiss this, it's only anxiety", "I control you not you me " " I don't have time for meaningless stuff ". Ok the other thing you are most likely starting to feel physically and mentally a bit frazzled. Get the " free" App -Rest and Relax..use it to retrain your breathing, all anxiety sufferers breathe shallow and incorrectly. This will be really good for your running as well, given that you get more oxygenated blood to your legs. Listen this is fixable with the following, 1) stand up to the fear. 2) Relaxation and Deep Breathing Exercises 3) support from he Forum because this takes empathy, non sufferers won't get it. Be Well and Welcome to your Road to Recovery ;)

[missmello]

Hello adavis! I too was in college, graduated last year. I didn't have anxiety at all while in school. I WAS absolutely stressed out of my mind, but I believed I was handling it well. After graduation, I continued with wedding planning and got married in October. After that was the holidays of course.. so I was very busy for quite some time. Well, after months of job searching and sitting home on my butt (still no job) my body started to freak out and I was getting all kinds of weird symptoms. After tons of tests done at the hospital and at my Dr.s office, it turned out to be nothing but anxiety.

So why was I able to cope with the stress from school and not now? Because I had an outlet to dump my stress on (studying, tests, projects,etc.). I was so busy I didn't have time to manifest the symptoms physically. Now that I'm home all day, with no car, no job, and trapped in the house I have plenty of time to sit around and think about all the things that worry me, and I'm very inactive, so the stress is manifesting itself physically.

First it was nausea, couldn't eat, couldn't sleep. Then when that went away it was headaches, stiff neck, pains in my jaw, weak limbs. It's never ending. Well I shouldn't say that.. it WILL end eventually lol I just haven't found a way to completely snap out of it yet.

I wouldnt worry, you are young and healthy and I'm sure its not cancer. We anxious folks tend to think worst case scenario. Keep active, you yourself said u feel better when u go running. Keep it up and it will eventually go away.

[pluperfecthell]

I feel you. I'm only 16 and I've had anxiety issues since middle school, but randomly started having really bad anxiety this month. The past 3 weeks have been HELL and I've diagnosed myself with like. 8 life threatening diseases because I keep googling symptoms. The left side of my face feels like it's gone numb and tingles and sometimes I'll get it all over my face. I get that foggy feeling too - it was so bad on Friday that I felt like I couldn't finish any of my thoughts and like I was going to black out which of course sent me into a terrible panic where I couldn't stop shaking and had someone take me to the ER. The doctor said it was stress. My normal doctor has also attributed everything to anxiety and stress. Now I'm dealing with a pressure in my head, jaw pains (probably because I grind my teeth like crazy), tingling, really tense neck, my muscles feel weak even though I can still use them fine, and I feel like I'm shaking all the time. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before either.

It's a vicious circle because I become anxious that something is wrong, which leads to these symptoms, which makes me even more anxious, which leads to worse symptoms. I've noticed that I feel a lot better when I'm distracted and it's almost as if nothing is wrong at all so I'd recommend to just keep yourself occupied and I hope we both learn to not let the worst possible scenario we can think of control our minds.

Hope you feel better!

[adavis30]

so im bumping this just to update/ask for further advice

Basically I began to feel better over the course of a few days (all after everything described in my initial post happened) and other than a little residual blurry vision was feeling great. I had one more follow-up with my doctor but by that point i had begun putting it all out of my mind. It must've been the appointment that made me start feeling worried again (felt tingling in the face again) and started to go downhill and once again thought i had brain cancer. Also the day after my run didn't go well (not unusual to have a bad run every once in awhile, not unusual at all) I basically started feeling super hyped up and having what felt like intense feelings of dread everyday. This brought back the uneasiness in my head (some dizziness, difficulty concentrating, and persistent fuzziness in my vision). I've woken several times in a panic and I would describe a few instances I've had as panic attacks (when I get really scared and feel like im dying it starts). Also I've felt fatigued but not necessarily tired if that makes sense? The weird thing is I've been able to run pretty well this whole time (able to do normal distances 8-10 miles a day no problem). I saw my doctor today (5th time in a month) and he finally gave me a prescription (Citalopram 10mg) and I have an appointment with a therapist for tomorrow. Basically what I would like is some advice/insight into what's happening because honestly until about a month ago I was 100% fine with no anxiety or health issues at all. Thanks :)

[Judie]

so im bumping this just to update/ask for further advice

Basically I began to feel better over the course of a few days (all after everything described in my initial post happened) and other than a little residual blurry vision was feeling great. I had one more follow-up with my doctor but by that point i had begun putting it all out of my mind. It must've been the appointment that made me start feeling worried again (felt tingling in the face again) and started to go downhill and once again thought i had brain cancer. Also the day after my run didn't go well (not unusual to have a bad run every once in awhile, not unusual at all) I basically started feeling super hyped up and having what felt like intense feelings of dread everyday. This brought back the uneasiness in my head (some dizziness, difficulty concentrating, and persistent fuzziness in my vision). I've woken several times in a panic and I would describe a few instances I've had as panic attacks (when I get really scared and feel like im dying it starts). Also I've felt fatigued but not necessarily tired if that makes sense? The weird thing is I've been able to run pretty well this whole time (able to do normal distances 8-10 miles a day no problem). I saw my doctor today (5th time in a month) and he finally gave me a prescription (Citalopram 10mg) and I have an appointment with a therapist for tomorrow. Basically what I would like is some advice/insight into what's happening because honestly until about a month ago I was 100% fine with no anxiety or health issues at all. Thanks :)

Hi adavis30, Well that's usually a key indicator that it is Anxiety, it comes on " seemingly" out of nowhere. Not so actually it silently creeps up on you usually after a health scare, separation, death or injured self esteem or even just a negative thought process such as extreme stress. Basically some individuals are prone to stress manifesting itself as anxiety, just like some others may have migraines or develop ulcers in response to stress. The attack initially is simply a body responding to a great deal of stress but once that initial attack appears a secondary response of intense fear develops. Now you have two hurdles to overcome, the reason for the initial attack and the phobic fear response you begin to develop because of the intensity of the attack. The fear you feel feeds that attack. You need to conquer that fear by dismissing the anxiety as harmless, then move on to positive thought and relaxation. You are fine know that and accept it. You simply burned out a bit, time to regroup and stay positive. You were 100% fine a month ago and you are 100% fine now. Dismiss this as a response to stress, nothing more, nothing less. Be Well

[Lin]

Welcome to forum and lots of people on here will be able to help and advise you.
Sounds to me like your body reacted to stress of finals when you stopped working hard for them and relaxed. Common to fall ill when finally relax.
Worries about health and cancer sound like anxiety. Best to get checked out by Dr so know it is anxiety and then can concentrate on finding ways to handle that. Then it will help you at times in future when had periods of stress.
Hope you get it under control soon and can enjoy some freedom until next college work starts again.