severe health anxiety over brain aneurysm/avm

[strawberrys]

Hey guys.
I've been suffering from head and eye pains for well over a month. These pains are ruining my life because of the worry. It stems from when I passed out from a migraine at just 4 years old.

I had no tests then so Im worried about that event being omething a lot worse than a migraine, like a small brain bleed instead. The worry is killing me but Il never get a scan, I spend my days in fear crying but I don't know how to stop, these pains never go and i'm crippled with.anxiety.

Anyone experienced anything similar?x

[Lee Grant Irons]

Hello strawberrys,

The best way to deal with anxiety over the unknown is to get rid of the ignorance of the unknown. Go see a primary care doctor, explain the symptoms you are having in as calm a fashion as you can, and get yourself checked out. If you are tested and the tests come up that there are no aneurysms or tumors or anything else visible, well then the anxiety over those things goes away. Better yet, if the doctor discovers the problem and it is easily fixed, then you can actually get treatment and start feling better. If it turns out to be what you suspected, an aneurysm, then the only thing that has changed is that you now know for sure. Then you and the doctor can deal with it and your anxiety together. You will no longer be alone.

[strawberrys]

Hello strawberrys,

The best way to deal with anxiety over the unknown is to get rid of the ignorance of the unknown. Go see a primary care doctor, explain the symptoms you are having in as calm a fashion as you can, and get yourself checked out. If you are tested and the tests come up that there are no aneurysms or tumors or anything else visible, well then the anxiety over those things goes away. Better yet, if the doctor discovers the problem and it is easily fixed, then you can actually get treatment and start feling better. If it turns out to be what you suspected, an aneurysm, then the only thing that has changed is that you now know for sure. Then you and the doctor can deal with it and your anxiety together. You will no longer be alone.

Thankyou for your reply.:)

I have already seen a doctor, twice now they have.sent me home with painkillers that don't work. I say they don't work and they just give me more.

I've been told I wont be believed anymore.because of my health anxiety which makes me more anxious. Im only 22 I don't want to die.:(

[anxious aussie]

Hey guys. I've been suffering from head and eye pains for well over a month. These pains are ruining my life because of the worry. It stems from when I passed out from a migraine at just 4 years old. I had no tests then so Im worried about that event being omething a lot worse than a migraine, like a small brain bleed instead. The worry is killing me but Il never get a scan, I spend my days in fear crying but I don't know how to stop, these pains never go and i'm crippled with.anxiety. Anyone experienced anything similar?x

Hey, I have the exact same thing. I suffer from 'migraines'. Pain behind my eye mostly and headaches. And the root of my anxiety is fear of having a brain tumor. I've had heaps of blood tests and stuff. And painkillers don't work. But I've been told countless times that it's anxiety. I have a feeling my headaches could be related to the contraceptive pill since I only remember having them since going on the pill 4 years ago. But I know exactly how you feel. The thought takes over and it can be crippling.

[Lee Grant Irons]

Thankyou for your reply.:)

I have already seen a doctor, twice now they have.sent me home with painkillers that don't work. I say they don't work and they just give me more.

I've been told I wont be believed anymore.because of my health anxiety which makes me more anxious. I'm only 22 I don't want to die.:(

If a doctor cannot separate your anxiety from symptoms, then you need to fire the doctor and find another one. I have fired doctors and have been fired by doctors. LOL I went through 40 doctors before I finally found a primary care doctor who would work with me. However, by that point, I had learned to exercise self control when in the doctor's office. So I presented myself as calm, reasonable, and sick. I did not gush my entire history. I simply said that I am sick and I need a doctor who is willing to work with me to figure out why I am sick. Then I shut up. No crying. No freaking out. The doctor then did a quick check up and then asked me to bring in my records the next day so she could look them over and schedule an appointment for the next week. My records of all the tests I had were an more than an inch thick. At my appointment the next week, she told me that she had taken my records home over the weekend and looked them over and that she had a plan that she would like to try. Then, over the next 6 months, we tried her plan. But it did not help me. So I started bringing in research I was doing. She would read it, then we would discuss it, and decide what to do nxt based on the information. Using this method, it took us another 3 years to finally figure out how to help me feel better. I don;t know whether we have found everything, but I do feel better. And I know that as more things come up, I have the right doctor to continue to figure them out.

If you don't want a doctor to assume that your problems are due to anxiety, then you need to do your best to act like someone who does not have anxiety when you are in the doctor's office.

[anxiousdad75]

Hey guys.
I've been suffering from head and eye pains for well over a month. These pains are ruining my life because of the worry. It stems from when I passed out from a migraine at just 4 years old.

I had no tests then so Im worried about that event being omething a lot worse than a migraine, like a small brain bleed instead. The worry is killing me but Il never get a scan, I spend my days in fear crying but I don't know how to stop, these pains never go and i'm crippled with.anxiety.

Anyone experienced anything similar?x

Strawberrys - There are hundreds and thousands of people out there just like you. The reality is that our bodies are very good at lying to us - anxiety is very powerful. Some people suffer so bad that they have been taken to emergency rooms and present EXACTLY like a heart attack, but are found completely healthy.

This is a tough thing. I imagine that if you find out your headaches are indeed caused by anxiety, your body will present other symptoms somewhere else that will scare you equally as much. It has happened to me. I am 38, but since I was 23 have had MRI's, CTs, X-rays, colonoscopies, EKG's all before I was 25.

Your doctor should acknowledge that health anxiety is a real thing and not be dismissive about it. If they don't, get a new doc. But also get yourself into proper anxiety care and treatment with a therapist and possibly a psychiatrist. I am almost certain the underlying cause of everything you are talking about is anxiety and you need to treat the anxiety.

You will be ok!

[Lee Grant Irons]

I am almost certain the underlying cause of everything you are talking about is anxiety and you need to treat the anxiety.

I agree with you that it is important to get help from a therapist and psychiatrist. However, there is no basis for being "certain the underlying cause of everything you are talking about is anxiety," other than the fact that anxiety is common. However, thyroid disease is common also, one of its symptoms being anxiety. Calcium deficiency is also common and also causes anxiety. There are many other common diseases that cause various symptoms and can cause a person to have normal anxiety that, as we know, can send a person into a feedback loop of increasing abnormal anxiety.

So, no one should settle for an easy diagnosis of primary anxiety just because they have a lazy doctor. Yes, see the psychiatrist, try some therapies and medicines for anxiety. Yes, start meeting regularly with a therapist to help you talk through and reason through things, including the rest of life's issues that do not leave you alone just because you are sick. But if the symptoms do not go away after everything you, the psychiatrist, and the therapist do, it is prudent to find a doctor who will put some effort into at least looking for other common causes, just to make sure. I wold recommend you do both the anxiety treatment and the further medical investigation in parallel, as I did. The key here is to realize that common illnesses that have anxiety as a symptom are also relatively easy to treat and recover from. So it is knowledge and hope that should help a person push through their anxiety to get help, not ignorance or rolling over on the quality of your life.