Scared of having a stroke

[freakycat]

I'm only 23.. I didn't think it was possible that someone that young could have a stroke, but then I searched on here and saw someone wrote that a person in their early 20's had a stroke. So now I am even more terrified.

The last few weeks I have been experiencing tingling and pins and needles mostly on my left side of the body and mostly on my left foot. When this first started happening I thought it was a sign of diabetes. 3 days ago I started to notice the pins and needles more often. Along with this I had an "ice pick" headache. I just started getting these a few months ago. They come and go. Of course with my anxiety I was putting two and two together and thought that I had a brain tumor, MS, aneurysm, or stroke. I read that tingling in the body and in the head was a warning sign for stroke. Yes I googled.. :( never doing that again because it completely messed with my head and I am so scared now. I have been vomiting but I know that this is because I'm working myself up over this. I am scared to go to sleep at night.

Today I woke up and told myself I wasn't going to let it bother me. I did a lot of cleaning today and kept myself busy. Well guess what. I only felt those pins and needles 2-3 times today. My stomach doesn't hurt as much as it did. But I still have a nasty headache. I believe it may be a tension headache. Feels like there's a big rubber band wrapped around my head. I lay my head down and it hurts a little more. I keep trying to tell myself that there is nothing wrong with me but it's not that easy.

I still have the thoughts in the back of my head about all of those bad things. The thing that scares me the most is stroke and MS. it's like every month I have a different fear. This has been going on since I was 15. Yes, my doctor is fully aware. I was put on celexa for 8 years. In February it will be 1 year off the meds.

Whenever a new "symptom" comes up I imeediately get scared because I've never felt it before and assume that it's something bad. That's my problem. I keep getting these headaches that ive never had before. I've been getting a lot more lately. Keep trying to tell myself that if it was something serious the headaches would not go away and would only get worse. But who knows.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Fashoom]

hi, sorry you're going through this, it's no fun at all. it's highly unusual for a person in their 20's to have a stroke. focus on what you do have -- an anxiety disorder, and treat that, and your physical symptoms will get better too. the mind-body connection is deeper than we even understand. you experience it yourself with the vomiting, and understand it's from stress and anxiety. pins and needles are an anxiety symptom too, it's just lack of oxygen flow, and that happens from the way we anxiety sufferers breathe -- shallow and stunted, sometimes holding our breathe w/o even realizing it.

was celexa helpful? it's great that you have been off -- using medicine when we don't need it is problematic for several reasons. one is the reduced efficacy when we DO need the medicines. maybe another celexa trial, even a short one, would help you get your mojo back. all the better if you can get CBT or some other therapy to change your brain in a positive way (neuroplasticity).

let us know how it goes. we're here.

[alwayscared]

A few days ago when I googled I read something about "smelling toast" right before having a stroke. I was laying in bed last night and could have sworn I smelt it twice! I instantly started to panic. I think reading something like that just stuck in my head because it was something I've never heard of before and such a weird thing to happen before a stroke.... if true. It worried me a little. Yes I know I am crazy! Lol

Other than that, yesterday was a much better day for me. Hardly got any tingling sensations. My headache went away which really calmed me down a lot. My stomach wasn't in knots. Until the whole toast thing happened. Looking back on it now I find it hilarious.

[Kirk]

My physician told me that anyone can have a stroke, but the vast majority occur in the elderly.
I only know of one young person who had a stroke in her 20's and her physician said it was due to
a congenital issue.

[aml0017]

The #1 tip for health anxiety is: NEVER GOOGLE ANYTHING!!! Anytime I have googled anything it always brings up the worst case scenario first. Yes maybe some people smell smoke before a stroke, but it can also be a hormonal issue. However, the fact you smelled it AFTER you read about it is the first clue it was only anxiety (you seem to realize this which is good). I have GAD, not particularly relating to health, but I've had my share of health anxiety. Lately, I've had a lot of buzzing in my ears and light-headedness. I was recently diagnosed with hypertension so that could have something to do with it. However, I notice the buzzing will go away as long as I am not thinking about it. The minute I think about it, boom, the buzzing will start up again. After 20 some years, I've come to know that the anxious mind is really a powerful thing, and you can definitely "think" symptoms into being. As you noticed, the less you are hyper-aware of every feeling in your body, the less the symptoms appear, as you noticed with the pins and needles feeling. I have had serious "symptoms" completely disappear out of nowhere simply because my mind stopped being anxious about it or moved on to a new worry. Once you truly believe that it is all in your head the health anxiety is much much less. Strangely, since the anxiety over my health is gone, I don't have any problem recognizing real symptoms or health issues when they occur. However, I just get through them or call the doctor for an appointment. You have to trust yourself to know the difference.