Does this sound like anxiety to you?

[REC]

Hi all

I am new to the forum and have found browsing really helpful but would now really like to hear your opinion on something. Apologies in advance for the very long post but I wanted to give my full situation to enable you to make a better judgement...

At the end of April I had about a week of feeling faint, pain behind my left eye and extreme fatigue. A full blood count, ECG and MRI were fine (I live in the UAE where these tests are routine!) and the symptoms seemed to go after having 3 days off work before the weekend. The doctor concluded it was a virus. However, my mum (who lives back in the UK) thought that maybe I had anxiety. Initially, I didn't think this was possible as I wasn't particularly worried about anything. However, now in retrospect, and due to current symptoms, I'm wondering if she might have been right. I've been having odd thoughts and behaviour over the last year - I moved to the UAE in August 2015 after a hectic year where I got married and I'd say my thoughts started a few months later - I'll elaborate on my current symptoms later.

Firstly, I have become extremely bad with flying. I feel sick in the day before take off, have a pounding chest and nausea at take off and during turbulence. Usually a few drinks calms me down - which I know isn't the best cure!

Secondly, since witnessing the aftermath of a man being hit by a car outside my building, I worry daily that my husband will be hit as he crosses the busy road to go to the shop every day whilst I'm at work. If he doesn't answer his phone I get really panicked. In addition, my mum went on holiday last month on her own and was out of contact for the full week (she was in Cuba where she couldn't get internet) but at the time I was convinced she had died in grizzly circumstances. I haven't shared either of these worries with anyone.

Finally, I've got a lot of worries about my health, which leads me on to current symptoms. For the last week, my vision has been blurry, I have tingling and twitching in my legs, shaky hands and a numb patch on my left cheek, intermittently. Incidentally I am experiencing these as I type, so they seem to worsen the more I think about it. As before, my day to day state of mind has been generally good. I do not enjoy my job (I teach in a school I hate) but do not really dwell or worry too much about it. I am currently applying for a visa to move to Australia (which is a positive change) although the process in fairly stressful and involves a lot of waiting around.

The thing that worries me is that all of these symptoms are also indicative of MS... I keep telling myself that the MRI would have shown any neurological problems but also remember that the doctor literally just scrolled quickly through the images whilst I sat there. Am I going mad? Do these sound like anxiety symptoms without an actual panic attack?

My father died unexpectedly when I was 15 (10 years ago) and again, with hindsight, I don't think I grieved properly. I do recall having what might be classed as panic attacks if I couldn't get hold of my mum or if I heard and type of screaming but haven't experienced a panic attack as such recently.

Thank you for reading this if you got all the way through! Your input would be greatly appreciated.

Rachel

[sazco]

Hey welcome! After reading everything you have to say I really am convinced you do have general anxiety. I have a lot of what you have but with my meds I can control it better. You shouldn't be worrying so much! Life's really short and your anxiety can distract you from seeing the beauty it has to offer. I have a heart problem which makes me shake hard and I take a med to combat that is your shaking affecting how you hold a cup of coffee? Does it come and go? When are you most anxious? Have you ever felt like the anxiety is too much and you don't know what's going on? Does it last 24/7 or does it come up during stressful situations? Are you sleeping at night?

[REC]

Hey welcome! After reading everything you have to say I really am convinced you do have general anxiety. I have a lot of what you have but with my meds I can control it better. You shouldn't be worrying so much! Life's really short and your anxiety can distract you from seeing the beauty it has to offer. I have a heart problem which makes me shake hard and I take a med to combat that is your shaking affecting how you hold a cup of coffee? Does it come and go? When are you most anxious? Have you ever felt like the anxiety is too much and you don't know what's going on? Does it last 24/7 or does it come up during stressful situations? Are you sleeping at night?

Hi Sazco

Thanks so much for your response.

I wouldn't say the worrying is debilitating or that it ruins my day as such - more of a sense of panic that comes with the irrational thoughts. My shaking definitely wouldn't stop me from holding a cup. It's pretty mild. I notice it if I'm holding a piece of paper, for instance, and the paper starts to flutter. I guess it's more of a tremor.

With regards to when I'm most anxious, I'd say it's when I'm bored! If I'm occupied at work or doing something fun, I don't seem to have the physical symptoms. It's more when I'm sat doing nothing, or browsing the Internet (which is basically the same as doing nothing - and worse when I get on symptom checkers!). That's why the numbness and tingling was concerning me because it doesn't seem to be an adrenalin reaction to stress or anything like that. However, if I do focus on them, they intensify.

My sleep isn't too good but not too bad either. I have to adhere to a routine and usually take a while to switch off - night time is when I worry most I think. When I do sleep, I usually get up to the toilet 2-3 times, but that comes with drinking a lot of water due to the heat where I live.

Do your symptoms seem to follow a pattern or come in stressful situations? Do they ever happen when you're doing nothing?

Aside from medication, how are you able to alleviate them? I like your positive attitude towards life. I often think of the things I'm looking forward too, but sometimes the thoughts are accompanied by a feeling that they won't happen because something bad will happen first! You're right though, I do need to be less negative about things!

Rachel