Hello there and thank you for this forum. Although I am not happy that so many others feel these symptoms, I am somewhat comforted that there are others that feel these things and that there is support and options out there:)
I will give a brief hisory as I feel it is somewhat relevant and I thank those that take the time to read it ahead of time:)
I ama 37 year old female. First anxiety attack came at the age of 22 where doctor put me on low dose of lorazepam which I continued to take on a daily basis and I guess became comforted by it because of the fear of having another panic/anxiety attack. Fast forward to day after delivering my first child. I experienced what I know now is a one in a million experience.Doctors still muffled. Basically my spenopalatine artery in head burst and I spent 9 days bleeding out from mouth and nose. Not a pleasant experience and not a great way to remember birth of first child. Experienced major fear and anxiety after getting out of hospital. Was going to hospital every other night convinced was having heart attack/stroke. Experienced numbness in extremities, tightness in chest, and many classic anxiety symptoms. Began many tests for possibleMS but all came back negative. At 5 montsh postpartum DX''d with post traumatic stress disorder brought on by post partum and birth experience. Finally started to feel normal, declined celexa? (sp). Read a lot of self help, thought positive, told not to have any more children. Became pregnant when first born was 9 months old, eveything great until 27 weeks in to pregnancy. Then the artery burst again and next episode worse than first, including ICU, transfusions, almost pregnancy termination, etc. The doctors are still amazed that I lived thru both episodes, and I imagine hearing that makes one happy but also feel much cloer to ones immortality. Everything back to normal after that. Then a year later had what seemed by symptoms to be another week lasting episode of MS, including severe pins and needles, pain and wierd sensations in head, back, etc, numbness in bladder area to point that back pain wa only symptom of having to urinate, and a bunch of other symptoms. Went to see MS doctor who DX'd me with clinical MS BUT after MRI came back negative refused to even see me again telling receptionist that its not MS. Anyhow, when I stopped worrying so much and obsessing about symptoms they seemed to get better and more manageable. Now years later(5), I get minor symptoms. Once in a while get tingling, but thats mainly it. If something comes up at doctors, or I read about a consition related to a symptom I am having I seem to go in to a obsessed mode convincing myself I must have the worst case scenario. Example. Doctor found my cholesterol to be very high when running random blood after family had H1N1. Put me on Crestor and then my mind wandered and conmvinced myself that I had heart disease and related that to symptoms Ive had. For example, once in a while I get a pain down my left arm, now Im convinced that its the arteries clogging . Does anyone else get left arm pain? Does anyone else become so afraid and worried that thier symptoms are a terrible illness? I lead a normal life, am a non driinker, very active and very involved in many things. Things can be running great and all of a sudden Ill spend a day feeling surreal and paranoid after feeling a pain in my left arm or heartburn, and convince myself that Im goingf to have a heart attack. Its so wierd. It just comes out of nowhere. In fact as I write this Im getting tingling in my fingers which I havent felt in months. Its like my mind plays tricks on my body and I feel things I talk about. I imagine teh mond is a very powerful thing. My anxiety has affected me. Maybe its the post traumatic part, but I have an intense fear of flying and driving over bridges, and amusement park rides. All of these things and more I did before the bleeding episodes. Dont know if its anxiety or if its something else. Anyhow, if youve read this far, your amazing :):):):) I guess I felt a history was needed to explain how/what I feel and why. The last few days my jaw feels wierd, either like its really light and floating or I get these sensations that make me want to bite down and clench it. Anyone feel that with anxiety? I know doctors like to blame everything on anxiety, and I just want to make sure thats what this all is. I hide thsi well,, only a select few of my large social network know this anxiety even exists. I function completely normal and besides the intense fear of heights (also inclusing taking elevator up more than a few floors) and the occassional day where it seems like everything just acts up, things seem :"normal". I do get brain fog days , but believe its anxiety related as well, or maybe that Ive been taking lorazepam for 15 tears which a maximum dose of 1.5-2 milligrams a day, never anymore than that. Anyhow, I appreciate any info. Ill add that I go to teh gym 5-6 times a week as of the last two weeks, and I eat very healthy(no fried foods or sweets). Anyhow thank you once again for any imput:):):)