head pressure, neck pain, faintness,blurry vision, what is this??

[markcho65]

Hello,
I am a 50 year olde asian male. About 7 months ago I was hospitalized for heart palpatation with dizziness and faintness. This has happened to me before but the symptoms would go away by itself but this time it would not. It was a very scary moment for me as thought of death entered my head. I went to ER and they did blood test and everything came out normal. After 3-4 hours the palpatation went away and i was feeling fine. After about a month later i started to get this pressure like feeling and dizziness which cause me to start thinking about the episode again which cause my heart to race again ( 120-130bpm) and progressively start to get worse. I went to my primary Doctor and he said i have high blood pressure and prescribed me Atenolol. I have never been on a prescription medication before and tell you what this medication was making me feel like i was going crazy! Made me feel hopeless, feeling of doom, head pressrure got worse, extreme anxiety like I never felt before. So i stop taking it after only a month. I have had CT scan on my head, heart monitor, blood test, and everything checked out normal. My doctor thinks its anxiety. I never ever had anxiety, how could this happened now? He wanted to precribed me Zoloft, I said, No. I dont really know what I have and just frustrated! Everyday feels like it's my last. Almost 90% of my time is consumed by this condition. Going online and try to fine answers. What do i do?
Feeling down. I have been trying to keep myself busy by working out and taking long walks to keep my mind off things, seems to help somewhat. I am just tired of living like this for so many months.
I am stressing out my wife over this and I feel so bad. I told her I don't know when this will go away and just be patient with me. I just needed to vent out my thoughts and hope I get some feedback.

[markcho65]

I am dealing with this problem now as best as I can by stretching and breathing and just trying to relax. Lately, it start happening at same time from 530 to 930. This has been going on for couple weeks now. Yesterday I felt good and told my wife let's go to pachanga casino. Drive for about an hour and had to pull over and made my wife drive the rest of the way. These attacks as driving me crazy! Got to the casino and felt better but all night I was feeling the usual symptoms. We left around 12 midnight and I didn't want my wife driving so I took the wheel. For about 20 mins I was going thru the usual symptoms but after that it just went away. I thought hmmm...maybe I'm cured! I made it all the way home with no issues and felt really good. At 530pm today it all came back.

[Sammey1]

yea buddy ur definelty right about the internet thing cuz if u search online it tells you all sords of negative things and make ur anxiety level go high... i had the same problem few days a go i saw one add on 10 signs on irregular heartbeats and all those sign are same as anxiety .. but shure scared the hell outta me for a day??

[markcho65]

Thank you!

[clement4now]

Well, it would most likely be a psychotherapist, a doctor who specializes in mental heath therapy. See what your GP suggest after you mention your idea on possible therapy for yourself... I think your wife is right on w/ her suggestion; she is looking out for you...
Good Luck

[markcho65]

Therapy..meaning phychiatrist, right?

[markcho65]

My wife is suggesting the same. I will definitely will ask my doctor about that. I appreciate your suggestion.

[clement4now]

Hi,
I'm in Ca., and have Kaiser too; I also have anxiety.  Have you ever considered therapy for the anxiety you've experienced?

Here's a suggestion (you can take it or leave it): once you see your doctor next, ask if you can be referred to a therapist for your anxiety, unless you've already done so. Your Kaiser plan should cover all costs of the therapy sessions ( you only have to cover the co-pay $15.00), if you decide to go that route. I went through therapy for a year, and now I no longer deal with any panic attacks or daily anxiety...

[markcho65]

Day after - Doctor asked me the usual questions and did the routine knock on knee, check throat, balance test. He asked me if had life changing event. I said NO to both. He prescribed me anxiety med. I took one around 1030pm and knocked me out till morning. The symptoms still lingers but manageable. Last night was very depressing. I can tell my wife was stressed and bothered. She keep telling me to relax and I am not going to die. That was something I did not want to hear. I'm thinking to my self "You have no ideal what I'm going through!" I was kind of getting angry but understood her frustrations.Changed my doctor today and going to see my new softer in 2 days.

[markcho65]

I'm in urgent care at Kaiser. Good not handle the episode. Feel like I'm going crazy and die tonight. Waiting for the doctor to see me.

[markcho65]

Thanks for the feedback. Really appreciated. I am at a market and hitting me very hard right now. Lately, my episode seems to hit me from 6pm-8pm. I am scheduled to ENT in couple of weeks. I am pretty sure I'm wasting my time on that but that's what my doctor recommended. By the way, how does your episode start? My episode start by this heaviness come over my head, eyes start to get heavy also, vision starts to blurt, breathing get difficult and heart seems to beat faster.

[Cousinnick]

49yo male, , never had aniexty and like you,  came on outta nowhere.....Dr gave me ativan to take as needed, , i take .25mg in the AM when i wake and it really helps.  I recommend it in the shortterm ( 4months).  My theripist said to exersize, eat right and stay busy, , hopefully will go away like it came.  I empithise with you as your story sounded like me 2 months ago.  It will get better, , just have to give it time.

[markcho65]

I think the something triggered after my last episode. Every time I think I'm having another one I get consumed by it. I live in Calif.

[Paxiled]

If you don't feel anxious -- have irrational fears you obsess about -- you're not anxious.  I have no idea if this describes you, but you indicate it doesn't.  When doctors don't know what's going on and preliminary tests come out negative, they often attribute it to emotional problems and prescribe strong medication.  That's all they know how to do -- get the patient out of the office so they can see the next one in the waiting room so treat the symptom, not the problem.  I'd investigate further, but you can have strong reactions to stress without having a chronic anxiety problem.  That's a problem that needs to be dealt with, but it isn't anxiety.  You also indicate you were put on blood pressure medication but were then taken off, indicating you might not indeed have high blood pressure.  I don't know what part of Asia you're in, but have you investigated meditation and breathing exercises and herbal medicine, which can be very effective for high blood pressure?  After all, many of these techniques are taught in the West as part of psychological treatment for stress and anxiety, and we got them from Asia.  

[markcho65]

Thank you!

[anxiety_dude]

"Everyday feels like it's my last" is one of the most common emotional symptom of anxiety. Being new to this anxiety, I definitely tell you (also anyone who suffer anxiety) to NOT search your symptoms in the internet, it can lead to its own anxiety, it will just feed yours and you will probably find the worst case scenario on the net. If your tests came back normal, then anxiety can be the sole cause, you might have been experienced a panic attack. I can't give you much more of advice cause I'm not a doctor nor a therapist, but what can I say is you're not alone. Try going on another doctor for a second opinion or talking to a psychologist. Btw, I'm an asian to, i'm from the Philippines and I'm 18