Anxiety ,high BP and everything and nothing.What is it?

[john85]

Hi everybody,

I am 33 year old male and its been 3 months suffering from a lot of symptoms. It all started on april.I went to the gym regularly but i started to get dizzy sometimes. I had a semi stuffed noses(maybe allergy) for 2 months and it felt i couldnt get enough oxygen.
sometimes it felt like i forgot to breath. Anyway i started getting dizzy until one day at work i started to feel numb at my left part of body feeling like i might pass out. i went home and meassured my bp and it was 150/90. i went to see a cardiologist.
she told me to make 24 hour blood pressure measurement. Average BP was 110/70 but during the day max was 150/90 but this was while i as at hosptial so maybe related to white collar BP. Anyway i made a lot of tests.My blood test came normal( slightly elevated WBC).
My lipids were high( ihave been suffering from high tryglicerides and cholesterol but i usually manage them with exercise and diet). I did test for urine normetanephrine 24h and it came back normal. Aldosterone test and came back normal.
I was diagnosed with the begining phase of HAshimoto but my thyroid test are still normal and working properly(no medication neaded).i made a stress test and doctor said is good. i went up to 10.2 Mets but i could go more but the doctor didnt let me.
I made ultrasound of my heart and it came normal. a slight septal hypertrophy(septalwall was 12mm which was the maximum normal value). Anyway doctor decided to give me Miccardis plus 40MG twice a day. I ended up using 20Mg -40mg  once a day. But my symptoms persisted.
I forgot to mention i had  a Brain MRI and it came back normal. Went to ORL and didnt have vertigo or middle ear problems.I am a software engineer and i work on pc for 8-9 hours every day.my posture isnt very good but i get a lot of breaks.
I work in a very friendly place and its a job i love so i dont have any work related stress or something.

Anyway i still had symptoms. I went to another cardilogist and he gave me nebivolol(beta blocker) because i had some tachycardia that usually occurs once in 4 or 5 five years but i have seen a lot of docotrs and they told me its not dangerous. Its something with electrical pathways but since it lasts 3 to 5 minutes i never had a chance to properly get in time at hospital to find what was happening.
I ended up using 1/4(20mg) of Miccardis plus dossage and 1/4(1.25mg) nebivolol because my heart rate would go under 60 bpm if i used more(sometimes it went 48 BPM when i woke up in the morning) .Still had the symptoms though.

I cut off coffe,i stopped  smoking(been smoking for 15 years) .Went 4-5 times a day running(8KM total each morning) but symptoms were there not every day the same but some days stronger some days lighter.

I went to a neurologist i did an EEG and came back normal. He told me that i have Chronic fatigue syndrome.
He put me on some drugs from russia.I used 1 month of PHENIBUT and didnt had any effect.I went on 1 month on adaptol(mebicar) and still no changes. Anyway i decided to try a SSRI. i took paroxetine(seroxat) 10Mg once a day. i took it for 25 days and no change at all. i stopped taking it 10 days ago.I stopped nebilet when taking seroxat because paroxetine incireases nebivolol in the blood and both of my cardilogist didnt know about this effect :D. I usually do a lot of research for all medicines.

I went on vacation for 1 week and my symptoms were there but really mild.sometimes i couldnt even notice them. Anyway I am back to my normal days and symptoms are there.

It all starts like a numb feeling in the back of my head and goes up and accumulates in my forhead or top of the head. Same thing happens when someone is really angry(blood flows to your head) but i got this feeling randomly without any cause. like in the middle of an conversation,working,listing to music. from normal it goes to this feeling in a matter of seconds and stays there. My vission becomes blurry but it more accurately is the same feeling when going from a bright place to a very dark place. when i breath from nose i have a strange feeling or taste i do not know how to explain it.(like a metal(cold) taste or something).then i start getting anxious and the whole cycle begins.

I do not know what to do more. Is it really anxiety? is it a problem with my heart? in fact i do not care at all just want the symptoms go away. Any idea where should i focus? Doctors tell me you are ok dont think about it and it will go away.

Thank you and sorry for any error in writing and for the long post :)

[Paxiled]

First question when you suspect anxiety is, are you having anxious thoughts on a chronic basis?  You say you get anxious when these symptoms occur, but  that's a different kind of anxiety, that's nervousness, and it's normal because you're in a stressful situation trying to figure out what's going on.  Anxiety the mental disorder is irrational fears and obsessive anxious thinking.  You don't mention having that.  If that kind of thinking was going on, if you were having panic attacks, and the like, that's anxiety and it can cause all manner of symptoms.  It can also cause us to focus on things we would normally ignore.  Were you having that before this happened?  I'm also confused --- very confused -- by some of the treatment you describe.  You say you were given beta blockers despite years of being old you didn't need them because your problem only happened occasionally, not enough to cause the risk that this drug treats.  That's odd to me, anyway.  It's also odd if you weren't feeling anxious thoughts on a chronic basis that you would be put on an antidepressant, and even more odd you would be started out on the one that's the hardest to stop taking, Paxil.  Usually that's left for when others with easier reputations don't work, but again, if you're not an anxious person, hard to see what this would do for you.  You also were on a low dose, and you weren't on it long enough for it to start working -- it takes 4-6 weeks for antidepressants to start working for most people, though side effects start right away and some people do get quicker results.  Stopping this drug can be very hard on you, but since you were on it a short time and it wasn't working, you're probably fine about that.  The other weird thing is if you are able to exercise at the level you do you definitely don't have chronic fatigue syndrome -- those folks have a hard time getting out of bed -- so again, some very weird medicine being practiced here, again, to me anyway.  Now, I have no idea what's going on with you, though it doesn't sound like heart related stuff.  Some of it sounds like vascular constriction such as what migraine sufferers have -- the blurry vision, for example, but you don't report headaches.  That's a circulatory problem usually caused by some form of stress that causes constriction and then opening of blood vessels -- you feel it your head because those blood vessels open up first following the constriction period while the ones at the extremities open later, causing the pressure in the head area.  Another possibility is the posture issue -- it could be from the neck pinching on nerves.  So it could be a lot of things, but I'm not sure the things you're being checked for.  Your BP seems normal -- lots of people show high BP at the doctor's office.  Anyway, can't diagnose you, no doctors here, but the main point is, if you don't think anxious thoughts that are pretty severe and interfere with your life it's unlikely the cause is anxiety.  If you are, it might well be from that.

[john85]

Thank you for your answer. First i do not have Anxious thoughts or anything.  Since all the meds the neurologyst gave me (phenibut,adaptol) were usually used for anxiety i thought i would try paroxetine. I used some years ago for my PE thats why i choose it. I usually don't have problems with quitting things.I quit smoking cold turkey but i also know SSRI and benzos are different. But as you know i have not  been on them for too long.

About headaches. I do not know if there are other folks out there but i never get headaches :D. Thats why i didnt mention headaches. I forgot to mention i also did a neck radiograph and doctor said is normal( alittle nerd neck rounded shoulders) . Actually its been 2 months i do not go to any doctor.I spent a lot of money for tests and wanted to have a break. Wanted to ask here because i do not understand anxiety . Sometiimes i think maybe i need to check my eyes. Its been years using pc and i do not wear glasses(never went to an doctor) but i doubt eyes can couse these symptoms.

Anyway thank you

[Paxiled]

Trust me, there's no contest quitting Paxil and quitting smoking.  Paxil is much harder to stop taking in the physiological and mental problems it can cause if you don't taper off slowly, at least for those who get withdrawal.  Smoking is more of missing it and some minor physiological symptoms, but it's just so hard to quit because your brain just misses that nicotine so much.  That's not what happens with Paxil -- your brain doesn't work the same anymore when you're on it, and has to adapt back to working normally again when you stop it.  For whatever reason, this drug and Effexor are just a lot harder to stop than other antidepressants -- any of them can be a problem or no problem at all but statistics show a large majority of those who take take Paxil or Effexor will have some severe withdrawal problems.  But again, many don't.  It all depends.  I'm just saying to play it safe, it's just better to do it that way.  But again, if you're not suffering from anxiety, I'm not sure what it is you think an antidepressant is going to do for you, which is my main point.  Have no idea what's going on with you, but it's something, but if you're not thinking anxious thoughts all the time that's not it.