Stroke Fear/TMJ/Clenching Teeth

[BOSTONJ2110]

Hello all,

I have dealt with health anxiety for the last 2 years have recently been feeling abbot weird on the right side of my body specifically including heavy right eyelid, tingling in my jaw area, neck/shoulder pain as well as pain in my right hip that extends to my thigh and causes tingles in middle toes. I am in pretty good shape, don't snow and would say I am just avoiding being a heavy drinker although I never binge drink and cannot remember the last time I was intoxicated. I also have lock jaw and grind my teeth excessively. I am dealing  w an issue based on these symptoms that I may have a brain tumor, in process of having a stroke or aneurism. Non of which is there a family history. But the fogginess and all other symptoms are taking over by fear. Any advice would be great as I am in fear of going to Dr.

[Paxiled]

You're posting on the anxiety forum, so I'm assuming you suffer more than just health anxiety.  The pains you're describing can all be caused by an inability to relax -- the clenching of the teeth is caused by that, and can be helped by getting a mouthguard from your dentist.  The neck and shoulder pain could be caused by your clenching, or they could be causing your clenching if they're related to muscle pain or disc problems.  The pain in your hip area is probably from either there or you lower back and is causing sciatica -- that's pinching a nerve which is causing the pain to go down your leg along the sciatic nerve.  Can you tell I have all these things too?  If you see the appropriate health professionals they can diagnose you.  You'll probably be sent to physical therapy to see if you can work the problem out.  If you're not active, these things get worse.  Icing can help with the chronic inflammation you're suffering.  But finding some way to relax is the best thing you can do.  You might try learning meditation, try to find some exercise to do that doesn't make you hurt more, and get into therapy so you can learn how to think in a more helpful way.  And at some point you need to see someone who can diagnose whether you have structural problems or muscle problems -- most of the time it's muscular, but you're describing disc problems.  You're not describing anything like a brain tumor or the other things you're worrying about.