Anxiety or another issue?

[kevin38]

I know I've seen a number of similar questions to this on the forum already, but I still wanted to ask about my specific case.  I'm a 23 year old male, with the only real health issue in the past being a gall bladder removal surgery a little over year ago.  Anyway, sometime over the past year I developed a general anxiety that progressively got worse, with a few near panic attacks in certain situations.  I went in to my general doctor and was diagnosed with a general anxiety disorder (after a full blood test workup that came back normal).  I tried self addressing the issue for a while with little improvement.  Out of desperation I went into the doctor again and he had me try a 10mg daily dose of Lexapro.  After about a week of taking this medication I also started some therapy with a psychologist.  Not being someone who does well with medication, I decided (with the consent of my doctor) to stop the medication gradually and see how therapy would work for me first.  I had completed about 8 days straight of Lexapro before easing myself off of it, and it has been a little over a week since my last dosage.  At the present time, I have been to a few sessions of therapy and feel like my anxiety overall is improving, however I still have concern with some physical issues I'm having.

Up until a few days ago, the physical symptoms that appeared with my anxiety were fairly consistent.  I was often shaky, would sometimes experience a shortness of breath/increased heartbeat, and would have occasional fatigue.  Recently though, I have started experiencing what I have seen described on here as a "brain fog" and sometimes an associated dizziness.  This has started very recently but has been rather alarming to me, because I can't seem to shake it.  It was also strange because it seemed to set on when I felt like my condition was improving.  Is this something that I should have the doctor look into further, or is it only another anxiety symptom and I am over reacting?  As often as I've been into the doctor for this one issue has made me start to feel like a bother, but I worry nonetheless.

I also wanted to include some other noteworthy items about my background that may be important.  Due to my line of work I have had a high exposure to ticks over the last few years and Lyme Disease is constantly on my mind (my doctor has seemed to dismiss this, although I haven't gotten another opinion and am not completely convinced, part of the reason being these seems to be some controversy with this disease).  My family's medical history really only includes cancer and stroke, so I haven't suspected any genetic diseases.

Anyway, I'm sure you can see that most of my concern is whether to make another appointment with my doctor to be further assessed, or if anyone has had a similar experience and what the outcome was.  Any help or input is appreciated, and I'd be happy to answer any additional questions on something I may have missed.

[kevin38]

Thanks for the response so far, and I'll think I'll probably look into making another doc appointment soon.

@carriew48 - don't worry too much about the test for Lyme, having some sort of answer will hopefully help ease your anxiety.  I know a large part of my issue has been the constant fear that something else is wrong with me, and that my anxiety is a consequence of that.

I've decided that my anxiety is like living the chicken vs. the egg question everyday.  I'm constantly wondering whether it is my anxiety causing my physical symptoms, or these odd symptoms that originally caused me to be anxious.  Either way it's a vicious cycle.

[carriew48]

It's weird that you talk about Lyme Disease, because I've been having a lot of symptoms or anxiety, and tingling/twitching and my homeopathic doc wants me to test for Lyme disease.  Apparently you have to take antibiotics for three weeks before the blood test though and I am kind of nervous about that and not sure what to do.  My anxiety has been off the charts lately and I just don't know what to do about it.

[ladyblue22]

It could be either withdraw symptoms of Lexapro, or more Anxiety.
Don't be afraid to make another Doc. App. that is what they are here for.
Explain him the symptoms after Lexapro about your Therapy  and what he suggest for you to do.
Good luck!!!