Is this possibly anxiety? Very scared.

[raw1973]

I'm a 31 year old male that's been having many disturbing symptoms over the past two months. It started with visual disturbances in the beginning and felt as though I was having coordination/cognition problems.(problems reading) Three weeks ago I had breathing problems  and went to the ER. Doc said sounds like stress/anxiety. Had another panic attack one week later. Last week I started to have muscle fascilations over my entire body that last all day and insomnia. For 4 days I could never reach deep sleep, just fall asleep enough to dream then wake about every 30-40 minutes. After the four days I was feeling sensory problems( burning tingling in muscles) and ringing in ear when trying to sleep( possibly from sleep deprivation) I went to primary Physician and she said sounds like anxiety/depression prescribed Zoloft,xanax, and restoril.
The xanax calmed me during the day and but restoril knocks me out for maybe 5 hours then I do the tossing and turning with the ringing and Swooshing in ear. I still have the muscle fascinations, which she attributed to sleep deprivation and vision still a problem. It's been 4 days since I saw my doctor, so I made an appointment with neorologist tomorrow. Can anxiety/depression be causing all these persistent problems? I worry about a serious disorder. I've read about CJD and am scared of something like that, because of the progression of my symptoms. Thanks for the help in advance.  ---Rob

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

This is almost a typical picture of anxiety...if you go through the archives of this forum you will see this described over and over.  It is still good to see a neurologist to be sure and rule out any remote possibilty of a neurological origin but it does not sound organic to me.

[Jani34]

I have gone through the same thing last spring..and still haven't fully recovered..BUT.. One advice I can give you is:
Do NOT wait and hope the symptoms will go away. What you need to do is go see a neurologist. Ask for EMG test, even if he says you're ok. Trust me, it's worth the money. But do it quick. Do not wait 3-4 weeks with basically no sleep at all.

"For 4 days I could never reach deep sleep, just fall asleep enough to dream then wake about every 30-40 minutes"
I had the same thing and I know what it does to your body. Tingling, twitching..

Anxiety and stress can do lot of harm to your mind & body.
It really is a vicious circle: you get these physical symptoms from anxiety..and having physical symptoms makes the anxiety worse and there you are...

1) Go through every necessary test to make you convinced you do not have some serious disease (ALS, Parkinsons etc..)
2) Leave Google alone.. Don't try "ALS SYMPTOMS" or anything like that..Trust me, I know what I'm talking about.. ;-)
3) Try to do some exercise every day, maybe 30 minutes of walking/jogging. It really makes a difference once you realize "Wait a minute, ALS patient can not do this.."

[sunf]

It sounds like benign fasciculation syndrome. Did you get a rash? You should see a neurologist and stop taking all those drugs. The neurologist will probably be a waste of time and money but it will atleast give you peace of mind that you don't have a tumor, CJD, or ALS.

It's not "stress" or "anxiety."