Anxiety or Brain Problem - Don't Know Where to Turn!

[Rhodog123]

My anxiety is triggered by unknown things. One minute I can feel perfectly fine, the next minute I feel like I'm dying.

Sometimes my symptoms can happen in the morning, shortly after I wake up, however most of my symptoms happen at night time.

The main symptom I have been getting is extreme tiredness which comes on all of a sudden. Along with this I get a heavy head feeling. I feel dizzy, disorientated, and like I've got tunnel vision - the light seems very bright for my eyes and as if I'm going to pass out. Usually if I go outside these sort of feelings temporarily go away, however this is not always the case. Sometimes they get worse and I have had to take myself to the hospital out of fear of something terrible happening.

Sometimes I have tried drinking fluids to see if this helps, and to my surprise even though I am hydrated, this does tend to help. This is not always the case, but a lot of the times when I'm feeling this way I can drink fluids and it helps me to feel better slowly.

I get random pains and sensations in different parts of my head such as shooting pains in my temples, which literally last just a few seconds. I also feel pressure in my head as if I'm wearing a hat too tightly.

Occasionally, I start to see a black dot in my left eye which I believe to be a floater. This comes and goes, mainly when I feel anxious because of the anxiety symptoms. I only see this in my left eye, however very very rarely it will also appear in my right eye if I quickly close my left eye when I'm seeing it which sort of tells me that this could be anxiety, however it still worries me very much.

Another common symptom is for me to be going about my daily business with absolutely no stress whatsoever, and then all of a sudden I will get a rushing feeling in my head or or a feeling like something in my head is just vibrated suddenly or some sort of liquid has just "puffed" out inside my brain. (As weird as that sounds!) This then sends me into a state of panic thinking the worst and I tense up my neck muscles which therefore causes tension headaches at the back of my neck and also causing a very very stiff neck. This then puts me into an anxiety state literally seconds after I was completely calm, and this can last for hours at a time - making me unable to relax to go to sleep or unable to relax simply to sit down and watch TV.

I get a constant feeling of restlessness, and unless I am walking around or doing something to take my mind off of things, I feel the panic get worse and worse. As soon as I do anything as simple as stand-up and walk around such as pacing up and down the room the symptoms decide to be not as bad as when I'm sat still.

I do also get a fast heartbeat after eating or drinking, and especially when I'm worried about the symptoms that I'm suffering from. I get palpitations, a feeling of nausea, and I have actually been sick a few times randomly or felt as if I'm going to be sick. I get the sensation in my chest, sort of like a pressure which is relieved by burping. This also causes tingling in my left hand and fingers, slight chest discomfort and occasionally I can also get pain in my left jaw and my left shoulder.

As strange as it sounds, I've noticed after I have been drinking alcohol, this completely takes away the anxiety symptoms. It's as if being drunk or merry actually takes the symptoms away. This also points me to the theory that it is anxiety, as surely if this was something serious it would still be there regardless or whether or not I've had alcohol?? I'm thinking the alcohol acts as a relaxant, since it's a depressant after all...

I have been to my general practitioner who has done a full check of my eyes and a standard neurological check to test things such as my peripheral vision and sensation on both sides of my body which was normal. I've also had this same test done by a doctor at the emergency department when I went in - again - completely normal in terms of brain function and she couldn't find anything after looking in my eyes with her light etc...

Seven years ago in 2010, I saw a neurologist when I was having almost the exact same symptoms that I'm suffering at the moment. It got to the stage where I had an MRI scan of my brain. This showed absolutely nothing out of the ordinarily and nothing sinister at all.

I have had an ECG, in fact I have had several of them over the last few weeks, all of which have been completely normal even when I've had them done whilst I was feeling the above sensations. My blood pressure is also completely normal as well as my pulse which is around 60 to 70 bpm at rest. At one point I was actually told I had very good blood pressure even though I am overweight slightly.

I have had a range of blood tests - all of which have come back completely normal in terms of diabetes, hormone levels, thyroid, the whole works, apart from a certain enzyme in my liver which was slightly elevated, but my GP told me this is not something to worry about as it is not considerably elevated and apparently it is something which doesn't cause any symptoms or at least not the ones I'm suffering with.

If it helps, I do suffer with ADHD, Asperger's syndrome, anxiety and depression. I also found out about two years ago but I only have a single kidney and they are unsure whether or not I was born with one kidney or whether I have lost it due to an infection throughout my life at some point. I have seen four different urologists about this, all of which have said that I am perfectly fine and that my remaining kidney is working perfectly fine and it's perfectly healthy.

My GP has given me a prescription for 10 mg of propranolol up to 3 times per day. I've taken this medicine before and it did actually help with my anxiety, however the anxiety has now got so bad that I fear taking medication in case of the side-effects cause something terrible to happen.

If it helps, I am 23 years of age, standing 5'5" tall and I do weigh 12.8 stones which obviously is overweight for my age, however recently I have started swimming to try and lose this weight and become healthier.

I really do hope that somebody could advise me on this because it really is starting to rule my life. My mind is telling me that it's anxiety, but at the same time it's also trying to tell me that it is something serious. It's affecting my relationship, not only with my fiance but also with my family.

Thanks in advance!

[Mikethepike]

Hey 123. I've been on 1 mg Ativan a night,
Same thing is happening to me.
Could it be Ativan?