Anxiety , Headaches ,

[dt9929]

3 weeks ago I had a panic atttack and ended up in the hospital . I always had slight anxiety but because of what’s going on in my life I imagine it increased my anxiety . The anxiety would be racing heart before meetings or public speaking and then turned into anxiety at times to eat . I couldn’t sit in a restaurant or I would start panicking . Never mind eating food that was not happening . I had to focus on swollening and that is not the way to eat . Anyways the anxiety has subsided a bit with positive thinking and just moving on with my day . Since that day from the original panic attack I have had this head pressure that makes it hard to think and focus which also gives me more anxiety . It’s similar to a headache which I rarely had . I do suffer from allergies so I thought it’s sinus and I went to doctors but none really took the headaches as serious as the anxiety . They offered me anxiety medications but I prefer to overcome anxiety naturally because I believe it’s something I gave myself so I need to rid of it myself n I believe I can. The only issue now is this pressure in my sinus area . I can’t eirk out because the pressure increases . There are very little moments that I don’t notice it but it’s rare lately . During the past three weeks I got sick as well with phlegm n I would have to cough to spit it up . That is mostly gone now . I also visited the dentist where my wisdom tooth was pulled and a crown was installed . The crown still is painful as well and it’s been 2 weeks .  Not only did this anxiety annoy me but now I got a headache that is pretty much 24/7 that I just want to go away so I can focus on work n life n stop worrying .  Any info could help , thanks

[specialmom]

Hm well.  I'm going to give you some thoughts here.  You don't have mild anxiety.  You had a full blown panic attack and you get anxiety over something unreasonable and irrational (eating meals and swallowing).  That's not mild and you need aggressive help.  You are trying to do this without medication, more power to you.  But that means you have to REALLY work hard on the psychoanalysis part of it.  You need to be working with a clinical psychologist who specializes in anxiety disorder to work on the why, what and how to overcome.  Headache can happen for a lot of reasons and I don't know why yours is happening specifically but tension/stress can absolutely cause a chronic headache. Anxiety is tension and stress.  Stretching, proper sleep may help. But I think you have an underlying problem laying dormant.  We can try forever to overcome things on our own but it's important to recognize that this doesn't always work and is often just letting things careen out of control.  An anxiety attack that puts you in the hospital is serious and untreated, you are almost guaranteed to suffer more.  I'm someone that does believe medicine can greatly help but if you are not wanting that type of intervention, then you at least need to go the route of working with a professional to learn how to handle your anxiety in other ways.  good luck

[Paxiled]

Agree.  While psychoanalysis isn't really done anymore, CBT being the current recommended method, sometimes therapy can find something in your life that triggered it.  CBT ignores this, assuming even if we find something like that we'll still be conditioned to thinking anxious thoughts and so they just skip that part and focus solely on techniques to understand how you're thinking, how to relax, and then send you out to face things until you get deconditioned to being anxious. Others try spiritual or natural medicine, which often includes a lot of what CBT uses -- meditation, visualization, breathing exercises, etc.  If nothing else works, then you're left with medication, which doesn't treat the illness but tamps down the symptoms so your life can be lived.  One anxiety attack isn't really a big deal -- almost every human alive has had anxiety attacks, as we all have something we're phobic about.  It's when the problem becomes chronic rather than episodic and interferes with out lives that we have to intervene before it becomes who we are rather than something that happens occasionally.  I mean, if you panic just because of public speaking, well, welcome to humanity -- this is the most common phobia out there.  But when you get to where you're afraid to eat, you've got a whole different level of problem.  Head pressure is quite common with anxiety and stress -- it's caused by blood vessel or muscle constriction because you're bearing down in ways you don't realize is happening, you just feel the effects.  But it can also be caused by physiological problems, and so can anxiety -- things like thyroid problems, hormonal imbalances, blood sugar problems, food allergies and intolerance, poor circulation, lack of exercise, nutritional deficiencies -- there's a lot out there hospitals don't check but your regular doc or a specialist might that can be at fault.  And teeth problems -- there's a nerve that runs around the mouth that can be badly affected by both tooth decay and dental procedures and can take a long time to heal for some people.  By the way, your dental X-rays will show if your sinus is in fact inflamed.  Good luck whatever you try, but do try something sooner rather than later.