Months of Symptoms Following Another

[Sue_Bee]

Hi everyone. I am a 19 year old female and my symptoms started years ago, with a full blown panic attack a few days after my big sister's wedding. (People think it was because of the wedding, but my sister and I aren't at all close and I blame it mostly on my horrible sleep schedule that summer). So I went to my doctor and she prescribed me with some medications that went through trial and error until I was on Zoloft and Wellbutrin. I was fine for two years after that, taking my meds. Then I went to college and had two more major panic attacks, which I attributed to the sudden drastic change in my life. I was nauseous for months and thought it might be my stomach meds (I got sick earlier that year and they put me on Prilosec) so I stopped the Prilosec and felt a little better, but the nausea persisted. I knew it was my anxiety and that I would just have to deal with it. Months later, I had forgotten to take my Zoloft for three days and miraculously felt nausea free! So I stopped the Zoloft in May of 2010 and the nausea went away. I was so relieved, but the withdrawal symptoms and the now lack of my meds to help with my anxiety left me anxious, having panic attacks and having crazy aches and pains. I went to the college nurse dozens of times and when I finally came home for the summer, I seemed to be alright with just the Wellbutrin, but I was still having some panic attacks. My therapists tried several things like Cymbalta and Luvox, both of which made me extremely nauseous, so then they tried a small dose of Paxil which treated me better, so I've been on that for six weeks now. However, at the beginning of the summer, I had a myriad of symptoms. My chest started aching for no apparent reason. I thought something was wrong with my heart even though I had had a electrocardiogram done and they said my heart was perfectly healthy. Then my stomach started pulsating and I was convinced I had an aortic aneurysm. That went away and I started to not care about everything I loved. It was so major I couldn't believe it could just be anxiety, so I was convinced I had a brain aneurysm. Then I couldn't get a deep breath into my lungs and to this day still feel like I can't get enough air into my lungs, so I get terrified that I'm going to suffocate.
My panic attacks are usually triggered by my aches and pains, secreting adrenaline and convincing me that there something is wrong. I feel like I'm going to lose consciousness, or worse. Now, lately, with taking just the Paxil and Wellbutrin, I have had a tension headache constantly for seven weeks (BEFORE I started the Paxil) and so my doctor gave me Fioricet for the headaches. They work for a few  hours but the headache just comes back. They took a CT Scan and I have yet to hear back, but due to the personality change, the lack of interest in everything, the headaches, the inability to concentrate or focus, I am once again convinced I have a brain aneurysm or tumor.
Can anxiety really cause symptoms like this? There have been so many I've become a serious hypochondriac and I find it so hard to believe my mind can conjure up all these horrible symptoms and make me feel like I'm dying. I desperately want to believe that it's just anxiety, but the symptoms feel like so much more than that. Can anyone give me some peace of mind or make any suggestions? I'm at the end of my rope and sometimes the thought of suicide crosses my mind. I just want to feel normal again :(

[compnet]

Anxiety, panic, and headaches can all be caused by a magnesium deficiency.  Magnesium is depleted by stress and Magnesium, as well as the B Complex Vitamins, are needed to handle stress smoothly.

Please read:
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Anxiety/Anxiety--Depression--Panic----Magnesium/show/1313099

[MMahon]

Yes anxiety CAN cause the symptoms you are experiencing.  For many Anxiety disorder is a SERIOUS problem that impacts our lives significantly as you seem to be finding out. Many people develop 'health anxiety' where obscession with our health and fears of many different disoders effecting us begins to overwhelm us.  This is pretty common.
Whatever is being done for you doesn't sound like it's working very well.  You are having bad anxiety symptoms and probably suffering from depression as well.  Many medications have side effects but they usually subside after awhile.  If you are especially sensitive to meds then you should proceed slowly with them.  Start with much smaller doses and build up on them slowly letting your body adjust at it's own pace.  This way you get the help from them you need while minimizing their side effects as much as possible.   Nausea is a common side effect and it usually goes away in time if you can hang in there.
Let your doctor know what's going on and tell him/her that you are not satisfied with the results you are getting and must see improvement.   Don't give up until you get them!