Can my condition be caused by stress?

[greghouse9986]

I'm worried about HIV because protection broke by a little bit during vaginal sex with a sex worker.
Because of HIV will show symptoms after 14 days, I anxiously started checking my symptoms on 14th day.

I had sore throat before. Even on the day of contact, I noticed tiny pain in throat when swallowing saliva. It was exactly the feeling that I have now - Doesn't hurt during drinking, eating or not doing anything. It's just redness and if I pay attention to it, I notice little pain.

Yesterday, I started to feel fluid in my ear. It's not disturbing unless I think about it. After putting ear cleaning stick inside my ear, I don't see anything coming out. No fluid, no dirt.

I've been stressed for couple of months and I am even more stressed now. Could stress cause my symptoms?
I read this article and several other articles saying that inner ear fluid can be affected by stress-related hormones.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10565728/

Also doing Wim Hof Method - Deep breathing(breath in through nose and breath out through mouth) and Cold showers. This method causes hyperventilation and could that cause my throat problem?

I'm also lifting weights if it has any connection to it.

Summary :
My symptoms cause me to worry even more. Otherwise, they are not physically disturbing when not thinking about them.
I had similar throat in May. I was depressed back then too.

[greghouse9986]

Thanks for the answer.
Sent pictures of my throat to a doctor and doctor said it was mild Catarrh.

Ear problem went away in a day. Probably was just a water.

I was worried because HIV symptoms may take 2 weeks to show up.

Going to take PCR test. Result will arrive in 4-5 days and I hope everything will be alright

[Paxiled]

I'm really not sure you're really going to feel things in your ear and throat because of depression, but anxiety can make one overanalyze anything and exaggerate how much it's bothering you.  As for the breathing exercise, I looked it up because generally that type of breathing induces relaxation, not hyperventilation, and wouldn't be followed by a cold shower if one was trying to relax, it's a hot shower that produces relaxation whereas a cold shower is invigorating and energizing.  I didn't look very deeply into it because it isn't of any interest to me having briefly read about it.  I have no idea what he is trying to accomplish, but it isn't the type of breathing one would do for relaxation.  It appears he's trying to do this for athletic reasons to increase oxygen capacity, and it probably doesn't actually do that, but if he thinks it does and convinces others it does than it does, you know?  But if you breathe in and out rapidly and do it 30 times as he suggests you are going to get light headed and if you're trying to limit anxiety by doing this it's probably not what you want to be doing.  There are thousands of different breathing practices out there and they have different purposes, but for relaxation, this type of breathing would be great as long as you didn't do it as suggested on that site, which is to do it really fast over and over again.  So again, I don't know why you're doing it, but if you're going for relaxation, this ain't it.  But the abdominal breathing part of it is, which is, breathing deeply from your abdomen, then your chest instead of the shallow breathing that only involves the chest area.  That can be very helpful for relaxation.  I also don't know what you're poking into your ear.  Any fluid would be inside the ear, and if you poke to hard with anything you can damage your eardrum, so don't do that.  Stress can cause a lot of things, but stress is self-induced most of the time.  Unless someone is holding you at gunpoint or hurting you, life is always stressful but how much it bothers a particular person is due to that person's personality.  But if what you have isn't stress but anxiety, that's a different story, and for that you might need therapy.  So here's the thing:  it doesn't sound like you engaged in sexual activity that can cause HIV, as you used protection, but if you're truly worried about it get tested.  If you have HIV anxiety, it's probably a good idea to stay away from someone who makes a living doing it, as those are very high risk people.  None of your symptoms would be HIV that quickly, as you no doubt know.  Condoms seldom if ever truly break, and when they do you know it.  But again, if it truly did, then get tested, don't sit around stewing about it.  I have no idea what's going on with your throat but yeah, that type of breathing exercise could definitely put stress on the throat.  If you have an anxiety problem, seek therapy if you can't fix it yourself.  Peace.