Terrible fear of brain aneurysm or a vein bursting in the brain!

[fearofdeath]

Okay, first of all, hello, I'm new here! I've been checking out your health anxiety threads but I didn't think I'd join, not until this anxiety got this severe.
This may be a long message because I have a lot of things in my mind, but I really, really hope you would take your time to read it, because I feel that I really need help from others possibly suffering from similar things..

I've had anxiety of some level before but the health anxiety is pretty new, it started early this summer. Even though it's been a couple of months only, I've already had a lot of worries and fears about my health. It started with the fear of breast cancer after I found a lump (And here I should note that I'm 19 years old, so I guess I really shouldn't be worrying of such things). I had an ultrasound and was assured I didn't have anything there and stopped worrying about it, but it was already too late, the anxiety had started and now there was no stopping it!

I've also had chest pain and numbness and feared a heart attack but, by far the most terrible fear I've had by this far is the fear of something in my brain that is going to kill me. At first I feared a brain tumor but I got over it somehow. Now I've had a seriously bad fear of either having a brain aneurysm that is leaking a little by little or otherwise showing warning signs that it's going to rupture any moment, or not having an aneurysm but otherwise having a vein suddenly burst in there, killing me.

This fear is because I started having a lot of headaches this summer, right after I had finished worrying about the breast cancer. (And before the summer I very rarely had any headaches ever in my life) For around 6 weeks now, I've had headaches more or less, that occur especially in the RIGHT side of my head (that's what concerns me!). It's usually not a bad headache but slight pains that I feel for about a second at a time, they come and go throughout the day. I've also had other weird feelings in my head, in the first week of these symptoms I had a dizzy feeling, and I've also had warm and cold sensations in the same areas where I get the aches, my ears sometimes feel warm and sometimes get clogged (or just one ear, often the right one..), and sometimes I see floaters in my vision.

I have seen a doctor because I got so anxious I couldn't take it anymore, and he diagnosed me with a tension neck telling me that's what's causing the headache. I have had my head scanned (mri i think), 4 or 5 years ago for completely different reasons, back then my brain seemed fine, but I think the aneurysms could form at any time, couldn't they? I felt better for some time after seeing the doctor and my symptoms got better too! I had much less headaches, saw less floaters, had less warm and cold feelings..

And now just a couple of days ago my anxiety kicked in again, and quite severely. I'm beginning to have those hot&cold feelings and more headaches again, I'm wondering if it's the anxiety that's causing it. Why is it almost always on the right side..
The problem is, I know this fear may be irrational or so, but I can't help it! I try to think of other things, and then it kicks in again, making me want to cry. I can't plan the future because I feel that that assumed aneurysm would be bursting any day, any moment. That's what scares me, it's so sudden.
I'm worried that maybe my blood pressure is high, it was measured when I saw the doctor but I don't remember what it was!

Please, can you please try to convince me why I wouldn't have an aneurysm.
I spend all days trying to convince myself but it doesn't make any difference. Googling won't convince me I don't have it, it will more likely convince me that I do. Or if you can't convince me, can you at least suggest what I could do to get over this fear? I don't want to spend my life worrying, I want to be able to enjoy and plan things like I did before the summer! Now I feel that my life is ruined, possibly for good :(

I'm sorry about the long speech, but this is my first post so I sort of wanted to give a little background info about my situation as well..

[RaverNeko]

First off, hello there and welcome to the forums! I think you'll find that this place is really helpful in dealing and (hopefully) overcoming your hypochondria woes! I read your entire post and I've been dealing with the exact same anxiety that you've been going through, except replace "aneurysm" with "tumor."

I just want to say that I've dealt with pretty much all the things you talked about (headaches on one side, dizziness feeling, clogged ears, floaters, etc). Just like you, I was diagnosed with having neck tension and all the symptoms I had actually got better after the doctor's visit. My anxiety also seems to be fine for a while then comes back and bites you in the butt. We've got a lot in common, eh?

I think something important to keep in mind is that anxiety can manifest itself in physical symptoms, which I'm sure you already know about. Hypochondriacs like you and me are hyper-tuned to our bodies and we can actually make our symptoms worse then they actually are by hyper-focusing on them. Did you notice that when you started to have a physical symptom, you started to worry about it, thus making the symptom get worse? It's a vicious cycle that's a pain to break, and one that I'm currently having problems trying to beat as well.

As for your neck tension, did you know of a type of headache called cervicogenic headaches? They're technically tension headaches, but they pretty much occur only on one side of your head. You can read about them here (link is hypochondriac-safe, don't worry)! Speaking of headaches, I actually have a question for you about yours: Did you notice that it "went away" when you had another symptom pop up, especially with things like the eye floaters?

For your anxiety, I completely understand how it takes over your life. Especially when you do stupid tings like Googling symptoms, it just makes the whole thing worse. This may seem odd, but this video on YouTube honestly made me feel a little better about all the crazy results you get when Googling. If you can, there are plenty of stories and articles about hypochondriacs like you and me and all the stuff they go through. It's odd, but the fact that someone out there has dealt with the exact same thing you have is a reliving feeling.

[fearofdeath]

Hey RaverNeko and thanks for a quick reply, it immediately makes me feel a little better to know I'm not the only one dealing with these things.

And to answer your question, as a matter of fact I have noticed that I simply don't have too many symptoms at once, maybe 2 or 3 at most, so when I get something "new", something I used to have seems to disappear!

I'm not sure if I had headaches at the same time as the floaters (not if I remember correctly, or at least had them less than before) but I remember that at one point I started having chest pains and worried about a heart attack, and during that time I realized I had barely any headaches anymore. And after those chest pains passed, the headaches came back!

I guess it's quite a strong proof that it's psychological because if we were really having something serious, the symptoms wouldn't go away like that, would they? That's what I'm telling myself when the anxiety is getting severe, usually helps a little!

[Female healthanxiety]

Hello,

Welcome to the site!

I have been in here for about a year.

I currently have this. It's on the right side of my head, temple, eye, cheek and ear.

I get the extreme dizziness and when I walk it feels like my body is dragging to the right. I also get these horrible twitches in my head which are so scary!

My eyes also feel so heavy :/(

I do not what your going through. I am also going to gatwick tomorrow for a weeks holiday and am so not looking forward to it as feel like I'm gonna faint in one of the ques if I'm standing for too long!

I too went doctors and he said that it's probably anxiety!

How long have you had this for?

[RaverNeko]

Hey RaverNeko and thanks for a quick reply, it immediately makes me feel a little better to know I'm not the only one dealing with these things.

And to answer your question, as a matter of fact I have noticed that I simply don't have too many symptoms at once, maybe 2 or 3 at most, so when I get something "new", something I used to have seems to disappear!

I'm not sure if I had headaches at the same time as the floaters (not if I remember correctly, or at least had them less than before) but I remember that at one point I started having chest pains and worried about a heart attack, and during that time I realized I had barely any headaches anymore. And after those chest pains passed, the headaches came back!

I guess it's quite a strong proof that it's psychological because if we were really having something serious, the symptoms wouldn't go away like that, would they? That's what I'm telling myself when the anxiety is getting severe, usually helps a little!

I was meaning to reply earlier yesterday, so I apologize about that. You'd be surprised as to how common brain tumor/aneurysm anxiety is, especially on here. It's probably as common as anxiety for MS, which I know a lot of people suffer from.

I think that disappearing and/or far less intense symptoms are a sure sign that your symptoms are being aggravated by anxiety. Just like you said, when you had chest pains, your other symptoms practically went away, right? I remember hearing that anxiety can linger in your system even if you feel perfectly fine or calm. Last night my anxiety kind-of weaned a bit and my headaches got less intense, I wasn't trembling as much, and things just seemed pleasant. I'm a computer geek, so this is a decent analogy I thought of: Even if you uninstall a program, there's still files that are hidden else were in your PC, like in the Program Files, Appdata folder, registry, etc.

And you're completely correct. If the symptoms were sure tell signs of whatever it was that you're currently fearing, then they would probably get really worse really fast. Now, something to keep in mind is that some people can have intense symptoms but it's really nothing serious. Think about something like a migraine for instance: sometimes you can have vomiting when it's really bad. Dr. Google will tell you that's a sure tell sign of a brain tumor, but it's just the migraines.

[Dolphin8808]

I Have floaters, was told that is a normal part of the eye and many times people simply don't notice them unless called out to do so. Your brain is trained to ignore them

Anxiety and stress gives me bad headaches, I worry so much I throw myself into migraines. Full blown. My temples with throb, my head hurts to touch, from being so tense and tight. Not uncommon at all.

Welcome to the boards!