Neurological Health Anxiety

[Dzt66]

I feel really like I suffer from fear of neurological problems. My symptoms right now are painful/tingling in arms and buzzing lips/nose. 4 years ago I had a clear brain MRI as they looked for MS. Until then I didn't even know what MS was or to be afraid of it. After that was clear I thought I would not worry anymore.

Now it is 4 years later and after 4 years of health anxiety for many other things I am waiting for the results for a MRI spinal/clavicle. My chiropractor doesn't think it is anything series and I told her I deal with HA. Now that I started to fear the worst I feel everything from confusion, clumsiness, weakness, more and more buzzing. I do have slight scoliosis and a leg that is like 1/4 in longer than the other. So I am thinking it is like a structural/nerve thing. But I am scared.

I have to wait a week for the results. It is going to be a long week. I started reading a book by Claire Weekes and it helped some but every now and then my brain just goes crazy!

[Jules147]

That sounds like symptoms of hyperventilaton to me. Take a walk and practise 7/11 breathing while you do it.

[Dzt66]

I don't know what 7/11 breathing is. And the scary thing to me is that immediately when I wake up the buzzing in my lips is already present.

I have waves of calm and panic. I wish I could ride the calm wave and "float above" as Claire says. :(

I may need to purchase her Self Help book next. My problem is that I have not yet accepted the fact that my symptoms are caused by anxiety. Once I get my next scan maybe I can do what her book is telling me to :/

[worrybear]

dzt66,thats exactly my problem i cant except that my symptoms are caused by anxiety even though i know they are :( x

[Dzt66]

worrybear, have you have tests run and things are all negative? What are your symptoms?

[Jules147]

Breathe in deeply using your diaphragm (lower down at the bottom of your chest) through your nose, count to 7 while you are doing it, pause, breathe out through pursed lips counting to 11. Do not sneak in extra breaths and try to ensure that the breaths are smooth not jerky. Do this for about 3 minutes each time. It takes a little practice so don't panic if it doesn't seem to work for you immediately.

You need to do this several times a day until it becomes your habitual unconscious way of breathing. The tingling/buzzing, burning sensations in your hands, feet and around your mouth should yhen ease. I used to get it in my feet too. Driving was quite painful.

[worrybear]

I have been to my doctor about 8 times she wont run tests because she says its anxiety! Ive had loads of symptoms but my main symptoms are tingling all over and feeling totally disconnected :( the more i think of the tingling the stronger it gets.I always worry, i wake up worrying.My mind is totally negative. I never even heard of ms before until i googled tingling a few months ago and ms came up on the search,since then ive not been able to get my mind off it :(

---------- Post added at 22:01 ---------- Previous post was at 22:00 ----------

p.s 7/11 breathing is breathe in for 7secs out for 11secs, i learnt this the other day x

[Jules147]

dzt66,thats exactly my problem i cant except that my symptoms are caused by anxiety even though i know they are :( x

That is because there is still something about your symptoms that doesn't make sense yet. When it does the sense of relief will cause them to fade, not immediately though. You will go through a period of acceptance before they disappear. This may last a few days. Then you will cease to notice them and they will disappear while you aren't paying attention to them.

You wake up with the symptoms because your amygdala works very quickly and waking up is in itself quite a shock to an anxiety sufferer. You can also have panic attacks in your sleep. Dreams are but an extension of thoughts. You can also hyperventilate while asleep.

[Dzt66]

Breathe. Got it. Relax. Got it. LOL

My chiropractor said there is nothing wrong with me. Maybe a pinched nerve. But the buzzing in my face has been off and on for 2 years and now that I am worried and dealing with a big flare up of HA I feel it all the time. But since my worry is always neurological, I don't FEEL like I am making it happen worse, only that it is a symptom of whatever I have!

I swear if I didn't have this forum I may explode. The sad thing is I am a Christian and I do pray and believe in Jesus' healing, but I have not been able to overcome HA. I need to retrain my thinking for sure... and get a negative scan this week of course ;)

---------- Post added at 17:15 ---------- Previous post was at 17:04 ----------

Breathing now :)

[saab]

The disconnected feeling - this is disassociation, a common symptom of anxiety, depression, post traumatic stress etc. You feel out of it, like you are watching a film, everything seems unreal. It's very common, I used to feel like that when my anxiety was really bad. It's just another effect of anxiety I'm afraid, but as you get better it will pass.