Jon Dimond
01-05-13, 11:27
Hi Everyone.
I stumbled across this website after looking into Anxiety and its symptoms. It looks to be a fantastic resource.
So a bit about me:
I'm a 31 year old guy, with a lovely fiance and a beautiful 1 year old son. I used to work as a local government officer in a job I hated, but now I'm a full time dad which is amazing, except I'm suffering from what seems to be a fairly acute anxiety.
About 2 years ago I started to become quite depressed with my job and it was causing me a lot of stress. I'd burst into tears in the office on a couple of occasions and was having great difficulty concentrating and stayinh awake. I've been fighting depression on and off for about 15 years, so it was nothing new really. What was new however was the physical symptoms that I started getting. I was used to the tiredness as insomnia and I are well aquainted, but I started to feel detached from myself and had periods of strange dizzyness etc. It was all quite worrying. I had the opportunity to give up my job and look after my boy when he was born, so as my partner earns more and I was so unhappy, I took that opportunity.
My son's birth was very stressful for my partner as he had to be delivered by c-section, all planned, but stressful none the less! I went into the theater with her, but started to feel very unwell as they were getting ready and had to leave. Over the next few weeks the lack of sleep and stress of a newborn seemed to cause more problems, I'd feel very unwell getting up in the night and often be unable to get back to sleep due to the dizzy/lightheaded feelings. I was pretty scared to be honest.
I went to see my GP, not knowing at the time that it was probably anxiety related. She did blood and unine tests, and ECG and a 24hr blood pressure monitoring. These were all fine ezcept for one slightly elevated liver enzime and slighty high blood pressure. She advised lifestyle changes as I'm pretty over weight and had provably been drinking a bit too much.
So about 3 months ago, not feeling any better, in fact probably worse, I decided enough was enough and I went back. My doc had left, so I had to see a different one.
At this point I had the following symptoms.
Almost constant pressure/fog in my head
Frequent (numerous times a day) periods of dizziness
Strange vision, flashes, blurryness and generally inconsistant.
I.B.S type issues
Heart palpitations
Tingling in my limbs
Forgetfullness and lack of concentration
Aching and painful neck and shoulder muscles
General uneasy feelings
Depression.
I had also developed a large lump in my neck, which obviously needed looking at urgently! More on that in a bit.
So my doctor ordered the blood tests again and did the ecg again and the results were the same. She told me to come back in 2 weeks if the lump hadn't resolved itself. By this point I'm getting more anxious and my symptoms are getting worse. After my next visit I get referred to the ENT consulatant at the hospital for the lump, which is now about 10cm x 5cm! He sticks a camera up my nose etc and then does a fine needle aspitation of the lump to send for testing. He drained 30ml of fluid from it. He suspects that it's a cyst and will need removing surgically. At this point I start to really panic, surgery scares me in completely irrational ways. On top of that I've got to wait 2 weeks for the results of the biopsy.
So my mind goes mental, I panic, feel faint, feel my heart racing and don't sleep that night. At this point I'm losing the plot a bit so book an appointment with my doc for that afternoon. I have to see a different doc as it was short notice, but she was really nice. I explained that I'm struggling, she tries to reassure me but it's a bit of a lost cause! After a discussion I leave with some citalopram and some propanalol to try and calm me.
A week or so later my appointment with the ENT consulatant comes through, so I panic some more, sleep less and eventually the day comes. So I head along, 2 weeks into the drugs, so they're not really working yet! The clinic is an hour behind, so more waiting. Now the good news is that the biopsy results were fine and apparently it's completely benign. The consultant explains that its unlikely to resolve itself though and they would gently encourage me to have it removed. I explain about my current state of mind and he's pretty understanding. He says he'll book and MRI for me so they can assess exactly what and where it is and then see me when the results are back. The MRI is next Friday. My anxiety makes me worry that they'll find something else too though!
So slightly relieved that its benign, but still mentally stressed by it all and the constantly feeling awful, I pop back to my doctor and we decided to up my citalopram from 10-20 mg. She discusses referring me back to ENT for a full head MRI to see if anything physical is causing my symptoms, but we decided to give the increased meds a chance to work and see if there is any improvement.
That's pretty much where I'm upto now. I feel a little bit better for short periods, so there is some hope, but I think all the worry about the neck thing is making it much slower progress.
Finding this forum and the advice has really helped me though, I'd never realised that all of these physical symptoms could be related to anxiety. I'd felt tired and nauseous with depression before, but everything I'm feeling is on your list of likely symptoms. I'd love to feel better now, it's stealing my life! But if it is anxiety, then at least I can start to fight it, at least Ibknow what I'm fighting.
So Hi, I'm Jon and I'm pleased to meet you all and hopefully we can help eachother.
I stumbled across this website after looking into Anxiety and its symptoms. It looks to be a fantastic resource.
So a bit about me:
I'm a 31 year old guy, with a lovely fiance and a beautiful 1 year old son. I used to work as a local government officer in a job I hated, but now I'm a full time dad which is amazing, except I'm suffering from what seems to be a fairly acute anxiety.
About 2 years ago I started to become quite depressed with my job and it was causing me a lot of stress. I'd burst into tears in the office on a couple of occasions and was having great difficulty concentrating and stayinh awake. I've been fighting depression on and off for about 15 years, so it was nothing new really. What was new however was the physical symptoms that I started getting. I was used to the tiredness as insomnia and I are well aquainted, but I started to feel detached from myself and had periods of strange dizzyness etc. It was all quite worrying. I had the opportunity to give up my job and look after my boy when he was born, so as my partner earns more and I was so unhappy, I took that opportunity.
My son's birth was very stressful for my partner as he had to be delivered by c-section, all planned, but stressful none the less! I went into the theater with her, but started to feel very unwell as they were getting ready and had to leave. Over the next few weeks the lack of sleep and stress of a newborn seemed to cause more problems, I'd feel very unwell getting up in the night and often be unable to get back to sleep due to the dizzy/lightheaded feelings. I was pretty scared to be honest.
I went to see my GP, not knowing at the time that it was probably anxiety related. She did blood and unine tests, and ECG and a 24hr blood pressure monitoring. These were all fine ezcept for one slightly elevated liver enzime and slighty high blood pressure. She advised lifestyle changes as I'm pretty over weight and had provably been drinking a bit too much.
So about 3 months ago, not feeling any better, in fact probably worse, I decided enough was enough and I went back. My doc had left, so I had to see a different one.
At this point I had the following symptoms.
Almost constant pressure/fog in my head
Frequent (numerous times a day) periods of dizziness
Strange vision, flashes, blurryness and generally inconsistant.
I.B.S type issues
Heart palpitations
Tingling in my limbs
Forgetfullness and lack of concentration
Aching and painful neck and shoulder muscles
General uneasy feelings
Depression.
I had also developed a large lump in my neck, which obviously needed looking at urgently! More on that in a bit.
So my doctor ordered the blood tests again and did the ecg again and the results were the same. She told me to come back in 2 weeks if the lump hadn't resolved itself. By this point I'm getting more anxious and my symptoms are getting worse. After my next visit I get referred to the ENT consulatant at the hospital for the lump, which is now about 10cm x 5cm! He sticks a camera up my nose etc and then does a fine needle aspitation of the lump to send for testing. He drained 30ml of fluid from it. He suspects that it's a cyst and will need removing surgically. At this point I start to really panic, surgery scares me in completely irrational ways. On top of that I've got to wait 2 weeks for the results of the biopsy.
So my mind goes mental, I panic, feel faint, feel my heart racing and don't sleep that night. At this point I'm losing the plot a bit so book an appointment with my doc for that afternoon. I have to see a different doc as it was short notice, but she was really nice. I explained that I'm struggling, she tries to reassure me but it's a bit of a lost cause! After a discussion I leave with some citalopram and some propanalol to try and calm me.
A week or so later my appointment with the ENT consulatant comes through, so I panic some more, sleep less and eventually the day comes. So I head along, 2 weeks into the drugs, so they're not really working yet! The clinic is an hour behind, so more waiting. Now the good news is that the biopsy results were fine and apparently it's completely benign. The consultant explains that its unlikely to resolve itself though and they would gently encourage me to have it removed. I explain about my current state of mind and he's pretty understanding. He says he'll book and MRI for me so they can assess exactly what and where it is and then see me when the results are back. The MRI is next Friday. My anxiety makes me worry that they'll find something else too though!
So slightly relieved that its benign, but still mentally stressed by it all and the constantly feeling awful, I pop back to my doctor and we decided to up my citalopram from 10-20 mg. She discusses referring me back to ENT for a full head MRI to see if anything physical is causing my symptoms, but we decided to give the increased meds a chance to work and see if there is any improvement.
That's pretty much where I'm upto now. I feel a little bit better for short periods, so there is some hope, but I think all the worry about the neck thing is making it much slower progress.
Finding this forum and the advice has really helped me though, I'd never realised that all of these physical symptoms could be related to anxiety. I'd felt tired and nauseous with depression before, but everything I'm feeling is on your list of likely symptoms. I'd love to feel better now, it's stealing my life! But if it is anxiety, then at least I can start to fight it, at least Ibknow what I'm fighting.
So Hi, I'm Jon and I'm pleased to meet you all and hopefully we can help eachother.