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for the last 9 days i've been suffering with various aches in my head that i rarely experienced in the past. It seems that the aches are increasing in their frequency as the days go by and they're beginning to worry me.
I had a bad reaction to some citalopram which caused my scalp and neck to feel like it was burning as well as other nasty symptoms such as loss of appetite, sickness, diarrhoea, prickling sensations etc. and changed to fluoxetine instead upon the advice of my GP. Since changing the burning sensation has gone as well as the sickness and i've regained my appetite but the headaches have worsened significantly. It's hard to know whether this is because of the meds as the headaches were beginning prior to me taking them.
They are short dull, sharp or burning pains dotted all around my head, ranging from above my eyes, the top of my head, to the very back and even down the back of my neck at times. They often feel very deep and take me aback. As someone who was recently convinced they had a brain tumour/MS, that never gets headaches, i'm beginning to become very concerned as i read somewhere that a progressively worsening headache is the biggest sign of a brain tumour. I've been checked out by 7 doctors who performed neurological tests, checked my optic nerve & did blood tests but found nothing wrong.
The doctor said they wouldn't send me for an MRI as it isn't necessary and it would be irresponsible of them as it would expose me to harmful radiation which could potentially cause illness/disease. They also said that on average people with anxiety are only reassured for 6 months after a scan before they think something else is wrong with them. It seems wherever i look there are articles about MS/brain tumours, today i put on the TV and there were big discussions about brain tumour awareness then i switched over and they were discussing MS and it's symptoms.
I'm trying my best to accept it's anxiety and not something sinister but i've had anxiety symptoms for a long time now (which are listed in previous posts) & the headaches have only begun recently. I feel a bit more settled now i've started my meds but i was just wondering if anyone on here suffers with similar headaches as a result of their anxiety or as a side effect of their medication? I'm not used to headaches at all but they're quite distressing
Hello Dave!
have you got a dentist appointment yet? SSRI's can cause you to grind/clench teeth more, which could be a simple reason as too why they've go worse, I know your going through a hard time. I went through one too before I noticed what was causing my problems (I still don't believe it can cause all the problems but still)
And I see you updated your post to include the TV things, I had exactly this. if you look back through my previous threads I was convinced it was trying to tell me something, but since I stopped being hypersensitive to every little ad they seem to have gone, although I still get stupid life insurance emails. I put them down to leaving cookies on when I visit health sites though. And how new is your TV? apparently the newer TV's filter in content related to the nearest WiFi.
Nice to see your settling into the meds!
Hi LunaLianu,
i've got my dentist appointment next Thursday to finish off the treatment i require following an incident a few months ago. I do apparently clench my jaw when i sleep these days so i know that may be a cause of some of the aches, particularly the ones in my temples, but the headaches are very widespread now and becoming much more frequent. There's maybe a gap of 20 minutes between each ache. I just never get headaches in the past and if it was anxiety related i'd of thought i'd have them by now as i've been suffering a whole load of symptoms for a long time. I also get very warm feelings in my left ear that feels congested as well as sharp pains. When i pinch my nose and swallow the left ear feels a lot more congested than the right.
It was just ITV this morning, but i know exactly what you mean, i feel like someones trying to tell me something. it's like the other day i was in a shop and i overheard a woman saying 'you need to get that scanned' to her friend, then we went to a pub and the song playing had a line 'you're gonna die' it really got in my head and convinced me that everything was pointing me towards a brain tumour. It sounds stupid but that's just how my wave of thought is at the moment. I also have a tattoo which meaning relates to knowing yourself and i sometimes wonder if the real reason i got it is because i know there's something really wrong with me and i need to trust my gut, again it's silly.
Thanks, I'm reacting better to them than the citalopram so far but i know that it's still early days. i still feel a bit shaky and spaced out on them. Most my symptoms are still persisting but I'm just glad i've got my appetite back and stopped spewing up every time i eat!
Okay, you should ask them about the possibility of a jaw/TMj problem.
The masseter muscle is the strongest in the body, and not only that, it's connected to both your neck and shoulder muscles. I know before I got my mouth guard I had shooting pains that felt like lightning up the side of my head. It seems like your headaches are situated around points where there is a lot of muscle so I'd try and look into it.
That sounds exactly like me concerning the oversensitivity,
i even picked out words my own family were saying to me, i had the songs to. i forgot who sung it but it goes 'this will be the day that i die' wow i heard that one so many times hahaha.
You'll get use to the meds, I know I've only just got use to my Sert.
i think jaw clenching may be a part of the pain and i'll definitely look into it but some of the aches are in such strange areas. I just don't know why they're getting more frequent or why it's taken till now to get them.
It's awful, it's like the film 'the number 23' I feel like i'm going crazy sometimes but everywhere i look points me in the direction of serious illnesses.
Did you suffer any side effects initially? How long did it take to adjust?
I only suffered from a little dizzyness, chills and feeling spaced out.
The pressure from the tense muscles can manifest itself in strange ways, same again with constantly being anxious and scanning for new sensations.
You'll be fine Dave , focus on another part of your body and notice how you'll start getting feelings there!
I had a headache come out of no where and last almost 2 weeks over the holidays. I was scared too. I went on zoloft and felt better. It was just anxiety. Feel better :)
that doesn't sound too bad, glad there weren't any particularly nasty side effects. Citalopram was awful for me. yeah it's just my head in particular recently the pains are quite sharp and alarming when they come. i can't really ignore them, especially with my BT fear.
RoseEve- glad the headache faded, hopefully mine will do the same but it seems to be getting worse before it gets better at the minute!
a lot of my symptoms seem to be on my left side which concerns me, tingling in my left fingers,toes and face as well as joint aches and pains everywhere, it's sometimes worrying. When i wake up on a morning i often feel worse and worry that my left side is going numb and is weaker than my right. These symptoms aren't going to go anywhere in a soon though but living with them and not feeding them more anxiety is really tough. They always feel like something so much worse. I'm hoping to book some CBT sessions over the next week, i don't really know what to expect.
I also have tingling more like vibrating in my left leg and left hand. My doc said it anxiety. I was worried because it was on one side as well. But it was nothing.
i get it in both hands, legs, and face but particularly my left hand side. Tonight my left leg feels strange and my right feels fine, it always worries me. i also get sharp pains in my hands, fingers, wrists, feet, toes and knee. my doctor said it was anxiety as well but it's sometimes hard to believe! I still worry about MS as the symptoms persist no matter how relaxed i am but i passed all the tests they gave me so it shouldn't be that despite the obvious chance of misdiagnosis.
It's odd but sometimes my left arm doesn't feel part of my body, it's hard to explain. The numbness when i wake up is strange too but it doesn't last long. I'm trying not to read about symptoms online but new ones always come. Today for example I have had a pain in my top lip and tingling in my chin on top of everything else.
i get it in both hands, legs, and face but particularly my left hand side. Tonight my left leg feels strange and my right feels fine, it always worries me. i also get sharp pains in my hands, fingers, wrists, feet, toes and knee. my doctor said it was anxiety as well but it's sometimes hard to believe! I still worry about MS as the symptoms persist no matter how relaxed i am but i passed all the tests they gave me so it shouldn't be that despite the obvious chance of misdiagnosis.
It's odd but sometimes my left arm doesn't feel part of my body, it's hard to explain. The numbness when i wake up is strange too but it doesn't last long. I'm trying not to read about symptoms online but new ones always come. Today for example I have had a pain in my top lip and tingling in my chin on top of everything else.
When you're under stress, especially the one induced by health anxiety, you tend to notice every little thing which your anxiety then blows to ridiculous proportions. For example, if you were anxiety free now, you probably would even have noticed if your lip tingled for a minute-but now you're hyper-sensitive and every single thing that's out of the ordinary-you think it's all interconnected and start panicking, thus creating more stress, thus creating more pain-it's a vicious cycle.
But it seems to me you're actually making a good progress-you are fighting anxiety, taking meds and starting cbt, and all other things except headaches are better or even fading. Keep up the good work :)
thanks Andrash, some of the tingles are definitely because of me being over aware of my own body but some are just so frustrating. it's so annoying how i feel an improvement and reduction in certain symptoms then tonight out of nowhere i get real bad tingling and aches+pains in my fingers, knee, legs etc. to go with my headache. Then out of nowhere i start getting really hot and worry something bad's going to happen. It's so hard to make progress with these symptoms. As i type this my whole head and face is tingling grrrr :mad:
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