Dr thinks i have bad health anxiety I think its something else

[BreakingBad]

Im feeling really down and despondent after a difficult weekend and yet another waste of time at the dr's.
The dr thinks i have health anxiety and i cannot see it so I'm posting on here to see if others can relate to how I'm feeling as I'm starting to feel like I'm going mad!

Wind back to Christmas and I start having muscle spasms on my upper eyelid, not really worried but as it was getting quite frequent I mention it when i go to my optician in around january.
They diagnose me with Blepharitis (eyelid inflammation) and my eye prescription had deteriorated and they prescribed prism in my glasses for double vision. I hadn't even noticed i had double vision but it does not run in the family and I'm only 32. I had noticed i found it hard to focus especially when tired. They told me to mention it to the dr.

So around the same time i get an ear infection. The second that month and I mention to the dr about my twitching and eye issues.
I was under stress at the time and having a terrible memory so the dr put it down to stress which i excepted.

Wind forward a few months, I have since had three further ear infections, pins and needles in fingers and toes and various other muscle spasms have joined my eye. All as well as ridiculous fatigue which means I am becoming limited in what i can do.

So last week I went in about another ear infection. They don't usually prescribe me antibiotics but this time they did. Im allergic to penicillin which causes extreme life threatening symptoms so he prescribed clarithromycin.
The day after I felt very unwell but had a lot on, my friend came over for coffee morning and i could barely pour a drink as my arms and hands where shaking so much. I had real problems getting my words out etc.
The next day i just felt i had over done it so spent the whole day asleep trying to recover as i was desperate to go for a meal with my friends.
I woke up feeling better so dosed up and headed out. I felt ok all evening, not quite myself but relaxed enough until.
Out of nowhere my heart starts really pounding, i started to panic and headed for the toilet. I sat on the toliet slowly breathing through it not knowing what to do. They slowly improved so i came out and my friends who where concerned drove me home.
I felt really sick and dizzy after this episode and went home and tried to sleep it off. When i awoke the same thing happened and so i though enough of that and headed for the out of hours doc.
By this point I had become slightly confused and my speech was affected. The doctor took my blood pressure which was around 140/90 and 103bpm and said that was fine.
The thing is i tried telling him its not normal for me as my blood pressure is usually abnormally low. So although it doesn't seem too high its very high for me, but i couldn't really get those words out as i was in a muddle so he sends me home.

That evening my husband comes home and i can barely talk to him as my words are in a muddle etc. He sends me up A&E who put me on a blood press machine. it again was very high for me but they are not alarmed as its only just above the normal range. (Im usually just below the normal range!).
I sat there for hours and eventually it comes back down and my speech improves so they send me home and tell me to visit the GP.

So this morning i wake up with a headache and just feeling exhausted, my ear still hurts and I pop myself over to the dr's thinking he's going to finally refer me to someone that can help.

No no he tells me he's 98% sure its all anxiety and if i stop wording it will go away.

Thing is Ive suffered with anxiety/panic attacks etc and none of this feels the same. Ive have panic attacks and remember the feeling that i can't breath causes palpitations in the past but not a sudden pounding when I'm in a relaxing environment.
Im in a pretty good place at the moment aside from this and the dr seems to think it could be my body reaction to past stress.

I can't really get my head around it and wondered if this is what health anxiety is?

---------- Post added at 12:33 ---------- Previous post was at 12:30 ----------

worrying sorry not wording!

[sammyb]

Im going thru a terrible time right now. Ive been here b4 and it has gotten better. I can tell you this.. it takes a while for your body to recover after your mind calms itself.

[sparkle_1979]

Not much help but agree the body doesn't just calm down because your mind has

[Littlemisssunshine10]

Not much help in the symptoms u have had but I always worry my teeth are infected or falling out so painful until I have a
New worry like now ovarian cancer I know have all the symptoms I think u need take a week and every pain or feeling u have say it's health anxiety and see what happens. That's what my cbt therapist says :) x

[Mindknot]

I think the first thing you need to do is to check the health information leaflet with your antibiotics and see if any of your symptoms could be caused by those - especially as you have allergies to other antibiotics. But you should also be taking time out to rest and recover from the infection while the antibiotics do their work - when I've had antibiotics in the past, they always seem to have made the infection feel worse or more painful to me (especially ears!) for a day or two before I feel like it started healing.

That first.

As for the muscle spasms - I have them all the time too, in my eye and all sorts of other places - I think it's tiredness or perhaps not the right nutrients getting to your muscles? I don't know scientifically, but my doc assured me that that sort of thing was normal, the big thing is to try not to concentrate on them, as it will seem worse than it is. If your eyes feel tired, rest them, don't force yourself to try and sleep if it's not nighttime, but listen to some music or something with your eyes closed. Let your body relax but focus your mind elsewhere.

I can only tell you what's made me feel better after an equally horrible panicky weekend, and that was eating some home-cooked and healthy massive meals, and watching a great film (not TV, something looooong) that seemed to distract both gut and brain so that neither was anxious, feeling better today. Hope it helps a bit anyway. :)

[Fishmanpa]

Health anxiety is a broad term associated with somewhat obsessive concerns about your health. It often coincides with other disorders (OCD and GAD) that drive an individual to believe they have a life threatening illness. The sufferer will visit their doctor or hospital multiple times, get test after test only to be told there's no physical reason for their symptoms.

One read through the "Symptoms" link on the page will explain the myriad of real physical symptoms anxiety causes. From muscles twitches to chest pain to fatigue etc.

That being said, you are posting in an anxiety forum so somewhere deep down you believe what the doctor said.

Therapy, CBT, meds or a combination thereof will be the most pragmatic approach to alleviating the symptoms.

Positive thoughts

[Catherine S]

Just to add to the other posts...your higher than your normal blood pressure readings are probably down to you worrying about it all too.

ISB x