Is this health anxiety?

[Michael Archangel]

Hi, a bit of background story first... I've always considered myself an anxious person, I worry about little things all the time, but generally although I get the occasional stressful moments with my heart pounding, I was able to cope alright.


Late last year I started noticing skipped heart beats. One day I had several in a row and I got so scared my heart was going to stop that it sent me to hospital. Following that, I had a lot of tests done as an outpatient over the course of about 3 months, but during those 3 months I have felt very anxious, to the point of losing my appetite and shaking uncontrollably. I was constantly checking my pulse and everything. I genuinely thought something was seriously wrong with my heart and I was not going to make it.


But finally the tests all came back normal: the skipped beats I felt were benign atrial ectopic beats. I finally started to relax, but around the same time, I started feeling other symptoms: headaches, dizziness (like unfocused mind and cloudy sight, not like a lack of balance), etc. I no longer feel especially anxious, but after having these symptoms for nearly 2 months now, and being told by doctors there is nothing wrong with me physically, I'm starting to wonder if they are right: can the high anxiety that I had before about my heart have caused these symptoms to last until now, 2 months after feeling reassured about my heart?


I know that with anxiety you can get physical symptoms, but I would have thought that would only be the case (or at least get worse) when you actually feel anxious/stressed at a particular moment in time? My main symptoms are daily headaches (that come and go during the day, sometimes lasting only a few seconds and sometimes in a very specific location, so not your typical tension headaches), tingling in the scalp, foggy brain, clouded sight and extreme tiredness. I have had blood tests and inner ear tests that all came back normal.


It's now making me wonder if there is anything serious, and I've booked myself in for a private MRI scan. The more I read about symptoms online (like slurred speech for brain tumours), the more I start feeling those symptoms (like worrying when I stutter a bit or start mixing my words)... That definitely sounds like health anxiety, but I still can't see how it can cause permanent daily symptoms like the headaches I get even when relaxed watching TV. :shrug:

---------- Post added at 17:49 ---------- Previous post was at 16:45 ----------

So in short I guess my question is: do you guys get these types of symptoms as part of your anxiety, and do you also get them at times/days when you don't actually feel particularly anxious?

I know that the symptoms I got during my heart worries (fast heart rate, shaking, etc) were due to anxiety because I knew I was anxious at the time, the reason I'm confused is that now I'm less anxious I have all these new symptoms I didn't have at the time I actually felt anxious... :huh:

[Yorkshire born]

I get light headed, fatigued, have pains in my ribs and stomach problems, and yes I get these when I'm not feeling anexious, in fact I get them even when I'm in a good mood, which really messes with my head.

I've posted about this before and it does seem that health anexiety symptoms can flair up when your not feeling particularly anxious, and this can be extreamly disquieting as it convinces you that there must be something really wrong. The hardest part of this is trying to learn to trust your doctor when your body, it seems, is telling you something else.

You should always check your symptoms with a doctor and monitor them for any changes, but if your doctor can find no physical reason to be concerned you should broach the subject of anxiety with them. Anxiety is an illness as real as any of the ones we're afraid of on here and it is important to seek treatment for it in the same way you would any other illness.

[Michael Archangel]

Thanks, it's good to know others also experience symptoms when feeling relaxed.

Right now I'm feeling anxious that my daily headaches are caused by a brain tumor though. My headaches are getting more frequent, and since last night I've had a sort of painful throbbing migraine headache with sensitivity to light. It kept me awake at night and today I feel exhausted and really starting to panic. I am also losing my appetite...

I probably won't have my MRI results for another 2 or 3 weeks and I don't know if I can wait that long if the symptoms persist or get worse!

I know it's bad to google, but I've read stories of people with only mild headache that got worse and more frequent and it was a brain tumor. No matter how unlikely I'm telling myself these are, I'm still worried especially with the other symptoms like the tingling and lack of concentration... I think once I get the MRI results if all clear I will be able to relax, but till then I think I am starting to go back to being very anxious again :weep:

[Autumn4]

I get all of those symptoms !! We use so many muscles when we are tense during anxiety that we get head pains as well as chest pains , in fact pain anywhere. The digestive system also plays up. I have the muzzy spaced out feeling v often. I also get bad headaches & the doctor said that headaches are v rarely a symptom of brain tumor. I would be v interested to know about your private MRI. Did they do the whole body ?

[Michael Archangel]

The private MRI is just the head. It costs about £300 per body part I think. I'm having it done on Friday, so not had it yet.

Sometimes when I get sudden symptoms that scare me (e.g. bad headache and nausea together or sudden dizziness), I suddenly have a feeling of heat rushing through my body, then my hands feel clammy and I feel faint like if I'm going to pass out. It happened once at work and my colleagues said I looked very pale. On one occasion my heart was racing, on another it was on the contrary much slower than usual. I wasn't hyper-ventilating though. Would that be classed as a panic attack? I'm just not sure if the anxiety is causing those heat/faint symptoms, or if the fuzziness/dizziness itself is causing them...

I'm also kept awake at night by my worries I think, I talk to myself in my head all the time and sometimes I feel like I'm going to speak but words don't come out. I also wake up in the night feeling anxious, and reasoning as if still dreaming, e.g. not thinking straight. I'm trying to convince myself it's because I'm becoming paranoid about having a brain tumour, and not because I actually have a brain tumour causing me all these funny thoughts and speech things, but it's easier said than done!

[Autumn4]

Classic panic attack symptoms - I have had all of those - I have felt as if everything was drifting away after the heat rush & that I am about to die. We don't think we are hyperventilating but we are. I have night time problems & have found that listening to audio books helps whenever I wake up. I choose something v light hearted or a relaxation audio. If i find myself driving into my own thoughts I force myself back to hear what is being said on the audio book. It really helps at night - i do this every night.

---------- Post added at 19:50 ---------- Previous post was at 19:46 ----------

Practice 8 - 12 breathing you breathe in for 8 & out for 12 or out for longer than you breathe in. It balances & calms as it stops hyperventilating. It has helped me enormously. Takes a while to get it right. Also download Dr Claire Weekes Hope & Help for Your Nerves. I found it on iTunes & several people on here mention it.

[Thoughts]

These aren't BT symptoms. Classic anxiety. Relax and cancel that MRI.

[Yorkshire born]

I agree, sounds like a panic attack. I had no idea what a panic attack was really like until I had one myself, and like many people when they first have panic attack, I mistook it for a medical emergency, they're extreamly unpleasent to say the least.

Try to stay away from Google, if you need a distraction come on here, there are literally hundreds of posts dealing with symptoms like yours, execept unlike Google here provides the reason and reassurance we need, not Dr Googles insane diagnosis.

[Michael Archangel]

Thanks, that helps a lot. I guess the problem is with panic attacks I imagined people out of breath and everything, whereas for me it was a lot more subtle than that, I didn't feel it was necessarily me panicking...

I have not had any of those "attacks" in the past few days, but I have a feeling of dread now because of my headaches.

I hear you about cancelling the MRI, but I feel I need it, if anything just for peace of mind. I know having my heart tested helped me coming to terms with the fact the symptoms weren't life threatening.

Did you guys also have very weird thoughts? I feel like I'm going a bit crazy sometimes at the moment. For example while bringing a glass of water to a colleague, I had an urge to throw it in his face for no reason whatsoever. I imagined how mad he would go and what he would say to me. I felt like I had to slightly fight that thought not to actually do it. I don't think I would have done it, but I feel like I'm not thinking straight lately, and again I'm not sure if this is normal, if this is anxiety, or if this is something wrong with my brain (physically or psychiatric condition)...

---------- Post added at 21:32 ---------- Previous post was at 20:56 ----------

PS: headaches are worse when bending over, which I read can be the case with brain tumours as it's because of the intra-cranial pressure, hence why I'm worried right now as it doesn't sound like an anxiety tension headache

[Yorkshire born]

The MRI will provide you with short term relief, but clear test results will rarely eliminate symptoms. I though once my test results came back as clear my symptoms would disappear, but it doesn't work like that unfortunately, you have treat the anxiety causing the symptoms.

[Michael Archangel]

I will start CBT / counseling in early July, so I will try to fight the anxiety while also keeping to see the doctor to make sure there is nothing else underlying.

The problem is that I'm still not convinced that ALL my symptoms come from anxiety only. Right now I feel very light headed like I have low blood pressure. My vision is not quite right and I have pressure in my head. But I don't FEEL especially anxious... I just don't understand how underlying anxiety could make me feel this way (especially when I have been much more anxious in the past without any of those symptoms)!

[damianjmcgrath]

I get something similar to you, although slightly different symptoms. I get left shoulder pain, pretty much in the shoulder blade or directly behind where I imagine my heart to be. The pain is sudden, but it's a dull ache. I've heard that heart issues cause dull aches, whereas muscle pain tends to be sharp and stabbing, so obviously, my head has assumed heart issues.

I've noticed getting out of breath by doing simple things like walking, and I notice a weird shaky feeling in my chest, like it's trembling inside. There's no outwardly signs of shaking, but it feels like an internal vibration. I get clammy hands, and recently, a feeling of chest pressure like it's about to burst. Like a balloon filling up. I get a bit dizzy and light-headed, and I feel myself swaying slightly, although again, no-one else can see this. I've also recently noticed my pupils dilating - when I feel like I'm having an attack like this, the pupils are massive.

I was (and still am a bit) convinced there is something going on. Maybe heart related, maybe lung related, or maybe food related, like reactive hypoglycaemia and low blood pressure, or an intolerance of some kind. Or maybe diabetes because of the shaking. I think I've noticed a pattern of it getting worse after food.

I also get throat tightening slightly, which seems to affect my breathing slightly. The best way to describe the difficulty breathing is to imagine walking into a sauna. You can still breath but it feels slightly more laboured. Again, convinced this was some sort of thoat tumour, or some nerves going weird, which could be the start of a stroke or MS.

Googling never helps. It convinces me even more that my symptoms match the diagnosis exactly, and if I'm missing a few, I get them over the next few days - although obviously, I've forgotten that I'd read them by then so it feels like brand new symptoms. Even if I found some useful websites like this, sometimes reading that people did x (such as breathing) and it got better just convinces me even more of my proper problem, because when I do breathing exercises, it doesn't help. Therefore, it can't be anxiety in my head.


My overall point is - try and accept it's anxiety. Easier said than done, because the symptoms can be disabling, and it's really hard to simply ignore breathing issues, or throat tightening issues, or issues with tiredness or irritiability. I can't improve my mood when I feel bad, so it's tough to ignore it.

But with a rational head on:

- I noticed my pupils being big when I was in the bathroom looking in the mirror. I'd probably come out of my bright bedroom into the slightly darker bathroom and that probably caused the pupils to dilate. Or I was feeling tired. Dilating pupils aren't often a sign of heart problems, and as my vision was still fine, it's a bit of a nothing symptom.

- My shoulder and armpit and occasional chest tightness/pain/pressure. This was probably tight muscles, either caused by lifting my newborn, or having bad posture due to me on a laptop 8 hours a day, or sleeping in a weird position. I visited a chiropracter, who confirmed a lot of tightness in that area and is now working to loosen the muscles. No real change in symptoms yet, but that's probably what it is. Anxiety itself may cause the shoulder muscles to tighten, and I may also be breathing wrong (apparently, I breathe up and down from the shoulders instead of in and out from the diaphragm).

- Clammy hands - it's summer now. It's probably not unusual to feel hot randomly through the day, especially in the office or a hot car. This is probably caused by the anxiety as it's rarely the first symptom, and only turns up when my head is already thinking things.

- Throat tightening - this could be a trapped nerve, or a tight muscle, or it might even be a swollen gland due to a cold or virus which is so minor it hasn't caused cold-symptoms yet. It's also likely to be caused by anxiety, as I've noticed it more in social situations which require me to talk slightly louder. Maybe I've damaged my vocal cords or throat muscles by shouting or talking for ages yesterday. It'll probably resolve itself.

- Feeling of doom, feeling about to die or feeling that something bad will happen like a sudden heart attack or fainting. I can rationalise this as a definite anxiety symptom. Heart attack patients don't often have this, they just get the chest pain and that's it. I know 3 or 4 people who've had heart attacks and they didn't feel anxious about it, they just got a lot of pain. They were too busy being in agony to be anxious about it.

- Light-headed - probably caused by anxiety, maybe an excess of adrenaline. Maybe the anxiety is affecting my breathing so I'm slightly down on oxygen or CO2. As far as I can tell, anxiety kicks in when my body detects danger, and it's the fight-or-flight response. Evolution-wise, I don't think it would be clever for my body to faint when faced with a tiger, so chances are, light-headedness won't turn into fainting. It's probably diverting blood/oxygen to my legs and heart to help me run, but it'll keep enough going to the brain. Can't run without the brain. Away from anxiety, it could be caused by a hot day and me not drinking enough. It could be caused by tiredness, or I could have that cold virus lingering on. It might be hayfever, especially now summer is here. If it's after a big meal, my body is focusing on digestion, so maybe the balance of oxygen/blood etc is slightly out at the moment but it'll readjust soon. I've also noticed myself holding my breath to listen out for my heartbeats, so no wonder I get a bit light headed.

- And finally, the biggest rationalisation for me - no matter how bad I feel, within a short period of time, maybe minutes, maybe hours - the feelings pass. I don't feel as 100% confident of death as I did. I might still feel slightly weird, the feelings never go completely, but they reduce. I'm pretty sure a heart attack wouldn't reduce. My lung or throat cancer doesn't know I've put a podcast on to relax. Cancers don't care. It wouldn't reduce in pain. I've also had it for around 18 months. No heart in the world can survive being damaged for 18 months without serious and unbelievably obvious symptoms.


It's not helpful for me to say "ignore it", or even worse "it's all in your head". To be honest, it actually probably is, but the sensation of symptoms are hugely real. Just last night, I was driving and got such a bad sensation of chest pressure that I was convinced I was near death. I couldn't concentrate, I got so hot, I'm amazed I kept the car on the road. I wasn't feeling anxious at all, I'd had a relaxing night with no symptoms. It was random, so that must mean sudden heart problem. I have no idea what it actually was, but it passed within an hour and I was reasonably alright. Still scared, still a bit reluctant to attribute it to anxiety, but it has to be. Doctor says I'm fine. I'm still alive, and I can go out for a cycle for 10 miles today. I slept fine, and I'm eating fine. I'm not losing weight and I'm not pale. No-one knows I feel like this, so there's no outward signs. Nothing except anxiety makes sense.

The ironic (and maybe slightly offensive) thing is, some days, I'd swap my anxiety for a actual medical problem. Maybe not cancer, or a tumour, but some days, I think if I had a minor heart issue, they could sort it and I'd be back to normal. Some days, the only reason I go out cycling is to push my heart to bursting, so someone could fix me! The fact that nothing happens is both annoying and reassuring!

[Fishmanpa]

I just don't understand how underlying anxiety could make me feel this way (especially when I have been much more anxious in the past without any of those symptoms)!

Think of anxiety like a charcoal bar-b-que. When you're in the midst of an anxiety episode, the coals are flaming hot. Those coals will remain hot for hours (even overnight). Anything you do to feed your anxiety (a Google search, 10 minutes focusing on symptoms etc.) is adding a few coals to the fire so you're keeping the anxiety alive even if you don't feel you are. It can take weeks, months or longer for the flames of anxiety to go out and often, one needs help in the form of therapy and/or meds to put the fire out completely.

Positive thoughts

[damianjmcgrath]

Think of anxiety like a charcoal bar-b-que. When you're in the midst of an anxiety episode, the coals are flaming hot. Those coals will remain hot for hours (even overnight). Anything you do to feed your anxiety (a Google search, 10 minutes focusing on symptoms etc.) is adding a few coals to the fire so you're keeping the anxiety alive even if you don't feel you are. It can take weeks, months or longer for the flames of anxiety to go out and often, one needs help in the form of therapy and/or meds to put the fire out completely.

Positive thoughts

Good analogy. I've often struggled with symptoms at random, non-anxious, moments, but this analogy is useful.