Jordan85
20-01-16, 11:25
Hello everyone,
It's my first time posting here - I've never been diagnosed with anxiety but I definitely have it, especially after this year. I'll give you a bit of background before I get into my symptoms.
I'm a 30 year old male, I've just started working for myself in March last year. I didn't think I had any anxieties beyond the odd bout of shyness and a definite health anxiety - when I was 19 I convinced myself I was ill and I was going to die. During the summer of 2015 I was driving my family home from holiday, we had a long drive of 400-500 miles before arriving at the ferry. I get a bit seasick but as far as I was aware I had no concern over this journey. As soon as I could see the ferry from the car, my body did something very strange - the road started spinning before me, I felt like I had to stop the car, I got short of breath and felt like I needed to lie down and close my eyes. I guess I might have seen stars too and it may have darkened, breathing deeply seemed to worsen it but I managed to ride it out and pull up at the ferry port feeling very drowsy.
To this day I have no idea what caused it but it sent me on a Google search spree of trying to find what could have happened. Again I convinced myself it was something horrible - and it seemed like something I could almost trigger myself whilst driving. I haven't had that in months though, but I worried that it might be somehow interconnected with my latest worry.
Around Christmas when I usually relax and didn't have any work on, I noticed a strange sensation when I sat down to play games at night. At this point I had been playing games after midnight for a couple of hours, every night, sat on the floor and looking up to the TV. I initially put it down to either stress (I was working on a big project right up until Christmas eve eve), coffee or posture because it was pretty bad, and my diet at the time - I've put on about 1st this year from eating bad food in the run up to Christmas. It was a vibration that I could hear in both my ears and feel in my head that was almost like a droning low hum that seemed to gear up like a sort of "wooooommm wooooommmm wooommmm" noise but it would disappear within 5-10 seconds.
One night I noticed it after playing games and lying in bed. I started to worry thinking "Why am I still hearing this?" after it died down a bit, I listened deeply and I noticed that I could hear a constantly low and quiet "wooooooooommmm" with no break alongside the usual sounds of silence.
I decided to sleep on it and then woke in a panic when it was still there in the morning. Since then I've noticed it continually throughout the day, then some days it's been gone for as long as 24 hours through sleep etc. But the more I seem to try and find it (or it finds me) the longer it lasts and the louder it gets.
It feels like a vibration in my head but I'm not sure if that's my brain making that up with the low hum. It sounds like generators or roadworks in the distance - which there are at the end of my road but the sound is there long after they are gone. When I hear their equipment during the day, the low frequencies seem to trigger it again.
As I mentioned before I have big health anxieties, basically I want someone to come along and say it's ok, it's just stress related - even though it seems to appear when I don't feel stressed. I'm scared of seeing a Dr about it because that makes me more anxious that I'll go for all sorts of tests and I'm worried about those too.
Sorry for the very long winded message.
Thank you in advance.
EDIT: One more thing - I've been reading up heavily (Googling symptoms) and Tinnitus seems to come up most frequently alongside TMJ which I dismissed initially although I've been experimenting with this. The sound doesn't increase when I clench my jaw and I don't think I'm clenching at during sleep any more. I noticed it in the last couple of weeks when I wake up and stretch I seem to be clenching - and a few weeks ago I was able to make my top front 2 teeth meet with the bottom front 2 which I haven't been able to in years. I usually pop my jaw during the day which I have been able to do for about 10 years after my ears popped on a flight and I noticed a mild ringing in my right ear. I don't think however it's related to this but thought it would be useful background info.
It's my first time posting here - I've never been diagnosed with anxiety but I definitely have it, especially after this year. I'll give you a bit of background before I get into my symptoms.
I'm a 30 year old male, I've just started working for myself in March last year. I didn't think I had any anxieties beyond the odd bout of shyness and a definite health anxiety - when I was 19 I convinced myself I was ill and I was going to die. During the summer of 2015 I was driving my family home from holiday, we had a long drive of 400-500 miles before arriving at the ferry. I get a bit seasick but as far as I was aware I had no concern over this journey. As soon as I could see the ferry from the car, my body did something very strange - the road started spinning before me, I felt like I had to stop the car, I got short of breath and felt like I needed to lie down and close my eyes. I guess I might have seen stars too and it may have darkened, breathing deeply seemed to worsen it but I managed to ride it out and pull up at the ferry port feeling very drowsy.
To this day I have no idea what caused it but it sent me on a Google search spree of trying to find what could have happened. Again I convinced myself it was something horrible - and it seemed like something I could almost trigger myself whilst driving. I haven't had that in months though, but I worried that it might be somehow interconnected with my latest worry.
Around Christmas when I usually relax and didn't have any work on, I noticed a strange sensation when I sat down to play games at night. At this point I had been playing games after midnight for a couple of hours, every night, sat on the floor and looking up to the TV. I initially put it down to either stress (I was working on a big project right up until Christmas eve eve), coffee or posture because it was pretty bad, and my diet at the time - I've put on about 1st this year from eating bad food in the run up to Christmas. It was a vibration that I could hear in both my ears and feel in my head that was almost like a droning low hum that seemed to gear up like a sort of "wooooommm wooooommmm wooommmm" noise but it would disappear within 5-10 seconds.
One night I noticed it after playing games and lying in bed. I started to worry thinking "Why am I still hearing this?" after it died down a bit, I listened deeply and I noticed that I could hear a constantly low and quiet "wooooooooommmm" with no break alongside the usual sounds of silence.
I decided to sleep on it and then woke in a panic when it was still there in the morning. Since then I've noticed it continually throughout the day, then some days it's been gone for as long as 24 hours through sleep etc. But the more I seem to try and find it (or it finds me) the longer it lasts and the louder it gets.
It feels like a vibration in my head but I'm not sure if that's my brain making that up with the low hum. It sounds like generators or roadworks in the distance - which there are at the end of my road but the sound is there long after they are gone. When I hear their equipment during the day, the low frequencies seem to trigger it again.
As I mentioned before I have big health anxieties, basically I want someone to come along and say it's ok, it's just stress related - even though it seems to appear when I don't feel stressed. I'm scared of seeing a Dr about it because that makes me more anxious that I'll go for all sorts of tests and I'm worried about those too.
Sorry for the very long winded message.
Thank you in advance.
EDIT: One more thing - I've been reading up heavily (Googling symptoms) and Tinnitus seems to come up most frequently alongside TMJ which I dismissed initially although I've been experimenting with this. The sound doesn't increase when I clench my jaw and I don't think I'm clenching at during sleep any more. I noticed it in the last couple of weeks when I wake up and stretch I seem to be clenching - and a few weeks ago I was able to make my top front 2 teeth meet with the bottom front 2 which I haven't been able to in years. I usually pop my jaw during the day which I have been able to do for about 10 years after my ears popped on a flight and I noticed a mild ringing in my right ear. I don't think however it's related to this but thought it would be useful background info.