View Full Version : Hi I'm new and would like some advice
Hello everyone.
I have suffered with health anxiety since I was pregnant with my son nearly 4 years ago now.
About 2 years ago I had a few funny turns where I woke in the night with a dead arm and the feeling spread up to my face. It happened 3 times and I went to the doctors who said I must have pinched a nerve. Around the same time my eye sight also went funny for a few weeks. The optician said my eye sight was good but I had a lazy eye which was probably causing the problems and because I wasn't very well at the time anyway it had probably been brought out because of this.
I think I must have had a virus at the time because I was being sick sometimes and had a headache aswell and just wanted to sleep all the time.
All in all it was horrible couple of weeks.
Now about a year ago I started getting burning cold type sensations in my head. The doctor said it was probably over active nerves and gave me some pills but it went away on its own anyway.
Basically what I am worried about is that some of the symptoms I have are of MS.
The last couple of days I have had a tingle in my finger which tingles when I press on it and I have also had it a bit in my feet though that seems to have gone now. I have had these tingles before that have lasted a couple of days but lately my fear of MS has come back :(
When I went to the doctors last year about the odd feelings in my head I told him I was worried about MS and he said it was very unlikely in some one of my age but it really doesn't stop me worrying.
I go through phases like this. Before I have thought I have had a brain tumour, blood clots, motor neurone disease, cancer. I just hate feeling like this its so horrible :(
I know some of my symptoms are probably down to anxiety as if I don't think about it I don't always get symptoms but its like its out of control I can't control what I think and it seems like I am constantly worrying about something being wrong with me.
Sorry its so long and thank you in advance to any one who replies x
Cassy,
I had a bit of anxiety and depression before i has my son ,but my anxiety, especially health anxiety rocketed just before i was due to deliver, and went into meltdown straight afterwards, so much so i ended up in a pyschiatric hospital when my son was only 6 weeks old.
I too have went through various phases worrying about illness/disease, and when i just got rid of one along came another.... very exhausting.. the physical symtoms i had were endless and some severe, ( palpatations and breathing were particularly bad), and really terrified me, and it became very distressing just trying to cope with everyday life.
There is no easy way , around anxiety, but i learned to remember that they were just thoughts and i used to think that my symptoms proved or confirmed something, , they proved nothing... i know that now , but very hard at that time to see it that way, the thoughts drove the symptoms, and then the symptoms drove the thoughts.... hell... and i am hearing that this is the same for you, because when you are not thnking about it, the symptoms are no longer there...
I have found from experience, ( my son is 17 so a lot of years have past), that these are thoughts and only that, and who says that i have to listen to them, also focusing my attention on something else,( although this is difficult when my concentration is not so good,) but doing anything to try to think of something else, with practice it gets a little easier. and also accepting that it is the anxiety that is causing these thoughts and symtoms ,and that is has been proven on so so many occasions to be with out substance, as time goes by i have found its a little easier, but it just doesnt go away on its own, it is not easy and i have to work hard at it. but it does help over time. i wish i had an easy answer or solution for you, but i hope that maybe something that i have suggested might be useful to you,
Let me know how you go
Take care
P x :flowers:
Thank you so much for replying.
I think deep down I know nothing is wrong because I have spoke to doctors about my fears so many times and my doctors are good doctors. But then theres that little bit of me that says I am ill.
I think maybe I should go back to the doctors and ask for more help. I have had cognitive therapy and counselling before but neither really helped.
I'm trying to tell myself the tingling in my finger is most likely to be some sort of trapped nerve and not anything to do with MS!
If I have my mind completely pre occupied with other things then I don't notice my symptoms of anxiety, its just I seem to have alot of time on my hands!
Again thank you for replying and knowing that others feel this way does help (even though I wouldn't wish this on anyone!) x
Bump for anyone else who would like to give me some advice please :)
Bump for anyone else who would like to give me some advice please :)
Hi Casssy
The tingling thing i have had before. It os stress and hormones beleive it or not. I got it when i started taking a new pill and was very very anxiuoa at the time. Its just blood flow flowing less to your extremities becuase your so anxious. Is it like a little electric shock and when you touch the spot it happens it feels a bit like a little splinter or spikey thing in your skin?
If so then thats what i had. Its gone now and i dont think about it anymore strangely lol !!
Dont worry your docs sound great and they know what they are doing
Lisa
xxxx
Hello, thanks alot for replying :)
My finger is still tingling today on and off and more when I touch it. I feel quite shaky and a bit breathless aswell today because I am worrying so much.
I think my finger tingling does sound the same as you get. It doesn't hurt though its just uncomfortable.
I think I might go to the doctor tomorrow because all I keep thinking about is do I have MS.
I just can't see how I had all that numbness and my eye sight went funny for a few weeks and I have so many different odd feelings and that is all just down to anxiety. It just feels too hard to believe! x
Hello, thanks alot for replying :)
My finger is still tingling today on and off and more when I touch it. I feel quite shaky and a bit breathless aswell today because I am worrying so much.
I think my finger tingling does sound the same as you get. It doesn't hurt though its just uncomfortable.
I think I might go to the doctor tomorrow because all I keep thinking about is do I have MS.
I just can't see how I had all that numbness and my eye sight went funny for a few weeks and I have so many different odd feelings and that is all just down to anxiety. It just feels too hard to believe! x
Sounds totally the same as me and i also went to the dr and he assured me that it was nothing that made sense to him medically and was down to anxiety.
So many things happen when you are anxious. We think we know our bodies but really we dont have a clue. We read websites and symptoms and put two and two and get five becuase we are anxious and our mind is overlooking stuff and we just dont have the full knowledge to diagnose ourselves with ilnesses like we do.
Anxiety and constant stress can effect every part of our body, absolutely everything is linked to out adrenaline systems and chronic activation of it from anxiety and worrying casues many weird and wonderful symptoms and the main clue that this is what is happening is that you become all consumed with what 'might ' be wrong!!
Eyes are vey much effected by the adrenaline systems and shaking, tingling etc .......all adrenaline prob caused by chronically stressing yourself about MS not helping at all sweetie. Have you read the stuff in the laft of the screen , its absolutely great!
If you go to the drs how long will the reasurance last? Will you find something else to attach your anxiety to do you think? I always do. The best way out is through they say....ride the anxiety out and have confidence in the part of you that knows you are fine.
Lisa
xxx
Did you sight go funny for a while too then? Mine went sort of double vision for a few weeks but I was ill at the time but I don't know whether that was down to my physical health or mental health to be honest. In the end it just slowly went away by itself.
I don't think the reassurance would last long even if I do go to the doctors tbh and I probably won't believe them if they do say I'm ok.
I just really don't know what to do. I want to feel normal but I am convinced its more then anixety.
It doesn't help that some MS sites say that you can go even a few years with no symptoms of MS and then it can suddenly come back.
A few things that do console me though are that they say with MS when your sight goes funny you normally have a pain in your eye and your colour sight normally changes too but that never happened to me.
But then again another thing that worries me is that MS can affect your bladder control and for the past few months or so when I go for a wee it always feels like I can get a bit more urine out and I normally can too. I'm hoping this is nothing though as I don't think its a bladder infection because it has gone on too long and I have had them before.
Sorry to go on! But its nice to be able to talk about things with people who understand x
Did you sight go funny for a while too then? Mine went sort of double vision for a few weeks but I was ill at the time but I don't know whether that was down to my physical health or mental health to be honest. In the end it just slowly went away by itself.
I don't think the reassurance would last long even if I do go to the doctors tbh and I probably won't believe them if they do say I'm ok.
I just really don't know what to do. I want to feel normal but I am convinced its more then anixety.
It doesn't help that some MS sites say that you can go even a few years with no symptoms of MS and then it can suddenly come back.
A few things that do console me though are that they say with MS when your sight goes funny you normally have a pain in your eye and your colour sight normally changes too but that never happened to me.
But then again another thing that worries me is that MS can affect your bladder control and for the past few months or so when I go for a wee it always feels like I can get a bit more urine out and I normally can too. I'm hoping this is nothing though as I don't think its a bladder infection because it has gone on too long and I have had them before.
Sorry to go on! But its nice to be able to talk about things with people who understand x
Gosh your not going on at all!! Its usually me that does that lol
The bladder thing is anxiety as well. Adrenaline effects your bladder very much so, like how when your nervous you need to wee more. Its just adrenaline again, kind of makes it feel like its a muscle that wont work properly. Totally anxiety caused - like IBS but inthe bladder.
The eyes thing mine comes and goes and I get something like tunnel vision almost when everythuing narrows in and the sides of my vision becomes very blurred - peaks when im in full blown panic mode. Sometimes i can see my eyelashes its weird and now I need to laugh it off because it goes then. Seeing your own eye lashes is pretty funny though I guess. Everything very blurry and edges are not defined and if soemthing moves quickly its leaves a trailer, especially at night.
Loads of people on here have wacky anxiety induced eye issues, you could look at old post and you will be reasured in no time!! Like floaters. I gor scared about those but loads of people get them. My psychologist gets them and he said he tries to followthem for fun.....you cant though they disapear lol
Lisa
xxxx
Thank you I am feeling a little more reassured now.
I used to get them floaters when I was pregnant with my son too!
The annoying thing is I know where my anxiety stems from. When I was pregnant I was always being told they thought there was something wrong with my son when there never was and because of this my blood pressure would go up from the stress and my pulse rate too so they were always concerned about that aswell.
Also I did end up with pre-eclampsia right at the end of my pregnancy.
So all that was the start of my health anxiety really.
I think I need to realise that I just pay too much attention to what my body is doing whereas people who don't suffer with anxiety will just dismiss it. I wish I could feel normal!
I still might go back to my doctors though but more to ask for some more support so I can try and deal with this.
Thanks again for replying, it has really helped xx
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