Stress/Anxiety but don't feel stressed?

Hello. I'm a long time reader of this forum, but first time poster.

A little background: I have health anxiety (minor) and pretty bad GAD (over worrying, thinking too much, you know the drill!) I was prescribed Celexa 15mg about 6 years ago. Stopped taking them abruptly (didn't know it was a bad thing at the time). Now, I am not on any everyday meds, just Klonopin when I really need it. I despise SSRIs. The doc I visit gave me Lexapro, but I haven't touched them. The Klonopins work great when I really need them. I'm scared to go to a follow up appointment though. I don't want him to give me SSRIs or keep telling me to take them. the Klonopin is just fine!

I'll try and make this as short as possible...I am a cook at a golf course kitchen. We get busy during summer time. Last year, when we started getting busier, I had some random anxiety (general) which lasted about two weeks, then went away. Figured it was my body adjusting from slow winter months of work to the busy summer time. But this year....it's horrible. First off, I get a new boss. That didn't cause any anxiety because my old boss was a jerk. Anyways, it started off one morning when I bent over to pick up my work shoes. I got a REALLY bad vertigo/dizzy spell where it felt like my eyes flipped upside down. I fell into my door because it was so bad! After that, I was constantly light headed, dizzy, nervous for almost a month. Gave up and went to the ER which I hate doing. They didn't find anything wrong from EKG and blood tests. They told me to go home and take one of my Klonopins. I did, felt better. I also went to the chiropractor and he adjusted my neck, shoulders, arms and back. Surprisingly, the dizziness went away a few days later.

I was good for a week. Now, no dizziness or lightheadedness, but I feel like I'm going nuts. I keep forgetting things, saying wrong words, thinking irrationally, the list goes on. It's freaking me out really bad. I don't think I have a disease or anything, but I feel like I'm going crazy!

So, my main question, could stress really cause this? The last couple of days, I feel better, but it still lingers (the speech problems and memory). I also have had sleeping problems all my life. Takes me forever to fall asleep, sometimes I wake up to use the bathroom and can't fall back asleep. Could poor sleep quality affect my stress levels that bad too?

Thanks for reading!

Hi DG yes stress can cause your symptoms, and lack of sleep usualy increases stress you seem to be in a rut

I sleep, but it feels like I don't...ugh! I just think the quality of my sleep just stinks. Thanks for the reply!

Hi , yes it can cause all these and plenty more i could tick off pretty much all of the symptoms you can find on google one ends and a new one pops up , I got so anxious once i kind of forgot how to talk my words were jumbled just for a few seconds but it freaked me out thought I'd finally lost it , bad sleep plays a big part in how bad my anxiety is , I have had a lot to deal with but going without sleep makes it much harder to cope with real problems , don't take it personally if you don't always get a reply as you said "long time reader " a lot of readers arnt members so can't reply but show up as views , take care .