Physical syptoms of anxiety

[Anxious_traveller]

Hi everyone, I have been lurking around these forums for the last few weeks and have decided to finally post.

I'm 30 years old and had 1 period of intense anxiety around 5 years ago which dibilitating for a few months, then I tried hard to carry on life/studies as usual. I was still not 100% and it took quite some time to get myself back to feeling relatively normal. I felt like someone had stolen my personality and that I wasn't truly happy anymore. The dr gave me some medication, which I stopped after 2 weeks as I felt it didn't agree with me. They were anti-depressants anyway, and I felt what I had was a bad case of anxiety, so I was not confident that it would do much for me anyway. I did get back to my normal self though, however I always feared that I would one day feel like I did before.

Then around 8 weeks ago I had some vision problems along with some pain/cramps. The dr started saying that I should see a neurologist incase it was MS. This sent me into a spiriling anxiety mess. I booked a consultation with a neurologist, who said that he did not feel my syptoms were that of MS and said that in his opinion he did not feel an MRI was needed. I was so releaved just from hearing him say that and I felt like I was skipping coming out of his office. However the following day my symptoms still persisted (although the vision problem resolved itself) and within a few weeks my symptom list had increased. I was now experiencing foot tingling/foot burning and numb patches on my toes and thighs. This made me worried even more! I've been back to the dr's several times and have had lots of blood tests, all of which have come back clear. The dr was reluctant to refer me to another neurologist as they said the last one felt I was ok. But I explained that the symptoms have increased a lot since then and I'm experiencing daily symptoms mainly in my left foot and leg. I also get a clicking noise in my neck/ear area when I run, it clicks every step I take. I've given up on the running because of this and because I'm pretty sure my foot symptoms are worse afterwards.

I want to believe it's just anxiety. But can anxiety symptoms persist in just one area? For example burning, vibrating and numb foot? Have any of you experienced this?

Ive googled far too much, which I know has done me no good as google loves to say it's MS or ALS/MND where any tingling or numbness is entered into that search bar!

I would love to hear if anyone has had similar experiences to this

[Croix]

Dear Anxious traveller~

I've have physical symptoms from anxiety including head, eye, neck and stomach pain, plus other problems. At the onset of each I was extensively tested including X-Ray, CAT scan, MRI, plus blood tests and others. In all cases the tests were negative and eventually, after initial reluctance, I came to believe the symptoms were all stress related. A combination of getting the stress more under control plus medications targeted at specific symptoms has made life a lot better.

I'm mentioning all this so you can see that anxiety can have a big effect on the body. I would stress however I did have exhaustive tests, meaning that the chances of anything being overlooked was small. As all these problems have been long standing and not progressed further this tends to bear that out.

So I'd suggest you have as many tests as will reasonably satisfy your medical team that it is not MS or some other disease.

I'm told the tingling in the extremities I've experienced has been due to an oxygen imbalance caused by breathing too fast. While I'm not suggesting you have the same thing it also goes to show that side-effects can be unexpected (I'd no idea why they happened)

I find Dr Google to be a diaster, and no longer ever look, leaving all diagnosis to my doctor.

I'm glad your vision has cleared up

Croix

[stormcloudz]

Hi anxious traveller

Welcome to the forums and well done on posting to get some information.

Having experienced substantial physical effects from anxiety myself, I agree with every word that Croix has said. I'm even tempted to repeat bits! In my experience:

- anxiety can have a wide range of surprising physical effects

- it's good to get tests to rule out other possibilities (which it sounds like you are doing)

- Dr Google can be counterproductive!

I haven't had all the specific effects you mention, other than vision problems and tingling. But that doesn't mean it's not anxiety, for you.

I wanted to mention a couple of things in relation to your previous experience with medication. Anti-depressants are also often used for their anti-anxiety effects. It can take several weeks to have an effect for some people. Often they are prescribed for anxiety at a higher dose (than would be prescribed for depression), and this dose is built up carefully over time. It is important not to go "cold turkey" on medications, but to slowly taper them off on the advice of a doctor. I am not a doctor so please check all this with your own GP. I'm also not suggesting that you should (or should not) take anxiety medication. I just thought from your comments that you may not have received this information at the time. If you aren't getting clear information from your doctor, have a look around for a GP who specialises in mental health. The BeyondBlue helpline may be able to assist with that.

In relation to the running, exercise is known to be good for anxiety. Can you do something lower-key for the moment? Maybe a brisk walk?

Good on you for looking after both your physical and mental health. It's great that you are investigating and taking control.