Please help, this is terrifying me

[Bunbun]

Hello everyone!

This is my first time posting on any kind of online forum but I’m at a loss of what to do and just want to feel like myself again.

It started at the beginning of April 2019 I had woken up one day and felt like I had extremely dry eyes and a headache/tight feeling in my forehead between my eyebrows after a few days the tightness spread to my temples as well. Another few days and a tight/pressure feeling started at the back of my head/neck. Since then I’ve had a whole range of symptoms but the ones I have now seem to have stuck with me and won’t go away no matter what I do. They are tightness in back of head, neck, forehead, nose and jaw (I get weird pressure sensations in those areas too) slight dizziness, eye fatigue, vision problems such as feeling like my eyes don’t want to focus and sometimes seeing little dots of light, heavy head feeling, sometimes I feel like it’s a little hard to swallow and I just generally feel really weird and not right.

I have been to the doctors multiple times, the hospital 3 times, an optometrist, I’ve had mri, blood tests, exams and so far no one can find anything wrong with me and yet I feel the worst I’ve ever felt!

I have had extremely bad health anxiety for the last 10 years and whenever I go to a doctor and tell everything to them they tell me they think my symptoms are anxiety related but at the time this all started I wasn’t too anxious at all and doing pretty well then I woke up one day feeling a bit off and it’s been almost a month now. I do feel like there has to be something causing this, I’m sure the anxiety isn’t helping the symptoms but I don’t think anxiety is the only cause.

I feel trapped and miserable, if anyone has suffered with this kind of stuff or thinks they know what could be causing it please let me know. I’m a 25 year old female with no other known health problems other than anxiety and low iron if that helps.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post!

[demonblaster]

Hi Bunbun and readers ☺ Welcome darlin to the forums. Here's a really well moderated and run place. People treat eachother with respect understanding and support. Glad you've come here.

You poor thing what you're going through that really does sound frightening.

Imo although it's good hearing there's not any cause found atm I as you're feeling would be continuing to seek help.

They've mentioned anxiety which as you've previously and now experiencing and would know how incredibly powerful it is, it can mimic symptoms of a heart attack.

Great hearing you felt pretty good at the time. I've found often stress can remain hidden just sitting there festering underneath. I'm not saying this is the situation with you just going from experience. What can happen is when we relax our guard it can surface.

You possibly are aware and do deep breathing exercises. There are several variations. I thought I'd mention this one I learnt from a lovely member here which has often helped me and I continue to do.

• Focus only on breathing.
In slowly and calmly over 5 secs nice and deep.. feel your tummy rise

• Hold for 6 secs, 1 and 2 etc if you can.
Concentrate on counting

• On slow exhale say internally R*E*L*A*X and feel your neck and shoulders loosen. It's proven to help. Good if you can get most of the air out.

• Repeat a few times also helps get the oxygen around, we tense and shallow breathe under stress.

Huns if you don't mind me asking do you have professional help in the way of counselling at all. What you're going through I hope you have external support and you certainly have it here ☺

Please feel free anytime to talk darl and if you feel you'd like to talk to someone in voice the 24/7 number here's 1300224636

Best to you hun. Hope to hear how you're getting on if and when you feel up to it 🌿

🕊

[Guest_2496]

Hi Bunbun

demonblaster has given such a lovely welcome email - I can't better that but just wanted to add a couple of my personal experiences.

Keep in mind I'm not in the medical field! I've experienced the first symptoms you mentioned and was told it was a stress headache. I didn't have the kind of pain I'd expect with a regular headache and it did hang around for ages but eventually subsided. I've also had some of your current symptoms (not all) and I find that I tend to have tight shoulder and neck muscles a lot of the time. So, I'm thinking some (all?) of it is caused by either just the tight muscles themselves, or pinched nerve from the tight muscles.

The psych I see suggested checking out Yoga with Adriene on youtube and I do some neck stretches daily that I learnt on there. I also use epsom salt baths, magnesium oil (self massage), sometimes tiger balm - anything really to remember throughout the day to relax my shoulders...and yes tight shoulders can give those referred feelings up in the jaw, back of neck/base of skull etc.

demonblaster made a good point too - I've found a few times that these cramps, followed by anxiety and even panicky breathing, will come on when I don't think I'm anxious at the time! The psych also confirmed that it's because we hold the tension for sometime and then when we relax our body is like 'hang on...' and tenses up again.

hope some of this helps Bunbun...some general relaxation will help with it all - meditation, walks, baths, music - whatever works for you?

[sometimesanxious]

Hi there

i have been experiencing a lot of the same symptoms as you since the beginning of the year and it can be so incredibly tiring.

i have come to realise that a lot of the symptoms I feel are from built up physical tension.

when you are feeling anxious your body releases stress hormones and these hormones make you physically and mentally more uptight. Carrying around physical tension can become a habit even when you feel like your not really that stressed.

I have found body scans to be great for relief of the tension.

Or I remind myself of this little saying-

if you are reading this

release your shoulders from your ears, unclench your jaw, and remove your tongue from the roof of your mouth.

we physically tend to hold on to stress in the least noticeable ways

[RicardoD]

What a lovely welcome by @demonblaster, that's awesome. Really sorry to hear what you're going through @Bunbun, sounds absolutely awful. I can't add any more than the guys and girls above, and that meditation and deep breathing, quietening the world and unplugging for even ten minutes helps me immensely when everything seem to come at me at a rush. Sincerely hope you feel better and finally find something that works for you to help solve the problem

[demonblaster]

Hi there Bunbun and everyone ☺

Bunbun I really hope you're finding ways of coping and that if you've been up to reading threads here can be of a great help. I and I'm sure many find a lot of useful info and seeing people supporting eachother who are doing it hard renews my faith in people and belief that 75% I hope more are good.
Best to you you darl 🍃

@Sometimes anxious hi and a belated welcome to the forums ☺
You might and Bunbun (liking the name) including anyones welcome to post anywhere find some helpful suggests in..

" Self help tips for Anxiety"

Either use search bar or ..
Copy/paste to address bar.

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support/online-forums/permalink/yRPiS7pztUKbUAhUav8cGw

This is the link to "Weightless" by Marconi Union.

https://youtu.be/UfcAVejslrU

No: 1 in the world for the most relaxing music.
65% of people it drastically reduced anxiety.
35% had improves.

Made in collaboration with neuro scientists and speech therapists.

It lowers heart rate Blood pressure and reduces anxiety.

@Annie-1 & RicardoD ☺
Thank you both so much for your comments they were very uplifting.

Aplologies it's so belated I've been/am in hard headspace and been on the forums but this got buried as well as I finally put thoughts into action 😆🎉🎈

Hope all your days give you at least one smile ☺

[Headspaced]

Hi there just wondering if you ever got a response I’m feeling 100% like you all symptoms just wondering if anything helped

[Cee123]

So you've had a CT Scan or MRI and it ruled out anything sinister? If that's the case, then you've probably got nothing to worry about. I actually had this in my teens, I woke up one morning, and I had a pressure headache that felt like a band around my head, stiff neck, stomach cramps, hot flushes, heart palpitations, my head felt heavy and hazy all the time. And it wasn't going away. I literally thought I was dying and I would just lay there and do nothing. Little did I know at the time, these are symptoms of depression and that depression and anxiety also cause physical symptoms. I didn't know that. The doctor put me on anti-depressants, and that was the first time I had ever been on it. I must've been about 15. And within a couple of months or something, I was back to the way I was, I felt like a new person. The pressure in my head and neck went away. Hot fluses, heart palpitations etc all of that stuff went away. Yours might be from depression or anxiety it would be worth discussing that with the doctor, so he can maybe prescribe something so that you can go back to feeling like yourself again.

[Zoneey]

Have you had any injuries to the head ?

[demonblaster]

Hi Bunbun and everyone ☺

Bunbun I dearly hope and to others here including readers who go through this horrific ordeal that either you have an answer or it's settled you poor people.

Not knowing what's going on can be so frightening which in turn can exacerbate symptoms of stress which is incredibly powerful on the body in a negative way.

Stress especially built up over a long period of time although it's amazing how much we can deal with needs to come out. I guess our bodies way of housework taking out the rubbish.

I reread the very good posts by everyone and btw a belated welcome to the new posters here 😊 I hope that's been a comfort and helped you at the very least knowing your not alone with these awful symptoms.

Several good techniques have been mentioned to relieve stress if it's the cause.

Walkings been mentioned which has several benefits. I've and many I've heard too found exercise to be a great benefit of any type.
It can be as simple as a leisurely short walk which in time as strength builds can be increased in pace which helps with a bit of exertion in turn needing to breathe a bit deeper taking much needed oxygen around the body. As mentioned in high tension we tighten and shallow breathe.

Being outside if it's sunny is a bonus because the sun for at least 10 minutes has a positive affect on our bodies.

Looking around at our surroundings gives our senses a different focus that can be stimulating in a way that we may not notice if we're inside or driving etc

It's a hard battle isn't it when our physical healths also affected.
Fortunately for depression and anxiety including many other mental health (mh) conditions there's a lot of knowledge and understanding in the medical field.
With the right guidance we can learn to overcome both in most cases by learning techniques that eventually with practice become habit.

Wishing you all the very best breaking through hard times. I find great comfort and hope knowing it's possible.

We do have the power in us to achieve. It's about learning how to surface more of our inner strength. It's there.

⚘