Freaking Out (Health Anxiety?)

Hello Everyone

im a 19 yrs old male. I have posted here before but im gonna tell a little about myself once again. I have been freaking out lately because of my new symtopms and how they can be linked to MS but im not sure maybe its just all in my head..

I have suffered from three major panic attacks, two of them caused by drugs. after a year of not touching any drugs and drinking i woke up and all of a sudden i strained my neck..i went to a doctor and he gave me this anti-inflammatory pill..i took it and went to bed but woke up next morning feeling numbed and feeling like i was going to pass out so i went to ER and had a blood test and a neck x-ray and they both came back normal. After going through a severe anxiety for a month and being in a constant Derealization and having all these weird symptoms (twitches, noises in the ear, stomach noises, feeling numb, shortness of breath, rapid hear beat i was diagnosed with Anxiety. Anyways after a month i started to feel normal again. i did a CT scan from my head, an MRI from my neck and a full blood test and they call came back normal. I was concerned about brain tumor and that made me feel better for couple of months..after hearing the test results most my symptoms went away until a month ago when all of a sudden i woke up one day feeling dreamy (derealization) and feeling like im in a movie. It got worse and from that day i havent felt normal even for an hour. Starting 2 weeks ago i started having symptoms again but this time it was a little different. Well im gonna make this short i have been feeling extremely tired lately, and from 2 days ago i started having this headache and this pain in the back of my eyes when i move my eyes to the left or right. Yesterday it was worse and when i pressed on my eyes i felt a severe pain. So i went to an eye doctor and she said that i dont have ON - optic neuritis (she checked the back of my eyes) and she said its probably due to stress/migraine/or allergies.

I posted this question about my eyes in this other forum and the doctor told me i might have MS. from then i started freaking out and i havent been able to eat anything or take my mind off this. I havent been active since last year because of my anxiety and not really on a good diet. I sometimes dont eat breakfast or even lunch. Im just always behind the computer searching for diseases i could have and now im really thinking i have MS. because a lot of my symptoms match with the ones of MS. i dont have anyone in my family with MS.

I dont have any twitching and i dont wake up with numbed hands or feet. But i do feel tired most the time. Maybe just because im not an active person and spend a lot of time behind the computer and not doing any type of exercises. My neck also feel stiffed and sometimes i feel like my neck muscles is like getting rotten..i also have this vision problem that i feel dreamy and sometimes its hard for me to focus on class when looking at the board..its like im looking at the board but i cant concentrate on the words..i had dizziness for a week but i dont have dizziness anymore..i dont see flashing lights or experience any double vision..but i do still have some symptoms that match both the ones from anxiety and MS like being fatigue, muscle stiffness, vision problems..sometimes when im falling sleep at night all of a sudden i twitch and i feel like i just got shocked by something but my doctor tells me thats due to stress..

im really worried and my family doctor tells me that im a healthy guy. im sure as soon as i tell him about this he would tell me that i dont have MS without doing further tests and just link it to anxiety.

Im not sure if these symptoms are all because of my anxiety over health problems or something else.

Hi,

Go back to that other forum and ask that 'doctor' why he/she think you have MS. Also, you should raise this issue with your family doctor to see what he/she thinks. To me - after reading your post - it sounded like you had a parasitic/bacterial/viral infection of some sort, but I'm not entirely sure at all. I'm only guessing really. There's no real connection between everything that you've mentioned except for a general infection, but - again - I'm only guessing.

You don't have MS my uncle has severe MS and his very first symptoms that he didn't know was a symptom was loosing his balance, that was his first symptom that he got, then he started to go blind in the eye.

To me it sounds like anxiety, and him telling you this, this "doctor" seems far fetched. I even did a test for MS because my uncle had it, they can look for things doctors, check for balance etc, to rule it out.

Derealization is anxiety, among other mental health disorders...

You defintely have symptoms of anxiety and panic, MS I think I c an say that from what I can tell, your suffering from generalized anxiety disorder or panic disorder or both.

Headache behind the eyes, around the face is a sinus headache. I get them a lot. Being tired could be anything, whether it's anxiety, working too much, not being able to sleep etc...

The fact that you did an MRI And a CT scan and they came back normal then you have nothing to worry about .. I've had both tests done myself, so don't worry.

Having twitches, stomach stuff can be all anxiety, and likely is. With your stomach it can be anything from gas, to indigestion, upset stomach etc. I'd not be concerned with that. You don't have a brain tumor, that would have turned up in the scan and it didn't you're fine.

Migraines and allergies can cause pain like that and stress too, I think you're fine though, other then suffering with anxiety. I've had all what you've had, and I've been diagnosed with GAD since I was 16 and i'm 29 now.


The eyes are likely only stress, migraine or sinus's.
I have MS in the family, I know quite a bit about it. You are ok. I'm sure you are, you had a full work up of blood work etc, and they all came back fine...



A lot of your symptoms match up with a million other disorders too, but I know it's anxiety just by the way your posting too. Thinking it's MS is going to cause you to become more anxious and stressed, and of course you'll feel that way.


Numbing/tingling of the extremities is anxiety related as well. I get them in hands, feet and face. It goes away right? The only time you have to worry about it is if it doesn't go away and you can't literally feel anything... you're ok.

The lights and dizziness could be migraines, and it could be anxiety, same with muscle stiffness and fatigue etc etc...

If you had MS you would have had symptoms a long time ago and not just now. MS doesn't just happen over night, it takes years for it to creep up to the point where it's a problem.

You're experiencing anxiety, I'm sure of it.
Don't be shocked by what your doctor said about stress, he's right...

You're a healthy guy if your doctor suspected that you'd have any symptoms of ms etc from your scans etc he'd tell you.


It's just all anxiety my friend, you're ok.

Such an informative and well formed post!Thank you for sharing that, it was wonderful of you.Thanks for forwarding this useful information.

It sounds a lot to me like anxiety, sweetie. I really feel for you too, because I've suffered many bouts of health anxiety over the past few decades. I happen to be going through one now, as a matter of fact. That is how I stumbled upon your post...it is too easy for we highly sensitive folks to get stuck in the quagmire of diseases we might (but probably don't) have as we haunt the internet looking for reasons for why we feel so yucky. You might have a bit of obsessive compulsive disorder going on too. Though I haven't mastered my anxiety disorder, I have learned that the mind can make our bodies feel all sorts of strange and ominous symptoms. I so hope you are feeling better by now. I hope you are having fun, eating well, getting exercise, being with people who care about you. These things are vital at all times, in good health and bad. Be well.

It's important to remember that on average people who need psychiatric help, including those who have anxiety disorders and need anxiety relief, are highly misdiagnosed. There's no simple blood test you can take, so a good diagnosis ideally will require someone with a little experience and skill. For example, people with bipolar disorder usually get misdiagnosed 3 times, and it takes about 7 years from onset of illness until correct diagnosis! For anxiety related disorders, it's probably not as bad, but it does give you pause and a taste of how much progress we need to make in the mental health sciences.

"Butterfly Faerie" what a great reply. You helped me a well with that post.

I, very much like the young guy who started this post, am afraid that I have MS. I have been to a Neurologist and had a Caat scan and i am on the list to have an MRI. The Neurologist said that he saw now overt signs of anything but I am having numbness in my face and right arm. It comes and goes and honestly wasn't there before I was worried about the MS stuff - or at least I hadn't noticed. I have always had stomach problems and thought that was the problem, but then I started having vision trouble and headaches - which i never have. I was also having scalp pain and a little bit of hair loss.

So basically I am just as freaked out as the guy who wrote this post was.

If this is anxiety, it really is a scary scary thing.