Feeling imbalanced?

I am 36 six years old and have been suffering from what I believe is an General Health Anxiety disorder (self diagnosed). It started for me about 7 years ago and has plagued me ever since. I have been convinced that I have had a brain tumor, a lump in my throat, colon cancer, and heart problems, just to name a few. In each instance, I have sought help from medical professionals, Internal Medicine, ENT, Gastro, etc. When these symptoms come on I dwell on them to such a degree that it becomes overwhelming and it consumes my life. I will visit several doctors run all kinds of tests EEG, EKG, MRI's, colonoscopy, etc. Every time, the are normal. As of yet, I have no real health problems.

For the past 10 days I have been woozy in my head and feel very imbalanced. It is almost exactly like I am sea sick, without the nausea. I feel like I am sitting, walking, or standing on a boat. These symptoms are consistent, meaning it never gets worse or better. Its all day long from the moment I wake up until I go to sleep. My first thoughts of course are, brain tumor. I have been dwelling on this belief for the past 10 days. I saw my ENT last week who scheduled me for an MRI this week and some other balance type tests. Meanwhile, I sit waiting around feeling worse by the minute, consumed with the fact that I have a brain tumor.

My wife, who has been with me through all of my many symptoms over the past 7 years, is convinced that I mentally perpetuate these symptoms based on anxiety disorders. Meaning, I am self inflicting these symptoms on myself and causing them to persist because I am feeding them with my Health Anxiety problem. As much as I try to believe she is right, I can't help but dwell on these symptoms because they are so, so , real. There is no way that I could be imaging that I am dizzy and imbalanced for 10 days in a row. What came first the chicken or the egg? That is my problem. I want to believe that these issues are caused by anxiety, but it is very difficult to do so because to me, these symptoms seem serious in nature. Anybody got any ideas? I really would appreciate any feedback. I'm so tired of feeling this way.

I think the best thing to do is to go and talk to someone about this, self-diagnosing is not always the best approach as it could be something completely different.

IT does sound like you are constantly worrying about getting sick, getting something that could be potentially fatal, you've gone for tests and everything is find.

Could it be hypocondria?

I think if this is something that is consuming your life and you are having trouble coping with it, and it's been going on for a long period of time, to go and talk to someone. Rule out any possible causes which you have been doing in terms of sickness etc...

The more you think about it the worse it's going to be.
What can you do to convince yourself that you are ok?

Hang in there.

This reply is directed towards Guest's post. I have experienced the exact same symptom, constant vertigo (as I was informed by my neurologist that this is the correct term for unbalanced and 'whoosy' feelings) with no nausea. I developed this symptom maybe a year or so after a period of intense stress in my life, it indeed seems like some sort of 'after-effect' as I have been rather thoroughly checked out, medically. 2 brain and c-spine MRI's have confirmed that no tumor is present, nor is inflammatory disease evident. I've also had electronystagmography (ENG) to determine locus of dizziness, but it turned out normal. So, I am proof that one can have this constant symptom without a brain tumor being present. Like your case, I have been left with an anxiety diagnosis, which seems possible, but at the same time I've tried therapy and many different medications (including antidepressants), and nothing seems to affect this persistent symptom. So try not to worry too much about it, it is most likely benign and something to be coped with, not incessantly worried about.

To be sure, NAION is a very rare condition and the FDA was quick to point out that a definite link between the drugs and the condition has not been established. Yet, the possibility that such a serious side-effect exists was enough to raise the issue of whether the FDA should require a warning viagra, Levitra and generic viagra online to carry a warning with respect to NAION.

I ve experienced the dizziness for 6 months ago and went to many Doctors and did lots of investigations all was normal....really the dizziness and headache made me mad and affected my life,but recently I ve discovered that by Diaphragmatic breathing I could control it and when it start to come I'm relaxing myself by this yoga breathing and fortunately its helpfull...