Anxiety - Unsteadiness

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mazvazmazvaz

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Hey there,

Ok, I've been experiencing some symptoms for some time such as dizziness, shaking, spasms, sweating, hot flashes, tingling. All of these occured when the stuff about swine flu was coming out and I was getting really anxious! I put it down to anxiety but I thought it could be MS.

After a while they generally went away but I started to get some knee pain and redness and feeling a bit stiff so I thought it was arthritis and went to see a few doctors who said it was nothing and all my bloodwork and x-rays came back normal. A couple of days before my x ray was due I started to get dizzy again and experiencing ongoing trerabling. I went to see a doctor and explained all of this and I said i thought it might be MS and he said no and he did some tests, such as testing my reflexes, eye strength, co-ordination etc and all of that was fine he said so he didn't think it was MS.

However, I'm also doing a show at the moment and there are a lot of times when I have to stand still and I feel quite unsteady and off balance and this isn't really a common symptom of anxiety and thought it might be MS? When I'm walking I'm generally fine it's just when I stand still I feel unsteady. I'm just worried that it is MS especially there was a period when I didn't really have any symptoms apart from the joint problem and was worried that my second round of symptoms are in fact a relapse?

Can you help me? I'm sick of this and always put it down to anxiety because the symptoms happened when the stuff about swine flu was coming out and I was getting really worried but now I'm not too sure.

Any help would be greatly appreciative!
Thank you!

Mario
 
I feel like that all the time. I figure well i have been dizzy for 4 months and it hasnt killed me yet so i guess im doing ok lol... I hate going to bed cause i know when i wake up im going to be shaking, Its so crazy .... with me the dizzyness and shaking went away for about a month then came back ... I found that odd so flipped out about it for a few days...so i figure the reason why im so dizzy is because i use my eyes tomuch and not my other sences .. what i do is spend some time everyday walking around with my eyes closed... its kinda like you know if someone is scared of being up high they get dizzy well if they close there eyes they are not as dizzy.. its kinda the same idea. the thing is we use out eyes tomuch to watch out for danger and forget about everything else and it knocks us off balance. well thats just one idea. i have no clue if its true or not. maybe you could give it a try.
please excuse my spelling

carrie
 
Thanks! Have you seen a doctor about your symptoms? I don't know if I should go back to mine and just double check but I don't want to be a pain in the arse! lol
 
It's too bad that choosing a doctor is not such an easy thing in the US. Health Inc. is so control happy that it can be tough to change to a new doctor if you're not happy with the current one.

Anxiety definitely has physical expressions. The causes of anxiety are a wide arena and your body/mind can settle into your own set, so just because yours may seem "different" I wouldn't start worrying about a major physical problem just yet. One thing you've had on your side is the docs have done several tests and determined that your health is basically sound. Meditating on that fact can not be underestimated. In my case and tons of others (seems like the vast majority of anxiety sufferers), the worry about your health is what your thinking keeps circling around to which is what gives the snowball all the momentum. For me, a quick and relatively inexpensive visit to the doctor so he can do a couple basic checks usually is enough reassurance to make me settle down quite a bit. I tend to keep thinking I'm on the verge of a heart attack and worry about it. If it were ever true I would have been under the knife or six feet under at least two years ago. I know physically I'm OK, but sometimes I need help to bring me back to normal.

Anyway, sounRAB like the person/people you've seen are MRAB. It might be worth trying to find someone focused on matters of the mind. In this case, it's very important to find someone who you connect to well. Sometimes that can be the first one you try, but sometimes you get the feeling they aren't interested or there's something that just doesn't "jive". Try another one. It shouldn't take more than one or two tries - in my experience there are a lot of good counselors out there. Several years ago, I was a patient with a guy whose patient pool was almost totally addicts, so he found it refreshing to use some of his other training and experience to help me since I am not an addict. I felt that he was really interested in helping, and he did help me a ton.

So I guess I'm trying to say that from what little I read in your post, I'd suggest trying a session with a counselor. Anxiety can be helped with medication, but the real goal is to just get your mind working right again without meRAB. There is a lot of stress these days and no sign of things getting easier (externally) unless you gain some skills to deal with it more effectively (internally). If you do, I think you'll find that just a little bit of information and help can go a long way and make you much better off. Imagine what a good bit of knowledge and help can do!

Anxiety about your health is common. I do the same thing. Any little pain or whatever wasn't there yesterday seems to try to take me down the same road toward assuming I have a major ailment. I have a few things I can do to help nudge my mind off that track and back toward more constructive thinking. I learned these things from others and wouldn't have made any progress on my own. It's simple stuff, though harder to implement than to hear it said.

Remeraber, the docs have tested and their results came back fine. Keep that in mind. Chances are very much in favor that you are OK - you're just thinking in bad patterns.

You're doing a show? I used to be a musician. A slight bit of anxiety is actually good in a performance setting. It keeps your mind alert. The good thing about performing is that there is usually enough to think about that there just isn't room for those bad patterns to creep in. I would guess that a performance would unplug you from your anxiety during the event and for a while afterward. Hell, it might just be enough of a break in the cycle to fend it off for several days or weeks.

I don't know what would work for you, but anger is a motivator for me. If I felt myself getting shaky during a performance, I would get mad at the anxiety and dive deeper into what I was there to do to shove it away. That may not work for you at all since we are all different. But if you have time, talk to others and hopefully a good counselor. Approach it from a perspective of problem solving and be sober, as opposed to "why me" kind of stuff - that won't help. You have to become a bit of a soldier. Anxiety is only a big deal when you're in the middle of it. Once you get a break from it, it's a relatively weak foe. You just need a little ammo, training and experience.

p.s. I was feeling anxious for the past two weeks or so. Got bad for a couple days or so. The whole time I was feeling a kind of dizziness and dissociative feelings. Very uncomfortable. Two days ago I finally thought myself back to mostly normal and I wasn't having the panic feelings at all, nor really any anxiety I could put my finger on, but I still had the dizziness. Today I saw the doc and tonight I have zero dizziness. Freaky. I figured I wasn't panicking anymore so I was over it, but the dizziness meant I just wasn't quite totally past it yet. Bummer when it happens, but "this too shall pass". Fortunately it happens less for me as time goes by and I get better at dealing with it. I may struggle with it the rest of my life to some degree, but I'm hoping I can at least get to where I only feel it for less than a day before I can work past it and go on about the business of living. A week or two (or longer) is just waaay to long. It's good to have goals.
 
I'm only an expert at my own anxiety and I haven't kicked it yet, so for what it's worth...

My symptoms tend to be the same ones, but sometimes it comes on as a whole different animal. Still anxiety. Yea it makes me freak out too. Sometimes I'm not dizzy at all but my heart rate goes way up and feel weak. Sometimes I have odd twitches. Sometimes I don't feel faint, but just have a feeling that I could fall over, though never do. Then there are those times that I do feel dizzy or groggy or something, or maybe a corabination of one or three of the above. The common denominator is that no matter what physical things happen, my thoughts keep coming back to thinking I've got some major ailment and it snowballs. THAT is the main problem, and if I can derail it somehow then I can feel OK again. Sometimes that is easier to do than other times.

From your post it sounRAB like the doctor already checked you for MS. If he says you don't have it, it's likely he's right and it's just another unfounded worry. Welcome to anxiety. You have to learn a couple tricks to get your mind out of the worry circle (i.e. "derail" those thought patterns). For me I often only have to distract myself by getting my mind engaged in something else. Hobbies and things like mowing the grass leave my mind too free to wander where it will. I try to do something that requires focused attention, and adding physical activity helps. You know, the best thing for me is to go help someone else work on a project of theirs. There is usually no shortage of people who need help with something. I just fixed the brakes on my Mom's car earlier tonight and had absolutely zero feelings of anxiety the whole time, and I still feel totally free of it right now. The good feeling you get from helping others out breaks those bad thought patterns really well. It does for me anyway. Just make sure it's not a huge project that will loom over your head for a long time. That can cause more harm than good. Keep it short & sweet.

Remeraber I'm just speaking for myself and we are all different. If you see a counselor, they will talk to you for a while and likely explain a couple tips that will jive with your particular situation.
 
Yes, absolutely, I get all of those symptoms. Dizziness, heart racing, feeling hot, sweats, shaking, off balance, kind of like a light-headed feeling. I'm taking 75 mg of Effexor now and my symptoms have improved.
 
Thanks for all your help! Yeah I've been recommended to see a councellor from my doctor just to speak to them about it...might try and give it a go!

The thing is when I'm unsteady and losing my balance, I don't feel dizzy or lightheaded, I just can't really seem to hold my position, is this normal? I'm really worried that it might be MS!
 
Thanks for all the advice guys! I'm trying my best to not think about it and keep myself occupied! I'm now getting like a nurab feeling in my right hand!
Will think about seeing someone in the new year if symptoms don't approve.
 
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