Tingling Lips, Off Balance, Swirling Brain Fog: Anixety or Multiple Sclerosis?

[Shea]

I just had an episode... I went to Starbucks and ordered a decaf latte, got my drink, started to walk away from the counter and almost fell because I suddenly felt off balance, my lips were tingling numb and I had a swirling brain fog feeling buzzing all around me. I finally sat down in a chair for fear that I would fall if I tried to stand/walk any longer. Now, all of those sensations are gone. Mind you, I did not feel stressed, anxious or upset in any way when this occurred. How the hell do I know if it's MS or anxiety? This has been going on (off and on - more on than off) for about four years. And almost every day I experience a heaviness/pressure/cramping/tightness (that's the only way I can describe) it in my chest. I also have an awful lot of "popping" and "clicking" noises going on in my sternum area. Sometimes when I stretch (or try to) by pushing my shoulders back and sticking out my chest, my sternum area catches and cramps up. The pain is usually relieved by massaging the area and just relaxing instead of flexing/stretching. Also, sometimes when the chest pressure is unbelievable, it moves up to my neck area, and the sides of my neck (aren't there some sort of glands there???) flush bright red. This doesn't sound like anxiety to me, but what do I know?

WTF does all this mean?!?!?!?

Sorry for any harsh language/attitude... I'm just really pissed at having to deal with these "mysterious" symptoms for so many years. And the doctors don't know what it is either.

I would appreciate your input. All serious replies welcome.

[sixpack]

I have had those sensations (not the chest part) in the past.  For me it has always been connected to anxiety.  You don't have to feel anxious or atleast be conscious of being anxious to have this happen.  In April '08, I got up in the middle of the night being off balance.  I attributed it to just popping out of bed and being 1/2 asleep.  In the morning though I felt the same way.  It lasted all day.  I'd turn my head and I got that 'whoosh' feeling.  I stayed in bed most of the day because I felt so dizzy.  I've had other instances of tingling and dizziness etc.  I can always end up attributing it to anxiety whether I feel anxious at the moment or not.

The other thing it could be is low blood sugar.  I used to get that later in pregnancy (but people can get low blood sugar w/o being pg )  When that happens I get dizzy-ish, swirly and numb lips.

Flushing is a symptom of anxiety.  The chest sounds like a cramp.  Muscles tense up and cramp.  I have heard of folks talk about this before.

You indicated that the docs don't know why this is but maybe next time you go in for a visit, you can bring it up again.

[forwells]

Hi Shea  

Just wish to add something here , My Anxiety was much like this and i have had it for 15 years and never knew , i had a virus when i was 21 and just put it down to this , but then in October last year it hit out of the blue, or i thought it was but now i can think about my life i understand how much stress i was putting my mind under.

  Let not talk about the symptoms now because we all know what they can be. I also take from your post you are like i was and like many of us get. It is so stressful to go though this and not being able to have control of your life the way you want and this is the problem.

  It comes down to the way we react and handle it and the understanding we have of what is going on.

  Try and stop and think when it happens and not react to whats going on just say to yourself i have had it before and it has passed and it will again.
  You don't have to feel stressed with anxiety what happens is the brain subconscious is remembering for you ,you may have had this feeling with somethink in the past that was similar ,  it is very powerfull and until it is retrained by you it will keep acting like it is.
Think about what you said "I finally sat down in a chair for fear that I would fall if I tried to stand/walk any longer." This tell me you were panicing

  I have had many of your symptoms the tingling lips , two small toes on both feet , dizziness , shot pain around shoulders , stiff next etc They are now passing and very rarely i have them now but they don't stress me when i do , I know what it is and that it will pass.

  I was very bad with this but are now heaps better and really starting to enjoy life, so i can tell you it can be done and i did it with no drugs and just by changing my mind set , understanding and giving it time.

  You and many of us don't realise how much just having this stresses us out and this is the main feeder to anxiety
  Hope all that makes sense but one last thing to prove how powerful our subconscious mind can be . When i was younger i had the flu , felt bad for days but being a male just keeped working , anyway i went home one night and clean up to go into town and i was driving in when i saw a light that was in the shape of a fan , next thing you know i was in hospital. I had fainted driving my car but you know what i cannot remember it but my subconscious mind had pulled my car over and took it out of gear.

  It is very powerful and reacts on what it learnt in the past without you telling it Rember it is the thing that keeps you alive breathes etc.

 Hope this helps some cheers kev
PS Great site for understanding anxiety and worth paying to get the extra very detailed and easy not med talk
0110.com
cheers kev  
  

[Shea]

I have had those sensations (not the chest part) in the past.  For me it has always been connected to anxiety.  You don't have to feel anxious or atleast be conscious of being anxious to have this happen.  In April '08, I got up in the middle of the night being off balance.  I attributed it to just popping out of bed and being 1/2 asleep.  In the morning though I felt the same way.  It lasted all day.  I'd turn my head and I got that 'whoosh' feeling.  I stayed in bed most of the day because I felt so dizzy.  I've had other instances of tingling and dizziness etc.  I can always end up attributing it to anxiety whether I feel anxious at the moment or not.

The other thing it could be is low blood sugar.  I used to get that later in pregnancy (but people can get low blood sugar w/o being pg )  When that happens I get dizzy-ish, swirly and numb lips.

Flushing is a symptom of anxiety.  The chest sounds like a cramp.  Muscles tense up and cramp.  I have heard of folks talk about this before.

You indicated that the docs don't know why this is but maybe next time you go in for a visit, you can bring it up again.

Thank you for your reply. Much appreciated. One thing's for sure: I know it's not low blood sugar in my case, because I've had a lot of tests, including blood work, and everything seems to be normal. The chest thing is two different sensations: There's the one that always feels like there's an elephant sitting on my chest (almost every day); then the other sensation feels more like an injury to my sternum - it catches and pulls and hurts when I stretch/bend a certain way. The former chest sensation doesn't hurt, it's just annoying as hell; the latter is quite painful.

Hi Shea  action-smiley-065

Just wish to add something here , My Anxiety was much like this and i have had it for 15 years and never knew , i had a virus when i was 21 and just put it down to this , but then in October last year it hit out of the blue, or i thought it was but now i can think about my life i understand how much stress i was putting my mind under.

  Let not talk about the symptoms now because we all know what they can be. I also take from your post you are like i was and like many of us get. It is so stressful to go though this and not being able to have control of your life the way you want and this is the problem.

  It comes down to the way we react and handle it and the understanding we have of what is going on.

  Try and stop and think when it happens and not react to whats going on just say to yourself i have had it before and it has passed and it will again.
  You don't have to feel stressed with anxiety what happens is the brain subconscious is remembering for you ,you may have had this feeling with somethink in the past that was similar ,  it is very powerfull and until it is retrained by you it will keep acting like it is.
Think about what you said "I finally sat down in a chair for fear that I would fall if I tried to stand/walk any longer." This tell me you were panicing

  I have had many of your symptoms the tingling lips , two small toes on both feet , dizziness , shot pain around shoulders , stiff next etc They are now passing and very rarely i have them now but they don't stress me when i do , I know what it is and that it will pass.

  I was very bad with this but are now heaps better and really starting to enjoy life, so i can tell you it can be done and i did it with no drugs and just by changing my mind set , understanding and giving it time.

  You and many of us don't realise how much just having this stresses us out and this is the main feeder to anxiety
  Hope all that makes sense but one last thing to prove how powerful our subconscious mind can be . When i was younger i had the flu , felt bad for days but being a male just keeped working , anyway i went home one night and clean up to go into town and i was driving in when i saw a light that was in the shape of a fan , next thing you know i was in hospital. I had fainted driving my car but you know what i cannot remember it but my subconscious mind had pulled my car over and took it out of gear.

  It is very powerful and reacts on what it learnt in the past without you telling it Rember it is the thing that keeps you alive breathes etc.

 Hope this helps some cheers kev
PS Great site for understanding anxiety and worth paying to get the extra very detailed and easy not med talk
0110.com
cheers kev  happy0151

Kev ... wow. I must talk with you more. You say you had a virus and that's when all your symptoms started?!?!? Me, too!!! If you look at my post history, you will see that I've mentioned it and written about it more than once. This is a strange coincidence! The fact that all my symptoms started about five days after I had what the doctors say was a "virus" makes me think that it's viral-related. Like somehow the virus did permanent damage, neuro-muscularly, and that's what's causing all my "weird" symptoms. Fibromyalgia can be trigged after a virus - this happens in about 60 percent of FM cases. I thought maybe I had that ... not sure. All I know is I was perfectly fine until that virus. Ever since then, my life has been hell, and I never returned to normal. (By normal I mean my "pre-virus" state.)

Is it possible to have permanent damage from a virus? BTW, the virus I had (if that's what it was) was accompanied by only two symptoms: violent vomiting (for about four hours) and extreme vertigo (which lasted for several weeks). Not just dizziness, but actual vertigo (room spinning around very fast). My vertigo was positional ... meaning that it would be triggered by turning or tilting my head to the left.

Please, anything you have to offer about my comments/questions/virus/symptoms would be so greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[el-k]

Hi,
 It was interesting to read your descriptions of the pressure in the chest and pain in sternum area. I experience the same thing almost daily with a bit of off balance, tingling, brain fog to keep me on my toes!! I hadn't heard of others having the horrible pressure in the chest up to the neck so was relieved to know someone else out there goes through this. It's very disconcerting at times to go through this when you're trying to live life. 

[Shea]

Hi,
 It was interesting to read your descriptions of the pressure in the chest and pain in sternum area. I experience the same thing almost daily with a bit of off balance, tingling, brain fog to keep me on my toes!! I hadn't heard of others having the horrible pressure in the chest up to the neck so was relieved to know someone else out there goes through this. It's very disconcerting at times to go through this when you're trying to live life. 

Really? Wow. Yeah, it does comfort me a little to know that there's someone else out there who experiences the same crap. Sucks, doesn't it? But hey, at least we don't have to suffer alone now. :)

Have you talked to a doctors about this chest pressure? What did they say?

[el-k]

Hey Shea,
  It truly does suck and I've had almost every test imaginable (several times) and get a clean bill of health. I'm told that stress and anxiety cause the pressure in the chest wall. Problem is, each time I have seen a specialist, I feel better for a while, but it isn't long before I start thinking that they missed something or that something new is developing. No one would want to be inside of my head!! Thanks for your enouragement - hope we both can find solutions to this.

[forwells]

Hi Shea

 Sorry for taking my time getting back to you 
 
I cant look at your post history yet as i either don't know how or because i am only a new member

  I don't think my virus caused my anxiety but i know for sure that the doctors i saw over it didn't not help , i had seen 17 doctors and except for two ( one did a test on the history of my bloody and another said i could not do much but look after myself ) most of them were a waste of time. I believe that many doctors just don't care about the people they are ment to.

I read a CFS book many years ago and the first chapter said "If only i had aids or cancer then we could move on knowing what we had to fight, but not knowing why you are sick all the time is hard to live with "I think this summed it up and i have never forgot it

All my virus caused was very bad sleep , 1 hour a day for a few weeks and then 23 hours a day , i was also very tired in the later part and had sores that would not heel. I believe now it was some from of blood poisoning i think it lasted about 5-6 months One of the worst things i have is hot flushes Funny when you walk into a doctors and you are male and tell them you have hot flushes They look at you like you have two heads In 15 years and many doctors i have never had one explain what this is until i found it is part of anxiety

  Many viruses can cause permanent damage ( aids is one i can think of, we also have one here in Australia called Ross river virus which i believe can last for years , Chicken poxes is another the stays in the system for years ) as i said i don't think it caused my problem but when the body is run down it is very hard to fight things ,

  After my virus i was ill for about 5 years on and off , put on anti depressions but slowly i moved on with my life , married had two great ( monster    ) girls and just lived my life and even got off the meds for a long time

   My anxiety started in about October last year and sort of come out of the blue or i sort it did but now i can sit back and think i know it was building and i sorted it out very quickly when i could

  This was the worst thing i have ever been though , Some days i could not even move except for the shaking the would not stop , Today i was thinking about one day i just sat on the floor crying in a big mess , i had not thought of this for along time and it makes me think how far i have come.

  You know some days i really don't know , i have read heaps about anxiety and such but my option is that it is to do with the way you think but i also believe it is more a sign from your body to say slow down and something is out of balance

  I have always been a very strong person and been able to handle lots of things ( from mum dieing when she was  24 , being raised by a man that i never liked ,a bad childhood , being sexual assaulted by my real father, i left home when i was 14 and made a go of my life, I never asked for anything from anyone , never felt sorry for myself , always gave more than i got and have always seen my life as being better than many others.

  I think the best think that we can do is just take it one day at a time and go with the flow and any systoms just learn to live with them instead of fighting them , live life to the full and dont worry  about tomorrow because tomorrow never comes. Life is good it may suck at times but the other option not that better.

   Cheers and keep your head up Happy to help

cheers Kev 

[Shea]

Hey Shea,
  It truly does suck and I've had almost every test imaginable (several times) and get a clean bill of health. I'm told that stress and anxiety cause the pressure in the chest wall. Problem is, each time I have seen a specialist, I feel better for a while, but it isn't long before I start thinking that they missed something or that something new is developing. No one would want to be inside of my head!! Thanks for your enouragement - hope we both can find solutions to this.

Have you been reading my post history??? 

I've said that very same thing! Wow. It sounds like we are going through very similar hardships. Although ... I haven't seen a doctor in a couple years now. I went through a plethora of doctors, specialists and medical tests for the first two years. Now, I've pretty much given up. I don't know what else to do. Guess there's nothing left to do. *shrug*

Forwells, I thank you for your reply. Your symptoms sound a little bit like Fibromyalgia, but I guess you've seen a specialist and that has been ruled out?

[el-k]

Hey Shea,
  It truly does suck and I've had almost every test imaginable (several times) and get a clean bill of health. I'm told that stress and anxiety cause the pressure in the chest wall. Problem is, each time I have seen a specialist, I feel better for a while, but it isn't long before I start thinking that they missed something or that something new is developing. No one would want to be inside of my head!! Thanks for your encouragement - hope we both can find solutions to this.

Have you been reading my post history??? 

I've said that very same thing! Wow. It sounds like we are going through very similar hardships. Although ... I haven't seen a doctor in a couple years now. I went through a plethora of doctors, specialists and medical tests for the first two years. Now, I've pretty much given up. I don't know what else to do. Guess there's nothing left to do. *shrug*

Forwells, I thank you for your reply. Your symptoms sound a little bit like Fibromyalgia, but I guess you've seen a specialist and that has been ruled out?

  Happy Earth Day! I haven't read your post history although I'd be interested in doing so, but I'm so new to this forum that I don't know how to access previous posts  I, too, have kind of given up on doctors, but I do tend to dwell on maybe someone out there in the medical field will have the definitive answer for me that will finally bring me to acceptance (like that's gonna happen!). The Fibro issue was discussed once with my internal med. doc, but he didn't want to put any reference to Fibromyalgia in my chart in case it had repercussions later with the insurance company. That was the late 90s so I don't know if that is even a consideration now. No other doc has ever mentioned it, but once I'm in a doc's office, I do tend to minimize everything and make excuses for why I feel the way I do - now I just try to shut up about symptoms around family and friends to avoid becoming a drag on everyone - so I put on a big smile and carry on like nothing is bothering me. It's always the way we've done things in my family and I've really noticed that my brothers have the tell-tale signs of anxiety, too.
Take care, Shea. Your posts have been a support to me just knowing that someone else is coping with all this. Keep in touch.

[Shea]

  Happy Earth Day! I haven't read your post history although I'd be interested in doing so, but I'm so new to this forum that I don't know how to access previous posts  I, too, have kind of given up on doctors, but I do tend to dwell on maybe someone out there in the medical field will have the definitive answer for me that will finally bring me to acceptance (like that's gonna happen!). The Fibro issue was discussed once with my internal med. doc, but he didn't want to put any reference to Fibromyalgia in my chart in case it had repercussions later with the insurance company. That was the late 90s so I don't know if that is even a consideration now. No other doc has ever mentioned it, but once I'm in a doc's office, I do tend to minimize everything and make excuses for why I feel the way I do - now I just try to shut up about symptoms around family and friends to avoid becoming a drag on everyone - so I put on a big smile and carry on like nothing is bothering me. It's always the way we've done things in my family and I've really noticed that my brothers have the tell-tale signs of anxiety, too.
Take care, Shea. Your posts have been a support to me just knowing that someone else is coping with all this. Keep in touch.

Happy Earth Day to you, too! And likewise, your posts have offered me some comfort and support as well. It seems as though we are very similar in many ways. If you ever want to talk, I'm only a click away... :)