Strange throat and nose sensations

[Inaflap]

Hello,
I'm new here but have been finding great comfort in the results of my searches on the site in recent weeks.  It is so much more comforting to hear of others experiencing similar symptoms and feel more reassured that it is bound to be anxiety related.
I'll start by saying I know I am very anxious at the moment.  Always been a worrier, but the health anxiety only started in Summer 2012.  Having had a very non-eventful and happy family life, 2012 brought a horrid year.  My dad, in his 60s, was diagnosed with MS in May and after severely deteriorating, this changed to a diagnosis of mnd (als) in the Autumn.  Before this devestating diagnosis I had my first epsiode of google-caused health anxiety in the summer when I thought I had developed ovarian cancer - 4th stage, no-less.  The power of the mind to create symptoms after reading about them shocked me and I thought 'I'll learn not to do that again' but since that incident, and dad's diagnosis, I have become a fully fledged member of the health anxiety club.  In October, after an optician suggested I may have an automimmune disease of the eyes, I developed the worst dry eye I have ever experienced - I lost the ability to produce tears and could not sit in an air-conditioned room or car without being in agony. Blood test showed I had no such thing and the eyes went back to normal.  Then, of course, I develop (what I think are) all the symptoms of mnd, which, I now realise (and with the help of this forum too) are very similar to anxiety symptoms.  Of course I can never escape the fact my dad has it and it may (may) be in the family (but no evidence of that so far).  At a time when I want to be there for him and my mum, why am I so selfishly obsessing about my own health?  I am trying to keep it under wraps from their point of view, but I am now taking 10mg amitryptiline and due to start seeing a counsellor for some CBT soon.  Oh, I forgot to add, keeping a sense of balance was further challenged in the autumn when my husband and I were in a head on collision with a van, whose driver had blacked out and hit us head on.  Since then, and after hospital stays, we have been trying to get back a sense of normality, but the strange symptoms keep appearing.
The amitryptiline seems to have dealt with the worst of the tingling and numbness in hands, feet and face, and the general aches in the hands.  But for the past month I have been experiencing a constant feeling of pressure when swallowing.  It feels as if my throat does not properly open at the top for the swallow.  Does that sound odd?  or as if it presses/squeezes down when I swallow.  Sometimes, like now, that is the only problem (but it is constant, even if I wake in the night) but at other times during the day, it is as if I have a pressure behind my nose and on my throat, which also makes it quite hard to speak and certainly to speak loudly, without discomfort.  It is like an allergy I guess but I took a hayfever tablet but that made it worse!  I have no pain with any of this, just a strange pressure sensation and the tight/squeezed swallowing thing.  What is odd is that it is constant, and it does not feel like a lump.  I do sometimes feel I have phlegm there too but nothing comes up when I cough and I have had no colds recently.  Oh, and the swallowing thing started before I started the amitryptiline. 
I know, from seeing dad, and what I've read, that swallowing problems with mnd come after severe speech slurring.  Although I defintely don't have severe slurring, I do struggle more now with 'sl' and it is defintely not how it used to be....
Could all this be anxiety related?
Thank you
 
     

[Cuchculan]

Welcome to the forum. Good to have you as a member. Here you are with like minded people. People who understand. As we all suffer from something or other. So feel free to ask any questions. Our members are always willing to help others out. Good chatroom too. 3 posts to enter the room.

Find the correct section of the forum that suits your condition and create a new topic on it. This is just a welcome section. Never really get the same amount of help in this section as you would on the other sections of the forums. So whatever one suits the questions you are asking. Get much better answers.

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