turns out.. it wasnt just anxiety.

[cooterbites]

I haven't been on here in awhile. I was here very upset and scared about nuerological symptoms mosly seizures. Many people on this site knowing I do suffer from hypochondria were convinced it was all anxiety related but I wasn't feeling any better. So I got checked out the dr ordered a three day eeg and discovered seizure activity on two parts of my brain. This whole seizure thing gave me med anxiety as I was convinced it was med related and stopped taling all meds for the eeg. They still found problems and started me on trileptal which I'm terrified to take but also terrified to not take. I took my first dose though I was reluctant and am trying my best not to bring on any psych symptoms and trust the med. Ugh I'm scared.

[hsaadh]

That sucks, when I read about seizures and your thread title I was fearing the worst.
Thankfully your condition seems to be manageable. I wish you the best of luck in coping with it.

[LindaRK]

I think it's important to look at the positive side of this - you have a definitive answer to your symptoms and you now have a med to treat it - hopefully, it will be a success!  I say this is a win-win situation.

[cooterbites]

Thanks for the positive replies. I do appreciate it. The meds seem to be ok. My boyfriend still talks about my sleep seizures that thankfully are the worst of it right now. I'm just scared to be alone an get migraines a lot more often though I'm not sure they're related. My HA has made me doubt everything I think but my follow up is in a couple months. I just have a hard time accepting that I can't expect someone to be around 24/7 and I don't understand why I'm so scared but I really really am.

[toworryornottoworry]

Sometimes people on this board can be a bit careless with saying everything is anxiety, but you have to remember the type of forum you are on - "Health anxiety". Most of the time it is anxiety, however when you are getting something as major as seizures you should always be sure before putting it on anxiety.

[livelaughlove]

Wow i am glad i am not the only one! Everyone kept saying to me it's just stress and anxiety and I kept saying no it's not... something isn't right... i can feel it. But nobody believed me. I went to numerous medical specialists and they all said the same thing. I would only get anxiety from not feeling well, and that nobody would believe me. They just weren't testing the right thing. I had a PCR CNA stool test. Still I am waiting for the definitive results, but so far they told me I have some rare bacterial infection that only PCR can pick up. Also, my pancreas is malfunctioning, and being overreactive. Culture and sensitivity is being run today, so next week ill know what antibiotics to take. Also, during this time period, i had multiple infections, a flu-type illness, then salmonella and norovirus at the same time. I work in a hospital so I am exposed to a lot of germs and i am very careful, but some stuff is just air-borne. I think i have the susceptibility to pick up more infections than the regular person too, because i have a high incidence of several autoimmune disorders amongst first-degree relatives, probably there is a mutation in my DNA somewhere. All I have to say is, did you feel in a way... really mad that no one believed you or didn't take you seriously? I think too many doctors are so quick to jump to anxiety as a cause instead of further investigating problems.

[hypomom]

I don't mean to be rude, but it's not helpful to 99% of the people her for you to come on here and say "see! It wasn't just anxiety, something was really wrong" when that will make almost everyone else here MORE convinced something is really wrong with them and there isn't. Just my opinion.

[sixpack]

To be fair you are ON an anxiety forum.....   

however

I looked back on your seizure thread.    In your post you said you had a seizure at some point and that you were very afraid of having another one.  You never mentioned whether you saw a neuro about it at the time only that you were in the hospital.  IMO, it would have been the prudent thing to do.  The seizure you had may well have been from drug interaction of tramadol and wellbutrin (if I recall) the night before you went into recovery.  then you went onto say your bf has seizures, is on no meds and you are highly anxious about all of this.  You talked about how you twitch all day and have headaches and how you HATE going to bed at night for fear of twitching and jerking etc, etc. 

I talked to you about how anxiety will cause such things.  I also talked to you about your bf's seizure issues. You are also a recovering from drugs and alcohol.  IMO this may well be what set off the seizure activity.

so I don't know where people were saying it was ALL anxiety.  From your thread, you WERE anxious and exhibited anxiety symptoms and AGAIN you are posting on an anxiety forum.   

I am glad you got a diagnosis from a neuro.  Take your trileptal.  my daughter is on trileptal at 900mg twice a day and has been for years.  Remember, though, that you can STILL have an anxiety disorder AND have a seizure disorder.  The two are not mutally exclusive.  Your twitching and jerking at night may still have been due to your amped up anxiety over having seizures.   Just a few thoughts on my part.

[wegngis]

My take is this:  You can't just say "oh, it's anxiety" and leave it at that for every symptom.  It's after you've been checked out (2 EKG's, echo test, chest x-ray, blood work for a heart phobia, for instance) that you can reasonably say, yes, it's anxiety.  I also recognized it's a fine line to come back and say, look, this is what was wrong with me.  In the long run, I think it's better to reveal than to not.

[sixpack]

My take is this:  You can't just say "oh, it's anxiety" and leave it at that for every symptom.  It's after you've been checked out (2 EKG's, echo test, chest x-ray, blood work for a heart phobia, for instance) that you can reasonably say, yes, it's anxiety.  I also recognized it's a fine line to come back and say, look, this is what was wrong with me.  In the long run, I think it's better to reveal than to not.

in cooterbites case: it never was just anxiety...  IF anxiety can ever really sloughed off as a just like it is some inocuous thing .  she has a dx'd list of psychological issues, based one of her earlier posts.  She is also recovering from alcoholism and drug addiction.  the night before going into recovery she had a seizure that landed her in the hospital.  Based on the seizure post the doctor said it was from an interaction between two drugs.  Which is a common trigger for a seizure. so when she posted about her fear of having another seizure, there was a history of having had one.  Does that mean that her twitching and jerking were not anxiety related?  Hmmm not necessarily.  People with seizure disorders can also have, and often do, anxiety and depression.  All of those twitches at night could still be mostly related to an amped up nervous system just like most of the peeps here who have twitches and jerks.     My eldest has a severe seizure disorder.  AND she gets anxious. The anxiety stems from her low cognitive function and brain malformation (not seizure activity)  I see anxiety symptoms in her a lot.  AND when I see them, I know she may end up having a seizure.  AS it is pretty common for a person with a seizure disorder to have anxiety and stress set seizures off.   

it isn't wrong that cooterbite came back and said that she, indeed, has a seizure disorder.  That was pretty evident based on her seizure thread, in that she had already had a documented seizure in the past.  The only thing that, imo, was a bit misleading is that everything was chalked up to "just anxiety".   

[wegngis]

Exactly, Sixpack.  We're on the same page here.

[sixpack]

Exactly, Sixpack.  We're on the same page here.

oh, okay...  wasn't quite sure. 

[sixpack]

ooops I said,

it isn't wrong that cooterbite came back and said that she, indeed, has a seizure disorder.  That was pretty evident based on her seizure thread, in that she had already had a documented seizure in the past.  The only thing that, imo, was a bit misleading is that everything was chalked up to "just anxiety".     

but meant to say The only thing that, imo, was a bit misleading is that she said everything was chalked up to "just anxiety".  Which I don't find evidence of at least on AZ responses

[wegngis]

Exactly, Sixpack.  We're on the same page here.

oh, okay...  wasn't quite sure. 

I know, just reading the writing is hard sometimes.

[JunoX]

A lot of people who come to this forum, describe symptoms that are pretty much in line with anxiety. They also describe mental disturbances during such symptoms that also are in line with anxiety. This is, after all, an anxiety board.

At the end of the day, this board can not be used as a medical diagnosis tool since no one in here is a doctor and even if they were, they can not perform a medical examination of you through the computer in order to arrive at a diagnosis.

If you know something is wrong with you physically, then you have to see a doctor. If you are not sure if something is wrong with you, you can get some feedback on this forum but its your responsibility to get yourself checked out with a doctor. The board can't do that for you or make that decision for you.

Like I have said many times before, a headache can be simple stress, a migraine or a brain tumor. When you come to this board with one, we will tell you its most likely simple stress because in the scheme of things, that's most likely what it will be but in the off chance that you are the 1% with the brain tumor, you can't say the board was quick to have called it simple stress. You just had one heck of a draw that no one who is sane could have saw coming. We are not clairvoyants here. Most times it is just anxiety.

[marc]

My friend who is an internist/cardiologist said that what many people fail to realize is that medicine is
not always an exact science. He told me that some of his patients want certainty, which there is none.
In his practice he runs a standard battery of tests based on the patients symptoms. He told for instance
that a stress test typically detects blockages that are 70% or greater, but the real danger may be in
smaller blockages that are not detected by the stress test. He tells his patients that worsening or
persistent symptoms need to be investigated.