Is this JUST anxiety?

[lindsay0891]

Sorry this is so long but I really, really appreciate anyone who reads and gives input!
I just turned 22 and I have been plagued with the craziest symptoms for going on a year. I have had anxiety to some extent all of my life and depression/anxiety sort of run in my family. I've seen about 10 doctors and all of them diagnosed me with anxiety, and most of them said anxiety was responsible for all of my symptoms. But with how debilitating this has been, and how I've never had any of these problems before, I just don't know.
My problems started right after I turned 21, in March of 2012. I started feeling kind of sick to my stomach in the mornings and I was very tired a lot of the time. Thought I could be pregnant, got tested and it was negative.
Then around the beginning of April those symptoms got a little worse, and I kept getting headaches, which was unusual for me. A couple days later I started coming down with a virus, or what I think was a virus. It basically started with dizzy/lightheaded spells and fatigue, progressed to nausea and vomiting, and sharp pains in my ribs and back. I stayed in bed for a week, started feeling better and thought I was going to go back to my life.
Two weeks later the dizzy/lightheaded feelings started coming back, then turned into stomach problems like nausea, vomiting, and no appetite. I started vomiting every morning like clockwork. Nausea would wake me up. I was CONSTANTLY dizzy and lightheaded, thought it was because I wasn't eating, then when I started eating again the feeling stuck.
Some more symptoms appeared... I started getting a very slight weak feeling on the whole left side of my body that was on and off. Then I started getting symptoms like hypoglycemia; even though I was usually nauseous and didn't have much of an appetite I had to eat every couple hours to keep the lightheaded feeling at bay. Sometimes I would be just sitting there and I would get a wave of lightheadedness or just a weird feeling in my head that made me feel like I was going to pass out, but I never actually fainted. Some days I felt much better, other days I felt like I was going to die.
Some of the symptoms faded... the morning vomiting gradually tapered off, and hasn't happened since late September *knock on wood*. The lightheaded feeling isn't AS constant. I thought I was getting gradually better in October - January, then starting in February I started getting worse. Here are my symptoms right now:
-I have to eat CONSTANTLY or I will feel like I'm going to pass out. It's exactly like hypoglycemia, but when I check my blood sugar it's always normal.
-I have a lot of nausea and some IBS-like symptoms, and also gas and bloating. The gas was absolutely awful in late summer/fall, but has gotten slightly better. I was getting gas pains so bad I couldn't move.
-In the past two weeks I have been getting weak feelings in my arms and legs. I had an infection in my finger and thought the weakness/malaise was part of that, then I took antibiotics and it healed and I still feel bad. The weakness has been scaring the crap out of me and making me think I have MS... but it usually only happens when I need to eat, or sometimes right after I eat. Today it happened in a store right after I ate a meal, and I felt lightheaded and just like I was in a daze.
-Sometimes I get slight pains in my ribs and back like when I had that virus, but not nearly as severe.

That's about the extent of it right now. I felt like I was learning to live with it for a while but now it's getting so much worse again. Part of me wants to accept anxiety/panic disorder as a diagnosis because I HAVE had panic attacks during this, my heart rate is always really fast, I went through a lot of emotional stress before this happened, etc. But I don't want to keep thinking that and ignore a more serious problem.

[lindsay0891]

I should add that I really just have a vague lightheaded/malaise type feeling almost all the time. It's not the lightheadedness you get when you're about to pass out, it's just a weird feeling in my head. Sometimes it radiates through my whole body and I feel weak. Like right now I have that feeling, and my arms and legs feel weird. It's so hard to explain.

[Health-Scared]

Have you spoken to a specialist about this? A head doctor might be a good idea. I had a friend go had similar symptoms as a teenager and her doctor kept saying it was just anxiety and hypochondria. She ended up having a seizure and going to hospital. They found a tumour in her brain. So be careful, not all doctors know what is going on and they often dismiss things quickly. Good luck, hope you feel better!

[Squeemy]

Sounds alot like what I experienced during a rough anxiety patch. Have you had a CT just to rule out anything sinister? I know some people dont like them because of the radiation but I was that much of a wreck with my symptoms that they actually thought maybe a tumor could be responsible. Results came back negative & after that I was able to ease my thoughts that something else was going on & before I knew it my symptoms slowely started to go. So having the scan definately was a positive for me.

I hope your symptoms come under control soon.

[spencer24]

Everything you described sounds similar to what I have been feeling for the past month or more. Please keep us updated.

[cafeterrace]

I have pretty much every symptom you described. I even was convinced I had hypoglycemia and I ate all the time. I still snack way too much just as a habit to keep those icky feelings of light-headedness, fatigue, dizziness, shakey) at bay. While nausea doesn't wake me up anymore I've gone through months where I'd vomit most mornings and it eventually gets less and less as my anxiety passes. The doctors even put a camera down into my stomach just to check that I didn't have an ulcer or anything. My stomach was perfect, I was just anxious. I also have the IBS/Gas symptoms you describe.

I have yearly bloodwork and it always comes back perfect. I have never had a CT scan though. I admit it does scare me to think it's something other than anxiety, but I have hypochondria so I have a hard time figuring out what's right However, I've had most of these symptoms for years and if it was something worse I feel something probably would have happened.

[asheemay]

Omg, I know exactly how you are feeling.  I'm going through the same thing right now.  I've been dealing with this since I was like 13 and I'm also 22.  My anxiety will flare up really bad and then go away.  Right now I've been feeling almost everything you've described.  For the longest time I felt nauseous all of the time and couldn't eat and I just wanted to be in bed all day.  But now, I feel like I have to keep eating because I feel light headed and what not, I've also been paranoid about MS too.  It sounds crazy and really sucks.  But, I just wanted you to know you aren't alone in how you feel.  I really hope things get better for you :)

[camerolover1]

I to have had the same symptoms and thought of impending doom that something was terribly wrong and i am going to die. Over the last day or too reading things on this site have made me feel better. I think that i will get tests done just to make sure that there is nothing else going on. I think that the one thing that i have learned so far that has really helped me is just to read this site everytime i get symptoms. When i do i relax and the symptoms go away.

[socij]

I get these feelings. They come out more when I'm out doing stuff, like at the mall or a store for a while. I'm starting to think it's partly because I don't exercise. I basically don't move unless I have too. The anxiety really takes a lot out of me physically, so I just sit around, hoping to relax, but that doesn't really work. =/ I'm starting to think that the fact that I rest too much is the reason I'm feeling so tired and almost out of touch with my body. The anxiety eats up energy, so I eat, then I feel sick again because of the anxiety. I didn't get it at first, but it just feels like the tingling weakness in my arms and legs is my body calling out, to be used more. I'm not sure if this is the answer, but it feels like thats what my body is saying. I'm starting a new and going to focus on getting the water and food I need and to use my muscles more. =]. I hope you figure out why your anxiety is getting so bad and that it gets better soon! <3

[TarheelBabe1980]

Doubt it's anything sinister, but I have experienced some of your symptoms, and I will probably be getting checked soon for POTS/Dysautonomia.  www.dinet.org   Not life threatening, but symptoms can be rough for folks, esp. when they aren't receiving proper treatment.  Worth looking into.....

[Yuecake]

That sounds awful So sorry you had to go through that. I usually experience weakness and malaise nowadays with anxiety.  The clockwork vomiting almost seems like its hormonal related, with the nausea?  Usually during pregnancy the 'morning' sickness is associated with high levels of Estrogen.  You're not on birth control or anything?

I actually had a long period of time where after I would eat, or during eating, I would go totally weak, and feeling very very odd.  For that time I did not eat much because of this, and would often have really bad IBS which would make me feel really dizzy and lightheaded.  I wonder if its thyroid related? 

But honestly, by the sounds of it, it could easily be panic related. Panic brought on by hormone imbalance perhaps.

Have your doctors done blood work on you?  It might be time to ask them to! 

[lindsay0891]

Thanks so much everyone.
Yuecake I was on birth control in the summer, stopped it for a few months, and just started it again. I'm not sure if I have a hormonal imbalance or not, I should get that checked out. I've had all the blood work but thyroid hormones are the only hormones I've had checked.
I have been doing a bit worse lately unfortunately. More nausea and stomach issues than I've had in a long time, I feel like I can't digest food. There've been a couple times where I felt like I had the flu with weakness in my arms and legs, fatigue, and just feeling crappy all over. And I've also been getting really lightheaded especially when my stomach hurts. I took Buspar yesterday and it helped a lot, took it today and I'm waiting and seeing what happens. I talked to my mom on the phone last night and she said she's been having panic attacks in stores and feeling like she's going to faint. That sounded really similar to what I'm going through... I have more symptoms and it's more complex for me than just panic attacks but I get nervous about going out in public too because I'm afraid I'll faint/get sick to my stomach in the store. I haven't had a panic attack in public for a long time but I did a few times over the summer. My mom said she's going to look into therapists for both of us.
I'm still so conflicted... someone on another forum brought up that I'm mainly mentioning physical symptoms instead of feeling anxious but this all started after a period of extreme stress followed by a viral illness, and I was never the same after that. I have ruled out most health conditions, I'm only 22, and things like food intolerances don't start suddenly like that. Some things that also point to anxiety for me are that I almost always feel better late at night... physical illnesses don't work that way. Also, I was feeling so much better in the fall/early winter and started getting worse again, but I've also had times of feeling much better. Physical illnesses don't work like that either.