To think this is NOT ‘just anxiety’

[Badcraic]

posted before, unfortunately I can’t seem to find my original post but since then I’ve been back to the doctors and had no improvement anyway.

I keep getting told my symptoms are just anxiety, which I agree they could be but something just doesn’t seem right in my opinion. I’m not at all an anxious person, and I’ve never had any anxiety before. My gut instinct says something isn’t right- I don’t know how or why, but I just know that something isn’t right in my body.

I keep getting sensations down my leg on one side of my body. It comes and goes but when it comes it involves a numbness/dead feeling going from my mid thigh down my knee and calf and into my foot. The feeling is always down the back of my leg not the front. I get pins and needles down my leg and under the sole of my foot too. It feels like I’ve been lying on it but I haven’t. It just comes and goes randomly. It’s always on one side of my body. I also get awful pain at me knee- again, it comes and goes but at times I can’t bend and straighten it. It’s not swollen or bruised, and it doesn’t hurt to talk on it. I haven’t injured or hurt it at all. I’ve started getting the exact same numbness and deadness on my arm on that same side of my body too. I’ve had excruciating headaches several times a week- again, on the same side of my head as the other symptoms.

I know this could be anxiety, but I’ve just got a bad feeling and I can’t explain why. I never usually have any type of anxiety and I don’t get worried about health problems. I’ve had 2 blood tests and I don’t have low folate, b12, anaemia, or anything like that. My GP said the only thing it could be is anxiety because I’m under 30 and otherwise healthy. I asked to be referred to someone else (anyone who could help!) but he said it wasn’t necessary. I went privately to a physio who said there’s nothing wrong with my leg or arm on that side of my body that they could help with and to keep going to the GP, but when I do they tell me it’s anxiety. I’ve tried mindfulness and all the anxiety management but it didn’t help and I’m not anxious

but it’s having such a big impact on my life now and I’m miserable all the time because it comes and goes so often and it’s so uncomfortable :(

does anyone have any advice on what I could do? Or if it could just be anxiety and I’m being silly about it all?

Sounds exactly like sciatica to me. Awful sensation and pain

What treatment are you getting for the migraines, OP?

@gardendream

I don't think curable is for me. My pain is structural not neuroplastic. My answers to your questions linked are :

1. structural? MSK Doctor thinks it is. 2)move around? No. 3)fluctuate? No. 4)vary intensity? A little bit. 5)triggered by stress? No. 6)originated in stress? No. 7)past normal healing? Yes.
2. trauma? Yes, I fell. Now also know about osteopenia in back.

So, no, mine isn't neural circuit pain.

I agree with @Tiddlypomtiddlypom :

"Really annoys me when women’s symptoms are brushed off as anxiety. It feels like the modern version of calling women ‘hysterics’ or hysterical. "

I find it incredibly, seriously fucking offensive, that many women's issues, HRT problems, back pain like posters here, are fobbed off by GP's as 'anxiety'.

Anxiety and neural circuit/neuroplastic pain are different things.

If everyone gets referred on for every potential issue despite clear blood tests, we'll all be paying 70% tax soon...surely there has to be a balance of probabilities for a referral,, GPs should be qualified to make those judgements.

Your leg/knee issue sounds exactly like mine... I'm 40+ and have a trapped nerve in my back owing to bulging discs in the lowest part of my spine. Several GPs decided this was cartelidge issues in my knee then a trapped nerve in my knee or something 'stress- related' before a private physio I'd seen to try and ease 'the knee' said I needed an MRI scan as they were convinced it was back related. They were correct.

Clearly other bulges in other areas of the spine can case issues in other places. Although I also had the headaches at times.

That would be my suggestion for your referral seeking... and don't take no for an answer!

I get that but how can I be left like this even if my blood are fine? I’m not even 30 yet and half of my body is numb, I can’t stay awake all day and I’m having headaches so bad that I throw up with them.

Do you know what your b12 levels were?
Mine were in the normal range, but the v v low end of normal.

I see a neuro as I have hemiplegia migraine and epilepsy, but I was also getting pins and needles down my leg, numb feet and issues with my arm and shoulder which were beyond the scope of my other medical issues.

He believed this was due to my b12 being too low (even though it was "normal") and I got put onto b12 injections. They completely stopped the symptoms.

I then couldn't get access to them during covid and now my GP surgery has gone to the dogs so I just suppliment with high dose tablets from amazon, which are reasonably good but not as good as the injections.

I would ask the GP what your b12, iron and folate levels are and if they are at the lower end of the scale would either ask if the GP will prescribe suppliments, especially if they will give b12 injections. Or take them yourself as all these imbalances can lead to symptoms like you are experiencing.

If no help then I would either ask/make a nucience to get a referral to a neuro/scan.
Or try and go private if it's an option.
Just I know where I am I haven't seen my neuro since before covid and I am meant to be on 6 month reviews - so the waiting times are completely ridiculous, especially if you aren't being red flagged. Which thank goodness you arent - but it isn't fair either to be blown off whe you know your body and mental health more than anyone else.

I had something very similar to this when I was very early 20's. Also struggled with brain fog, cognitive confusion (mixing up words) numbness in my legs, loss of strength in one arm and balance issues.
I was referred to neurology and had a full MRI.
I had 2 bulged discs in my back, one in my lower back and one higher up (hence the headaches and arm)

But it is worth ruling out MS most definitely OP. I hope you do get some answers.

All of those symptoms can be caused by anxiety op. It’s definitely best to get all the physical symptoms checked out anyway until you are reassured.

As others have said, the sensations in your leg and arm could also be nerve related but definitely get the headaches checked out.

Anxiety is one of those things that can gradually creep up on you and it can be hard to realise the significance of the problem until it snowballs as with mental health conditions it’s easy to think you can manage yourself with willpower.

If you have more investigation and nothing is physically wrong I would ask to be referred for CBT as it’s not really something that is easy to manage at home with mindfulness until you have already done the counselling. Anxiety medication can massively help too.

But, as has already been said by others, it’s easy to write a lot of things off as anxiety so definitely get everything checked out first.

https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/generalised-anxiety-disorder/symptoms/

@Cherryblossoms85

"If everyone gets referred on for every potential issue despite clear blood tests, we'll all be paying 70% tax soon...surely there has to be a balance of probabilities for a referral,, GPs should be qualified to make those judgements."

I can't believe I'm reading this. You do know that some people take years, and seeing different people, before they eventually find out exactly what is wrong with them.

Plus medical issues can come down to money. Some GPs are fantastic but many will put you on the cheapest medication. They can get away with fob you off so that they don't have to spend any money on you. If you don't know this, you can't have grasped what is going on within the nhs currently.

My mum was given 4 different statins, until referred and then put on a better one, very expensive.

My Gp admitted that as a money saving plan, our area now can't refer back pain straight to a consultant. Can't order an mri direct. They have to go through MSK referral which currently has a 3 month wait. They have found it cost effective because most can be resolved by just a physio. Many eventually don't bother turning up to their appointments because after 13 weeks the issue was resolved itself and that they save the GP surgery and the NHS money because then nothing needs to be done. However this hadn't helped me. Both my GP (right from the start said) and 6 people I saw privately, including private consultant, said I needed to be seen by a consultant, and needed an mri.

Just posting here because i keep trying to find this thread. Re curable. v mechanical back pain.

for goodness sake, how is this anxiety?????

It really infuriates me when doctors trot out the "you're too young" b*llocks. Refusal by a twit of a locum GP to do the correct tests or listen to my actual symptoms in my early thirties is why I now have a chronic lifelong condition, and why a friend of mine didn't get the treatment she should have had in her early thirties and ended up having to have treatment for a stroke in hospital for six years. One issue with the health service in the UK is that we have to go through a GP for a referral, we can't just do what they can in Germany say, which is go straight to a dermatologist for skin issues.

And I also wish to God medical schools would start teaching about treating actual people and not just bloody normal courses of disease as based on fifty year old textbook recommendations which mainly seem to be based on male Caucasian "norms". One of the few positives to come out of COVID is more awareness that not everyone in the world is affected by illness and health conditions in the same way as a middle aged bloke from Essex but it's taking a long time to filter through into medical teaching....

I hope you've managed to see a different doctor who takes you seriously and can send you for the right neuro/blood/other tests.

And people making snotty comments about 70% taxes have evidently never heard the comment about prevention being better (and cheaper) than cures... enjoy your great health while it lasts, 70%.

How are you OP a couple of months on from your first post?