To think I’m dying? Any doctors around? 🙏

[Garret]

Got worse over a couple of weeks. Tiredness. Squishy tummy and no appetite. Aches and pains. Buzzing sensations all over. Back and neck pain. Joints hurting and clicking. Muscles twitching and hurting. Feeling wobbly. Now struggling to walk because of muscle burning pains. Anxiety and panic.

GP is totally unconcerned. Checked me over and said I haven’t lost muscle strength, range of movement, tone or sensation. Took some blood to test for vitamin deficiencies (I often have these but never felt like this before). Told me to address my anxiety and referred me to the psychiatric nurse.

I’m hysterical. Imagining I have some awful disease. How can the GP not be worried when I have such severe symptoms? Please help me if you can.

I was going to ask if you’d experienced a sudden loss in your life and here it is. Sorry you’ve been through this.
I think the suddenness of it has shown you how fragile life can be and now you’re feeling vulnerable.
Maybe get some counselling to reframe things and get a healthier perspective on it.

That’s terrifying. Yes they keep saying it’s all anxiety. I can’t believe it. I mean I’m unable to walk and use my hands. Anxiety, really?

Absolutely anxiety. I honestly felt I was going to just collapse when I tried to walk at times. At other times I didn’t feel like my legs were about to give way but as though I couldn’t take the next step forward when I was walking. And other posters have reminded me of other things I had a lot which was not feeling like I could take a full breath in and that made me feel panicky. Also feeling very lightheaded and dizzy.

What are your preexisting medical conditions?
do you mind listing them?

As someone with health anxiety, it can 100% cause physical symptoms and the more you dwell on these symptoms the more prevalent they become. I had the twitching muscles along with other symptoms and went down a horrible rabbit hole. It’s a difficult one trying to rationalise with yourself, but maybe trying to acknowledge the health anxiety and seeing your symptoms as connected to that may help, if doctors have ruled out other things. There is a girl I follow on Instagram who makes some really good content around health anxiety. Not sure if you can post names on here?

If there are any drs here, they can't give medical advice online.
If you're not happy with your gp's suggestions, you can ask for a second opinion. Just contact your surgery to request this.
Go through all the tests your gp (or any others) suggest. If you do have something seriously wrong, it will be identified by one of these tests.

I had to push for another doctor re: menopause - periods are still regular and not getting night sweats so despite age was told couldn't possibly be menopause - HRT has helped a bit with brain fog and energy. My point is, don't write it off - some doctors are reluctant to help with menopause or haven't acknowledged the array of symptoms. Long covid - can also occur if you were asymptomatic.
Bloody catch 22 - of course not knowing wtf is causing symptoms will make you anxious. It could be anxiety, but it also might not be.

I'm so sorry to hear that you are having such a ghastly time OP. That must be really scary and difficult.

I totally get where you are because I felt this bad in May, also diagnosed with anxiety.

I did some hard talking with some people, and got filled up with vitamins and saline by IV in A&E and felt freaking awesome for about 3 months.

I'm slipping a bit now again, but I found it really really weird how I could get so much better like that just from being refuelled by IV. I still don't really understand it.

Good luck there.

@WeeOrcadian

New national guidelines suggest one tablet daily (ideally with food) is just as effective in addressing iron deficiency as the old 3 tablets daily. More effectively absorbed if taken with vitamin c or a source of vitamin c. And less likely to cause constipation.

260 isn’t great, almost boarder line. The U.K. have a very low acceptable b12 range anyway and in other countries 260 would be considered deficient. Personally I’d get some b12 injections done privately. A small course of 6 over a few weeks.

Also take folic and a banana (potassium) with any b12 for absorption

This does sound like anxiety OP. It can have crippling physical manisfestations. Your GP has done the relenvant tests for a differenential diagnosis. You need to focus on getting mentally well and hopefully your physical symptoms will resolve.

I'm really sorry you feel this way OP

So if your GP has checked you through and has given you the all clear then it might well be that your anxiety is causing your physical symptoms.

It can cause debilitating physical symptoms. Your brain is basically flooding your system with stress hormones. This can trigger all kinds of physical reactions.

To start with I'd recommend a daily session of progressive muscle relaxation, it will regulate your system.

Apart from meds (and I think you mentioned Buddhist meditation), what else have you done to address your anxiety?

Iron tablets can totally muck up your digestive system. I have IBD so regularly loose blood in stools and need regular iron infusions to counter this loss. I asked about iron tabs and they said they can actually be really harmful and cause a bleed.

Maybe request a poo sample to test for inflammation, your gut can trigger all sorts of problems. Its your bodies second brain

Hi OP I have MS and it can present in many different ways but your symptoms don’t sound like the classic neurological symptoms that could indicate MS. Plus your GP has checked you for the other signs, and your muscle tone and sensation are all normal. So I think you can cross that off your list of things to worry about. Maybe try doing some mindfulness apps to get your brain out of the state of high alert and see if that helps.

Yes, your symptoms sound very similar to my friend whose parents sadly both died very unexpectedly and within a few months of each other, she spent alot of money seeing multiple specialists because she was absolutely convinced, but it did end up being something that time and counseling could only help

I would advance on both fronts here- both checking your physical body and dealing with the anxiety.

On the physical front, you can have a second opinion from a GP. I would start by getting the blood test results though and then reading up about optimum levels of nutrition relating to them. Return to GP if nothing showing there and you are still feeling dreadful.

On the MH front, of course anxiety and trauma can cause very severe symptoms, functional disorders are where the mind is causing bodily problems and this can go right up to not being able to see or issues moving. In your case, I would seek help for health anxiety anyway, whether there is a physical cause or not, as it will benefit you not to be so stressed and your adrenaline to be running like this all the time. I always recommend the work of the lovely Dr Claire Weeks, it's quite old fashioned but I found that reassuring- I had two of her books and an audio-book and she goes through how stress can cause bodily symptoms and how even just listening to her books/reading can start you on the right path to resetting your brain. I used to listen to them when very anxious for starters.

Hope you feel a bit reassured soon OP.

Rheumatoid arthritis is jumping out at me .
Ask for full blood tests to be done not just a vitamin deficiency
fybromayalgia ?
I hate because you have dealt with depression or anxiety in the past everything is put down to that and people aren’t taken seriously.
Ive herd of loads of situations were it’s most definitely NOT anxiety and a different health issue.

I have found that it can be really helpful to understand how anxiety causes physical symptoms.

For example, anxiety can kick off breathing pattern problems and if this turns into chornic hyperventilation or rumination syndrome then the physical symptoms are very real, even if the root cause is anxiety. In that sort of situation then learning to diaphragm breathe can really help to bring the physical symptoms under control so you can start to address the sources of stress.

I had to see gastroenterologists to find all this out, so I do think it's worth asking people about the physical stuff, even if the symptoms are kicked off initially by stress.

@Takeabreather23 I agree to a point, just because you have had anxiety in the past, doesn't mean it's that now, and the OP should certainly go on to seek further medical advice on what other tests should be done, but getting on top of the distress/stress will help whether or not there's an underlying other disease, even people with horrible health conditions want to try to live less stressed lives and the OP has been through a lot of bereavements and trauma recently, so getting support around that will pay off whatever physical (or not) is also present.

Sounds like fibromyalgia

Are you taking antidepressants and other drugs that affect your serotonin levels? If so then Google serotonin syndrome

Is it the pain like pins and needles but not actually pins and needles . sounds like an autoimmune problem like Guillain-Barre. get second opinions good luck x

Wrong thread?