Has anyone ever had visual disturbances/tingling due to anxiety?

[rainyday1234]

Hi all,

I'm having a bit of a bad time at the moment. I have always suffered from anxiety over the years but over the last week it's been really bad. I suffer from health anxiety. I had it when I had an abnormal smear, a lump in my breast (thankfully all fine) and a fear of stroke.

The issue is, is that I'm getting visual disturbances and convincing myself that I'm going to have a stroke. They are usually when I'm really stressed. I bumped into my ex's mum on Friday and the amount of tingling in my face (especially in the area between my eyes was tingling like crazy). We had a terrible breakup and seeing her really freaked me out and brought everything back. I was close to her too. The tingling almost feels like a thumb pressing down on the area and only goes away if I pinch and hold the top of my nose.

Has anyone ever experienced visual disturbances or tingling in noise when anxious and if so, what kind were they? Did you get any flashing? My last visual disturbance was when I was sat at work looking at a screen so now I'm paranoid that I'm going to get it again when I'm at work. I can't stop thinking that it's going to happy again so now I'm getting lots of tingling and feeling all spaced out :-(

My blood pressure is very good, I'm slim, eat well and work out so I know the risk of stroke is low, however I can't stop thinking about it. I'm just so fed up. I am on citalopram 20mg but am thinking maybe I need to go up?

Wow ... I reread this eapexially the first bit because I wondered if I'd written it even though I've only just joined 🤣

I also have recently had a breast lump and an abnormal smear, and I have health anxiety so I stress and worry loads.

Years ago I was stressing over an illness that produced neurological symptoms and yep I got vision floaters, tingling, burning skin, the bloody lot, I had an MRI and it was fine then all of a sudden all symptoms disappeared!

Anxiety can make you have symptoms for sure ... now atm I'm just querying if my breast pain (both sides on and off) is anxiety over the lump or cancer ... GP says anxiety but GP's getting things wrong are exactly why I have anxiety ... fun fun circle of stress and anxiety!

Yes I got/get it in my fingers and lips. I didn't even realise it was a symptom of anxiety until I mentioned it to my CBT counsellor

Yes I've had very striking visual disturbance which was very clearly anxiety. I have only had it once in my entire life and it was when I was sitting in the waiting room for a lung test which I was unbelievably anxious about. I saw patches of bright, shimmering colour in my visual field. I was looking at a magazine and the patches were covering areas of the text. Around each patch the text was wavering and moving. It continued when I was talking to the nurse - I couldn't focus as they were covering parts of her face. Thankfully I had the lung test and she immediately told me the results which were normal. Upon hearing that, the coloured patches immediately vanished and never came back!

Sounds like a retinal migraine. I have started getting them this year, had 3, first one really freaked me out until I found out what it was. Feels like I have been staring into the sun, then patterns and lightning strikes appear in one eye. For me, stress and tiredness seems to trigger it, and afterwards I get tingling in my head (no headache)

I have anxiety and get visual disturbances and it turns out they are due to migraines. The migraines have got worse due to stress but they don’t always have to come with a headache. It’s worth going to your GP if you haven’t already.