Can anxiety really do this?

[Kaill]

I’ve been achy all over with muscular pain for a couple of weeks. Now I have pressure in my forehead, nose and temples, stiff neck, vision disturbances like when a migraine makes everything look flashy, my eyes feel strained, I feel mentally foggy and struggle to focus, and I’m so tired. It’s lasted for a week or so.

GP has looked in eyes and ears and done the usual blood tests. I’m perfectly healthy. So now she’s saying it’s anxiety related.

Can anxiety really do this? My best guess was a sinus infection, but GP said if that was the case it would have resolved by now.

How old are you, menopause did this to me!

You need to get an optician to have a look at your eyes.

I’m 44. The GP said it isn’t menopause because I don’t have hot flushes and my periods are normal. The muscular pain is slowly improving so the GP has put this down to relaxation and reduced anxiety. She looked in my eyes and said they’re fine. My major concern is that it could be a brain tumour, but she said no.

I had all of this with low ferritin levels. I had an iron infusion and it went. Have you had your iron checked?

Yeah they’ve checked iron, B/D vits, thyroid, all that. I’m in good health. Just feel like shit!

It could be that you had a virus causing the aches and pains, and then a sinus infection causing the forehead pain, have you taken decongestants to see if it makes any difference? Might be worth booking an eye test as well.

One of the symptoms you describe is an ocular migraine
https://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/ocular-migraine.htm

I’d take reassurance from the fact you’ve had normal blood tests. I’ve had them twice, both times when I was tired and stressed.

Look after yourself. Keep hydrated and well rested and maybe look into cbt- you’re in a pattern of worrying about your health leading to anxiety symptoms like the awareness of the aches, vision disturbances, leading to more anxiety- it’s a vicious circle.

It sucks @Kaill, I’m not minimising your experiences

Re the sense of pressure- hot cold drinks and chewing helps. I think the next health discovery will be about those ‘little face tubes’ the sinuses and Eustachian tubes as when they’re misaligned by a cold, dental problems, allergies etc. you feel really out of whack.

Do you recognise the diagnosis of anxiety?

IME GP's are terrible with ear problems. Could you ask for a referral to an ENT specialist?

I just feel like I’m being fobbed off. We can’t find anything wrong with you so it must be anxiety.

Yes it does sound like ocular migraine, but it’s gone on for about a week. So has the feeling of pressure and fuzzy head. The doc reckoned if it was an infection it would have resolved by now.

I would have said you were fighting a sinus infection and now you are in the sinus inflammation phase. So it's not really medically treatable but you are still in the convalescence stage. Basically eat well, drink plenty, go to bed and rest when you can and spoil yourself for a couple of weeks.

Please get an optician to look at your eyes. GPs don't have the right equipment

I’m not bunged up though? No temperature, nothing. I sneezed a few times maybe a week ago, and had a frog in my throat for a couple of days. Now I just feel fuzzy headed and tired, and a weird nose-forehead ache.

Get some otrivine sinusitis relief and see if it helps at all

I’m just a bit peed off at being told it’s anxiety, when it feels like sinus trouble and a weird migraine accompanied by brain fog and achy muscles. I’ve had anxiety before but never felt ill or had real pain. I’m fairly certain anxiety doesn’t make you sneeze!

Are you going to follow any of the advice people have given you on here?

Yes I’ll book an eye test if it doesn’t get better by the weekend. I don’t think I can get an ENT referral though, the doc has basically told me to bugger off.

I have ocular / silent migraine and it can last weeks and weeks if I'm particularly stressed! I felt like you for a long time, thought I was being fobbed off, 15 years later I still get them and because I know the pattern now, I know it's exactly right and that's what it is.

Disturbed sleep or change of sleep pattern, stress and worry are the biggest triggers. You may find when it starts to wind down you will be off balance and utterly exhausted.

It would be worth looking back at the week before it started and seeing if you can pin point any triggers.

Yes it could be anxiety. I had horrible, physical symptoms with anxiety, similar to what you’re describing.

I think you are confusing infection and inflammation. After you have fought off the main infection there are always residual pockets that need to still be fought off or the infection returns. This can take a couple of weeks extra if it hit your body/immune system hard.

A bad sinus infection can leave a feeling of underlying bruising in the facial area which could be your weird nose/forehead ache.

I'm trying to say I think your GP is wrong regarding anxiety. I think you are probably right with a sinus infection but you need to give your body a bit longer to fight it off fully. Some infections hang around being utterly annoying for weeks.

Hope you feel better soon.

Yeah I have been stressed. I was booked in for a gastroscope to check out a stomach ulcer and I was shitting myself. Then I started feeling achy. I assumed I was getting sick. The gastroscope was done last week but I still feel awful, achy and foggy and weird vision, like my head is stuffed with cotton wool. Now I feel worried about that.

I never normally click on anything under "general health" as I have health anxiety, but I'm glad I did in case this helps.

I'm having an endoscopy in a weeks time for a suspected stomach ulcer. I'm also going through a lot of stress - I made a huge mistake at work and am facing a disciplinary (and may lose my job).

I don't know how much of this is stress about job/health (and how much down to the fact I'm too stressed to eat) but I ache. My arm ached. Later my fingers ached. Then it's my calf. At the moment my feet have pins and needles. Earlier my arm and fingers were tingling and felt numb.

Stress is horrible and does really weird stuff to your body. My health anxiety makes me want to Google all sorts of neurological disorders, but I'm almost certain it's just anxiety.

I hope it gets better soon x

Thank you. I hope your endoscopy goes ok. Mine was super quick and they didn’t find an ulcer, they think just general life stress must have been making my tummy upset. I started to worry about the endoscopy itself and that made me feel awful, maybe that’s why I started to feel achy and foggy. But it’s over with now and the poorly feeling hasn’t gone away, which is why I thought I might actually have the lurgy. I don’t see how anxiety can cause this fluey full-head sort of feeling, or the awful aches and pains. But maybe it has, I dunno.