Brain cancer or anxiety / hypochondria Posted: 02-07-08 08:06am
Hello,
Back about 2-3 years ago, I was diagnosed
with having an anxiety disorder and was
put on medication for about 1 1/2 years. I
used to have full blown axiety attacks.
My concern right now is i'm reciving
certain symptoms that i'm worried are not
anxity this time. In november I started
waking up in the morning and felt
offbalance/light headed, and went away
within an hour. After 1 week the
offbalance/light headed feeling went away.
Begining of January this feeling came back
only after waking up in the mornings, then
closer to the end of January it now has
progresed to being off and on durring the
day, I also now have constant plugged ears
that I can keep poping. When I try to fall
asleep I hear static and a faint ringing,
but not durring the day uness everything
is quite. I continue having trouble
falling asleep and sometimes can go
without sleep for a whole night, when I
try to fall asleep i'm awakened by a Jolt,
and if I do fall asleep and wake up I see
flashing colors for about 3 seconds and
lots of static vision for about 30
seconds. My vision durring the day doesn't
seam as crisp as it was couple weeks ago.
Any insite on this would be appreciated,
i'm worried this is leading to a serious
issue like brain cancer and don't want to
just write it off as Anxiety. Doesn't
anxiety symptoms come and go and arn't
constint? Thanks
|
DoctorAnswer
Doctor Answer
Joined: 19 Dec 2005 Posts: 16777211
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Anxiety and Stress Answer A3638 Posted: 02-11-08 07:15am
The predisposition for fearing the worst
is a typical symptom experienced by people
suffering from hypochondria. Hypochondria
is a kind of anxiety disorder (somatoform
disorder) wherein a person believes that a
serious disorder, a brain tumor in your
case, is present in the body. The person
interprets the various body sensations as
symptoms of the serious diseases and
visits many doctors and requests lots of
medical examinations in order to discover
some type of disease. Nonetheless, any
possible organic disorder should be
excluded before establishing a diagnosis
for hypochondria. In your case, a CT-scan
of the head should be performed to exclude
a possible brain tumor.
The duration of anxiety symptoms depend
upon the initial reason for anxiety.
Anxiety symptoms can last a whole lifetime
and can be treated with psychotherapy.
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