Anxiety & Panic Community

I don't know that it's anxiety and I'm wondering if you saw a pulmonologist for an evaluation of your breathing. Anxiety wouldn't make your blood oxygen go lower but it could make you feel like you weren't getting enough oxygen if you were having a panic attack. To what did they attribute the drop to 92% in your blood oxygen? I'm not an MD, but I would wonder the reason that happened.

I contacted my doctor's office about the O2 drop and received this reply: "The changes are in the expected range of exertion and de-conditioning."

When I said that I had extensive tests, I wasn't exaggerating. I attempted to perform the cardio-stress test (can't think of the name) where you are on a treadmill and I couldn't do it. The moment I stepped on that thing I was out of breath and the medical personnel immediately dropped the speed to the lowest point. They let me walk on it for a minute while the situation was discussed, and I was gasping for air the entire time. The stress test was finally performed chemically, which qualified it was one of the weirdest medical procedures I have undergone. The stress tests results, other than having to change methods, everything was within the norms for someone like me.

I am just shy of being 59 and for at least the last two years I have been unable to exert myself for more than a few seconds. Much of the physical testing was performed in early 2009 as part of the lead up to a disability hearing. In part of the paper work, which was turned in to the judge, my MD stated that there was no physiological reason for my dyspnea.

My original issue was depression which became more than I could deny in 2000. In retrospect, it seems reasonable to presume that I have had it all my life but I kept denying its existence. The first real anxiety attack (the one that sent me to the hospital's ER) hit in 2003. For roughly the last decade, the mental illnesses have been manifesting themselves in different ways, which suggests to me they wherever these demons (my shorthand word for them) reside, there is something more happening.

The depression is more or less under control, but I keep a close watch on it and do not presume that it won't grow into something more.

I have point-blank quizzed the medical people (e.g., MD, psychiatrist) about the physical location of my illnesses. From the neck down I am in fair health for someone my age with my medical history and so forth. So what is going on in my head? I've heard and read a little and the answers are never complete. Like, the "wellness" center of the left frontal lobe isn't able to play nice with a couple of other brain parts and then the information moves into chemical processes that I don't think anyone understands.

I have a hunch that *someone* could make a most interesting case study out of me, but I don't know that the medical technology for such a study is in existence. I suspect not.

At first glance I may appear typical, but further investigation will reveal that something about me is very much Atypical.

Your doc may have said there was no physical cause of your dyspnea, but since you had it immediately after stepping on the treadmill, I would think he would have considered anxiety as the cause. Do you have any autoimmune disorders? I recently completed a manuscript on multiple sclerosis and found research that points to the immune system as being involved, in some cases, with both depression and anxiety.

If you are applying for Disability, I think you should consider a consultation with a law firm that handles these type of cases.

Way ahead of you friend. When I first applied for disability depression was the principle issue. However, in the two and a half years it took to go through all the governmental hoops, I was so overcome with anxiety that I could hardly pay attention to the depression. There are a couple more weird details that I may as well throw in. I have often wondered how "well" I was put together in the first place as my Mom and I almost died at the time of my birth. I was my Mom's second pregnancy andI wasn't supposed to survive.

There had been an earlier birth but the child died within a day. If I have the story right, she was told before the first pregnancy that should not get pregnant. After that, she was point blank told not to get pregnant.

Mom was a war bride, had survived the London blitz, and served in the British military. She wasn't going to let a doctor tell her that she could not have a child, and we made it; we weren't supposed to, but we did. I am going to skip the morbid details because I don't even have the full story. The point here is that there have been a lot of incidents in my life where it just didn't seem like I was quite even with my peers. It always felt like I was a bit behind in about every aspect of maturity one could measure.

That is speculation, the next isn't. Ever since my teens I have been subject to the most terrible muscle cramps, primarily in my legs and feet but it has been known to move around to other muscle masses. This next statement is important: there is no pain reliever, OTC or prescription, that have any effect on these cramps. Oxycodone, codeine, aspirin, you name it and it is perfectly useless. Chemically, whatever generates these muscle cramps is not related to the usual path for pain.

But there are a couple of drugs normally associated with Parkinson's Disease that ARE helpful. Requip and Sinemet, in combination, has the closest thing to a reliable method of preventing the cramps.

All of that once again bring me back to questioning what the heck is going on in my head. As far as I know, I have no characteristics of heading into Parkinson's but I find it extremely curious that root causes of virtually all my aliments seems to have their point of origin in my head.

It is a curious set of circumstances. The Parkinson meds would appear to be working on dopamine which can have an effect on both muscle activity and depression/anxiety, so that may be the key here. As I said, it certainly sounds like a neurotransmitter or immune system problem. As I said, I'm not an MD, but I would think that someone would find this interesting enough to attempt to explore the root cause of it all. Did you finally get Disability? I was a med consultant for them (in their offices) for 12 years and I know it's a difficult process but one where the disability attorneys who specialize in it are extremely successful.

The good news is that I have Social Security Disability, and being as my family consists of me, myself and I; I am making do on what I am getting. There won't be any cruises or trips around the world, but I wouldn't have the energy to enjoy that anyway.

My MD and psychiatrist have, for the most part, run out of ideas. Recently I had a head CT, it came back normal. Last year I had a test I can't remember the name of, but you are in a darken room with a strobe light. I was feeling very tense but all the electrodes connected to my head indicated that I was calm, cool and collected. That was a huge disappointment. I was dearly hoping that something would be revealed. Depression took over for the next three days.

Short of trying to draw blood directly from my brain (that would be quite a trick!) I think I have been tested for all the markers that one might be able to find that way.

Even if the funding could be found for me to have those tests that map the brain in color and 3-D, I have kind of reached the point where I don't think anything truly useful is going to be found.

My dad was mentally ill the entire time I knew him, (PTSD?) so my mental ills probably are coming genetically and from environment. The muscles cramps were something my mom had but not nearly as bad as me. From the tiny bit of knowledge I have acquired about neurotransmitters, I whole-heartedly agree that the base problem lies there. Now just where in my head it is located and what can be done about it, that is another story entirely.

And I do appreciate your comments and suggestions. Thank you.

Greetings, I have much sympathy for your situation for the concept of cause and effect is fundamental to my way of thinking. I am taking a wild guess here but I suspect that the steroid may not be the entire problem, but it may have triggered "something." I think steroid use could be the high blood pressure use could have something to do with your issue.

The 4 days that you have been off may not be enough to totally get them out of your system. In my experiences, I have had drugs that took days to do anything as they had to achieve a certain level in the blood stream. I learned the hard way that just stopping a drug without first getting medical advice can make for a lousy withdrawal.

I also suggest that you look up dyspnea. It loosely means "air hunger" but it usually is in conjunction with something else. The air hunger tends to be an effect, not the cause. As I recall, there are a lot of really different causes.

In my case, which is on the weird side, the air hunger seems to be psychogenic, which means that my body is more or less okay but somewhere in my mind, something thinks I am in dire distress.

So, from one person in horrible distress to another, I would say that you need more information about the steroids, like side effects, how long it takes to get them out of your system, what are the hazards of abruptly cutting them off, and anything else you stumble onto.

Good luck!