Medical Forum / General / Vision / June 2006
Visual Snow/Headaches/Anxiety?
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hammad.awan_nospam@gmail.com - 12 Jun 2006 19:23 GMT Hello,
I will try to make this story as short as possible. Two years ago, I suffered from what appeared to be an anxiety induced event that caused a neurological change in my brain as well as my abdominal area. I was a long-time GERD (acid reflux) sufferer who took a medicine called "reglan" for my problem. Unfortunately, this medicine had a strong depressive and anxiety driven effect on me. After a month of taking it three times a day, I just gave up (although it made my GERD symptoms much better). Several years after taking this medicine, I started to lay on my back on my bed, with my head over the edge of the bed at approximately an 70-80 degree angle with the flatness of the bed. In other words, I had my head upside down from vertical. It helped me to get to sleep quicker. That is why I did this sort of thing.
Doing this several times caused my GERD symptoms to get worse, and my general anxiety increased significantly. I would shake a lot more than normal. One day at work, before giving a presentation, my anxiety juices kicked in and I could not control them until I felt a change in my stomach as well as in my head. It's like a little neurological explosion in my stomach.
>From that day on, I have experienced more significant anxiety driven headaches which cause visual problems/snow in my left eye as well as some abdominal pain in the muscles/diaphragm(?). What's good is my GERD symptoms have almost completely vanished. I no longer have to take any acid reflux medicines in order to stop suffering from heartburn. It's almost as if the reglan, which increases the strength around the LES (lower esophagul sphincter) has worked permantenly.
Unfornutately, I've traded one problem for another. The GERD for these anxiety driven headaches as well as some visual disturbances (seemingly only in my left eye). The visual disturbances (or snow) in my left eye don't occur all the time, but seem to increase when I am more anxious. My right eye seems to be completely fine. What happens is if I close my right eye and try to look out of my left eye only, after a while, my eye starts to see the effects of visual snow close to the bridge area of my nose. It's almost as if the neural pathways that lead from the eye through some portion of the brain back to the occipital lobe are not functionally normally as before. This effect eventually occurs whether I am anxious or not (it is apparent when in the latter mode), but even occurs when I start to use my left eye more than my right (which occurs when it is closed). I've had an MRI about a year ago, and everything was fine. I also when to see an opthalmologist who did a complete eye exam and he said everything was normal.
Also, when I get anxious, which causes sometimes these bad headaches, it is more difficult to get to a relaxed state such that the headaches can disappear on their own. It's almost as if my stress body mechanism has lost some of its ability to get back to an equilibrium state. If I take Xanax (an anxiety drug), it seems to help the situation get back to normal.
What I am seeking is some help from someone who may know about the biology of the brain, in particular with respect to anxiety, neural pathways for vision, and such. If anyone has any information, it would be much appreciated.
Thanks.
Dr Judy - 12 Jun 2006 20:12 GMT > Hello, > [quoted text clipped - 53 lines] > pathways for vision, and such. If anyone has any information, it would > be much appreciated. You really do not have a vision problem, you have an anxiety problem. Anxiety and panic attacks can cause many other symptoms including blurred vision.
You would be best served by working with your doctor to find a solution, either drug or counselling, for your anxiety and panic attacks.
Dr Judy
> Thanks. judy.n - 13 Jun 2006 00:28 GMT Just to clarify that I am not "Dr. Judy": I don't believe anyone can make a diagnosis over the internet. The only advice I woud have to offer is to check out the web site by Dr. Podell devoted to migraine aura: http://www.migraine-aura.org/EN/index.html Perhaps that will give you some information that will be helpful. Seriously, no one can give a diagnosis based on a posted history on the internet. Judy
> > Hello, > > [quoted text clipped - 65 lines] > > > Thanks. hammad.awan_nospam@gmail.com - 18 Jun 2006 04:43 GMT Yes, I think anxiety has something to do with it. However, I don't suffer from panic attacks. I don't feel like I'm dying or other general symptoms of a panic attack.
What I do get is headaches/migraines (abdominal tenseness as well), and as I said visual snow close to the bridge of my nose if I look long enough out of my left eye while closing my right eye.
The migraines and abdominal tenseness seem to occur when I do get anxious (but not a scared kind of anxious, but more of just I need to get things done quickly). What I think has happened is that the body response that kicks in the fight or flight response has lost its ability to quickly return to the equilibrium levels. In other words, once the fear leaves, the body still thinks its there and it manifests itself as these headaches and abdominal tenseness. The other problem is that when I'm in this state, thinking about it furthur causes the pain to remain and the feeback look to continue and not return to normal. The problem is I have a really difficult time disassociating myself from the pain, because well it's pain. It's almost obsessive compulsive behavior that I can see, but I can't stop because the pain refocuses the pain.
Any clues?
> > Hello, > > [quoted text clipped - 65 lines] > > > Thanks. judy.n - 19 Jun 2006 01:30 GMT About once a month, there is a post of natural remedies for migraines. Catherine Woodgold speaks about the spiral of anxiety that you mention: Here's an excerpt" "(8) Psychology
People often think thoughts that are just a little frightening. When normal people think these thoughts, nothing much happens. But migraine people have over-reactive hormone systems, and adrenalin and other hormones are released along with just slightly scary thoughts. A migraine person may not feel scared at all, may claim to be relaxed, but at the same time may be showing the physical symptoms of fear. These symptoms may be partly resulting from various chemical processes such as the foods the person ate. However, they are also the result of thoughts.
The scary thoughts that bring on phase I of a migraine are usually semi-conscious ... just outside the range of conscious thinking. For instance, a migraine person may look at a gift they're wrapping and consciously think, "Maybe I should have bought something better." But at the same time, in a semi-conscious way, the following thoughts flit rapidly through the mind: "I'm no good at buying presents. People will look down on me for being cheap. I might lose a friendship." These thoughts go by so fast it's hard to pin them down. But they're real, and are accompanied by cold fingers and other symptoms of phase I of a migraine. The person might not notice the symptoms. Later, when they have a headache, they might not realize they had been under stress. "I was just having fun quietly wrapping presents."
It helps to write down such thoughts. Kohlenberg [11] recommends writing the thoughts down in the form of a proof that either there's a threat to one's life or health, or that a law of nature has been broken, i.e. that something "should" be happening and isn't. Writing the thoughts out slows them down so that they come under conscious scrutiny and control. Then, on another part of the page, write down arguments against each point. "I may not be the best in the world, but I'm capable of buying reasonably good presents. I have no evidence that people will look down on me, and if they do it won't hurt me. If the friendship is worth keeping it involves a lot more than just gifts."
It helps to avoid thoughts with words like "should" and "ought" in them. Instead of thinking, "I should wash the dishes now," think "I want to wash the dishes now." One good way to eliminate a "should" thought is to start doing the thing. If you don't want to, there's probably a good reason not to. Then, instead of thinking, "I should ...", think, "I decided not to... because ...". Accept that every decision has both good and bad results.
It's useful to combine this technique with biofeedback. See Kohlenberg's book for both. Since that book is difficult to obtain, other books which are excellent for dealing in a similar way with emotions (but which don't specifically address headaches) are Burns [2] and Ellis [4], Greenberger [7], and other books by the same authors."
If you search the site, you can get her entire post, it's very helpful. Many people with migraine have over-active autonomic nervous systems (fight or flight) and that's why some of the medicines, like beta blockers, can be helpful.
Personally, I'd check in with my doctor and get a good eye exam and try to come up with a plan for treating the worry and the other symptoms.
I'd also not blame myself for being anxious--hard to do. Judy
> Yes, I think anxiety has something to do with it. However, I don't > suffer from panic attacks. I don't feel like I'm dying or other [quoted text clipped - 89 lines] > > > > > Thanks.
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