Hello doctor,Hope you can help me, please. I am a young breast cancer survivor in my twenties who had cancer a few years ago. I am now cancer free. However more recently than this, a doctor gave me a wrong diagnosis and told me he thought cancer had spread to my brain. It took weeks to get the brain scan and the results to find out it was clear. During this time I was panicking a lot and even now this event has passed a few months ago I am left with fatigue, internal shaking, head pressure and I jump out my skin to the slightest noise. I have all these anxiety symptoms, however, I am not worried about cancer anymore as the results were clear, but I seem to be stuck in some kind of stress response. I have tried Prozac and Citalopram (just in case these would help) and had a serious reaction to both of them (face going completely numb, vibrating and too dizzy to walk). I am not sure counseling would really help because as I mentioned the event that made me like this has now passed and I feel fine about it and do not think about it anymore. In fact, I am worried that might make it worse as I am trying to forget about it. I am not anxious anymore. I just seem stuck with these symptoms. I would just like to know if you have heard of this before and is it normal that this can happen? Also, do you have any suggestions what I can do? Should these symptoms go away in time?
Hello. I can understand your problem. The symptoms you have mentioned suggest anxiety only. When the doctor told you mistakingly that cancer has spread to the brain, that was the trigger for anxiety. Even now when you are clear but the anxiety triggered by that event is resulting in the symptoms you are having. The symptoms like fatigue, internal shaking, head pressure, startle like response even on slightest of noise, etc., are part of persisting anxiety only.  Yes, I came across many such patients who developed such symptoms after diagnosing with some serious issue. No need to get worried about that. Such type of anxiety is common. I would advise you to keep yourself busy and distract yourself from any thoughts. Try to follow a healthy lifestyle and take high protein diet rich in complex carbohydrates and low in fats. The symptoms will go away with time, no need to get worried. If you could not tolerate Prozac or Escitalopram then the probable reason was first dose effects of SSRIs. You could have prevented this by starting with a low dose that is 5 mg for Escitalopram or 20 mg for Prozac. I hope your thyroid hormone levels are normal. If these are normal then no need to get worried. For more information consult a psychiatrist online -->