Have you ever gotten a diagnosis from a doctor, but felt that something was not quite right? Like, it didn’t make sense that it’s the thing that’s burdening you, and that it could be something more serious than that.
Well, if you didn’t — consider yourself lucky. At least luckier than the netizens from today’s list — they were once told that their symptoms were “just” anxiety, and it took them a long time to find the real truth.
More info: Reddit
#1
Coeliac disease. A decade of trying all kinds of meds and having counsellors telling me I must be anxious *about* something, panic attacks don’t just come out of nowhere.
Turns out untreated autoimmune disorders wreck your nervous system 👍.
Image source: Mmmurl
#2
Multiple sclerosis , my doctor made me feel like i was losing my mind before i got diagnosed at ER.
Image source: Double_Assistant200, pressfoto
#3
Cancer.
Neuroendocrine Tumor, specifically.
Luckily slow growing and removed with one surgery.
Took ten years to get a proper diagnosis. Shocking the Lexapro didn’t fix it.
Image source: so-so-it-goes, seventyfour
#4
Well, a woman I knew kept having pain around her jaws for weeks and later on a crushing feeling on her chest. Everyone said she probably had anxiety or maybe tooth pain. Turns out she was having a heart attack. Heart attack can apparently show up as jaw pain or toothache too!!
Image source: Historical_Ear3489, stefamerpik
#5
ADHD
meds took ALL the random anxiety away.
Image source: Opposite_Ruin_3426, stefamerpik
#6
Infertility caused by endometriosis. I’ve since lost organs due to the disease. I was told I wasn’t trying hard enough to get pregnant and should relax. I only got diagnosed when I had an ovarian cyst rupture.
Image source: ExtensionPrice3535, freepic.diller
#7
Debilitating OCD.
Image source: how-now-brown-me0w, freepik
#8
Anemia due to internally hemorrhaging stomach ulcers and Endometriosis. I kept telling my Dr that I had an impending sense of doom I was going to die but he just sent me to a therapist instead. One day I fainted on the street and nearly bled out and needed 2 blood transfusions to stabilize. The ulcers were caused by taking NSAIDs for my Endo pain. It’s actually really common for women to have hidden iron deficiency (you can have normal HGB but low ferritin) and a lot of the symptoms mimic anxiety (panic attacks, heart palpations, shortness of breath, insomnia, stomach pain, headaches, vertigo & dizziness, blurred vision, random muscle spasms etc.).
Image source: howdoyoulikemeownow, gpointstudio
#9
A magnesium deficiency and an iron deficiency, causing weird extra heartbeats. .
Image source: Gman325, garakta_studio
#10
My wife was misdiagnosed with Panic Disorder for a long time. Turns out it was Epilepsy and she was having seizures, not panic attacks.
Image source: musicman116, freepik
#11
Complex trauma due to neglect beginning in infancy and throughout my childhood. I also learned how common it is for neglected children to not recognise that the way they were treated was negligent. .
Image source: ausgekugelt, freepik
#12
Chronic migraine with aura, pelvic floor dysfunction, chronic intermittant acid reflux, and sleep apnea.
I kept being told that my aura symptoms were something that I was imagining due to anxiety for years until I finally saw a neurologist. It turned out that I wasn’t imagining the vertigo, visual changes, sensory sensitivities, motor difficulties, tinnitus, or numbness, tingling, and weakness. This is all my migraine aura.
‘Anxiety’ is a common assumption for any symptom for women.
Image source: Little_SmallBlackDog, yanalya
#13
Thyroid disease.
Image source: Lavenderchicken_, freepik
#14
First time- some flavor of tachycardia. Something’s wrong, they’re not sure exactly what, but they’ve confirmed it’s not only anxiety.
Second time- kidney stone.
Image source: Kindaspia, DC Studio
#15
Optic neuritis. Doctor told me to go have a beer. In his defense I wasn’t presenting with pain, just blindness(which should have sent me immediately to the hospital but wherever) I kinda enjoyed the beer, as much as you can when you are terrified you can’t see anymore lol.
Image source: wastedclit, pikisuperstar
#16
I knew a guy who kept saying that he was having heart attacks. The doctors kept saying anxiety.
He found out years later, he had had about 10 small heart attacks.
Image source: zazvorniki, Drazen Zigic
#17
Perimenopause. My first symptoms were heart palpitations. I thought I was having heart attacks. My doctor brushed it off as anxiety.
Image source: Dr_Overundereducated, Drazen Zigic
#18
HAHA I am female and have multiple autoimmune conditions so you’re describing the last 2 decades of my life with 50% of my new doctors. 20 years ago “anxiety” turned out to be what I told them I had – but it took 6 specialists and a smart one to finally agree.
Funny how my dad and grandma have the same condition (psoriatic arthritis) and I had most of the textbook symptoms, but hey, here’s a Lexapro.
Image source: thcitizgoalz, Holiak
#19
Diagnosed with brain tumor twice. Both times I did not feel normal. Consistent headaches, forgetfulness, loss of time, balance issues, ears ringing, mood swings (one minute happy as a clam, the next I am crying) and extreme fatigue but not normal fatigue. Simply cutting the grass would put me down for two days.
The first time my doctor blamed it on anxiety, then depression, then “you are just getting older, try exercising more”. This went on for two years until I had a spell while grocery shopping where I don’t recall walking through an entire department and finally come to and hear my daughter yelling “dad are you ok”. I went to the doctor the next day and said I was not leaving until we find out what is wrong. One MRI later we find a tumor at the base of my brain wrapped around the nerves and spinal cord. Had surgery a month later and they removed it all.
Two years later all of the symptoms came back and I asked for another MRI and we found I had a clival chordoma which is a super rare bone cancer of the skull/brain. It’s so rare they call us the 1 in a million gang because that is the ratio of being diagnosed with a chordoma. I had surgery to remove the tumor but unfortunately it entered my dura and spine so it will more than likely spread.
Long story short, you know your body and you know when something is off. Don’t brush it off and don’t let others dismiss it either. Be your own advocate for your health and tell your doctors what you feel you need. If they disagree or gaslight you find a new doctor. They call it practicing medicine for a reason and most of the time they are basing your diagnosis on the first search of WebMD or clinical reference that matches most of your symptoms.
Image source: brianwilson2219, DC Studio
#20
Anxiety turned out to be a pulmonary embolism in my lower left lung.
Image source: Steambunny, freepik
#21
A heart condition called premature ventricular contractions that causes a fluttering feeling in the heart.
The tricky thing was that the heart condition triggered medical anxiety for me, so I *was* experiencing anxiety…but there was a root cause.
Image source: AnaBanana84, EyeEm
#22
Autism.
Image source: Good-Smell-8167, Holiak
#23
Chronic vestibular migraine.
Image source: Mad-Hettie, DC Studio
#24
A bad gallbladder. It was also anxiety but anxiety wasn’t making me puke everyday, my gallbladder was. My anxiety does give me a tummy ache sometimes but not debilitating like my gallbladder was.
Image source: Ok_Response_3484, yesorno
#25
Epilepsy.
Image source: wobblerocket, Drazen Zigic
#26
Hyperthyroidism.
Image source: Taylorcos22, stefamerpik
#27
Cardio toxicity from the chemo I was on. The best bit is …. it’s a known side effect.
Image source: LochNessMother, user25451090
#28
Asthma.
Image source: cellophanestar
#29
Heart arrhythmia.
Image source: Due_Solution_4156, standret
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