Hey everyone.

Okay, long story short. I have Benign Intracranial Hypertension and Anxiety. I have had this for near a year now. My symptoms of the BIH include headaches, sore neck, sore arms, pressure in the head, pulsating sound in the ears, some visual disturbances and pain only and always on the right side of my head. My anxious symptoms mainly include fast heart rate, heart skipping a beat, sweaty palms, dizziness and other usual symptoms which come on out of no where. NOW, I am wanting to know what you think of this idea. I am told I have anxiety along with my BIH, BUT, I have noticed a pattern. At first when all of this was happening about 8 months ago, I had all the "anxious" like symptoms first and THEN I got the "BIH" symptoms. Once I got the pressure relieved by LP, everything went away for about 3-4 months. Now where it gets really interesting is that a couple of weeks ago out of no where, I began to get a fast heart rate and have been getting these "anxious" symptoms again and then as followed the "BIH" symptoms. SO, I am wondering, is the "Anxiety" like symptoms a sign that the pressure is building up again inside of my head so my body is going into "shock" and becoming anxious and putting pressure on my heart through a vain that connect to the brain and then making me truly feel anxious so it carries on, OR, is the "anxious" symptoms purely just BIH itself? I hope you can understand what I am trying to say. I am basically trying to make sense of why I get the anxious like symptoms first and then the BIH symptoms. I am wondering if it is my body sensing the pressure beginning to build up in my head that it freaks out and then I feel anxious or that it is just completely BIH on its own...Please help me.

Intercranial Hypertension is normally not caused by anxiety disorders. I have intercranial hypertension and it is believed to be caused by a genetic clotting disorder that I have. Somethings that can affect the pressure is stormy weather. When we have storms ( I live in Ga. USA), I get one monster of a headache. With these I also get knotted muscles at the base of my neck and shoulders. The noise is also in my right ear and can drive me crazy. There is no way to turn it off.

Do a search for th Intercranial Hypertension Research Foundation. They have a wonderful website that has all types of information on IH, also called Pseudo Tumor Cerebri. Hope this helps.

Stephanie