Pineal gland cyst. Extreme panic
 

Okay, I'm 21 years old. I suffer from extreme anxiety, panic attacks, depression, etc. My physical symptoms are CONSTANT. I haven't been able to work it go to school. But I have really bad ringing in my ears so I went to the ENT doctor, passed all the hearing and in office test so got sent for an MRI without contrast (What my insurance would cover). Got the results and everything came back good but there was a 6mm pineal cyst. I've been losing it thinking it's cancerous, or going to grow, maybe causing all my anxiety problems. I'm so scared and I haven't got out of bed for days and have just been having nonstop panic attacks.. My grandma died of brain cancer in her 50's which has me thinking it's happening to me now. Can anyone help?

I am not a health professional but I talked with a friend who is a clinical neurologist about this.

She commented that pineal gland cysts are quite common (about 2% of the population have them), 6 mm is a normal size and in the overwhelming majority of cases they are benign.

She suggested that you get your doctors to do more detailed imaging - in the very remote chance that it is malignant, the sooner treatment starts the better.

What other imagining can be done though? I had a CT scan in 2014 that came back clear. I'm getting a 72 hour EEG done this Monday and had a EEG but that's just brain waves. What other imaging is there to do? Also, I'm confused on why it wasn't in my CT scan but was seen in my MRI? And would this cause any of my anxiety problems or ringing in my ears?

Hi Txxxrho

You might find this (fairly technical) information about further imaging which could be done helpful when talking with your doctors: http://radiopaedia.org/articles/pineal-cyst .

Is it odd that the CT scan I had a year or less ago that the doctor that read that scan didn't see anything on it? And now a doctor sees it on my MRI?

My understanding (as a biomedical scientist, not a health professional) is that MRI is often better than CT in picking up things like pineal gland cysts.

That might explain why the CT scan did not show anything.

That is a good reply from Kiwi33, from what I've scanned through this seems to be the case. I can also find no evidence that Pineal Cysts are thought to cause Anxiety. You say yourself you have been afflicted with this for 6 years or so. See, this is what Anxiety does to our minds, it makes us fear irrationally - I understand.
Have your further tests, have another scan - but how far do you want to go before you trust the judgement of the Drs who are the experts? Possible/probable unnecessary brain surgery? I had a routine Angiogram last year and almost died on the table, becoming Brady Hypotensive. I say this not to scare you, but to try to let you see that it is ok to believe the medical experts you see.
Your Anxiety is clearly the root problem here, making you unable to cope with this unsettling dx and unsure times. Please take my advice from your Intro Thread, you need to develop a coping mechanism, and very few people can do that on their own.

Dave.