New here - anxiety following migraine aura & panic attack
 

Hi - my anxiety decided to come out and play full-time following a migraine aura that gave me a wicked panic attack about 6 weeks ago. I went to the ER and after blood work and ECG came back okay, they confirmed it was a panic attack. I have had some anxiety for a few years now that I contribute to the CRPS I have in my foot following a surgery that went wrong. I was on Lyrica for about 4 years and then finally weaned off if it as it really wasn't helping and that's when I felt the anxiety start. It has been manageable up until the aura. I have been getting headaches to some degree nearly every day and my head and neck feel heavy with pressure plus not much of an appetite. I have had 2 more auras without much of a headache since that bad one (and I've had them previous to this too). the last one I'm sure was due to the Christmas tree lights that I had on while decorating the tree. I had a CT scan that was normal and I am now on day 6 of Sertraline and Nortriptyline. I think it may be starting to help along with the anti-motion sickness remedy I take once or twice a day but, and perhaps this is the anxiety talking, I'm still a bit scared that there is something else going on. I've been wondering if its maybe a thyroid or adrenal gland issue or even something that the CT scan missed. I am seeing my doc later this week so wondering if anyone has had a similar experience or can offer some advice to someone that is new to all of this. Thanks for reading.

Welcome skylersmom. :Tip-Hat:

Hi skylersmom,

Welcome to the NeuroTalk Support Groups.

We have a number of forums here that might be helpful for you to find information and support. I think it's natural for you to be concerned when something happens that is unusual for you. Panic attacks themselves are very frightening and that combined with migraine type aura would compound that worry.

One good way of helping yourself when you are prone to anxiety or panic attacks is to learn as much about them as you can. Learn to recognize how your own body reacts. It sort of demystifies the symptoms you are feeling and makes them less scary.

Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD and CRPS)

Anxiety

Headache (including Migraines

I just posted there a couple of days ago myself about auras and light.

Greetings!!
 

Hi, Sky's Mom!

You might want to consider Lyrica withdrawal syndrome as the culprit for the symptoms you are experiencing. I don't know how to throw the link up here for you (sorry!), but if you go to the Medications and Treatments forum, there's a thread or two on this topic which might be of interest to you…

Everyone reacts differently, and apparently, not everybody goes through problematic symptoms when they quit taking Lyrica, so I'm not sure what the medical literature supports at this point - but the anecdotal evidence is certainly out there.

Hope this helps.

Alison

Here's the link to the

Medications & Treatments Forum that Sea Pines has mentioned in her post.

If you do a search in that forum for Lyrica the posts will show up. Just click on "Search this Forum"