Chronic sinusitis causing anxiety & depression??

Hi DDR4321,

I can absolutely relate to the mood changes you have mentioned in relation to chronic sinusitis. My sinus swells up on one side putting pressure on my cheek and on the roof of my mouth if I don't immediately get anti-biotics and guaifenesin to break up the infection I'll experience sadness (WAY out of character for me!), depression, negative thoughts, and anxiety. It's very odd that I am so sensitive to microbes but there is research to back the connection between mood and bacteria in our bodies. I can totally relate :-)

Yes, I think there is a connection between CRS and Depression. I think it's due to long suffering and maybe lack of oxygen? If I may guess. I have a bad depression, brain fog, visual disturbances, and short term memory problems.  

I never knew why I got depression and all these weird neurological symptoms, until I thought about it very hard one day, and I realized that the symptoms had started around Oct 2013, coincidentally that's shortly after I got Rhinitis/sinusitis! At first it was the reduced reaction speed/ brain fog but I do remember my mood was going down and down  year after year... 2014, 2015.. and 2016 was when I got hit with massive depression episode. So, the symptoms had snowballed and grew this big and now its making my life miserable.

I did ask numerous doctors if there could be any connection between my sinus problem and the depression but all they say is "depression is mental illness and sinus problem is a physical one, so they aren't related".  Wow. yea, doctors do not know everything and sometimes you can't just take their word for it.

look at this article on connection between CRS and depression: 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110301091121.htm

Hello everyone. I 've been suffering from sinus related problems since my teens (I am 48 now), and I can relate to all the symptoms you described : depression , severe "brain fog",  problems with concentration and memory, even problems in movement coordination sometimes. I've always known such probems were linked to sinus problems, since , as many of you correctly observed, such problems magically (and suddenly) go away as the sinus symptoms subside.... as you can probably guess, I couldn' t get anyone to believe me , doctors simply laughed at the idea of sinus problems causing mental issues, so did common people ... I started investigating myself, and all I could get to is the Neti cleansing ( and related methods) which is the only thing that can give me some relief, for a couple of days , sometimes. Probably many of you already know , there's a method which is neti derived, and is done lying on your back and holding salt water in your nasal cavity , waiting for it to slowly penetrate the sinusal cavities : to do this I found that keeping your facial muscles relaxed can improve the efficience of the method . i even found that I keep holding my facial muscles tensed all day long . This is a bad habit probably due to the constant diffficulties in breathing that cause me to try forcing the nasal passages to emprove breathing . I even feel that this is a downward spiral, in the sense that facial tension causes more sinusal problems , which in turn cause facial tensions and so on .I experimented on this and dscovered that the few times i could succeed in totally relaxing my facial muscles, sinus problems emproved dramatically, so I am quite convinced there is a relation in this sense too.

Obviously, if all this can help, it's just for a short time : so i would like to know the root cause of this illness . I came to the conclusion that, in my case could be the  combination of both sinusal ostia (ostium being the small hole that puts the sinus in communication with nasal cavity ) which are too small , and a very sensitive nasal lining, which tends to irritate easily, and shut the nasal ostia so that the mucus accumulates inside and gets dry . My feeling is exacly this, i feel something that gets stuffed and "solid" . I underwent nasal surgery some years ago : they corrected  a deviated septum, eliminated a cyst that filled the whole left maxillary sinus, healed a swollen turbinate, eliminated a polyp in th right maxillary sinus, , corrected a nasal spur and cleaned a "slight" (so they called it) ethmoidal sinusitis.

The result is that, now, I feel that almost nothing has changed : the only improvement is the fact that I dont get "balance rhinitis" anymore (that is, nostrils that get blocked in turn for a few hours each): but i stil get a severe post nasal drip, and all the usual  and nasty symptoms I (and you) have described  : this almost any day , the days "off" are very rare . Dizzyness and tiredness are constant , so that they have become a part of my personality (at least the way people see me ).

As I said , doing Neti cleansing can help sometimes , but it's long and difficult, and very delicate too, because you have to pay close attention to the salinity of the solution (too salty,or too long,  and you end up  worsening the situation with a nasal lining irritation). Do any of you know about a kind of surgery that increases the size of the sinusal ostia ? I don't know if it can be done. Quite sincerely I am sick and tired of consulting specialists, they're all incompetent and narrow minded, they dont listen to a word of what you say and if they don't understand the situation , they mark you as a neurotic person. Hope to get some feedback here, and that my post can help or at least give some hints to some of you.

Forgot to say, and sorry if I am so verbose  ....

As far as depression/brain fog is concerned, my guess is that, simply, having hardened mucus in the sinuses causes the immunitary system to react, recognizing it as a foreign entity (more or less the same that happens with cancer..), and putting into action all the mechanism dedicated to fight external factors ...this can cause  slight local fever, a constant one , or maybe even simpy a local infection ... My feeeling is that my head is "hot" internally, just like if i had a light fever ... this, according to me , causes all thee problems in coordinating thoughts .  In my case,I  suspect I have old stagnating mucus in my sinuses, which maybe is tens of years old, and I am slowly removing it , very slowly : I feel like a light improvement in my condition if compared to, let's say, 10 years ago, but it seems there's still a long way to go.

Last, I am not sure but I guess that doing ears cleanses (with fresh water,not salty) can be an excellent complement to Neti treatment.

Sinusitis can be relateed to bowel disfunctions : having a bowel cleanse can beevery illuminating, it can give you a hint if your sinus problems are at least partly due to bowel dirt. In my case it seeems they are.

Good luck

Hi! Just an update that my surgery 7/12 went great. S Since the doc had previously fixed my deviated septum, this has been a breeze compared to that! I took off that day and worked from home thurs and fri. I had minimal bleeding and no packing, just a dissolvable gel that slowly works its way out. I could already tell the difference a few days post opp, and the pain is not too bad. I'm looking forward to having this all behind me. I have other health issues to deal with.

I was diagnosed with avascular necrosis (AVN) of both hips. It's a bone disease where blood flow is interrupted to the femur and the bone dies and breaks down, ultimately, collapsing. Sounds fun huh? I swear I can't get a break! This year has been non stop. I almost can't help but laugh. Here's a piece of advice to all- get copies of all tests, X-ray reports, MRI, CT scans etc! Had a not requested a copy of the CT I had in the ER for severe abdominal pain, I would have never known I the AVN. The ER doc just told me I did not have a kidney stone or diverticulitis or anything life threatening and to follow up with my doc as needed. I called after I read my report and asked them how I would've possibly found out about this devastating illness, which is often fast progressing if I wasn't OCD and persistent about getting copies of records. The nurse said you wouldn't because the ordering physician was the ER and copies are only avail by request or within the network. I went to the ER for severe pelvic/groin pain and my next step would've been ob/gyn looking for an ovarian cyst or something. Medical professionals have seriously failed me multiple times over the years and I've learned that you have to educate yourself, be persistent, and document everything.

I hope everyone has a great day!

I have the same symptoms and that is horible.