Is this really all anxiety?

For a few months now I've been dealing with a number of strange health problems which started with parasthesia (strange nerve sensations, numbness and tingling) in my left arm. This would happen rarely and appeared to be random, I even went to A&E at one point convinced that I was having a stroke or heart attack. I was told it was likely to be due to anxiety so went home but it happened again so I visited my GP. By this point I convinced myself that these feelings were a form of nerve damage or a brain problem so she performed a neurological exam and said I'm absolutely fine and that the sensations are a physical side effect of severe anxiety and panic attacks.

I've always suffered with anxiety so did at first accept this as the reason, however I began to notice these strange sensations would come on completely randomly, sometimes even when I'm doing things that I really enjoy. Doctor prescribed me beta blockers and told me to take 2 a day to stop the physical symptoms but my problems got much much worse. While taking the beta blockers I began to suffer from memory loss, complete brain fog, detachment from reality and almost felt as if I was on drugs, my body did not feel like my own and my eyes felt separate from my head. I also noticed about an hour after taking them I would begin to tingle somewhere and lose sensation in my arm or face which would cause me to feel severely unwell and panic. Doctor told me to stop taking them and for a while I was convinced that maybe it was the beta blockers causing my problems...

I was wrong. I carried on having "attacks" where I would become very suddenly dizzy, unbalanced, panicky, sick and the right side of my scalp would burn. I learnt that when this happens I need to walk away and take some time out, but the symptoms would carry on for hours and sometimes days after. I would feel as if I was not in my own body, like I was going to have a seizure and my heart would become extremely out of beat, my IBS would become awful and I was constantly bloated and had stomach pain. Once this began happening I noticed that everyday at 4pm the symptoms would suddenly spring on me and caused me to panic and spend the rest of my day in bed.

Doctors finally decided to do bloods and I was hoping they would just find a simple deficiency but no, my bloods were completely normal (not celiac, not diabetic, no deficiencies, B12 fine, thyroid fine etc) which left my doctor very baffled. I went back again yesterday for a thorough nervous system exam and even had am OCT eye test, again everything was completely normal. Now waiting to hear back about an MRI to do a brain scan, but doctor thinks it will likely come back normal and my tingles will have to be put down as "medically unexplainable neuropathy".

I'm becoming really down because of the whole thing, Ive got constant burning or numbness in my body, tension headaches, weird feeling vision, needle stabbing sensations, constant dizziness.. the list goes on. I feel completely drained, no matter how much I sleep, eat or drink I seem to have no energy. I'm having to miss out on my university content as I'm too afraid to travel in case I have another attack of whatever the hell is causing this. I'm too scared to be alone or even lock the door when I shower because I'm convinced I will have a seizure due to the intensity of these episodes. I'm living in constant fear and felt that no one was taking me seriously but I'm scared of what this could be now.

Doctor doesn't know what is causing it but is saying that my anxiety is definitely linked and needs to be dealt with alongside whatever this is. I've been prescribed SSRIs to see if this can help manage my anxiety and if it will effect my other symptoms at all. If the symptoms completely go away then we can put it down to anxiety but if not it will need to be further investigated.

I'm just so reluctant and afraid to accept this as anxiety, can it really have become this uncontrollable and physical? I feel so down everyday, my life has been completely taken over. Ive spent the past week in bed because Im so dizzy Im afraid Ill fall down the stairs. I just feel so unwell, fatigued and like im not in my own body, how can I stop this? are SSRIs good at helping with anxiety?

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