My name is Lee and I live in the South East of England in Kent.

I have been reading through your site with great interest and have found it very informative and admire your work very much indeed, I am hoping and preying that you may be able to help me, for the past 5 -6 months I have not felt myself at all, even though to other people I seem normal.

This is certainly been the most worrying and stressful time of my life and I just don't know where to go or what to do, I will try and explain my symptoms in the best way that I can.

I feel like the way in which I now see the outside world has changed, my view and sight of things seem different even though they look the same, its very hard to explain but I can only describe that its almost like everyday I am looking in from the outside, this has co-insided with difficulty with my short term memory being very poor as well, in the past few days my eye sight seems to be different, lots of ghosting and my vision seems a little blurry at times, I had laser eye surgery six months ago and today  was told that my eyes are fine, so may be that is nothing to worry about it I don't know.

Things I did yesterday or this morning seem like they took place 6 or seven weeks ago and I find it very very hard to recall what I did at a weekend when I get to Monday or Tuesday even at the end of the day I am struggling to work out what I have done or where I have been, things seem to be getting worse and I am very worried and frightened that this could be early signs  of dementia, but is this possible at the age of 29?

I have had a MRI Scan two months ago and that came back as clear, I run my own business and was very stressed with it about 6/7 months  ago  but I do not feel stressed now at all and want to just in enjoy my life but this is really holding me back .

I have run my own recruitment business for the past  3  years, having started it on my own at the age of 25/26, at the beginning of this year I went through one of the most stressful periods of my life with issues regarding ownership, which I did get very stressed by to the point of it dominating everything I did, but that was a long time ago now. About 6 moths before that I went through a phase of covering up gambling debts and although I have completely stopped that now, it was a very traumatic time for me, again I don't think this is relevant to now but I want to give you as much information as possible, I also had a MRI Scan on my back 4 years ago which highlighted a prolapsed disk and I have never had any surgery to correct it because although it is sometimes uncomfortable, I can put up with it and it has got much much better now through time.

I feel like I am going mad and the memory loss is frightening the life out of me, I have been taking B12,B6 and Folic Acid for 2 weeks and things don't seem to have improved, I am getting some tingles in my feet and hands and face at certain times but not all the time.

How or why has my memory become so bad and why do I feel like my existent of who I was or am is disappearing, because that is what I am feeling, I have been searching across the net and doing as much research as I can ( I know that's not always a good idea ) and I feel that it could be the following things:

Early signs of dementia
Information overload
Some type of Brain Fog
Early signs of MS ( no family history )
A delayed Stress Breakdown???
A tumour altough clear MRI scan 2 months ago would of picked that up i am sure 


Any help advice or any ideas I would be so grateful l for,  I just want to get on with my life but this is really dominating everything I do and I just want to try and find some answers.

I have some tests on Friday to look at how my reasoning and memory , if that comes back okay then I really don't know what to do.

Your site made very interesting reading and any advice or help you can give me I would be eternally grateful for, I would desricbe my personality as driven, very caring and thoughtful of others if that helps anything.

Your advice or any help you can give me is much appreciated.

Test

Hi Lee,
Your letter was very touching and sincere. I'm not qualified to answer your query, but my guess is that it's related to stress. I myself think I have a similar problem. By stressing too much, your brain has to focus on dealing with that stress, like it's on full alert all the time. It therefore doesn't have the ability to 'save' current information in your short term memory. There are times when I have to really think to remember things that happened only a while ago, although I haven't suffered blurred vision. My advice would be to stress less and try to sleep more.
Are you lonely? Could this be why you feel you are looking in from the outside, because you are not close enough to anyone? I really don't know on that one. When looking at yourself from the outside, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with what you see of yourself?
Sorry I can't be of much more help, but I hate to see people experiencing emotional trauma like this crying out for help and nobody will listen. I hope you can find some comfort and support...maybe someone else can give a better diagnosis.
All the best, man.

Hi Bruce,

thanks for your reply, any deas or advice is welcome, i am not lonely and i don't feel lonely, i have a very loving family and a lovely wife so its not that but can undestand why you thought it worth mentioning, do you really think it is stress related then? Even though i don't feel stressed now?

Do i walk away from my business, take time out to see? what do you think?

Lee,
I wouldn't advise doing something as rash as leaving a business over this. From what you've told me, you have a wife - have you spoken to her about your symptoms? You say you are having tests on your memory on Friday? Perhaps wait to see what the results are. But DON'T spend all week worrying about the tests.
You seem to be having quite a few tests done...I wonder, is it you that is asking for these tests, or are they recommended by your doctor/specialist? If it's always you, is it possible that all this effort you're putting in to try to find out what is wrong could only be making the symptoms worse?
I'm also a little confused...you say it's "the most worrying and stressful time of (your) life"  but later "I do not feel stressed now at all"
This is a long shot, but is there any chance this is post-traumatic stress disorder related to this 'ownership'?

My symptoms seem to be getting worse and I have an appointment with the Neurologist tomorrow, my vision seems not to be right and I have had itching / Tingling on my face arms legs and feet ( not severe  but enough to notice it and I know its not normal ) , I honestly feel that this is not a sign of stress, having just typed in my symtons on the internet they keep coming back with MS??

I am pass the stage where i am actually worried all the time, because i would rather someone just tell me what this is - my main symtons appear to be poor short term memory, dizzyness coupled with slight vision problems and itchyness across my body, I have had a MRI scan which has come back clear two months ago, so would this not pick up MS and could anything of changed on the scan in the last two months?

Any help or answers would be so appreciated.

Sorry I don't know a lot about MS. Itching and tingling don't sound the best. But definitely use the opportunity of seeing your neurologist to ask any and all questions that you have. If they can't directly help you, perhaps they know someone who can?
Regarding MS, yes the most common time to get it is between 20 and 40 years of age. However "Some of the early symptoms of MS may also be signs of other diseases, so it may take time to make a positive diagnosis." (http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/ms.html) so you may not have this, and you yourself admitted to the dangers of researching diseases/symptoms on the internet.
I wish you good luck with what the neurologist has to say.

Bruce.

Lee,
   I can truly say I know how you feel.  For several months now, I have had some really weird symptoms.  My head feels full.  I have tingling, burning, and pins and needles.  I have this buzzing feeling all the time.  I can do something this morning, and by this afternoon it feels as though I did it years ago.  It is really scary .  I have suffered from depression because no one can tell me what is wrong.  I have had multiple tests that all came back normal.  Everyone, including doctors, say I am having stress and anxiety problems.  I know this is not correct.  Until someone feels this way, they have no idea what you are talking about.  Please keep me posted on your progress.  Good luck!

Has anyone solved what is causing this.  My symtons are very similar to Lee but no tingling in face.  My results so far are: eye test - long/short sighted at same time, either caused from extreme stress or age 50+.  (i'm only 33)  Had high level of anxiety and began low dose of anti-depressent which has helped a bit with memory etc.  after car accident 18mths ago I'm constantly suffering pain.  When I began anti-inflammatries 6 months ago this is when memory (felt like alzeimers and I was taking dumb pills) started.  Have now concluded (with help of doctor) I'm not getting into deep sleep at night and waking several times (due to pain).  Have moved to my own bedroom which has helped a bit.  My eyesight is improving and I'm starting to remember phone numbers abit more and friends names. (now feeling like I'm 60 instead of 80).  Next I'm going to try painkillers at night to see if that makes a difference + physio.  Anyone want to update how they're feeling, I'd be interested to know how those that posted are feeling and if they are suffering from same as me.  Take care, Linda