Post-panic disorder chronic fatigue?

[Lauris]

Greetings!

Around 4 years ago I suffered a super intense anxiety period that lasted for months. It was living hell and I almost killed myself. There was nothing going wrong with my life and I don't know what started it. It was like a neverending bad trip without drugs. When I was first hospitalized they gave me clonazepam which worked miracles - within half an hour I was back to normal, only to return to that state again the next day.

Having read all those benzo-related horror stories, I tried to solve the situation without them but nothing helped. When I realized that potential addiction is still better than suicide, I started taking clonazepam again and got my life back within an hour. I took it for a month or so (1mg per day) and then tapered off, seemingly without any side effects.

However, shortly after the fatigue began and hasn't left me for four years now. Additionally, in the last 6 months I've developed sleeping problems. I've gone through extensive blood tests and head & spine MRIs to determine there's nothing obviously wrong with my body.

I hadn't had any panic episodes or used benzos again since that first crisis, but when my sleep issues started, and no sleeping aids seemed to help, I tried benzos again, and they were super effective in helping me sleep. I still feel tired every day, but it's not as bad as going without sleep.

I'm curious if anyone's CFS has also started after an intense anxiety period, and whether some mechanism of arousal could somehow remain "stuck" in one's brain or nervous system, slowly taking its toll on the overall energy levels, and in time also disrupting sleep, while at the same time not registering as conscious anxiety or stress.

 

[Apo Sci]

Yes but not immediately. I rented a room from a man who had ME about seven years prior around 2001. He had a cat which he let roam the area. I had been dealing with job loss stress however managing it fine. After changing the litterbox for him for a week I developed panic attacks manifesting at night which were so bad I rolled out of bed and had a bad ankle sprain, then severe depression. In 2007 I contracted EBV and during recovery was exposed to HHV6. The fatigue from mononucleosis never resolved and it turned into ME. Blood testing showed repeated positives for nonspecific rocky mountain spotted fever (RMSF, unidentified organism) which was treated for 2.5 months with doxycycline (extended treatment period due to being on immunosuppressant) and eliminated daily headaches during and after completion treatment . Do you have any animal exposure history? If so would run tests for bartonella, rickettsia, lyme and RMSF. Treat if positive.