Not sure if it’s anxiety/stress or something else but desperate to feel “normal” again

This is longgg, I’m sorry but please bear with me!

I’m wondering if anyone has ever experienced this themselves and have found out what is causing it and if you were able to “fix” it?

Since July last year I have been experiencing weird debilitating symptoms, and am going insane wanting to feel “normal” again. There was a lot going on in my life at the time. We had just moved house, I had just gone back to work after having a year off on maternity leave, my partner and I were having massive relationship/trust issues which really took a toll on me (We are in a good place in our relationship now though), I had just started studying a uni degree, my 1 year old was getting sick almost weekly, which resulted in myself and my other 2 children getting sick a lot as well, which meant I was having a lot of time off work, which resulted in financial stress, I was drinking and smoking (which I have stopped) a lot to deal with all of the stuff going on, specifically the relationship issues, and on top of that I wasn’t taking care of myself at all, wasn’t getting enough sleep or eating right. (I should also maybe mention that I was bitten by a scrub tick in June last year). Then one night my partner and I had unprotected sex. The last thing I wanted was to be pregnant so I took the morning after pill. Then 5 days later, after a pretty hectic day, I was driving in the car with my kids who were loud and screaming and I suddenly felt lightheaded like I was going to faint, so I pulled the car over and got out and called my partner to say something was wrong. I was shaking, my heart felt like it was racing, my fingers were tingling and it felt hard to breathe. I hadn’t eaten since the morning and it was now late afternoon so I had an apple and some water and felt fine after about 5 minutes. Then that night I woke up in the middle of the night with heart palpitations. The next day I got my period, 2/3 weeks after having my last period. It wasn’t like my normal periods, it was super heavy. I figured my symptoms must have been due to that and felt fine otherwise so continued on with life.

A couple months later I was driving home at night and the same thing happened, but not as bad. I just pulled over at a servo, bought an iced coffee and felt fine afterwards. Then the next episode was a few weeks later while I was at work. I was literally just sitting there, then turned to look up at the board and bam, lightheaded/dizzy, tingling fingers and toes and heart palpitations. Went and had lunch a bit after and then felt fine. So I started thinking it was my blood sugar. I finally went to the doctor, had a full blood count done (didn’t check magnesium, vitamin b12 or vitamin d levels), which came back normal. Iron levels were fine, ferritin was a little on the low side but within normal range (I had low ferritin or iron levels with my last pregnancy and needed an iron infusion), fasting sugars were good. So then I had a 24 hour holter monitor test, and of course I had an episode the day before the test. Anyway, the holter monitor test came back normal. So then another episode at work, I was noticing that 1. They always seemed to be around the time of my period (could be a week either side or days), and it usually happened when I hadn’t eaten breakfast. so I started making sure I ate breakfast every morning, and ate regularly. But they were still happening.

Then they got worse. I started worrying about what could be wrong with me and googled and read some pretty scary stuff. So then I was freaking out that I was dying and worried about my kids, etc. I started to feel dizzy/off balance a lot, and had weird head pressure and slight headaches. I found that I couldn’t drink much alcohol anymore because it was like it brought on an episode. I would feel suddenly dizzy/off balance/lightheaded, palpitations, panicky, etc. Then one day on the last day of my period, I had a bad episode while driving, I felt like I couldn’t breathe, then the tingling sensation kicked in in my fingers, then my hands, then my arms, then I could barely move my fingers, it was like they were locked up (which I was told was tetany), My heart was racing, I was crying, I had to find somewhere to pull over and then called the ambulance because I literally thought I was dying. The ambulance came out, did Obs which were fine, blood sugar fine, took me to the hospital anyway and they sent me home saying see your dr and get the tilt table test done. I went on to have 2 more episodes similar to this all while driving. Which resulted in me being scared to drive, literally couldn’t drive more than I absolutely needed to ie. home to school, to work and back again. I couldn’t even go anywhere on my own because I was worried about having an episode. then one weekend not long after I went out with some friends, only had 4 drinks that were spaced out. Went home at about 2am and had about 4/5 hours sleep. Got up the next day and literally could not stand for longer than 30 seconds to a few minutes without feeling like I was going to “drop”. I had to go lay down and then as soon as I laid down I had an episode. Faint feeling, palpitations, felt hard to breathe. Had a nap and woke up feeling a bit better but still couldn’t be upright for long. Felt fine the next day. Few days later, had another episode at work after taking Panadol osteo. (Every dr I have spoken to about this has said it was probably a coincidence). Then it got to the point where it was like whatever medical condition I’d read about, it was like I would have the symptoms of that. I don’t mean mentally thinking I had the symptoms. I mean I would physically have the symptoms come on out of no where, even when never having experienced them before. So then I had a MRI, a CT scan, another holter monitor, more blood tests (that included vitamin b12), a full thyroid check (done by a naturpoath), a tilt table test and an EEG. And everything came back normal (still waiting on EEG results). I thought maybe it was my eyes cause I stare at a computer screen every day, and fluorescent lights set me off I fine. So I had my eyes tested, and apart from needing a new prescription (which I now have) they were fine. I saw a naturopath who uses iridology and said based on the lines in my eyes there’s something up with my nervous system and digestive system. She also mentioned the fact that I have no moons on my nails, but didn’t really say what that meant.

So this brings me to now. I am now taking anxiety medication, which has definitely helped a lot. I am now also taking the pill because I figured if it is a hormonal imbalance caused by the morning after pill and breastfeeding then maybe the pill might help settle things. Although this first period since being on the pill was hard, causing me to be extremely tired for a week. And wanting to sleep all the time. I still feel dizzy/off balance every day. My pinky finger on my left hand twitches a lot and sometimes my ring finger. I feel jittery and ‘weird’ (it’s hard to explain) when staring at the computer screen at work, or when I first start driving in the car. I can’t drink coffee as it makes me feel ‘funny’ (again it’s hard to explain). I can’t drink more than one or two drinks of alcohol as it is like an episode comes on. I literally cannot function properly on little sleep, as in I feel like I will drop/faint. I know it is highly likely that it is just stress/anxiety and I am ok with that, but can anyone tell me how long it actually takes for your body to recover from stress/anxiety?? I just want to feel “normal” again and be able to do all of the things I was able to do before without any worries or issues. I have had to defer my studies because I couldn’t concentrate (which I am sad about). I have had to reduce my hours at work. I am not experiencing anywhere near as much stress as I was before but yet the symptoms are still here. I have a referral to have a vestibular function test done, but am waiting to see if the anxiety medication helps with the dizziness first.

I’m just hoping or looking for anyone who has ever been in the same boat as me. I know that my symptoms cover a lot of disorders, etc. but I am desperate to not feel like this anymore. I want to be able to go to work and function normally and not have to leave or have days off because I can’t. I want to start studying again. I’m not necessarily upset about not being able to drink much alcohol, as I enjoy not feeling hungover or wasting money anyway. But occasionally when I would like to have a drink, I would like to be able to have a few without feeling the way I do.

Anyway, thank you for reading if you managed to get this far and I am sorry for it being so long. Xx