Hi! A little background, I have never been an anxious person. Even when my 10 day old first born daughter was admitted to the hospital for struggling to breath and eat. Nor when she spent months undiagnosed in the hospital, or was finally diagnosed with a rare neuromuscular disorder and sent home on with a trach and a ventilator (she is fine now). Not even a bit of depression or out of the normal anxiety. Then, 2 years ago I had nasal surgery (septoplasty/rhino). Immediately following the surgery I had my first of many panic attacks. This continued for over a week. After I was recovered, they left as quickly as they came. Then this past November I developed a cold. It came during a time that I had been very stressed at work and in my home life. I first noticed a little bit of dryness in one side of my nose. It felt cold when I took a breath. For some reason I googled this and came across something called empty nose syndrome. This scared me, but didn't think a ton more about it. I worried about the dryness coming back, but the next couple of days where fine as I was busy. Then, 3 days later I was on my way to the airport when the dryness came back. From that point on things became horrible. One side was dry and I worried about it. Nothing seemed to make it better. Then the other side became dry. I am talking my whole nasal passage ways were bone dry. The only time I could produce snot was when I cried and in the morning time. This started to trigger my panic. I have now learned that my nose is a trigger point for anxiety due to nasal surgery I had when I was 8. It was traumatic for me then, so I think it is a trigger now.
Fast foward to today. I now suffer from severe anxiety over my nose. I use saline spray daily, a nasal oil, and aquaphor to keep it moisturized. I obsess over the dryness. I have visited 3 different ENTs. They don't seem concerned and brush it off as the weather or a possible autoimmune, but they don't think it is autoimmune. I have recently started on Zoloft to help, which right now is just giving me worse anxiety as I have just started. My question is, is it possible my nose problems are all anxiety induced? I have forced myself to become a mouth breather and spend almost every waking minute thinking of my nose. I also experience a burning in my upper back and dry mouth when my anxiety is at its worse. Also, my symptoms are worse later in the morning through the night. Early mornings are not as bad for me.
