Possible Depersonalization/Derealization?

Hello all,
i've seeing many Dr.S over the last 3 weeks and no one seems to be able to conclusivley decided what exactly i'm going through. Perhaps, someone here can give some helpful words.

Here's the backstory.
About 3 weeks ago, during a routine day at work, with nothing out of the ordinary, I experience an "episode" where I was suddenly overcome with fear, panic, and feeling as if I was passing out or dying. I did not black out, however my heart began to race, I felt fevered, my hands trembled like I have never seen in my life, I was sweating, and I was unable to stand. After a few minutes, these initial symptoms began to subside...However, I felt completely dissoriented and disconnected from what was going on around me. I began to cry because the feeling was so dissorienting and unfamiliar that I was completely panicked. I can only equate the feeling afterward to when smoking marijuana but without any sort of euphoria. Just very fuzzy/dreamy. I just remember I kept saying "something is not right with me. Something is not right"
i left work only to return the next day fearing that the same thing was about to happen. I left work to see a Dr. She assessed that it was most likely a panic attack. She prescribed me xanax and blood pressure medicine being that my bp was veryyy elevated. Then she took an ekg of my heart just to make sure, of I don't know what.
Sooo...The ekg came back irregular....So she referred me to a cardiologist.

During the course of the next week or two I continued to feel like I was consistently walking or floating around in a dream state and felt very disconnected from myself. Very surreal.
Also, a couple of days I suffered from pretty severe depression which eventually went away.
Soooo...I saw the cardiologist...He took another ekg of my heart, an ultrasound of my heart, and a 24 hour urine collection. All of which came back perfect. He concluded that the irregular ekg must have been because the nurse incorrectly administered the test. I also returned to the first Dr. Who took bloodwork to rule out hypoglycemia or a thyroid disorder. Which came back perfect.
Then I explained to her how I was still "trapped in this state" and began to experience wierd head pressure near the front of my head which made my eyes sore. I also began to notice that the way I perceived light and dark and indoors and outdoors was some how different, things were altogther just kinda foggy and it was hard to visually focus on things. Soooo
she sent me to a nuerologist. Who administered some sort of wierd sobriety-like test where I had to follow her finger and walk in a straight line and stuff. After an interview and revealing to her that I had a history with drug experimentation (which I will get into) that I should go in for an mri. She also did some sort of test on my head where I had to wear this wierd sorta hairnet thing with electrodes and she flashed lights in my eyes. In the end both the mri and other test came back normal.
Now here is where i'm worried. She now wants to rule out a condition she called "partial temporal complex epilepsy". She wants me to go in for an mra and stay in patient for 2 days to monitor my brain. Now the experience i've had with this particular specialist has been awful!. She is consistently late for appointments and sometimes misses them all togther, often leaves the room to attend to the mailman, whatever...Its pretty ridiculous. I'm actually considering getting a second opinion. The week before she suggested these things I was feeling much better. No head pressure, the fogginess was much better, and I just felt more "in tune" with myself. I was only taking the xanax maybe once a week when I felt like I may have another panic attack. So that is why i'm really questioning her diagnosis, which now the next day I feel like i'm right back in that wierd dream state. After doing some research online i'm not totally convinced. And came across a condition called depersonalization or derealization, and am pretty suprised she didn't bring this up as a possiblilty, considering I feel it described my syptoms to a "t". Noww.....I in college exprimented with a few drugs (marijuana, cocaine, ketamine, exstacy, shrooms)...However it was never habitual use, maybe once or twice, and was about 5-6 years ago. However, I was a habitual pot smoker for probably the last two years (i would smoke later in the evening to help relax me and to fall asleep). Since, the first episode I have quite smoking. Soooooo....What does everyone think? I felt pretty relieved before meeting the nuero for my mri results as I was pretty much writing it all off as stress and anxiety, and then as soon as I left it was like it started all over again. If anyone has some words of advice or expertise please pass it on. This is beginning to get very tiring. Someone please tell me what is wrong with me.

Hi Kid,
Welcome to PC! I'm sorry you're having so many difficulties right now.

I would recommend a 2nd opinion and even a 3rd if you want and can afford it.

I'm glad your tests all came back negative. Great news! Now the not-so-great news is that what you're experiencing is probably anxiety/panic. Depersonalization can be a symptom of anxiety and/or panic. But, good news again --both are very treatable!

I would recommend a consult with a psychiatrist. They are much more familiar with the meds that can help you. Xanax is ok, but it is not the best for anxiety. A longer half-life drug like clonazepam is better. You don't get the interdosal anxiety with this med like you can with xanax and ativan.

Anyway, see a pdoc and get going on the right track. I wish you all the best! Please let us know how you're doing!
Take care,
Okie

Welcome to PC! I would suggest seeing a pdoc and seeing what they think. Any type of dx really should be made by a professional. I hope they can help you find out what is happening. Also, please feel free to keep posting. Take care and good luck.

BB