Originally Posted by
MrsBritty
I made this account and joined this site for this exact reason. This post almost exactly describes my experience with anxiety. I first came down with migraines & flu like symptoms for no reason horrible bone & joint pain, heartburn, pain in spine, chest pain, awful pain in hands like arthritis. I went to a rheumatologist was told after one round of tests I could have lupus, but lupus test came back negative then the full on body jerks started followed by muscle twitches, extreme weakness in thighs when I woke up in the mornings it would feel like I had run a marathon. I went to see a neurologist had an MRI of my brain done &I it came back normal, but then I came down with additional pains and new symptoms so then I had an EEG. When the EEG came back normal but I still kept having these physical symptoms plus new ones I had an MRI done on my spine. My neurologist has reassured me I am fine. He even appealed to my logical well educated side, "you are 26 you are extremely unlikely to have a neurological disease statistically." He did however come to the conclusion I'm a young busy Mom so busy in fact I haven't realized how stressed I am. This all started a year ago for me. I have done really well recently I went a few months without thinking about my physical symptoms and MS and yes I greatly improved. However, a few days ago I came down with one of my strangest symptoms again extremely bad tongue pain. It sounds ridiculous, but it was one of the most bothersome painful physical symptoms I had and that was followed by the arthritis feeling in my hands. My twitching never completely subsided once it appeared, but it does become less frequent and my recent physical flare up has come with so much twitching. I get twitching everywhere abs, face, butt, legs, feet etc. etc. I feel myself fearing MS again because the symptoms are just so close to MS, but I'm trying to reassure myself I've had normal blood work,brain MRI, Spine MRI, EEG, & neurological exams. The irrational side of me says no something is really wrong I must have had the MRI's too early before signs of whatever neurological problem I have were visible. I might even consider going in for more testing, but I'm not sure that there are anymore test to give. I'm sure any anomaly would have shown up on previous test at this point. My neurologist had to go to school for years to do what he does he must know more about neurological conditions than google and I. I'm trying to ground myself again so as not to fall into the anxiety rabbit hole again. One thing that helped me the first time I dealt with these symptoms was a comment that anxiety symptoms come and go MS and ALS symptoms do not. Meaning if you have numbness in your leg and it's because of a neurological disease it isn't going to reverse itself your leg will remain numb. If your leg is numb for 2 days and feels normal again...anxiety. I wish this twitching would stop playing games with my head though as I lie down typing this leg muscles are going crazy. Anyone else share these feelings and experiences? Also, it is believed by some of my doctors my original health issues were due to my birth control at the time which made me feel unwell and triggered this whole mess...who knows at this point.
In case it is helpful here is a full list of the physical symptoms I have had.. migraines, Twitching, cramping, jerking, dizziness, confusion, all over aches, sore legs, one leg going completely numb like it no longer existed, chest pain, horrible inexplicable pain in tongue, arthritis feeling in hand & feet, my left eye sometimes acts as if it's shorting out it's very odd it's like I can see neon in the peripheral part of my vision it usually last a few minutes & goes away neurologist said this was related to ocular head aches, trouble focusing vision (I have poor eye sight and see an ophthalmologist once a year he thoroughly checked my eyes and saw no changes or cause for concern. I also got sick frequently last year I had a stomach virus twice, the flu twice, and even shingles (the worst) all attributed to anxiety.