Worried about ALS (lou gehrig disease)

[Laxer971]

Im so worried about this so someone please try and make me feel better.

I am 20 year old healthy male but suffer from bad Health Anxiety.

I have muscle twitches all over, but the only spot where it remains consistent is my calfs. My legs sometimes also get tired for a second or 2 after climbing the stairs.


Someone people make me feel better im really worried about this!!!!

[Nico]

I have very recently been through this scare myself. It is a nightmare disease I know, just because it is terminal. Mine started when I was watching T.V and they showed someone suffering with ALS, I then googled it and frightened myself to death. The amount of muscle twitches I got trebled and I started to thing I had muscle loss etc. I have since got over this as someone on this forum who had a relative with this disease knocked some sense into me. They told me that the symptoms were really noticeable, so much so that life becomes difficult. I was also told that muscle twitches came late on in the disease, after some far more obvious symptoms. So basically if you can walk and talk you are fine. Just remember something like 70-80% of people have had muscle twitches, so it is nothing to be worried about. I hope I helped :)

[KeeKee]

I went through a stage where I got terrible twitches especially in my left eye. This has now subsided but it was awful and lasted weeks. I got them in my legs, face and bum but mainly in my left eye.

[jmummy]

I have just come out of this stage. For about a year I was obsessed that I had ALS, in that time I spent a lot of hours on the ALS website lurking and seen person after person die. Seriously one day there was 8 announcements that members had passed it scared the crap out of me, but also made me feel like I was a complete idiot. Here I was worrying about a feeling of weakness when these poor people could only move one finger. I have finally moved out of that stage and onto seizures now:doh: But my brother has had twitches in his calf's for over 2 years now and he is fine, I am not going to say stop worrying because I know its impossible but I hope this one moves on quickly for you its a horrible disease and very scary to think you may have it.

Julie

[swajj]

I was getting the twitches a few weeks ago. I think we notice them because we focus on them. Also, our muscles are tense from anxiety and this seems to have something to do with it. They pass in time. :)

[purgatory]

Hi,
I myself have had this whole ALS fear and it was a constant worry and it all started with my calf muscle twitching and I spent lots of time on the ALS forum talking to the poor sufferers of this dreaded disease.

And with talking to them I found out that a lot of the time twitching or to use the proper name fasciculations are not present in the beginning stages of ALS/MND and that it is mainly a factor after the muscle has had wastage/atrophy and the twitching happens after the muscle has died.

So Twitching alone does not add up to ALS you need to have several factors to even think that maybe the case.

Look up benign fasciculation syndrome it is a very common condition which mimics ALS but is in no way connected and it is a total harms condition.

Don't go down the route I did of always testing the muscles doing strength tests (as that can lead to muscle injuries) and also I went mad measuring my muscle to check for even the smallest amount of size decrease (of which has nothing to do with wastage).
And I also went as far as writing letters to my loved ones like my young kids so I could explain to them how daddy had died and how I loved them.

But hey here I am still after nearly 3 years and my muscles still twitch like mad 24/7 365 days a year and no wastage or loss of power and it is all down to Anxiety finding a new outlet.

[Speranza]

I've had these twitches and even had a dad who died of ALS and I STILL don't have it!!!

[princesszelda]

I get BAD twitches, and am here much for the same reasons as you, though I was more worried about MS. I have talked to a couple of doctors who do not seem to concerned. Mine seems to be mostly stress related.

Hope you can calm your fears...though I know it is really hard. <3