wierd skin sensations, feeling generally wierd

[Nico]

Does anyone else get weird skin sensations like itching, cold sensations and prickly feelings. I am worrying about some neurological problem??

[countrygirl]

I have had every sensation you can think of for over 30 years and I do not have any neuro condition as I have been tested many times! including mri scans.

with me I think its a combination of damage to my spine ( arthritis) and anxiety.

I get what I call tender spots almost anywhere on my body. Like having a bad burn plus sudden stabbing pain and itching and prickling. It will last no longer than 48 hrs on one place and then go.

[Nico]

oh thank goodness someone else gets this, thanks you have made me feel better already :)

[imissnotworrying]

I get them too! and I'm adding one.. hot flashes, sometimes my skin just feels like it's overheating haha

[anxiousjo]

prickling, phantom water drops, cold stream up my arm, its very strange and driving me crazy!!

[Liziik]

I get the prickly feeling! It gets to me so much I have to go to sleep to get rid of it! And I wake up without it! Drives me mad! Xx

[princesszelda]

All of it...bad! I have talked with two docs who are not too concerned at this point. :/ It sure feels scary though.

[KeeKee]

I got the phantom water drops a few week ago! They were scary. I get a prickly sensation especially on my feet when sandals are on them. I believe this is called paresthesis.

[anxious_thoughts]

I don't constantly have them but I do get prickly feelings all over and sometimes a cold or hot sensation on my scalp.

Right now I'm actually going through prickly sensations all over. They feel itchy.
I'm also worried about a neurological problem, but I feel if we did have one we would have more severe symptoms.

[applewine]

I get water and burning sensations all over my body. Sometimes it is provoked by compression, scratching, movement and other times it seems to be random.

I did a search for these symptoms and have found people on anxiety forums posting these symptoms, as well as some general health forums.

Having these symptoms has made me very worried because I don't know what is causing them.

I've had these kind of symptoms three times in my life. The first was many years ago and it was just in my legs. It felt like cold water pouring down my legs when I sat, so it was provoked by compression. That lasted six months or a year or so and went away. If it was caused by nutrition, I was drinking a very unhealthy amount of alcohol at the time due to feeling depressed.

The next time was years later and is a longer story. I had developed chronic pain in my neck/jaw/upper back/temples etc. and found out it was myofascial trigger points so I went to trigger point massage therapist. She gave me the name of a doctor to check me out to see if I had any perpetuating factors that would prevent recovery. I went to him and one way or another got a non-standard lyme disease test and he said I had it. I then researched it and went to another doctor somewhat like him who only treats lyme disease to just give it a try. About two weeks into the antibiotics I started to get weird snow flake or water drop sensations all over my body. Also some tingling in the thigh when sitting, then some burning randomly. After much involvement in this new lyme disease community and doing research I decided it was a bunch pseudo-scientific nonsense and that I didn't have lyme disease.

The symptoms continued for maybe 6 months or more. After a few months I got constant burning in my feet like I was walking on hot coals. That worried me a lot, but it only lasted a few weeks and went away.

I went to a neurologist at Johns Hopkins and got a skin small nerve fiber biopsy and it was negative. The local neurologists and general practitioners didn't have anything to say. The nurologist suggested that these things can be caused by the immune system, but I have no tests to prove that.

After some more months it eventually went away, but I didn't record exactly when. It came back over a year later and I was very upset.

I have a theory that it could be related to diet and nutrition. I remembered that the first time I got it like this I was experimenting with a low carb diet and was probably 6 months into it. The second time it happened I was exactly 6 months into an extreme ketogenic diet which is high fat and oils for calories and extremely low carb like lettuce only. This is a very extreme and unusual diet I became interested in. I had to drink salt water every day to avoid extreme nausea.

My theory is that either low carb diets caused a nutritional deficiency, or they made the body think that it was under stress like starvation and the metabolism or nervous system started freaking out. I was also at the end of a 15 day upper respiratory infection when the symptoms came back suddenly.

As soon as I got the symptoms I changed my diet to a regular diet and started taking b-complex and a multivitamin. The symptoms are still strong and I get worried not knowing what did it, but right now all I can do is wait and hope it was the diet and never do it again.

[Mr m anxious]

Ive had this feeling also, prickly skin and felt like cold water has been splashed on my stomach and chest. This is caused by muscle tension, the muscles irritate the nerves then hay presto. . Prickly itchy skin. I can assure you all its nothing to worry about. Mine lasted for a few months but has gone since I stopped worrying. You dont realise but with anxiety all your muscles tense up but you only feel it mostly in your neck, shoulder and left arm.
Hope this is of some help.