Als fear

[Eggplant345]

Hi I'm 17 and I am convinced I have als. With all these ice bucket challenges i preferred to educate myself on the disease and now I found out it was a bad idea since it listed the symptoms. What imm worried about is arm weakness. I have had arm weakness a couple of months ago which would be worse by now if I did have als, right? The weakness stopped but now it has come back and I feel as if my left arm is weaker than my right(I'm right handed) but I haven't noticed it until now and I didn't feel anything until after I read the symptoms. Is it all in my head? I feel like if I forget about it I don't feel the weakness, I have done strength tests ( walking on my toes, walking on my heels, opening a bottle of nail polish with only my thumb and index finger) but my mind still feels uneasy. Could this weakness/pain be due to my anxiety?

[Serenity1990]

The weakness stopped but now it has come back

This alone means you can't have ALS.

[RoseEve]

I agree, there is no getting better with ALS. I also noticed that there is a lot of misinformation about ALS on the internet. ALS would be you can't turn a key or button your shirt not that it feels weak or tired.

[Fishmanpa]

There are over 310,000,000+ people in the US. 30K have ALS. DO the math.

Positive thoughts

[Catherine S]

Opening a bottle of nail polish with your thumb and index finger...who can do that? That's your marker for this terrible disease? ALS is serious, please don't trivialise it. You are a 17 year old child...you don't have ALS so get on with your life. Apologies for being so blunt.

ISB x

[RoseEve]

Those are strength tests found on the internet ISB. If only we could all just snap out of it and listen to reason this board would be empty.

[ItchyOne]

If I concentrate on how my arm feels, I could psychologically make it feel weaker or bring on the tingling sensation. I'm quite sure it's just anxiety you're experiencing.

If your arm is truly weaker, it will tell you even if you don't pay attention to it. Two months ago, my left arm (I'm left handed!) was really weak, tingling and even cold down to my fingers. I went to an arm specialist who did some test and indeed it was weaker than usual. One test he did was to get my left pinky finger all curled up, then he would try to unbend it. He was able to unbend it with ease, but when the same experiement was done on my right pinky, he couldn't unbend it unless he applies lots of force.

Anyway long story short, I worried about MS/ALS, but turns out it was just a pinched nerve close to my shoulder level. I was playing badminton and I must have injured it somehow. The recovery was slow, but my arm is feeling much better and the weakness is now gone.

Well, from the way you described how you feel, I'm quite sure you are fine. :)

[Catherine S]

My apologies to Rose Eve and to the poster. I didn't realise this as I don't google symptoms...i'm only going on what I read about the disease in the papers and the math as Fishmanpa Mark pointed out.

I always seem to make the mistake of talking to the young members the way alot of mums would talk to their children in real life as in "don't be so silly, you're fine" and I make the mistake of forgetting that this kind of talk is discouraged by some members, although i'm certainly not the only person to do this. Sorry once again, but was no offence intended.

ISB x

[Jwb33w]

Been reading the threads on Als a few weeks, but just joined the other day so I can hopefully help others like this site helped me. To the OP, I did the same thing when I was watching espn a few weeks ago and saw the Pete frates interview. I immediately started to feel twitches and jerks and rushed to dr google like an idiot and have been going downhill fast. Symptoms are still present, but I have snapped out of it for the most part thanks to the good folks of nomorepanic, heed their advice and relax, you're fine :)

[Brunette]

My apologies to Rose Eve and to the poster. I didn't realise this as I don't google symptoms...i'm only going on what I read about the disease in the papers and the math as Fishmanpa Mark pointed out.

I always seem to make the mistake of talking to the young members the way alot of mums would talk to their children in real life as in "don't be so silly, you're fine" and I make the mistake of forgetting that this kind of talk is discouraged by some members, although i'm certainly not the only person to do this. Sorry once again, but was no offence intended.

ISB x

There is room on here for both the sympathetic approach and the rational, no-nonsense approach (it wouldn't be much good if we all offered the same advice). Posters can take or leave what's said in any sort of comment but it should be obvious that no offence is intended.

I'm in the same camp as you. I favour tough love and hard facts over tea and sympathy. Don't change your style of posting.