Does anyone else get this?

[CleverLittleViper]

I'm not especially concerned because I'm assuming this is all part and parcel of the anxiety experience.

When I walk, I sometimes find that the back of my right thigh feels numb or as if someone is pressing their thumb onto it. I feel this sensation right up into my butt. Sometimes, I notice the same sensation on the front of my left thigh just above my knee.

It is sometimes present when I'm sitting down. Is it possible this is just anxiety or should I go to the doctor for advice?

[Liziik]

I haven't had this one in particular but had similar.
I think with us who suffer with health anxiety the things that 'normal' people would just brush over and not think twice about we do. And we fixate which highlights the feeling so we notice it more.

Do you find when your busy doing something it's not there? Or like first thing in the morning it's not there until you think about it?

[CleverLittleViper]

It does come and go.

Today, I went for a HIV test (so I was in a high anxiety state anyway) and after getting the all-clear, I decided to go and do a spot of Christmas shopping as a reward. I would say I was still anxious, and all of a sudden, this sensation appears at the back of my thigh and around my buttocks, including the outer edges of my left buttock.

It kind of felt like it had gone to sleep somewhat, but not fully numb. It had full sensation, and I could walk fine. The two times it's happened, I was wearing the same jeans and now I'm wondering if maybe they're too tight?

Maybe it's sciatica. But of course the anxiety in me is whispering that it's MS. It's stupid because I've been told by two doctors that I don't have MS, what I have is anxiety.

I think its probable that it is all just anxiety. It would seem a little too coincidental that I do tend to get numbness as a symptom and then this new form of "numbness" (I'm not even sure it should be called that because I have full sensation and function) comes along, and it indicates something else.

More than likely, this is just a new way for anxiety to come at me.

[cpe1978]

You need to recognise the reassurance pattern you are in and do whatever you can to break it. What are you doing to tackle the fact that whilst you don't obviously have a physical health condition, you do obviously have health anxiety - a very real mental health condition.

Hope that isn't too direct but you see so many people on this forum stuck in a spiral and there is really only one way out of it in my view and that is breaking the cycle.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Muscle tension is very common in anxiety disorders and because you have HA, you will think the worst of it. As CPE says, its part of the pattern. Part of recovery in any anxiety disorder is accepting that symptoms are just that, but its always a very hard process.

As you said, it could be sciatica. I have sciatica and it sounds like mine, except that mine is more lower leg and buttock on the left side. Since the nerve runs all the way down the leg from the lower back, you can feel it anywhere along that path and not necessarily all the way. If I get a flare up with it, it can be all the way otherwise it tends to be more isolated in several places.

You know what the GP's have said about the MS and you have recognised that its an unhealthy thought pattern that is looking at this symptom and assuming the worst when you have also had thought patterns that are more healthy in that you could also see it as sciatica.

Do some stretching exercises for the sciatic nerve to improve it.

[Mindknot]

Hmmm, yeah I had a weird leg focus thing the other week, I had been in the gym, but it didn't feel like muscle pain, more nervy, that went but left the residual "awareness", I thought my calves had gone numb at one point and it turned out to be the edge of my calf-length boots touching it. When my focus was on my belly, I had a problem with waistbands, I've even had wrinkles in my trousers freaking me out! :roflmao:

So, quite possibly your hyper awareness has just shifted, try wearing looser jeans for a bit. :)

[CleverLittleViper]

Thank you everyone. :flowers:

I think it might have just been hyper-awareness. Today, I noticed the same feeling when I was walking my dog, right where my sweatpants touched my legs. I think maybe I'm just focusing too much on perfectly normal sensations.

I also think I have habits of tensing up and that seems to create the same sensation of numbness. It doesn't stop me functioning so I know its not MS, and it comes and goes so it's definitely not that.

It could be something like sciatica, exacerbated by anxiety or just a perfectly normal bodily sensation, or caused by muscle tension. Probably a benign thing, either way. If it gets worse, I'll ask my friend who is a nurse to have a quick look at it, and see what she thinks (if its worth going to the docs) but I don't think it is anything serious.

[Libra]

This is an older thread but answering as some things very similar to what im getting.. I have had sciatic probs for many years.They usually flare up for up to a week and then settle so im used to the numbness and tingling in legs..
Recently, I had light tingling and a weak kind of feel back of left hip down to calf and foot left leg and below knee right leg. When I get this it seems that my shoulder area same side tightens up too.. Anyone else get this ?