Reoccuring twitching and uncomfortable tongue feeling

[Ttbot]

Hello all, new here. I have been lurking on these forums for a few months due to a recent anxiety onset. In 2013 I was diagnosed with GAD and Panic Disorder, but went off my meds in 2016 before moving to Japan.

I now live in Japan and have been back on Zoloft 50mg for my anxiety and panic attacks related to my health. Seeing doctors has been difficult. I have gotten: 6 blood tests, 3 xrays, and a CT scan of my head/neck between two different hospitals. Everyone says I'm completely fine.

For 2 months now I've had non-painful twitching mainly in my legs (calfs). While typing this both legs are doing it. Doctors have denied me and EMG after prelim examination, thinking I don't need it. I started taking magnesium and do a TON of walking and some exercise, so it could be fatigue. Also had digestive problems and might've not been digesting all them vitamins well enough.

For the past few weeks I've been having a lot of trouble talking, my voice keeps getting worse. And as the days go by, my tongue feels more and more swollen. I have this urge to bite it after I talk. It hurts, and I'm trying my best to not perceive any slurring. Doctor has been on H2 acid blockers thinking it might be gerd, but symptoms are persisting even on them.

Being in Japan its really hard to get answers from Doctors thoroughly so I guess I'm here for reassurance.

So 2 months of:
Extreme leg twitching but no spasms
on and off globus

4 weeks of:
no voice and tongue hurting

I feel like I'm rambling now. The twitching makes me anxious, and now my loss of voice is making me anxious again. I don't feel exhausted and the zoloft has made me a lot more energetic and happy. But in the back of my mind i'm still freaking out about my health. I want the damn twitching to stop!!!

[Scotttt]

If you look around this forum at all your will see that there are TONS of people dealing with twitching. My advice would be to accept your doctors advice and move on. If they thought there was even a remote chance of something serious they would have granted you the EMG.

Trust me, you do not want to get stuck in the black hole of worrying about twitches. I am currently fighting my way out of it and it is rough.

The more you focus on twitches the more you twitch. Today I was worried about one in my arm and I focused on it, and then I started getting them all over.

Know you are not alone in worrying about twitches and they are almost certainly because of anxiety or some other benign cause. I know this isn't easy to accept, I have trouble myself, but please try.

Best wishes

[Michelle1]

Hello fellow twitcher, I only posted yesterday about my experience with twitches. I saw a neurologist who diagnosed bfs. Read up on it and see if it fits your description. It's totally benign just very annoying. I've had mine 2 years now. The more you focus on them the more your giving them attention the worse they get. I get them as soon as I wake up on a morning till I go to sleep at night. Awful things but I have no weakness, if you get weakness it's worth doing a emg. I'm not sure what triggered mine possibly coming off an antihistamine after 5 years daily use (as it started that week) or maybe anxiety but as of yesterday and the advice I got on here I've decided to pay no more attention to them and just let them do there worst. They can't hurt me. I suggest you try that approach too. Take care

---------- Post added at 07:10 ---------- Previous post was at 07:07 ----------

Oh also about the voice thing, I get that too. Think it could be to do with the vagus nerve being stimulated

[FreakOutQueen]

Hi twitchy friend, I also suffer from these awful twitches in my calves nearly 24/7. Some things that have helped me are to avoid alcohol (makes them 20x worse), taking baths with Epsom salts, and to not think about them. Mine came on really quickly and I was told I have low calcium, which could be the culprit. I truthfully think I have BFS on a good day and the dreaded neuro nasty on a bad day. What brings me comfort is to read stories of everyone else who twitches. I'm sure if you looked about this site you could find others whose symptoms closely resemble yours. From what I have read about EMGs, it isn't a good idea to get one without clinical weakness because of the likelihood of having a false positive, which sends anxiety sufferers like you and me into a tailspin unnecessarily. Try to think positive as hard as it is. I'm sure you will be okay!

[Ttbot]

Sorry for not following up sooner.

Thanks everyone. Im finally coming to a conclusion of my anxiety bout after figuring out all of my problems are gastrointestinal problems. Loss of voice, throat pain, globus, all of it is cause of GERD. Maybe the GERD is because of my recent anxiety, maybe not.

The muscle twitches are also maybe a side effect of low magnesium because of the GERD meds I was taking. I'm on new gastro meds so hopefully they stop. I have zero muscle weakness, as I'm totally able to do a full 30 minute workout. It was all in my head.

To be completely honest I didn't notice a single leg twitch today until I came back to this thread and thought about them. Our bodies really are weird.

[Ancient Weaver]

Hi Ttbot, :)
Did you increase your protein intake to cover all the exercise you are doing?
You should probably have increased it when your anxiety came back too, as stress also increases our bodies need for protein.

The leg twitches, is it restless leg syndrome or myoclonic jerks?
I've never had myoclonic jerks frequently enough to try and find a remedy, but I've had RLS for years on and off. I mostly associate it with fatigue, but I suspect that the real underlying cause is mineral/electrolyte deficiency.
A salty drink usually helps but the magnesium I took to help my sleep seems to have longer lasting benefit. I expect what helps most depends on what you are most depleted in.

Just seen, in your last sentence, "until I . . . thought about them". I had exactly the same thing happen a few months ago, no twitching worth mentioning for ages, then read about it on a forum, and it started up pretty bad. Thankfully this time I'm well shot of it, and it's only brought back a memory of the ache that comes with it.