Distracting from muscle/nerve concerns

[Sollace]

Hello everybody.

I posted a few days ago about a twitching finger I had. Whilst the twitching has now completely stopped, I am in the throes of worry over whether I have some terrible neuro-muscular condition like MS or ALS.

What worries me currently is that the finger that was twitching definitely feels stiffer than my index finger on my right hand, and feels incapable of rapidly tapping as quickly as the right index finger (hardly the gold standard test, I know). Other concerns include occasional feelings of numbness or tingling, aching, a few short lived headaches and starting yesterday rather bad depersonalisation. I've had a few panic attacks where my neck has gone completely numb and ached a great deal as well which has contributed to the worry.

Clearly, I am afraid of the prospects of this being some terrible disease and have been under a great deal of stress. I can't help but constantly meticulously observe my manual dexterity when carrying glasses of drinks or picking something up. I'm so tired of being scared of this. I tried to stay away from this site yesterday to see if it made my obsession subside, but it seemed to only make it worse.

The depersonalisation is getting worse, and I am getting frantic with worry. Just over a week ago I thought I was completely healthy- and as soon as that twitch started I've been obsessing over all manner of these symptoms. I've been unable to get much sleep due to worrying about feeling like my left arm is wearing a shoulder length glove or that my speech is slurring.

I'm at a loss of what to do at this point. I'm sure others around here have worried about similar things, and I really would like to know if anything worked for you. I'd rather not go to the doctors as I have been there a great deal recently, but I feel like I am running out of other options.

[Fishmanpa]

Don't go down the ALS path... just don't! There's nothing at all that indicates that! Please read this... (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=196071)

Getting professional help for your anxiety is not a crime and I'm sure if you asked your GP for a referral you would get it no problem!

Positive thoughts

[maianixon]

All of this sounds very much like anxiety. Try to seek some help for anxiety, the sooner you do it the better and HA is such s terrible slippery slope. And try to resist constant checking because the more you check and overanalyse it the less sure you will be and the sensations will just start to feel more and more weird and unnatural. If you had one of those diseases the chances are they would make themselves obvious without constant checking and analysing them.

I know how hard it is, I've been stuck in MS fear myself for a couple of months now and its horrible, but the sooner you accept thay it's caused by anxiety and start working on it, the better :)

[Sollace]

That was a great read, thanks. I'm worried about the thought that I'll wake up to find my stiff finger has stopped working, but I suppose if we let every "what if" bother us, we'd never have a moment of peace. It is probably worth going to see if I can get something further done about my anxiety, I'm just worried I'll show up and start asking for tests to prove there's nothing wrong rather than talk about health anxiety.

[maianixon]

I'm just worried I'll show up and start asking for tests to prove there's nothing wrong rather than talk about health anxiety.

That's why most doctors and therapists have a lot of experience in brinhing you back to the right topic instead of giving you endless reassurance that won't actually benefit you. I go to each of my therapy appointments wanting to just endlessly analyse all my symptoms but after a couple of minutes my therapist is done listening to it and makes me come back to the actual issue which is anxiety. So don't worry thats normal, but people qualified to help you will know how to deal with that 😊