Doing better - but nervous about neuro exam on Thursday

[FreakOutQueen]

Hi everyone,

I have been working really hard in therapy on my health anxiety and as a whole I feel less panicky when I notice a symptom. I have a neuro exam on Thursday just to chat about my twitchy toes and calf muscles (on both legs/feet) and I'm hoping that will be enough to put my ALS fears to bed. I really don't want an EMG. I guess I was hoping that my twitching would have gone away by now with my decreased anxiety overall, but it hasn't and that scares me. Does it take a while once you feel less anxious for our physical manifestations of symptoms to go away?

[Fishmanpa]

Anxiety and stress are hard on the body. Until you get it under control, your body will be reacting to the stress it's under. It could be weeks or months until things calm down. That depends on you and the severity of your illness and how hard you work on getting better.

Remember..

Anxiety is like a campfire. When you're in the midst of a spiral the fire is burning bright and hot. When the flames die down, there's still a bed of red hot coals burning away just waiting for some more fuel. You may not feel anxious but your body is still on high alert and has a bed of hot anxiety coals inside just waiting to flare up. Just like a campfire, the hot coals of anxiety take a long time to finally go out.

Good Luck and as always...

Positive thoughts

[FreakOutQueen]

Thank you so much, Fishmanpa. I figured even thought I don't FEEL as fight or flighty, the amount of cortisol running through my veins from my 6 months of sheer panic is still very much there. I will say, overall, when I don't think about the twitching, they are much less obvious. There were even a few days over vacation where I hardly felt any at all. I really want to put this health anxiety to rest and enjoy my life. Thank you so much for your response. I like the campfire analogy!