View Full Version : My fears on ALS
Hi
About 8 weeks ago i got a twitch in my abdomen and knowing myself i looked it up on the internet. I freaked myself out when i saw that it could be ALS. Ever since that point i’ve been super anxious and twitches happen all the time now that i’ve looked it up. These never happened before i looked it up. Anyways i’m scared because they won’t go away. The twitches occur all over my body. first it will be in my left knee then my leg then my arm etc. I know in my mind there’s nothing wrong it’s just i need proof. Also i often have perceived weakness which also leads to worse anxiety. The twitches can be ones that can move my clothing to millisecond twitches. I am just worried. i’m only 16 years old. And my great great grandmother and great grandmother had als. please help
Not at 16... Not at all...
Please read this. (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=196071)
Positive thoughts
The youngest person to ever get ALS was 16
Hey Tyler,
I know you're new to the forum. The ALS rabbit hole is a really scary and deep hole to fall into. If you do a search for the subject, you'll see that many here recently are right in there with you. The positive is that no one has it or is even close to having it including you. I know you can't really see that at the moment but it's the reality.
I'm personally more concerned that at 16, you're suffering from anxiety. It can be as debilitating as any physical disease. My advice would be to speak with your parents or school counselor about your fear and get some help.
Positive thoughts
On the site you told me to read says that have it 2 or more relatives who had als is what causes the young people to get it so.. i have 2 blood relatives who got it
On the site you told me to read says that have it 2 or more relatives who had als is what causes the young people to get it so.. i have 2 blood relatives who got it
From the page:
Now let's take your age into consideration. Again, only 5% are diagnosed prior to age 30, so to get that percentage, simply take 0.002% and multiply it by 5% (i.e. 0.05). That gives a percentage of 0.0001% or a 1 in million chance . . . and that's at best. Again, the further away from 30 you are, the more diminished your chances".
Please also take into account that a high proportion of young onset ALS is familial so if you do not have at least 2 blood relatives with ALS your chances are even less than above statistics suggest.
It says that your chances would be less than the astronomically low chances listed.
You have no symptoms! It's about failing not feeling. Twitching is NOT a symptom of the onset (.) period.
Again, I urge you to speak with your parents or a trusted adult about getting help with your anxiety. The replies you're posting are very familiar patterns of HA.
Good luck and as always...
Positive thoughts
So it being easier to pick something up with my right arm than it is my left arm isn’t muscle weakness. And the same thing with my right leg. Although when I don’t measure my weakness or forget to measure I don’t notice. I really just need assurance that I don’t have als. Yesterday I went to the gym for an hour and went on a elliptical machine. I wouldn’t be able to do that if I had als right?
Yesterday I went to the gym for an hour and went on a elliptical machine. I wouldn’t be able to do that if I had als right?
What is the "logical" answer to that question? (It's a yes or no answer)
Positive thoughts
Tyler, you're too young to be worrying about ALS. If the youngest person to get it was 16 why does that matter, it's still rare in people of your age, of course these things happen.
You have an amazing thread posted by fish, if you give that a read instead of all the horror websites you will feel better soon, the more you think about symptoms your head will believe you have them. It's anxiety.
I strongly advise you seek help for your anxiety, it can be crippling just like a psychical illness and requires a medical professional to help you with your anxiety before it gets too bad.
Good luck
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Hey is it normal to have one leg that is larger than the other or one arm is larger than the other because i’m scared that i have als and one of the symptoms is muscle atrophy?
I seriously think you're reading too much up on this, you wouldn't know your muscle size wasn't the same unless one was abnormally larger than the other. You're 16. Go outside and enjoy life.
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Hi
This is just a courtesy reply to let you know that your thread was merged with another of your threads
It is nothing personal it is just to make it easier for people to follow your story and to give you advice as a whole.
Elen
Our bodies are asymmetrical. In ALS, weakness ALWAYS comes before atrophy. ALS is not a disease of the muscles, but the nerves that supply the muscles. If you're not weak, as in unable to do something you used to be able to do, it's not atrophy from ALS.
Also, you're 16. Find something else to worry about.
i don't know what advice i can give you because i suffer from the same anxiety it's been almost a year since my muscle twitching started... i stops for some periods but now it started again and i'm so worried...it's all over my body too..
at 16 i doubt you have it though!
Yeah i’ve measure my left arm from my right and my left is smaller and i think it’s weaker, but my right hand is dominant and arm and leg so does that make sense? Is this normal?
Yeah i’ve measure my left arm from my right and my left is smaller and i think it’s weaker, but my right hand is dominant and arm and leg so does that make sense? Is this normal?
Totally normal for the dominant side to be both bigger and stronger
Why are you even measuring your muscles? You're 16 and seriously going to fall into health anxiety bad at this age, you aren't a trained GP you will never truly know your size, what's normal what's not.
Best advice would be to leave it alone until you have something to worry about.
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Well lately,along with my left arm being smaller it’s alsi been weaker. like lately i find that it’s easier to do everything with my right even if it’s picking up a book. i’m my definition of weakness different from the actual definition of weakness and is this normal?
Hi everyone, I know where tylercc is coming from. health anxiety is a disturbing illness. I have also currently convinced myself I have ALS or something of the sort. I'm a 21 year old female and I recently had 'something' on my mri but no symptoms whatsoever apart from muscle twitching. It was given to me by an eye specialist not a neurologist and he has misdiagnosed me twice recently. however this has made my mind run like the wind although I feel as healthy as ever. muscle twitching is a sign on benign fasciculation syndrome and I hope I have that, but my mri makes me doubtful of this.
thanks,
annalise
ALS is not diagnosed via MRI.
Where does this idea come from that muscle twitching is a symptom of ALS? There are so many people out there who come on here thinking this. I'm curious as to where this idea originated.
Comes up quick-smart in any google search. The ALS Association and Mayo, among others, list it as a symptom.
I had white matter on my mri scan but he didn't tell me what it was. I'm literally going out my mind. he said white matter can be a sign on ms. but I have no symptoms whatsoever. healthy. apart from muscle twitching, I don't know what to do.
Twitching in the absence of clinical weakness means nothing. Everyone twitches. Stress makes it worse.
I know that, I would put it down to benign fasciculation syndrome, but my mri had differences on it.
Have a neurologist read the MRI. White spots are common and nonspecific. They can mean lots of things. I have them from migraines.
that makes me feel better, your right about that. its probably non specific
thank you
Comes up quick-smart in any google search. The ALS Association and Mayo, among others, list it as a symptom.
I just did a search for it. ALS didn’t show up until the second page. I got benign fasculation, dehydration, charley horse, etc. I’m thinking that Google is more likely to show the more severe causes to people who already search up some pretty serious conditions.
Drop the word "tongue" in there ...
Annie - I'm in the same boat.
I started off with twitching in my left thenar area while pregnant, but OBGYN chalked it up to pregnancy-related.
After having my son, twitching continued with some pain and my doctor referred me for EMG in June, which came back fine. Twitching and pain continue, and twitching also moved to my left foot. At this point, my anxiety was sky-rocketing because I had googled twitching and A*S came up. I also felt some tingling in my face, so doctor referred me for an MRI to "rule out MS". Went to get my MRI results and my GP says "Oh, you're not crazy...you have MS"!
So, needless to say, my anxiety went through the roof and I had a major nervous breakdown as I have 2 small children (4 and 11 months). I had to be medicated with Cymbalta for anxiety and Trazadone to sleep at night. The weird part is, my fear of A** continued and I seemed to be more fixated on that then MS. My twitching increased and spread to various areas of my body, including my mouth and now my tongue. Super scary.
After seeing 3 neurologists (who have all reassured me that I don't have A** by the way), it looks unlikely that I even have MS after all as I had a spinal test done that came back negative, and evoked potentials tests done that all came back negative as well. I have had extensive blood work done to rule out a bunch of other diseases. Apparently, white matter changes in brain can occur for no real reason.
Waiting to see an MS specialist in December, to get another opinion.
Twitchy5377
20-10-17, 19:31
I have bodywide and tongue twitching too. I'm terrified about ALS.
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