Feet twitching. ALS fear

[majes1988]

Hi everyone.

28 year old male here. I know I'm not the first person on here to be posting about muscle twitching but I'm really starting to lose my mind. So here's my story.

Back in early May I had a video game marathon and, I believe, injured my right thumb because it started twitching. Of course I googled "thumb twitching" and came across ALS.:scared15: I also came across "Gamer's Thumb" but my brain ignored that and went right to ALS. So of course, as someone who has had panic attacks and anxiety disorder since I was a child (I was convinced the world was just about to end everyday from 1999 to about 2016. I take Zoloft), I completely went into a tail spin. Went to the ER twice and the doctor's basically laughed off my panic. A week and a half later the thumb stopped twitching but still had a weird feeling, so the anxiety didn't entirely die down.

Then one night my upper left calf starting twitching, but stopped the next day. About a week later the right side of my left foot started twitching. Stopped the next day. But has since come and gone randomly. Usually when I feel like I'm finally starting to relax again. So it's been coming and going for the last five months. Completely ruined my summer, I barely left my room. For about the last month I finally seemed to have kicked the panic but on Friday night, after an argument with my roommate, my left foot started twitching again. Nonstop. And now my right foot has joined in the exact same places. Basically all along the inside of the foot. My panic is back into overdrive. I'm basically surviving off of Xanax. I don't have a family doctor here and the ER doctors don't seem to take it seriously. I have no weakness that I can gauge (and oh boy have I tested), other than not being able to balance one footed with my left foot as well. But that's always been a thing with me. But I've read stories about people twitching for a long time before weakness came about. So I'm freaking out and I don't even know what I'm asking here. Reassurance? Has anyone else's feet done this? I'm at my wits end.

[Nikolai]

Twitching is one of the most common anxiety symptoms. You don't have ALS -- for one thing it's really rare (something like 1 person in 50,000 gets it, and they tend to be much, much older), and for another thing, weakness and atrophy happen first. One person in three has anxiety. That's what it is.

I'm a long-term anxiety sufferer and twitcher. My first twitches were in my fingers, and then in my calf muscles. Then started getting them elsewhere. They went away after a while -- I think it was around the time I started getting bored with the symptoms.

Now I'm getting a bit of it again because I'm having an anxious time, but at least this time I know the twitches are just anxiety. :)

Nikolai

[majes1988]

Thanks for your kind words. I keep telling myself its just anxiety, especially since its been almost six months without as much as a trip and fall, a cramp, or any other ALS symptoms. But my brain will just not let go of it. I ended up losing twenty pounds from not eating when this whole ordeal began. Ugh. And the meds don't seem to be helping. At least not enough.