Cripling, all consuming ALS fear

[Anxietyel]

Hi Guys,

So I am new to NMP but after beiing a health anxiety sufferer for many hears I realised i can not do this on my own anymore.. i ‘fixed it myself’ numerous times, but this time I am going deeper and deeper into a negative spiral and I realise i am lost. It consumes me. I cant eat, sleep, breath, work...

So to start: 5 years ago i head a bad period of HA, in my mind i had 10 types of cancer. Thank god i managed to get over it. Beiing a nervous type i did get some almost-fall backs but i managed somehow.:blush: Until 6 weeks ago........

After a period of intense stress at work and with financial stuff, i think i finally cracked at the end of novemver. I got a bad headache leading to some pretty extreme braintumor fears en bad HA. Started to see other symptoms as well and shit got crazy. From that point on, i just stopped sleeping through the night. This tells me i am in a pretty much 24/7 nonstop anxious state. Well, saw a neurologist, tests at the office were fine but got an mri last week thursday just in case. Havent got the results yet, but over the weekend i figured they would have called by now if serious.. somehow, also the headache mysteriously subsided over the weekend. Which is good.. but this is when shit REALLY gets out of hand...:weep:

Monday evening my left leg (think hamstring) starts twitching.. which is odd since I havent exercised since my Ha got really bad those 6 weeks ago. What has got me really worked up and scared to death is that the twitching continues (intermittently) to this very moment 3 days later and seems accompied by some other random twitches but nearly all in the left leg...ofcourse i was dumb enough to google and now I am terrified of ALS. Twitching from anxiety would make sense seeing the timeline, but according to the internet is not confined to one spor, ALS twitching is.. so I have been crying practically nonstop, have one after another panic attack and going absolutely crazy... i have no idea how to break out of this anymore... PLEASE HELP ME:weep:

I tried googling for reassuring statistics (im a 29 yo female) but there ia so limited data available that this didnt help... also some reassuring posts by people on ALs sites stating that the twitching comes later was totally undone by readinf posts of patients who really had twitching as a first symtom. I am lost, completely and utterly lost... :doh:

Has anyone experiences benign twitching due to anxiety for days in the same spot like a leg? Much appreciated...

[Mindprison]

ALS doesn't begin or present with muscle twitching or pain, it's a myth. The people who had twitching as a first symptom more than likely was a coincidence or they had prior problems causing the twitching and ALS wasn't originally what the doctors were looking for but found it by chance.

There are less than 20,000 new cases of ALS in the USA every year. I live in the UK but consider the population of america and then consider that only 20,000 of those people are diagnosed with ALS? You would be better off trying to win the lottery.

High anxiety and constant stress causes this. I've had constant high anxiety for over 2 years and I get spasms and twitches in my legs, chest, face and back. In the past 3 months alone i've pulled muscles in my back 4 times just by reaching up to a cupboard, all because of anxiety.

[axolotl]

Twitching and pain aren't ALS symptoms. The fact so many HA sufferers think they are show how pointless, self-destructive and delusional our frantic Google "research" sessions are.

In terms of twitching, my calf muscles have twitched for years. The only time I mentioned it to a medical professional I don't think they could have been less concerned by it.

[Fishmanpa]

Please read THIS (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=196071)and please, under no circumstances visit or post on an ALS forum.

Positive thoughts

[Colicab85]

I echo all of the above.

Twitching is NEVER the first symptom. It comes months into the process, by which point you would have limited mobility.

Trust us.

[Anxietyel]

Thanks guys! I already felt better just writing it off and your kind responses definitely help a lot! :hugs:

I know i shouldnt visit ALS forums and will never post on them for sure. And thanks i did see that post you guys are referring to and it has helped me a lot.. there is just one line in there that bothers me/triggered me and that is the “especially if twitching all over the body”. Since mine is totally localized to my left leg and mostly left hamstring, that is what set me off on the ALS-frenzy. Therefore i do hope to find some responses here affirmative that anxiety indeed can cause localized, multiple days lasting (or even longer) twitching.

I guess everything in the situation would point to anxiety beiing the culprit, except the standard presentation is all over and not localized for almost a week. Confirmation of that beiing possible, i would surely be able to let this thing go and at least get out of the extreme downward spiral😊

[axolotl]

“especially if twitching all over the body”

All that means is it's extra reassuring when "symptoms" roam around the body, as that points to a psychological rather than neurological reason. But if it is localised to one place it doesn't negate the many, many, many reassurring reasons in that post why you categorically don't have ALS, not least of all ALS doesn't present with twitches. ;)

[Anxietyel]

Yeah that is true, it is extra reassuring. Too bad is doesnt apply to me:weep:
The only thing I guess i still am not eased about is that I reas some research on medpubjournal that said that with benign twitching in legs it is almost always in the calves or feet, and that ‘twitching above the knee is suspicious and warrants forther investigation’. Okay, granted, it was a 58 people cohort study and i am not sure how it was set up and stuff.. i get all that.. but does that mean twitching localized above the knee means trouble?? I read that BFS can cause twitching anywhere, though i never read anywhere that someone had prolongued twitching in the hamstrings, thighs or quads. Anyone experience episodes of that by chance?

[axolotl]

Too bad is doesnt apply to me

Don't chase the bad in a super-reassuring thread! It doesn't matter if the thread is 99.98% reassuring or 99.99% reasurring!


I reas some research on medpubjournal

I always say this to people with respect, but unless you're a medic or a scientist you're little-equipped to read medical journals and understand their context and veracity.

[Mindprison]

Yeah that is true, it is extra reassuring. Too bad is doesnt apply to me:weep:
The only thing I guess i still am not eased about is that I reas some research on medpubjournal that said that with benign twitching in legs it is almost always in the calves or feet, and that ‘twitching above the knee is suspicious and warrants forther investigation’. Okay, granted, it was a 58 people cohort study and i am not sure how it was set up and stuff.. i get all that.. but does that mean twitching localized above the knee means trouble?? I read that BFS can cause twitching anywhere, though i never read anywhere that someone had prolongued twitching in the hamstrings, thighs or quads. Anyone experience episodes of that by chance?

A load of nonsense as far as i'm concerned. I'm double jointed and have experienced muscle spasms and twitches in my thighs and the rest of my legs for that matter due to how sensitive my joints are.

Couple that with the fact that the spasms and pains get worse when my anxiety spikes and i'd be willing to bet that unless you're a doctor it's impossible for anyone who isn't in the medical field to look at such a study in a reasonable way.

Plus, y'know, we've all reassured you that twitching is not an early symptom or sign of ALS which was the primary concern here, don't let it jump to something else.

[Anxietyel]

Im so sorry you are right, I am grateful.. it can just be soooo consuming u know? Im gonna try to let it go.. thanks all:hugs:

[melfish]

Considering that twitching in ALS comes AFTER or at least along with clinical weakness, and that weakness in ALS starts distally (ie the feet/hands) then works up, I would say you have nothing to worry about. You need to stop focusing on outlier case studies - they are the exceptions that prove the rule, and you are not that special ;)
Also, there are fewer than 6000 new cases of ALS in the US per year; 20K is the prevalence, not the incidence. Without a family history, the chances of getting ALS at 29 are in the several million to one odds range

[Mindprison]

Im so sorry you are right, I am grateful.. it can just be soooo consuming u know? Im gonna try to let it go.. thanks all:hugs:

Hey don't worry about it, I know how it is cause i've been there and still get it myself. It's not easy but the earlier you put it down to anxiety the less likely you are to spiral like myself and so many others have.

You're gonna be fine, trust me :)