worried about neuro-degenerative disorder

[worriedk]

Hi all,

I've been dealing with HA for around 1-2 years now. I've a lot of different scares which were eventually wrote off as anxiety, my usual routine of calming down from some weird symptoms is getting rational arguments (something statistics wise really helps) and visiting a doctor I feel like I trust.

This time I have the following symptoms (for a week now):
* I get all kinds of strange symptoms in my arms(mostly hands) and legs(mostly feet). I get twitching, buzzing, weakness, pain, numbness. The symptoms come and go - rotate, and are in all sorts of patterns and intensities.
* Currently while I am typing this I notice that sometimes I miss a key or type a word incorrectly, like my finger twitches or is weak to press something, I do not want to work a computer as a result of this feeling.
* Also at the moment im feeling my right foot hurt near the ankle and my right arm at the wrist, it's sort of a tingling sensation, also my lips feel numb (and I recently got the thoughts to go check my smile if it is all okay for some reason, yet I do not want to go to do that, because I feel like it won't end up okay and will raise even more anxiety).
* My hands and feet feel like they are going to twitch any moment like very tense, really annoying and stressing.

I have an appointment to a neurologist tomorrow and I'm very scared of MS (or any other neuro degenerative disease). Another reason I'm scared of MS is that my grandmothers sister had MS and I don't know how much this raises the chances but I definitely don't want to read about it. I haven't read about MS itself with what the symptoms sound like even, so I'm anxious and clueless.

I'm 22, Male. GAD for around 2 years, therapy every week, on alprazolam and escitalopram atm.

Any advice is very welcome , I have this like anxiety feeling like life is over and I'll spend the rest of my days with some horrible symptoms or whatever.

:(

[Kramze]

Hi all,

I've been dealing with HA for around 1-2 years now. I've a lot of different scares which were eventually wrote off as anxiety, my usual routine of calming down from some weird symptoms is getting rational arguments (something statistics wise really helps) and visiting a doctor I feel like I trust.

This time I have the following symptoms (for a week now):
* I get all kinds of strange symptoms in my arms(mostly hands) and legs(mostly feet). I get twitching, buzzing, weakness, pain, numbness. The symptoms come and go - rotate, and are in all sorts of patterns and intensities.
* Currently while I am typing this I notice that sometimes I miss a key or type a word incorrectly, like my finger twitches or is weak to press something, I do not want to work a computer as a result of this feeling.
* Also at the moment im feeling my right foot hurt near the ankle and my right arm at the wrist, it's sort of a tingling sensation, also my lips feel numb (and I recently got the thoughts to go check my smile if it is all okay for some reason, yet I do not want to go to do that, because I feel like it won't end up okay and will raise even more anxiety).
* My hands and feet feel like they are going to twitch any moment like very tense, really annoying and stressing.

I have an appointment to a neurologist tomorrow and I'm very scared of MS (or any other neuro degenerative disease). Another reason I'm scared of MS is that my grandmothers sister had MS and I don't know how much this raises the chances but I definitely don't want to read about it. I haven't read about MS itself with what the symptoms sound like even, so I'm anxious and clueless.

I'm 22, Male. GAD for around 2 years, therapy every week, on alprazolam and escitalopram atm.

Any advice is very welcome , I have this like anxiety feeling like life is over and I'll spend the rest of my days with some horrible symptoms or whatever.

:(

I am currently experiencing similar symptoms. My right arm has been pretty weird for 1½ months, and it feels like it's getting worse :(.

I've been to a neurologist 2 times now, but he dismissed neurological disease after blood samples, reflex testing and strength tests.

My symptoms:
- Weird feeling in elbow (almost like buzzing, but it's not painful)
- It sometimes extends to my middle finger all the way up to my right shoulder
- Tightness on the back of my right hand and thumb
- Seems like my fingers resting position on my right hand are different than my left hand (the fingers are slightly more extended than on my left hand)
- When clenching my right hand it feels like my fingers are slightly swollen
- Right hand feels more clumsy than my left hand
- Twitching all over my body (it has become less frequent now after 3 weeks)
- Legs sometimes feel heavy and rubbery
- Often slight pain in right leg and feeling of tightness in right foot

I went to my doctor again after experiencing a gradual worsening of my right arm, but he said that he couldn't see any pattern in my symptoms and dismissed it as a mental problem. As of now, I'm living with these symptoms and hoping for the best (I don't wanna burden him with frequent visits, if he's sure that it's psychological problems).

I'm also experiencing a minor change in my keyboard strokes with my right hand, and it feels like I'm getting slightly more typing errors than usual, but I think it's a figment of my imagination.

I hope this can be reassuring for you as we're in the same boat with our thoughts.

P.s: I've also created a thread some time ago, where I've described my short journey of fearing neurological diseases. You can check it out if you feel like it.

[ServerError]

Kamze -

Your doctor isn't "dismissing" it as a mental disorder. He is diagnosing you with a condition that needs treating. His opinion is that the perceived symptoms indicated a psychological illness.

You do not have to live with it and hope for the best. You have a condition that requires treating.

[Kramze]

Kamze -

Your doctor isn't "dismissing" it as a mental disorder. He is diagnosing you with a condition that needs treating. His opinion is that the perceived symptoms indicated a psychological illness.

You do not have to live with it and hope for the best. You have a condition that requires treating.
Wish I had money for such treatment, guess I'll stick to online reassurance.

[ServerError]

Are you saying that you can't get help through the Danish health system?

[Kramze]

Are you saying that you can't get help through the Danish health system?

Psychologists cost money and I'm currently signed up for a session with a psychiatrist; which is free. Problem is that I've been there before and he told me to try cognitive therapy, but didn't really do anything to progress the evaluation. CT isn't covered by the state, and I'm studying atm, so my economy is very limited

[Fishmanpa]

guess I'll stick to online reassurance.

There is a FREE CBT (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=211324) course here. Just like it takes hard work to recover from a serious physical illness (I know 1st hand), it takes an equal amount of work to recover from mental illness.

Reassurance never works and just feeds your dragon. If you're going to rely on reassurance, you're just resigning yourself to your illness.

Positive thoughts

[ServerError]

Agree with the above. If you rely solely on reassurance from forums, your chances of getting better and living a better life are very low. You might get temporary reassurance, but a new worry will soon emerge and the cycle will continue because the underlying issue is not being addressed. Anxiety forums are also full of negativity and discussion of illness so you'll be surrounding yourself with things that hinder your recovery.

[worriedk]

Thank you guys for your input!

@Kramze it really helps to hear that you've encountered similar symptoms and your neurologist has advised that all is ok - I understand the position you're in but when I have doubts about a doctor I just go privately for a second opinion, but we have to understand that doctors go through years of medical training and have seen many cases of the 'bad' diseases before, so if he had any reason to suspect anything he would have definitely ordered extra tests.

On topic - currently symptom wise im back to both hands and feet feeling achy... i have two appointments set with different neurologists at different clinics, I hope they will advise me with whats wrong. :(

I have been to my GP who just told me to take vitamin B for 2 weeks and return,
My psychotherapist is saying that this is my anxiety, not a disease, but as these symptoms occur first time for me I have serious trouble believing her for some reason.

[Kramze]

There is a FREE CBT (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=211324) course here. Just like it takes hard work to recover from a serious physical illness (I know 1st hand), it takes an equal amount of work to recover from mental illness.

Reassurance never works and just feeds your dragon. If you're going to rely on reassurance, you're just resigning yourself to your illness.

Positive thoughts

Thanks for the link, I hope it can provide some insight to my problem! But you're right, it's just fuel for the flames to stick around and get reassurance (my reply was also slightly sarcastic, indicating helplessness :weep:)


Thank you guys for your input!

@Kramze it really helps to hear that you've encountered similar symptoms and your neurologist has advised that all is ok - I understand the position you're in but when I have doubts about a doctor I just go privately for a second opinion, but we have to understand that doctors go through years of medical training and have seen many cases of the 'bad' diseases before, so if he had any reason to suspect anything he would have definitely ordered extra tests.

On topic - currently symptom wise im back to both hands and feet feeling achy... i have two appointments set with different neurologists at different clinics, I hope they will advise me with whats wrong. :(

I have been to my GP who just told me to take vitamin B for 2 weeks and return,
My psychotherapist is saying that this is my anxiety, not a disease, but as these symptoms occur first time for me I have serious trouble believing her for some reason.

I hope that you'll be able to resolve the issue in the future, as you can see in this thread, I'm no better than the other guy with HA. What's really annoying with this condition, is that it keeps spawning new symptoms, and as a result you suddenly have a new disease to worry about. I'm really beginning to believe this mind over matter after suffering from this for years. It's crazy how much your mind can make you feel.

[worriedk]

Update:
I've been to two neurologists today, they have performed a neurological exam (i'd call it at least) where they ask you to raise your hands, touch nose, pinch with needle etc.

Both doctors have advised me that they see no symptoms, but weren't really reassuring and one of them mentioned "for your own calmness you could get an MRT scan" (magnetic resonance tomography I believe it translates to). So I've got my MRT scheduled for tomorrow - one of the prerequisites was a creatine blood test (CK blood test), so I've done that as well and I'm basically waiting for the tomorrows test now.

I've also signed up for a different neurologists visit when I will have the scan results(because the first one went on holiday and the second one I did not like that much.

Currently I still have the same arm + leg combination of symptoms, I feel very "not relaxed" and hypervigilant, noticing my hands/fingers sometime twitch when I'm doing something..
The most irritating part is I cannot really work, not that I cant but I don't want to as it is very uncomfortable when hands feel so jellyish and I miss some keys while typing or mouse clicks ... can this really be anxiety guys?

[Kingdawson]

Is this all private?

[worriedk]

Is this all private?

Guessing youre asking about the healthcare, yes - private.

I do spend like 2-3 hours searching for the doctors and appointments, and it does cost a lot, but I value calmness over anything almost... at this time at least.

[Fishmanpa]

An HAer with the $$ to go private for reassurance is a dangerous and expensive combination. How many doctors will it take and is there a limit or number of normal results that will quell the fear?

Positive thoughts

[worriedk]

An HAer with the $$ to go private for reassurance is a dangerous and expensive combination. How many doctors will it take and is there a limit or number of normal results that will quell the fear?

Positive thoughts

Yeah I was thinking about this, if I get (and I pray to god) a clean MRI scan and the neuro advises that my symptoms do not resemble a clinical case that's that - I'll return to my therapist and work on my mental wellbeing.

This process is also being coordinated by my therapist on some scale - and I kind of understand where to stop, as with all other HA scares that I've encountered before(minimum 10~ scares so far). There are boundaries and I feel them.

[ServerError]

You don't need the scan. To pay for it would be foolish.

[worriedk]

You don't need the scan. To pay for it would be foolish.

Could you elaborate on why do you think so, please?

I want the scan as I do have MS in my family history (grandmothers sister) and the both my therapist and neuro doctor advised that I should/could get it for reassurance.

[ServerError]

I also have MS in my family as my mum has it. I'm fortunate to live near the UK's leading neurology centre and when I had my own MS scare, I was assured by the team there that MS is not hereditary.

Doctors make the common mistake of ordering tests for reassurance rather than out of clinical need because it seems the easier option than trying to treat the underlying anxiety. I've had tests for reassurance rather than out of clinical necessity. It is pointless and doesn't treat the real problem. In my case, mine were free of charge on the British NHS, but they were still appointments that taxpayers funded and could have been used by those with a genuine need. In your case, you're doing it out of your own pocket. You'd be better putting those funds into some therapy.

[worriedk]

@ServerError thanks, I completely understand where you're comming from. It's true that I feel super foolish, but I have a life to live and I'm currently doing nothing and if the test will help me I'll get it I guess.

P.S. right now I was at my computer trying to get some work done and not really that anxious (atleast not as much as before) and I keep randomly missing my clicks (well at least three times) - like imagine a browser tab and I click below it on the URL bar. I dont understand whether this is a coordination issue or my fingers preemptively press the mouse or what it is but in my mind it's a neurological disease which suggests somethings wrong and I've just started panicking again. Could someone give me some rational arguments regarding the above? Is this something I should worry about ? (As this and sometimes missing a key or misspelling a word are my biggest worries right now that "somethings going on"). Thanks

[worriedk]

Update: had my MRT test today (was pretty scary/weird with my heightened anxiety) and will receive results tomorrow + consult with a neurologist.

Currently really freaking out, arm/leg pain kind of subsided or gone for now, but the inconsistencies with hand coordination while using the computer are really causing me to panic... brain tumours / neuro degenerative diseases on my mind.. someone please give me some reassurance if possible..

[worriedk]

Last Update:
Hey guys,

My MRI (MRT) came back clean. I'm so relieved, although very disappointed in myself that I had to go to such lengths to remain calm. I will work on this with my therapist now.

I still have some questions though:
How long can I be calm if my MRI is clean for neurological diseases? I know it's a stupid question, but something reassuring like statistics wise how rare these diseases are would help out immensely.

[Fishmanpa]

How long can I be calm if my MRI is clean for neurological diseases?

Your best answer is to work on why you need to know that to remain calm.

Positive thoughts

[HelloPanda23]

Last Update:
Hey guys,

My MRI (MRT) came back clean. I'm so relieved, although very disappointed in myself that I had to go to such lengths to remain calm. I will work on this with my therapist now.

I still have some questions though:
How long can I be calm if my MRI is clean for neurological diseases? I know it's a stupid question, but something reassuring like statistics wise how rare these diseases are would help out immensely.

Don't continuously ask for reassurance, you're making yourself worse. Stay off these forums for a week or two, don't googlr anything related to your health or anything that has to do with health, and just continue doing your normal activities until this fear bothered you. A week later, come back and tell me how you feel.