Another symptom...

[luchipoo]

I'm so sorry to everyone for writing another thread. My right leg has now started burning and feels very strange. Could this be anxiety or is it something else? I'm finding it so hard to believe that all these strange feelings that I'm getting could "just" be anxiety.

[nataliean1982]

i am going through the same thing, not sure what it might be, but the doc was not very concerned. i had wierd bone pains in my legs acually in my thighs, and then it was almost like a burning in my bones. it lasted a few weeks, and then went away completely. it wasn't from overuse, because i had been pretty lazy when it happened. so, i really can't give you much advise other than i understand.

[luchipoo]

Thank you nataliean. I'm really worried about MS, it's horrible, all I can think about. It's nice to know though that I'm not the only person who gets funny feelings in their bodies...I have just been reading the symptoms part of this website and saw that it can often take things like that a while to calm down as your body has to recover. I hope that's the case :(

[agent orange]

I too have been worried about m.s for several years, in fact I even went for an mri and was told all was normal. Anxiety in fact can be very odd and debilitating, Please check out itoldyouiwasill's post on anxiety symptoms, this might help you understand. I have had anxiety problems for so long that it has made my body out of check. I have actually been diagnosed with undifferentiated Somatoform disorder, which a lot of us are sufferes from I am sure. Do check this out especially if you have suffered with H.A for many years. People with anxiety usually feel it's m.s and it is usually not the case.

[luchipoo]

Thank you for your reply agent orange. I would be so scared to have an MRI just in case it showed up something (although I suppose at least you would know). I have only been suffering with HA for about 3 months - god, it seems like it's been a lifetime, in that short time I don't really remember what it's like not to be worried about some disease or other. I have read itoldyouiwasill's post - I just find it hard to understand that when I don't feel panicked about anything, I can get these symptoms. I have been really good for a few weeks - my usual worry is cancer - I've been having CBT and getting on with stuff. But just this last week, I started getting a pain in my leg, and then I googled and found out the symptoms of MS...then I started getting pins and needles and it just escalated from there.

I've had pins and needles before - when I first started getting panic attacks (which I haven't had for some time now, another reason why I think MS must be the underlying reason!) I would get pins and needles in my head and my arms and face. It was really horrible. But as I accepted them they went away - I just don't understand why they've come back.

I have exams at the moment and my family seem to think it might be something to do with that - that I'm stressed but don't realise it and this is how it is manifesting itself. It's just hard when you're wired this way to believe it I suppose.

Sorry for the long post, it feels good to get it all out!

[nataliean1982]

i still worry about m.s. because i have numerous neurological symptoms, but nothing debilitating, which is why i don't think the doc was too concerned. more of a watchful waiting for me, til i did the research, one of the biggest regrets of my life and had most of my symptoms occur after i read about them, big clue that it is probably anxiety. so i try to focus on this, MS can be almost benign for some people, never causing them the serious problems that you hear about, so worst case senario, there is alot of hope with that disease, its not the end of the world, but it is 100times more likely. that your anxiety is working its way through your nervous system. and its not going to go away until you can get your body calmed, and until it wants to, so stay away from the scary disease websites, its fuel to the fire and i promise that if you keep reading about it, you will become hyper-sensitive and notice even more things that are going on with your body, and the vicious cycle will continue.

[luchipoo]

That's very true, I've found that the more I focus on it, the more little symptoms I get which I then think are something but which probably occur normally, it's just I don't notice them!

I don't know, this health anxiety is awful. I'm considering going to the doctor and just telling her everything about my current obsession. But then some of the things I've read on the internet are horrible, about people not being diagnosed for years and years because MRIs turn out normal and it is just a waiting game to see if symptoms re-appear.

I really hope it's anxiety. I have been rationalising this evening and the symptoms have lessened. I find that when I start to read stuff on the internet, it gets worse and I start getting symptoms. I am very suggestible I think.

[username5927]

lol, it's amazing how many times I can say, "Wow, I thought I was the only one"!
Mine starts in my foot. Only the right side. I never thought about the possibility of MS. I'm glad I never thought of that when my hypochondriac side was in full power. I used to smoke and I just *knew* it was a blood clot in my leg and it wasn't getting enough blood because of the sensations. *shakes head*
It's amazing what anxiety and stress can do to you. What I've learned about Myself is that my leg/foot thing was a sign my body was using to tell me that I'm getting too stressed. I've been stuck in a realization/panic attack cycle for the past two months. What's almost humorous to me is while I'm recovering and when the DP/DR lessened or takes a day off, I begin feeling the old signs like I did before this started. My foot with start doing the numb/tingling weirdness and i'll feel like I can't get enough air. I guess it works in stages? Anyway, yeah, it's doubtful it's anything other than anxiety if the physical symptoms get worse when you dwell on them. When I hurt my back, the pain doesn't get any better or worse when I sat and thought about it all day. It was a physical thing. Now that I'm thinking and talking about my foot wierdness, guess what? Yep, it's doing it. Does it bother me? Nope. I know what it is. Rather, I fully believe that my stress and anxiety are causing it and nothing else, so it doesn't bother me. I think it's pretty natural for people like us to not only seek out for a cause, but to grasp the worst case senerio as well. Just part of the anxiety, depression that gives that fearful and pessimistic view.
Just my opinion of what I've been through and am going through. CBT, meditation and exercise have made a HUGE difference for me.

[itoldyouiwasill]

Thank you for your reply agent orange. I would be so scared to have an MRI just in case it showed up something (although I suppose at least you would know). I have only been suffering with HA for about 3 months - god, it seems like it's been a lifetime, in that short time I don't really remember what it's like not to be worried about some disease or other. I have read itoldyouiwasill's post - I just find it hard to understand that when I don't feel panicked about anything, I can get these symptoms. I have been really good for a few weeks - my usual worry is cancer - I've been having CBT and getting on with stuff. But just this last week, I started getting a pain in my leg, and then I googled and found out the symptoms of MS...then I started getting pins and needles and it just escalated from there.

I've had pins and needles before - when I first started getting panic attacks (which I haven't had for some time now, another reason why I think MS must be the underlying reason!) I would get pins and needles in my head and my arms and face. It was really horrible. But as I accepted them they went away - I just don't understand why they've come back.

I have exams at the moment and my family seem to think it might be something to do with that - that I'm stressed but don't realise it and this is how it is manifesting itself. It's just hard when you're wired this way to believe it I suppose.

Sorry for the long post, it feels good to get it all out!

Hey Luchipoo

The simple (ish) answer to that is that it takes a fair old while for low level anxiety to creep up and then what generally happens is that a stressor (often health related if you develop health anxiety) basically pushes you over the edge and then BAM!!....you now have a chronic physical anxiety condition.

Now, it is about this point that your physical anxiety symptoms no longer are determined by your current mental state. Think of it like this...if you are overweight this is often down to years of poor diet, if you suddenly decide to stop eating cheeseburgers and scoff mung beans 24/7 you are still going to be overweight whilst doing that...you are basically overweight due to has gone before and not what you are doing now.

This perceieved paradox is the real killer for many anxiety sufferers....why I am getting the symptoms if I'm no longer anxious??, the fact of the matter is that once anxiety becomes a chronic physical condition the damage has been done and what has taken years to cause can, in all honesty, take as long to put right as our minds and bodies need time to adjust. To clarify the all important thing; ONCE ANXIETY HAS BECOME A CHRONIC SOMATIC/PHYSICAL CONDITION IT IS NO LONGER DEPENDANT ON OR DEFINED BY YOUR CURRENT MENTAL MENTAL STATE OF MIND!! Understanding and accepting that is crucial.

Of course, here is the rub...instead of giving ourselves the time and peace to recover we analyse and catastrophise the symptoms and literally pour gas on the fires of anxiety...we wonder why recovery is so slow and the reason for that is that our response to the symptoms means that very often recovery never actually gets the chance to begin.

Recovery can be a long and frustrating process with many cases of one step forward and two back but the bottom line is that if you don't analyse and don't put unrealistic and demanding false time scales on it then recovery is guaranteed.

...hope this helps.

[luchipoo]

It's very true about the thinking thing - if you think about a certain part of your body, it starts to feel funny. The mind can do very strange things.

itoldyouiwasill - that is a brilliant summary of the whole anxiety thing. The last time I was getting pins and needles, I just accepted it eventually and it did go away. I keep thinking about whether that time was actually a "relapse" but realise it can't have been because I was having horrific panic attacks - waking up in the night with my heart rate so fast, breathing really fast, unable to stop shaking etc etc. And I think pins and needles was a manifestation of the stress my body was under. I'm hoping this is the same thing and that I have latched onto a small symptom and made it worse by over-analysing it (and googling too!)

Thank you so much for your posts, it has been so so helpful for me. I always talk to my mum about these things but because she doesn't know what it's like to feel so anxious have unnerving symptoms, it's sometimes hard to really listen to her. When I know you guys have experienced similar things to me, it is very comforting. Thank you for your kind words.