Just Introducing Myself- I have awful Health Anxiety and I'm scared I have ALS

[ImObsessedWithGlee]

My name is Shauna. I'm 18 years old and for as long as I can remember I've always had health anxiety. I'm always convinced I'm dying of something and always fear the worst.

In the past week alone, I thought I had heart disease,cancer and right now I'm fearing I have ALS. In the past, I also thought I had a brain tumour because I had a headache and skin cancer because I found a mark on my skin. I also suffered from HOCD for 6 months last year.

My biggest concern right now though is ALS. I googled muscle twitching and ALS came up and I immediately freaked out. I haven't had had any muscle weakness or atrophy. Right now, I'm fearing I have a foot drop in my right foot, even though I can walk on my heels, I can stand on one foot and I can stand on my toes. I just sometimes think I'm dragging my right foot even though I don't think I am. It just feels different from my left foot somehow. I haven't tripped or anything yet. I'm honestly just so scared. I know I don't have ALS or anything but the fear keeps making me think I do :(

Thanks for reading

[Mummytofour]

Hi,

I really feel for you as I am going through exactly the same right now with thinking I have some different illness every day. I also during the last week have convinced myself I have a brain tumour, bowel cancer, lung cancer and basically just that I am on deaths door. I constantly think this and it's driving me mad.
I also get muscle twiches occasionally for a few days then that goes and something else takes its place. It's true though that the more you think about it the more you'll notice it and it will happen more but I know how hard it is to ignore these things as I am struggling myself.

I am sure you'll find this site a great comfort and know your not alone in this. I have found a lot of comfort reading others posts and receiving replies to my posts on here knowing that everyone understands and I am not made to feel stupid.

Take care

Maxine

[flori]

Hi Shauna and

Sorry you are going through such a hard time and I hope you find the help and support you need on the site.

[Ally-SA]

Hi Shauna

A year ago I quit my job, and all kinds of other things happened.

And a few days before my family came for lunch - I developed twitches. Mostly in my calves. That is the first time I ever Google'd any symptoms, and it has been my downfall. I also worry that I have ALS. Or MS. I could live with the latter, but the first one kills me. I worry that I have bulbar ALS, or lately because of my tight breathing - am worried that my lungs are going. And it goes on and on...

There isn't much to say - except that we have a 99.9% chance of NOT having it. And it most likely is BFS. When stressed, our nervous system goes crazy - hence the twitching etc. I took some meds last year Oct - Feb - and the twitches went away. So definitely anxiety.

I understand what you're going through. And it just sucks. No other way to put it. I'm not sure HOW to get over it, just yet. xx

My biggest regret is using Google... I've been a total mess ever since. lol

[ImObsessedWithGlee]

Thank you all so much for replying It really helped I'm glad to know I'm not alone in all of this!

Today I'm completely worried about my right hand. I woke up this morning and it was fine but now it feels really weak and I'm fearing the worst. I can still lift things with my hand so it's not true weakness, it's just a feeling but it's still scaring me half to death! I'm also thinking it's because I kept doing exercises with my right hand to reassure myself I don't have ALS or something and it's causing it to feel weak!

Hope you all feel better soon and someday we will all beat this

[swajj]

I was where you are a few weeks ago. It was actually the end of my anxiety. I went to the doctors and he said that it is rare and in 30 years he has never had a patient present with it. He also said that he has only had 2 patients present with MS in that time. I had the nuscle twitches (even posted on here about them) I think it was just from being so tense. Also as my doctor said I have always had them but I just didn't focus on them before.

[ImObsessedWithGlee]

I was where you are a few weeks ago. It was actually the end of my anxiety. I went to the doctors and he said that it is rare and in 30 years he has never had a patient present with it. He also said that he has only had 2 patients present with MS in that time. I had the nuscle twitches (even posted on here about them) I think it was just from being so tense. Also as my doctor said I have always had them but I just didn't focus on them before.

Thanks so much for replying Yes I'm pretty sure my muscle twitches have always been there too! I know it's very rare to get it and I calculated that there's a 0.00002% chance that I will get it in my lifetime but I'm still convinced I'm going to get it even though it's highly unlikely! I guess I'm just going to have try and forget about it for a while even though it's really hard :/

---------- Post added at 21:27 ---------- Previous post was at 21:21 ----------

Hi Shauna

A year ago I quit my job, and all kinds of other things happened.

And a few days before my family came for lunch - I developed twitches. Mostly in my calves. That is the first time I ever Google'd any symptoms, and it has been my downfall. I also worry that I have ALS. Or MS. I could live with the latter, but the first one kills me. I worry that I have bulbar ALS, or lately because of my tight breathing - am worried that my lungs are going. And it goes on and on...

There isn't much to say - except that we have a 99.9% chance of NOT having it. And it most likely is BFS. When stressed, our nervous system goes crazy - hence the twitching etc. I took some meds last year Oct - Feb - and the twitches went away. So definitely anxiety.

I understand what you're going through. And it just sucks. No other way to put it. I'm not sure HOW to get over it, just yet. xx

My biggest regret is using Google... I've been a total mess ever since. lol

Thanks for replying to me Yes I was the same! I always got random twitched in my foot and one day I googled it and that's when it all started! Today I had tight breathing too and I was so paranoid it was bulbar ALS but it went away after a while!
Yes I highly doubt we're going to get ALS. We'll probably live until we're about 100 and will have spent our whole lives worrying about all these diseases! I think I should take meds for my anxiety because it's at me all the time but my parents won't take me to the doctor :(
I think the only way to get over it is to keep ourselves busy. I went to town with my friend today and completely forgot about all my worries and fears of ALS which really helped me believe I don't have it! Hope you can find a way to beat it too [COLOR="blue"]