I did read posts on the ALS forum a month ago when this fear started, mostly because that is where the google searching took me to. I have stayed away since then, and never joined or posted.
I have been pretty good about avoiding the internet (except for this forum) but I did have a bit of a relapse recently and read some "real stories" on the ALS association website. A moment of weakness :(
Have any of you ever had consistent muscle soreness and fatigue in your arms? That's what I'm struggling with right now. :/
Its a number frequently quoted on the Do I Have ALS sections of the als forums, if you read most diagnosed cases yourself you will see such trend, considering 70% of PALS are limb onset, 25% bulbar onset and 5% respiratory or atypical onset
---------- Post added at 20:30 ---------- Previous post was at 20:22 ----------
Thats what im struggling with right now, I seem to get more soreness from working out than normal, and my muscles seem to get fatigued more easily, pretty sure its just mental though, keep in mind anxiety can cause muscle soreness and fatigue trough tension, and the fatigue can be mental, if you have ever worked out you surely have noticed that while lifting weights if you are really focusing on the muscle being worked it gets fatigued or burns more easily, thats simple because you are tensing the muscle subconsciously by thinking about it automatically, nothing to be worried about
COMPELTELY AGREE WITH FISHMANPA!!!!
To be honest, I almost always refrain from posting on ALS threads because the peeps are really sucked into it and there is precious little anyone can do or say to dissuade these peeps to give up on this basically (and sorry if this is rude of me to say) 'HA fantasy disease'
HOWEVER. full disclosure on my part: I will say about 20 years ago I briefly latched onto the disease. Thank goodness the shrink I saw literally LAUGHED in my FACE. That was enough to bring me back to my senses.. I went back to MS for a while...but I didn't have that either
So, again, I agree with Fish.
Good luck and be well
Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply. I appreciate all the "pearls of wisdom" in helping me through this struggle.
I'm no stranger to HA scares but this one seems especially hard to find my way out of (as FMP states). I find it so frustrating because my logical mind is constantly battling this fear driven emotional catastrophic scenario. I just told my therapist last week that I think I may be going crazy. She laughed and said "people who are going crazy don't recognize they are going crazy". I would have thought I would have knocked some sense into myself by now...
I also think the nature of this disease scares me because I have become a super-worrier the older I get. At 45, I am a single parent to a 12 and 15 year old. My ex (their father) is an alcoholic and unable to care for himself. I am the sole provider for my kids and I worry about what would happen to them if anything were to happen to me. :(
Which is why you do this to yourself. You have a great deal of responsibility and feel a loss of control as catastrophic.. also think the nature of this disease scares me because I have become a super-worrier the older I get. At 45, I am a single parent to a 12 and 15 year old. My ex (their father) is an alcoholic and unable to care for himself. I am the sole provider for my kids and I worry about what would happen to them if anything were to happen to me. :(
Truth is NONE of us have REAL control over what happens in all aspects of our lives. There is no way you can keep all challenges from crossing your life and trying to is folly. Once you can truly accept this fundamental truth, is when you can start to gain some control over your HA. You will then KNOW this worry of yours solves nothing. It will neither protect you from illness nor cause it to happen.
---------- Post added at 18:04 ---------- Previous post was at 17:50 ----------
I have always felt HA stems from life's challenges or our views of life's challenges. HA is being used as a cover of our real issues in life--a big distraction.. For whatever reason we *think* dying of some disease is easier to deal with than things going on in life. Some of these difficult things we can fix and other things we cannot and we have to learn to deal with them as best as we can. We ALL have such challenges in life. My biggest challenge is properly caring for my eldest daughter who is severly disabled. I am always dealing with some issue with her. It is very difficult.
Ultimately all you can do in your situation is plan for the worst but expect the best. Toss away the idea of early death or diabilitating diseases. That is simply a lie your mind is creating to distract you from the real challenges (and joys) in your life.
It is not a fear I've ever had, remarkably enough. And here I thought I'd had ALL of them. Lol.
Ex-boyfriend's mom suffered from ALS, but it was coming on very slowly, and she was still capable of doing many things.
I guess that's not the kind of thing that scares me, nor Alzheimer's. My fear is cancer (every type) and AIDS.... diseases that allow you to keep your cognitive facilities intact as your body rots around you.
ALS does not scare me.
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