Twitches, Jerks, and Shudders: Share Your Experience

[pablo0977]

I see many people, myself included, getting worked up over twitches, shudders, jerks, and fasciculations. So I thought it might be a good idea to start a twitch thread where people to share their experiences so that we may all see just how common our concerns may be.

For me it's best to break them into categories...

1. Fasciculations: I get these little buggers in my left calf predominantly, but occasionally other spots as well. They really don't bother me anymore, as I have heard they are quite common.

2. Jerks: Jerks scare me sometimes. When I am anxious, I get the hypnic jerk as I try to sleep. Everything I have learned says this is very normal and gets exacerbated by stress and anxiety. The jerks that spook me are when i am sitting and I twitch in my torso or my leg jumps a bit. Then I focus on my body intently and notice that I have...

3. Twitches: These seem to be pretty normal as well. I consider twitches somewhere between a fasciculation and a jerk. Of course, they are easy to find when you are looking for them and neurologists agree that thinking about them intensely can cause them to happen. In fact some say that all involuntary movements have a psycho-somatic dimension to them.

4. Shudders: These are the cold shiver type feelings and have never bothered me. I get them every now and then.

Overall involuntary movements and occasional feelings of disassociation are what drives my current fears of a neurological condition. What I try to tell myself is that these are relatively rare conditions (I refuse to name them, like Voldemort... whoops ) and that they are either treatable or not. But, if I have one it will manifest more strongly over time and there is little point in freaking out until they do.

That's my experience with these types of feelings. Anyone else want to share their own?

[lilire]

Thank you for doing this post!
For me,all of these started 3 months ago, when I began to think I had A**.
I get twitches every day, and when I am not thinking about them they go away, but this is really hard, because I am always thinking about them.
Then, I got the night jerks, they scare me a lot! Like all of a sudden my whole leg will jump.
Im still "dreaming" of a future without them, since they have decreased a lot, now I can go like two hours without a twitch, when, at first they were constant.
Im 19 yo and female.

[pablo0977]

They can be maddening can't they. Oh well, we have to keep going forward right? I am now 39, but I remember all of this started the first time when i was about your age. It comes and goes but you can get a handle on it. Hang in there!