Hello there guys my name's Billy from Scotland. This is is my first post but I'm a long time lurker on here and a battled health anxiety for over 10 years.
Ok so the als rabbit hole is 1 I have just came out and know alot of you guys are in the grip of it right now so want to give you a little perspective and help as much as I can. I always said when i felt ready I would help others out of it.
Ok so I wasn't new to it completely I got a twitch in start of 2016 an it turned my life upside for abit but the good thing is I didn't research it. Was a very mild bout which for als anxiety is rare. I funnily said to myself I would never fear this illness again.
Fast forward to march 2017 I suffer from sciatica and lift weights. Bad form with deadlifts is like fuel to the fire with sciatica, so anyway for some reason my brain didn't put it down to anxiety of course because we are irrational right. So anyway I gradually started to get the thought of als back into my mind. I fell over when I was drunk and scraped my knee. I'm my mind that was the start of it all. I began getting twitches non stop. Usually in 1 calf but all round my body. I started self testing every single day. I must of looked like a lunatic. Went to the gp a couple of times told I was ok but just like us all that only lasts for abit. Then we think we know better. I had lost all enjoyment out of life and I started drinking heavily. 2 bottles of wine most nights. Standing on tip toes, running up and down the stairs constantly. I was a complete mess of a man. I lost my girlfriend through it. She was supportive but my constant drinking made me a nightmare to be around. I convinced myself I couldn't eat and was slurring my words. I wasn't slurring I was anxious an that was affecting my speech.
So how did I get to this place where I am now ironically the break up actually took my obsession away from als an I started going to the gym again. I love weight training and anxiety strips of the enjoyment in life.so what did I do an what can you do. 1. Trust the doctors 2. Starting doing proper exercise where you see progression because if you are getting stronger you can't have als. 3 realise twitching is about as common as yawning in the human body. 4 realise how rare als actually is. 5. Stop self testing. 6. Realise that anxiety does cause real symptoms and will mimic the 1 we are fearing at time. 7. Try and rationalise, we have health anxiety, this is the hardest 1 because I know it's not that easy. 8. Time is on your side every day you wake up and you can do what you did yesterday. 9 speech issues with anxiety are very common, bulbar onset with als is the rearest type.
If anyone wants any help you can private mail me I would love to help
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