Ughh!! Bulbar onset ALS!! Why???

[AntsyVee]

Maybe this has already been pointed out, so I apologize if this is repeatative. But a lot of people here think they have ALS. And, to my knowledge, a total of 0 of them actually have been diagnosed with it.

ALS, and anything neuro really, is a very common target for health anxiety to focus on. Because you can take literally any minor daily occurrence - a twitch, a muscle spasm, water going down the wrong pipe, or even a yawn apparently - and anxiety can twist it into a deadly symptom. But it’s just....not. Those things are normal things that happen to every healthy human being.

People yawn more when they aren’t getting enough oxygen to their brain. People who are chronically anxious are often in a state of mild hyperventilation. We’re so used to breathing shallowly that we don’t even know that we’re doing it. Being anxious can cause a sensation of having a lump in your throat and difficulty swallowing.

You can literally find normal, non-ALS reasons to explain every fear in every ALS thread on this forum.

But that’s why ALS is such a common health anxiety fear. Because the “symptoms” are just ambiguous enough that anxiety can twist literally any daily bodily function into a sign.

The fact that so many people with health anxiety think they have it should be proof enough that it’s an anxiety thing and not true neurological illness. You can’t all have this super rare neurological disease. How could it be possible that such a large section of people with health anxiety just so happen to also have this very rare condition?

Great post ^^^

[AnxiousJamie]

Great point. I always tend to obsess over the most rare illnesses... ALS, brain amoeba, rabies, etc. I think that’s the whole irrational part of my anxiety. It really is so interesting how many of us are all worried about the same weird and obscure diseases.

[atl]

True, and "weakness" is also very vague and susceptible to feeling a particular way.