Still worried about ALS

[Andrash]

I know, but people my age have gotten it before.

ALS at 16? Only, perhaps, in movies and soap operas. As for your case, it is not ALS, it is anxietitis.

[Sluggy]

If you truly think I have nothing to fear, I'll try and get rid of this fear as best as I can. Everything was getting better for me until last week, because something occurred that caused me a lot of stress and anxiety. Also, I never google my symptoms without putting, "anxiety" next to it. It's just a way to ensure that I don't find myself fearing a deadly disease, I just made that mistake once. Thank you for the help.

---------- Post added at 04:29 ---------- Previous post was at 02:00 ----------

Anyone else have input on whether I should be worried or not?

Reading your post sounds like a carbon copy of what I've been through with ALS fears. While I'm in another bout of HA at the moment, I initially started this journey of HA riding a wave of fear surrounding ALS.

Where you talk about walking is exactly to the letter how I was feeling. I would think I was walking funny, and then felt I was walking funny, and then couldn't stop focussing on it. I convinced myself I was breathing oddly, that I couldn't swallow properly, that I was slurring my speech (so much so I was recording my own voice over and over again), that my tongue was twitching.

The list goes on and on, but the fact that I'm still effectively the same as I was then physically goes to show just how much anxiety can physically affect you.

I'm not a medical professional, but you just simply don't have anything physical to be concerned about. Time more than anything else got rid of my ALS fears, but with hindsight I realise just how crazy a ride it all was.

A quote that rang true on another forum was 'ALS is about failing, not feeling'.

[HelloPanda23]

Reading your post sounds like a carbon copy of what I've been through with ALS fears. While I'm in another bout of HA at the moment, I initially started this journey of HA riding a wave of fear surrounding ALS.

Where you talk about walking is exactly to the letter how I was feeling. I would think I was walking funny, and then felt I was walking funny, and then couldn't stop focussing on it. I convinced myself I was breathing oddly, that I couldn't swallow properly, that I was slurring my speech (so much so I was recording my own voice over and over again), that my tongue was twitching.

The list goes on and on, but the fact that I'm still effectively the same as I was then physically goes to show just how much anxiety can physically affect you.

I'm not a medical professional, but you just simply don't have anything physical to be concerned about. Time more than anything else got rid of my ALS fears, but with hindsight I realise just how crazy a ride it all was.

A quote that rang true on another forum was 'ALS is about failing, not feeling'.

I've read that post as well, I have a question though, did your leg hurt or did it just feel funny? Sometimes I get leg aches and focus completely on them, and I feel like that causes more pains. While I'm walking, sometimes I may get tiny bits of sharp pains but it usually goes away. Also, only reason I'm scared this may be a sign of ALS is because I read that some people started off with ALS after they had body pains, generally leg pains.

[Sluggy]

I've read that post as well, I have a question though, did your leg hurt or did it just feel funny? Sometimes I get leg aches and focus completely on them, and I feel like that causes more pains. While I'm walking, sometimes I may get tiny bits of sharp pains but it usually goes away. Also, only reason I'm scared this may be a sign of ALS is because I read that some people started off with ALS after they had body pains, generally leg pains.

Had aches, pains, cramps, the lot. I just put it down to me being so anxious that all my receptors and nerve endings were firing when they weren't supposed to be.

At 16 the chances are unfathomably slim to have this, and for it to present itself as just random muscle pain makes it even moreso unlikely. Again, all about the failing and not how anything actually feels

[2anxious4this]

I'm just as worried. I sometimes get aches on my leg as well and sharp pains as well. I can walk normally like I used to, with no weakness at all. Just a bit of pain, and not much else. It's only on my right leg, and I'm scared if it's anything serious. Hopefully, it isn't.

Does yours seem to be constant or do they come and go? Mine seem to come and go.

[HelloPanda23]

Does yours seem to be constant or do they come and go? Mine seem to come and go.

Same. I’ve just blamed them all on anxiety and they seem to be fading away, so I don’t think I have an issue. In ALS, the progession doesn’t stop or get better, and so if your muscles have times where they don’t get pains and feel better than usual, then ALS isn’t the culprit and anxiety is instead.

[2anxious4this]

Same. I’ve just blamed them all on anxiety and they seem to be fading away, so I don’t think I have an issue. In ALS, the progession doesn’t stop or get better, and so if your muscles have times where they don’t get pains and feel better than usual, then ALS isn’t the culprit and anxiety is instead.

Seems similar to what Im dealing with. Is it true ALS symptoms dont come and go?

[Fishmanpa]

Is it true ALS symptoms dont come and go?

Read this as often as you have to.

Positive thoughts

[HelloPanda23]

Seems similar to what Im dealing with. Is it true ALS symptoms dont come and go?

Yes it is, if your sumptoms aren't always there and there are times in which they don't bother you, then I completely doubt you have ALS and that it's anxiety. I'm in your same shoes and it's super hard, I understand your struggles completey.

[HelloPanda23]

Okay, at this point, I know for a fact that I don’t have ALS and that I’m not going to die, and yet the fear of getting ALS has now come. I know I won’t get the illness, but the fear of getting is still there and it bothers me to a fairly decent extent. I just want to get rid of this fear and continue on with my life, because I know I’m safe and that nothing will happen to me. Can anyone please help me out with the changes I need to make in order to get rid of this useless fear? I’ve already made many steps. For one, I’m never searching up about ALS again. I already know enough to tell that I don’t have a single symptom of the disease, and that if I get a symptom that scares me, I can simply check to see if the muscle works just like it always has. If it does, I’ll pass it off as anxiety. I also have been listening to subliminal messages for hypochondria daily. I don’t know if they’ve been helping or not, but I think they might be. I also have accepted that my thoughts are simply fears and nothing else, everytime I get a panic attack, I take it in as feeling of fear caused by my irrational thoughts. At this point, I don’t know what other change is necessary to stop these thoughts once and for all. I don’t want to take medication and I never will, I have lavender oil at home and can use the scent to relax myself, but barely ever do. I just want to be free again, I know I have nothing to fear, especially at my age of 16. All help is appreciated, thank you so much.