Fearing ALS

[Seymour]

So do it, do all those things you want to do. The ONLY thing stopping you is YOU! Your fear.
You are a grown man who admits to laying on the sofa for days doing nothing but googling stuff. The reason you can’t find anything is because there’s nothing to find.

Start tomorrow, do something positive. Wake up and count your blessings, think of something positive instead of negative. Counteract those negative feelings with positive ones. Get fresh air, talk to friends, look after your girlfriend.
Try a different approach. Don’t wait for bad things, try to do things that make you happy. Stop wallowing in your own fear and self pity.

This is good advice thank you.

You say there is nothing to find that’s why I don’t find anything but I would love for someone to say hey I was exactly like you and didn’t have anything in the end.

[Scass]

Well Seymour even if someone said that you’d probably still say “yeah but....”.

I haven’t found anyone with the exact same anxiety symptoms as me. So why should you be so special?

[Sheik N Shimmy]

This is good advice thank you.

You say there is nothing to find that’s why I don’t find anything but I would love for someone to say hey I was exactly like you and didn’t have anything in the end.

I joined this website back in 2005 when I was 37 years old and convinced that I was dying of various diseases which I had diagnosed myself with after googling the many symptoms anxiety was causing.

My GP sent me for tests (xray, blood/ thyroid tests etc). He told me that there was nothing wrong with me but I refused to believe him and called into him several times over a short space of time. He eventually got angry with me because he said I was making myself sick by my thought processes (psychosomatic symptoms). I refused to believe him and sought reassurances from various health professionals who all said that there was nothing wrong except for GERD (anxiety related!). Contributors here on NMP calmed me down and highlighted how delusional my thinking was. Eventually I stopped worrying but never spoke to a mental health professional (Psychologist- CBT, Psychiatrist etc).

I'm so embarrassed about this period of my life and regret the time I spent worrying about nothing. I wish I could speak to my younger self and say everything's going to be just fine.

Anxiety got the better of me in 2009 and again in 2013 when I was under extreme stress about something else. I attempted suicide as a way to escape from the stress I was under but only managed to break a couple of ribs. I immediately regretted it. After this I ended up in a fantastic mental hospital for a couple of months. I was diagnosed with depression with psychosis. I've been on Mirtazapine (45mg) and Olanzapine (12.5mg) ever since. I did CBT for a year. This has kept me on the straight and narrow and life is good with so much to look forward to.

Take my advice - get seen to by a mental health professional and accept medication, CBT or whatever it takes to get better. You owe it to yourself and your loved ones. There's no need to suffer.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Not saying nobody knows better but I have searched the archives for days trying to find someone with both fasciculations AND pain/weakness and have found zero. I can’t find anything reassuring or resembling my case.

Then I would say the search isn't working for you for whatever reason because I've been here years and seen many such threads about ALS where this is all talked about. I'm sure many other members on here would agree with me here because so many of them will have seen or posted in them. ALS threads are always about twitches and perceived weaknesses. Right now Darkside is saying it on his minus the twitches.

Twitches are common in anxiety. There are tons of threads discussing this. Twitches are worst when anxiety us high as many of us have discussed on some of these threads and as anxiety decreases, they do too.

I suspect the magnesium threads will also talk about twitching and low magnesium is potentially a problem for many of us but the medical world haven't got behind it yet. Magnesium is leached from the bones by stress and various medications.

Any threads about muscular tension will talk about pain, weakness, stiffness, lack of mobility, etc. I've been dealing with it as a side effect of a med for years, never had it before. Hold your mobile phone in an awkward position and your hand may shake. It may do that with anyone though.

I also said this to you the other day...

Yep, and they obviously don't just point to ALS as years on I'm fine.

The symptoms you mention also point to general weaknesses. If I hit the weights hard I could bring all of those on with DOMS. You've only got to watch the London marathon to see the wobbly legs on some at the end. And anxiety takes a massive told on the body as well as leaches various minerals out which can mean lots of symptoms including the ones you mention, which I've seen many on here mention in my time here.

With my anxiety I have found myself knackered just walking up the stairs. I spent a couple of months doing nothing in the house unable to go out ro do much of anything. When I got back out I felt unable to do much walking and felt very weak. It's like when someone has an injury they have to do the physio because the strength very quickly goes.

Consider someone who breaks their arm. Why do they have physio? The muscles atrophy quickly but muscle that has been built before rebounds quickly compared to building completely fresh muscle. Some may never regain all their mobility depending on their age, health, seriousness of injury, etc.

If you were bedridden for weeks to months you can expect to be weak. The body needs movement, it needs stress on it.

[AJG]

These are some very good points. Look at situations when your in the hospital. They will kick you out of bed and encourage walking as quickly as possible because your muscles do get weaker. I remember after my spinal surgery, they told me to walk 4 days later. I was like no problem, I felt strong and confident like get me out of this bed. I almost fell out of bed because your legs kind of forget when your in bed this long.

[Seymour]

I see the points and thank you Terry for your post.

What I find strange is that my legs feel worse when lying down as far as burning and twitching goes. I can’t walk much as I feel wobbly but if I walk a bit and do some squats and stuff the legs hurt and burn a bit less.

But then I’m always back to square one the next day.

And Terry, if I’m shaking going down stairs wouldn’t that be clinical weakness and not perceived?

[Hijikata]

Jesus Christ you are a lost cause. Clinical weakness means you wouldn’t be able to walk down the stairs. Get some help man. If I was your missus and this is how you behaved because you refused to seek professional help I would leave you too. Your being ridiculous. If you’re not here to accept your health anxiety then you probably shouldn’t be here

[Seymour]

Why do you keep bringing up my girlfriend? I try at home to not bring up my anxieties anymore and to be pleasant. I come here to vent and let the anxiety out. I am taking steps for her and seeing a therapist again this week and have upped my Zoloft dosage. You’re acting like I have personally offended you.

[Fishmanpa]

You’re acting like I have personally offended you.

It is offending when you keep trying to tell us the sky is green.

Positive thoughts

[Hijikata]

You are offending me because this is a place for people to come and talk through their anxieties and get help for health anxiety. For 25 pages myself and others have tried to do that with you and instead you keep arguing, acting as if you and your symptoms are different to the literally 100 other threads for ALS. FMP has linked the actual ALS sticky countless times which you have ignored, you have been selfish enough to go to ALS forums and actually talk to people who are really suffering, all because you have twitches (which a lot of is have the exact same as you) and perceived weakness (which again a lot of people with the same fear have). Not one person who has come here with this fear has had ALS. It is an incredibly rare disease. It is not subtle. It will stop you from doing things you used to be able to do. You seem to think that your google searching is somehow the equivalent of a neurologists training? I went to three different neurologists at the height of my fear and they all basically laughed at me once they saw I could do all the strength tests. If you are ready to accept your health anxiety then this is the place for you. But if you are convinced you have ALS then it isn’t. We are not neurologists. We don’t have ALS. Seeing as how for a week now you have ignored everything that has been said to you, this place obviously isn’t helping you so why are you here?