ALS and why you DON'T have it!

[vincy]

There's a positive in that you recognize how irrational you're being. The key is to convince yourself of that fact. You see, there are absolute facts that eliminate the irrationality.

Positive thoughts

This is that part that is hardest to me Being irrational was never a worry for me. I've always excelled in logic. Majoring in Physics and Math. Well read in philosophy. Great debater. All of the sudden I can't convince myself of something that is so obvious to everyone else. That I am a perfectly healthy kid! Er.. perfectly healthy young adult

It is ridiculous to me that I'm having so much trouble with this.

[Kcguy2017]

Dude... that has to stop! Don't go reading there. And please, don't join and post.

There's a positive in that you recognize how irrational you're being. The key is to convince yourself of that fact. You see, there are absolute facts that eliminate the irrationality.

Let's look at an analogy.... You go to the store, get a fresh cut of beef and some sides, go home and cook it up, sit down to eat and start worrying that the cow they got the beef from maybe had mad cow disease and you might get it from eating the beef (which is impossible).

So... taking into consideration of all that's known about ALS and the overwhelming majority of case studies compared to your symptoms and the chance is equally impossible. That, and the fact you're posting on an anxiety forum so somewhere under the cloud of anxiety, you know you don't have ALS.

Positive thoughts

I wouldn't post there. The last thing I want to do is bother people who have been diagnosed with ALS. And I don't go there first and start reading posts. I google something and end up there. Still stupid, I know.

[tbl]

I've never been to the ALS forum so I have never seen that post.

Seeing this has made my day though and allayed a lot of my fears over ALS.

Thankyou thankyou

[Becazican]

I am still going through my fear of it, i have had twitching all over my body, had two emg/nvc 5 months apart , emg came out clean the ncv came out lousy proving some kind of neuropathy or lumbar entrapment, i have both and still obsessed with als and other obsesssed disease pancreatic cancer i obsess over that after alamost dying from necrotic pantcreatitis

[nj]

One phrase that helps me in all phases of anxiety (health and otherwise) is:

Possible but not probable.

I'm currently dealing with another twitch related ALS anxiety and this phrase does help me put things in perspective.

[Jett81013]

I, myself am having this ALS fear...i didn't think anything of the twtiching before bc i was obssessed with having a DVT and Ovarian Cancer due to back and leg pain...but now twitching has been going on for almost 2 months...not constant but there...now its localized in my left ankle UGH!...i made myself NOT look up anything on the internet...even WebMD for the week and see if this lowers my anxiety.

Reading this a few times has calmed me down a bit...not sure if anyone read this...but even if I re-read it, it does help me...(even makes me forget i have twitches). It's about a doctor who was convinced he had ALS even though the 3 Neuros had told him he didn't have it .

*****here is the link:

https://www.theguardian.com/news/201...own-doctor-als

[Elliejane44]

Thanks I am going through a worry over ms/als/mnd.

Had loads of twitching today ever 5 to 10 mins all different part of body but mostly on right upper thigh/groin .

Is this anxiety again ?

Ellie

[EllieBee88]

Hello from the US!! I found this post a couple months back when my spiral down the ALS rabbit hole began. I did a Google search for "why you should stop worrying it's not als" and this was the 2nd thing that popped up. I read the post every few days to try to relax myself. Today, I felt like responding because it's been a rough few days of symptoms getting worse.

I am a 29 year old woman. The odds of me having ALS without family history are infinitesimal. I do have some symptoms (that I will not list because they are not worth worrying people over) and have been to the doctor who is referring me to a neurologist. My symptoms don't seem to look like ALS to my GP. Actually, she thinks it might be MS which is a far less scary disease.

Thank you for this post. I can't imagine what it would be like to have ALS and then have people (dozens or hundreds of them) asking you for help because they're scared they have it too. Health anxiety is a terrible thing that people can't control, but that is no excuse for badgering actual ALS patients.

[atl]

*****here is the link:

https://www.theguardian.com/news/201...own-doctor-als

Wow that's a beautiful article.

[paranoid-viking]

I have never been afraid of having ALS and probably never will.
But it is interesting that many fear they have it because of twitching. Could it be that these twitches are part of a panic attack? I shiver a lot when I have panic atacks and I have had those for 20 years.