Will the anxiety ever truly go away? (down the ALS rabbit hole again)

[ThrowawayLurker]

For the last week or so, every day or two, my index finger will twitch or more specifically jerk and move. Sometimes my palm will twitch a few times too. May happen again same day, maybe not.

[Edit to add] i just wanted to add that there's no weakness or clumsiness, perceived or otherwise.

I'll admit, this is sending me down a pretty dark spiral. I had a massive ALS anxiety from twitching about 15 years ago and I guess I really never quite recovered. Up until now I've never really thought much about twitches. Of course I'm so hyperaware of this now.

[melie1818]

I've had this a couple of times too over the last year or so. It's always gone after a week or two and I've just put it down to holding my phone for too long. It does slightly worry me at the time though just in case it's parkinsons but it's more likely to be something completely normal.

[ThrowawayLurker]

Of course I posted this when I first woke up after having it happen a couple of times yesterday. Haven't felt it since I think, the mind can certainly play tricks. BUT I was twitching like crazy in one of my arches earlier. I give up!

[ThrowawayLurker]

I can't believe I've been dealing with HA in some form for 20 years now. I've even found some of my old posts under another user name (long forgot the login) and it's like every six months I'm here for something or another.

For some reason, every couple of years, the ALS fear comes creeping back thanks to some weird muscle twitch. Although I'm twitching and popping all over the past few days, whenever it happens in my thumb/palm area, my anxiety goes off the charts for a bit. I've even had my index finger sort of move by itself which is really freaky. No weakness, no clumsiness, no nothing other than an occasional twitch. The other day my arch in on foot twitched for a few hours and I didn't give it a second thought. So why does an occasional hand twitch send me spiraling?

Anyone want to slap me with some logic? I can't imagine going on like this the rest of my days on earth!

[jojo2316]

Hi there! So I am a long term anxiety sufferer and the way I look at it is this; I have periods of remission and periods of relapse. For me, this helps a bit. I don’t expect it to leave me altogether and this helps me accept it and live alongside it- if that makes sense?
And I too jump in and out of the ALS rabbit hole. At the moment I am very much in it, so I feel your pain. I also get twitches that bother me - and scare me - more than others. I get hand ones, and foot-arch ones, and torso ones, calf ones and jaw ones - all over really. The ones that scare me are the shoulder ones. There is no sense to it really. They just do. Feel free to PM me if you would like?

[ThrowawayLurker]

One thing I did yesterday and today was search for posts similar to what I'm feeling and then check the initial poster's history. Some have been posting about the same things for years and years. It's oddly calming.

I'm desperately trying to crawl out of the reassurance hole, while great for a short term fix, just keeps reinforcing what feels like an addiction.

[jojo2316]

Did you find me on there ;-) ? I am one of those nutcase posters. I hope you found me calming!!

[ThrowawayLurker]

I think I need to use logic and some slight CBT techniques.

Have I had this before? Yes, a few times. I've even had the errant finger/thumb twitch move.
If I didn't have HA, would I even give this a second thought? No.
If the internet didn't exist, would I even have known to give this a second thought? No.
Would I think to see a doctor over this if it weren't for the previous two questions? No.
What evidence do I have to support the worst case scenario? None.

OK brain, go away and find something better to do.

[jojo2316]

Do you have a CBT work book? They can be quite useful, just methodically going through questions like the ones above

[nomorepanic]

Let me know the previous username and we will merge the accounts.