Why are there so many MS worriers?

[westofengland]

People with health anxiety tend to obsess about the big headline terrible diseases - cancer, hiv, heart disease, MS.
For example, I worry I have been exposed to asbestos when doing some diy three years ago. So I am worried i have got the really bad asbestos disease (the lung cancer), rather than benign pleural plaques, which are much more common in asbestos exposure.
To return to your case, I'd say it's because MS gets a lot of exposure in the news, it's a scary disease, and we HA sufferers tend to catastrophise and always expect the worst

[scouser1959]

hi well here is my experience, i have had ms for 35 yrs!!! back then doctors were reluctant to tell you what it was, so they convinced me my symptons were " all in my mind"! i guess its a worry because we all hear about the bad side of ms, and yes while there is a bad side to it, there are lots of people with ms living a fairly normal life. i am unable to work and i am restricted in every day things, but im still here it hasnt beaten me.

[workinprogress]

I had many sypmtoms hun, numbness in fingers and toes, tingling, pins and needles, weekness in arms and leg, fatigue, hot patches, sensative patches, burning patches, eye issues, facial numbness, vibration in legs. Most have faded now, but weekness still comesa dn goes as do the numbness sensation. Mine started when i bent down to look at my son one night who ws really ill aqnd i had this electical crawling sensation that rushed from the outside of my face to the centre, really freaked me out so i stupidly googled and have had every other symptom since.

I currently keep messing my words up but i dont know if its coz im focused on it or im always preoccupied with other worrys

I have hadd and mri, evp, and seen 3 neros and all have said that i dont have ms!! if u read through my old post u will see how scared i was and how massive my sympoms were.....


Im sure u will b fine hun and im always here if u wanna chat xx

It is frightening how similar my symptoms are to yours Carli. And like you, I've been told umpteen times by my GP that its down to anxiety. But its so hard sometimes to train your brain to remember that the twitching, the muscle pain, the eye pain, the tiredness, the tingling, the numbness, the muscle weakness, the joint pain and every other symptom could be induced by the mind...but they are!!I've convinced myself I have everything from Lupus to MS to ALS to Parkinsons.And all that does is bring on even more symptoms! Crazy!
Its so nice to read other people's posts about their symptoms and to know that I'm not the only one out there with these irrational fears.

Take care all,
WiP

[carteresque]

When I read these forums and see someone worrying about an illness, but then they never post again, I assume it's because they stopped worrying about it (but part of me wonders if it's because they turned out to have the illness after all and were unable to post again...).

So I thought I'd come back after my only previous post almost 7 years ago and say that despite my worries about MS, I am still fit and well, have another child, work full time and rarely worry about having MS any more.

Rarely of course doesn't mean 'never' so right now this thread was brought to mind by the fact that I've had the old muscle twitching since last night, stronger than usual, so I've been anxious about it. I'm slightly relieved by feeling it's almost certainly stress (very busy in work etc), and in fact by the fact that it came in within a day or so of me thinking earlier this week, "Oh, I haven't had any muscle twitching for a while - that's good!"

In the time since I last posted in 2010, I've worried on and off about MS from time to time - less so now than in the earlier years. Every time a year goes by without anything concrete, I feel relieved, but soon start worrying again if my vision seems odd or I'm unusually tired. I've managed to stop googling it most of the time, though I still get a visceral thrill when I see something about MS in the mainstream news (especially when it's some new promising treatment).

Amusing that I said above that when a year passed since my shoulder problem, I'd feel a lot more relaxed about not having MS. It's now been over 7 years and I still think "just one more year and I'll know I don't have it..." I suppose this is one of those promises made to be broken...

[Ryzinn]

I am currently dealing with issues with this right now. I've had on and off tingling/prickling/burning for over a month in my left hand and foot. Interestingly enough this past week has been pretty mild in terms of the tingling but I'm now instead feeling dizzy/lightheaded, specifically in my forehead. This has been going on for a little over a week maybe? I've also had unusual temple pressure in my left temple for the better part of 2 months as well that comes and goes.

Of course I googled, of course MS came up, and I listened to people on youtube describe their first symptoms, visited the MS subreddit, and still continue to worry that this is what I have. I definitely have HA if nothing else as these thoughts have dominated my mind for some time.

I've had an extremely stressful year (more stressful than at any other time in my life) and I'm pretty sure this is what has caused me to fall off the horse so to speak but man the symptoms just seem so real.

What really sends me into a tizzy is when I'm just with my girlfriend, totally relaxed, and a symptom will hit me out of the blue. My foot will start burning, or i'll get dizzy, or my temple will throb. I know anxiety symptoms can hit even when you're not anxious but it scares the shit out of me regardless...

Hopefully this will all pass, the more I chalk it up to anxiety and letting my body just do its thing, the better I ultimately feel.

Good luck to anybody out there suffering with this BS. I know your struggle.

[Noclip1]

I hope I don't have MS as MS is one of my fears as well. I have this symptom where I would have my eyes closed while trying to sleep and if someone makes a loud sound such as opening a door, I see a white flash in portions of my vision along with the sound; I heard this was a symptom of MS. Anyone have this symptom without MS? Thanks

[au Lait]

^Oh yeah, that happens to me too. Not sure why it happens but it's normal and nothing to worry about. It's not MS.

[KK77]

I hope I don't have MS as MS is one of my fears as well. I have this symptom where I would have my eyes closed while trying to sleep and if someone makes a loud sound such as opening a door, I see a white flash in portions of my vision along with the sound; I heard this was a symptom of MS. Anyone have this symptom without MS? Thanks

This is due to hypersensitivity of nervous system. Many people with anxiety disorders/panic experience this and other symptoms which can mimic those of more serious illnesses like MS.