Hello everybody. Pretty recently has been a rather stressful time, and I've been getting through it, however something small's sent my anxiety spiralling off. Last friday, I started to notice a small, occasional twitch in my left index finger.
It was very slight and occasional, and I didn't think much of it except that it continued to occur. On Sunday, it really started to make me worry as it was still there. On Monday, it relented mostly, and occurred perhaps 3 times throughout the day. Tuesday saw it get far more common (to the point where I went to bed and jolted myself awake when I Suddenly felt like my chest was going to burst and yesterday I woke up during the early hours in a panic, feeling incredibly hot and all my skin prickly and slightly numb in some places. Through yesterday it was much the same as it was on Tuesday, whilst today it has luckily seemed to have stopped. Anyway, this has caused me to worry to no end about all the horrible possibilities associated with a twitch, namely MS and ALS. Since noticing it I've began to feel all my joints and muscles ache from activity. Even though the twitching has stopped in my finger, whilst using it on the keyboard I occasionally feel some weakness in it. This has come out of nowhere, and I am truly terrified. I'm 19 and fear that I'm already facing something this awful. I know my family (to the best of my knowledge) has no history of these conditions (although I do not know to what extent they are hereditary). First the twitching, combined with the experience of waking up early and now the occasional weakness I feel in my finger after the twitching has subsided- and not to mention the sudden aching I've been experiencing really has me beside myself. I've been checking my calf muscles, to the point where even looking at them sets off my anxiety.
I appreciate that I'm treading a long and dark path worrying about these things, and don't particularly want to see a doctor if it can be helped, but I don't know what to do.