2 Weeks of Anxiety Leads to Months of Twitches, Tremors

In April I had a period of awful anxiety for 2 weeks. Then I woke up one day with restless legs and could not go back to sleep. The same day twitches emerged.. EVERYWHERE. A month later, now this is the scariest symptom, I began to experience body wide tremors. Now it's October and the twitches continue but to a much lesser degree. However, I am still very concerned about the tremors. I saw a neurologist who told me my symptoms are benign and that I do not have essential tremor. He called my tremor a "kinsiogenic/ task-specific" type that may or may not go away with time.My current symptoms:TwitchesHeavy pulse all over my body that is constant and has not gone away (for instance, I can see my arms move at rhythm with my pulse when lying down)Left foot that vibrates on and offTremor (left leg, both feet, neck, nose, thumb, wrists, chest, trunk) + internal tremors all overHas anyone experienced similar symptoms AND successfully recovered or at least improved?I am not at all bothered by the twitches or vibrating foot. But the TREMORS drive me insane!Has anyone here, besides LisaLM, stopped tremoring??

i had those and a multitude of other symptoms. elimination of caffeine and gluten from my diet are the two biggest things that helped me. they may or may not help you or anyone else but i feel they are worth a try in any case. hope you get better.

I have a similar history as you. Mine are better but do wax and wane.

Reduction of anxiety and moving on with life (shifting focus from your symptoms) is the most widely recommended means of getting past BFS, from veterans with long term feedback and experimenting with most everything. You'll find a number of options that have been reported to help newbies or short-term twitchers, everything from herbal remedies, medication, diet, etc.. I suggest you don't make any expectations if you go through the trial and error of testing possible solutions. There is no one solution that works for the vast majority of BFSers based on what we know.

If you are truly desperate enough to try the above, may I suggest a sugar pill?It would be a simpler, less expensive option.

TwitchBFS, JohnnyRocket and Gracely, I just want to say you all rock! I have been on here almost a year now and I could not begin to count the numberous times you have helped others out (myself included). Sorry to steal your thread NotMyself....I just happened to read it and saw three of the greatest people on here respond...please listen to them....I need to do the same

I am going to try the advices bfsburger has and hoping its not to late for me.I am allergic to white flour and many other things and have suspected my body is in a overeacting state.Both my mam and brother is superconcious abouth what they are eating and its probebly a reason for it.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to reply. TwitchBFS, I appreciate your perspective on the importance of diet. However, I truly believe thay my BFS is a manifestation of anxiety alone. I never liked caffeine before this. I also tried gatorade to no avail. The twitches have reduced from onset as my anxiety simmered down. Now the tremors have triggered my anxiety again and everything seems a lot worse. Not so much the twitches (which I could care less about today), but the tremors. I fear a progressive essential tremor. The chronology of all my symptoms suggests anxiety as a trigger/cause. Whether reducing my anxiety eliminates them entirely, I am not sure of; I can't remember the last time I went a day without thinking about these symptoms. I am only 21 years of age with a supposed "whole life" ahead of me. I don't see that life with these symptoms. Yes - I'm down and out right now.

I agree with you Johnny. But now the question is: how do I reduce my anxiety when the temors cause the anxiety and simply won't go away? I'm scared I have essential tremor which is known to be progressive. This isn't some irrational ALS fear.

What has also helped me is breathing -- focusing on exhale and inhale. If you are focused on breath, you can't be thinking about other stuff. I'm very, very sorry to hear how anxious this has made you. I do understand, as I have suffered from terrible health anxiety over the past few months -- all triggered by the neurological stuff. I remember one day -- at my lowest point -- I was convinced I had Parkinsons (thought my head was tremoring), esophogeal cancer (no, just globus) and impending heart attack (no, heart palpitations) at the same time. Guess what happened? That same day I got stung by a bee while walking barefoot through the grass, and I was so focused on my sore foot that I forgot about the other symptoms entirely!! Everything had passed (although my foot was still sore). My point: what we choose to focus on becomes problematic. If you're an idiot like I am, it takes a bee sting to remind you of that. If you can, find things to distract you from your symptoms. Meditate. Tell yourself "I'm happy, healthy, and getting stronger every day." Say it enough and you'll start to believe it. Good luck and God bless!

Johnny, according to recent studies essential tremor at the very least is an annoyance and at it's worst becomes disabling. There are stories of people with ET who become completely dependent - can't feed themselves, drink, button up their own shirt, etc. Hence the reason the word "benign" was removed from "benign essential tremor"I nevertheless applaud your ability to cope. Because that is what life comes down to. Everyday is filled with uncertainty. One day we can be alive, the next day dead (or diagnosed w/ some disease). This is the lottery of life I guess

You're right - things could be a lot worse. What bothers me is that all of this seems so self-inflicted as though my anxious situation brought about the symptoms.My neuro said I don't have essential tremor, but a task-specifc type that may or may not go away with time. He also said my twitching and palpitations are benign. But this tremor feels like it's getting worse. Not sure if it actually is, or if it's all in my head.

I agree with sam and burger on the importance of diet. However, something as stringent as completely removing gluten does sound a bit silly. Why not just focus on eating healthy? Eliminate caffeine, food high in sugar/sodium/fat, alcohol, etc and focus on eating healthier food - fruits, veggies, pasta, etc. Stringent diets with no scientifically proven basis seems a bit unneccessary. This is just an outsider chiming in. I have followed posts on this forum for months now.

NotMyself,There is a treasure trove of information including scientific medical studies on the connection between gluten and neurological disorders linked through here: I almost didn't give it any consideration whatsoever because my GP and neurologist didn't even mention it and my right brain thinking couldn't make a logical connection with my then-current understanding of how the body worked. Fortunately I kept an open mind and pursued it because gluten wound up being a BIG trigger for me, as referenced in the IGE anti-body blood test results I've posted on this forum before. Like TwitchBFS said, it all depends on what your personal triggers are. Everyone here is different and will have different priorities as far as what sets their symptoms off. Just because some people don't seem to notice results with dietary changes does not mean that all people will not see results. In my particular case I had tremendous results because my sensitivity to gluten was almost off the scale. You have to figure out what works for you. Don't take my word for it or anyone else's word for it. You know you better than any of us. If you investigate diet see how it makes you feel. Get an IGE anti-body blood test if that makes you feel better. It's up to you.I do my best to not dismiss anything without looking into it for myself. I'd advise anyone to do the same. I can't tell you how many opportunities I've let pass by because based on my limited understanding could not connect the dots as to how it worked or why, so I just assumed it wouldn't. Keeping an open mind simply means you acknowledge something is a possibility whether you want to believe it or not. It does not mean you automatically believe everything.

Like I've always said, living healthy is important and diet is a component of that and will yield improved health, which in turn lowers anxiety, which can improve symptoms. What we know absolutely, is there is no one answer to BFS. Its also true that several times in the past people (mainly over-confident new comers) will show up, offer some new/old solution which they champion is the answer, then proceed to push it upon others with over-confidence that it will help most people. To myself and many others, this is comical. Hang around long enough and you'll probably find humor in many things you once didn't (you probably already do). It wasn’t meant to offend you or your beliefs. Furthermore, we know that beating BFS is largely mental (as reported by droves of long-time twitchers) and placebo effects can definitely play a role for many individuals like us. Nor did state that seeing positive results is always "just noobs benefiting from placebo effect". If you reread my post, as well as my first sentence in this post, improvement in diet (any helpful diet) can likely yield reduced anxiety, feeling of healthy living, and reduced symptoms….this is NOT placebo but merely an indirect benefit. Like I said before, its not surprising in the least that newer twitchers would report positive results for these reasons. My point was that the positive results are just as likely to be seen with other lifestyle improvements, and other diets…..anything that can improve health and improve our minds/bodies. We’ve had many reports of vast improvement, even 100% cures by newer twitchers without any dietary changes whatsoever. Couple that fact with the absence of positive feedback from long-time twitchers who’ve tried gluten-free or similar dietary changes. Its quite clear.