Dinner with a Twist - Twitching!

Last night I went to a dinner with my brother-in-law and his GF, and the subject of my twitching somehow came up when they noticed my dietary restrictions as I was trying to order something. My brother in law was like "what do you mean twitches? Like the spasms my eye gets all the time?" and his girlfriend was like "yea, he always gets this annoying eye tic, its hilarious because it lasts days and days, and goes away and comes back. When I get one its gone in a day". So even his GF gets them too!At this point I was like hmmm, interesting. I asked more questions and found out that my brother-in-law calls twitches "spasms" and he says that he's had them forever, he gets them mainly at night when he is trying to fall asleep after a stressful day, and that his doctor said it was just his muscles trying to relax themselves. He also says that when he works out (hes young, healthy and addicted to the gym) one of his arms thumps up and down like crazy (twitches) because he's sure he strained it one time years ago. I bet he's twitching randomly during the day too, but is only noticing it at night when he's at rest! I found a closet BFSer!He was PUZZLED as to why I was ever concerned about my twitches (my husband told them during dinner that this past summer I had a near breakdown over twitching) and they kind of even laughed because they were so confused as to why I would freak out over that. Of course I didn't dare tell them about what Dr. Google said, but he maybe read my mind because he said "Yea, I stay away from webMD because every time I would go on it to check for this or that, it would say the outcome was certain death" and they all had a good chuckle. I made a mental note to make sure and post this story as evidence there are likely so many people with BFS that are just not concerned about it.Here is another story, but stop reading here if you are fed up with reading about glutenuring a different dinner about a month ago, I asked to see the gluten free menu and an acquaintance at the dinner table asked to see it too, because sometimes gluten gives her legs spasms. In retrospect, seeing as how my brother-in-law used "spasm" to mean twitch, I wonder if she meant the same thing?!!???! Interesting

One of my good friends was round visiting today and I said hey look at my tricep to show him thinking he would be freaked by the constant twitching and he couldn't have been more calm when he said .... Yeah my cheek does that all the time .... That was the end of the conversation then we went out for some beers and lunch lol

Definitely an interesting topic!I recently told a collegue about my twitches and how much they scared me and he just answered something like "Oh, you mean that muscle twitching. I've been having it in my right forearm for years. Sometimes it's so strong that it moves my hand. Funny thing, isn't it."

Threads like this have popped up many times in the past. There are definitely lots lots lots more twitchers than you'd think. So many of us have crossed paths with other twitchers in every day life. Just yesterday I was talking with a co-worker and she went on to explain how her eye wouldn't stop twitching. I inquired a bit more to find out her leg had been twitching as well. Fun stuff!

I once met a gunfighter with a twitchy trigger finger...... his condition was not benign.

What a great read. Thanks for sharing.I was talking to a Calculus student outside of class a few weeks back and his cheek was twitching noticeably while I spoke with him. He didn't seem to be bothered by it.

Integration by parts + Trig substitution = Face Twitching. Every time. Its a fact.

My cousins wife posted this on Facebook .. "I hate this muscle twitch on my thigh and it won't stop since yesterday"So clearly ppl get them just not as frequent and persistent as most of us... I am currently finding my symptoms quite difficult... Feel like my whole body is buzzing or trembling !! Tricep twitch every few seconds for 6 weeks, weak feeling in my legs or maybe that's the trembly feeling... Loads of calf activity 3 per second like its bubbling!! Random all over too and loads of fast machine gun ones !!

I work in a hospital - in the past two days I had one lady with longstanding Lyme's Syndrome (25 years). Among other things, I simply asked her about twitching, she said "oh my God! ten years ago I had it so bad, big ones in my stomach like a baby kicking!(and she gestured)! I went down the whole als road with this"...I had not said one single word about my own symptoms OR als (my stomach one was the one that got my own attention). I had another woman who suffers from health anxiety + just plain old serious anxiety for many years. 77 years old. She called the ambulance yesterday to take her to the ER because she had a twitch in her calf. Evidently, she thought it was life threatening. My sister went to the ER a few years ago with many different symptoms. She said he cheek was twitching and the ER doctor said "we will have to check on some of these other things, but THAT (the cheeck twitch) I can say for certain is caused by anxiety."

So true. My best friend's response when I confided in her about all the craziness was "Wait..you mean like the twitch I get in my butt all the time?" I think we are just a little more in tune with our bodies and because of that any deviation away from homeostasis leads us down a dark path. Ignorance is bliss!

A paramedic today told me about a serious accident he saw happen and just avoided himself. He talked about his pounding heart etc... and said "and I learned something else about myself...my eye started twitching. I think that happens when I'm scared." He knew nothing about my twitching issues. Just funny how I notice these little pieces of conversation now.

Yesterday I commented on some things on one of the BFS facebook pages. In the evening, I was horrified to have a text from a friend who told me she saw them. This friend I have known about 8 years and she lives less than a mile from me. She was also a nurse in the ER where I work (another medical person story). I felt my privacy was invaded and was so embarassed that everyone could see my comment on fb, not even a post by me, just a comment. But, perhaps it is a blessing in disguise. Sometimes I feel this BFS is just a made up diagnosis and I wonder why there are only 4xxxx of us on this board over a period of 11 years from the whole world and only about 3xx on the facebook page. Heck, I have more fb friends than that and a very talented local singer has less than that and this fb page/group is accessible worldwide?? Really? I have wished to know JUST ONE REAL PERSON with this disorder (I know you are all real, but sort of cyber people and friends, I want someone I can see and touch. Here is her text: "Hope you are well! I saw your posts on FB about BFS. I've had this for about 13 years now. Worked up by Neuro 8 years ago or so. I started this past year taking mag 800 mcg's and 1000 calcium and it had helped temendously. I get cramps when I travel (she now is in pharma sales) but not the twitching so much. Stress, being tired, dehydrated gets the twitching in full swing but the mag and calcium help." I text back. She texts "...It (the comment) caught my eye because I have it, so don't worry (about everyone seeing it) that won't help matters. I thought forsure I had ALS, MS, you name it. It's more of an annoyance now than a worry, but I've had it for so many years. And these aren't just twitches but full muscle group fasciculations..." I text back. She texts "Ha! I just went on the (this aboutbfs site I told her about) website. I could have written that. I have every single one of those symptoms. I have never been truly dx (at least I don't think so)...I was worked up by Neuro, tried some meds, then haven't done anything about it except self medicating with magnesium and calcium because I don't think anyone will believe me or I look crazy....Lol. I have had the abdomen twitches too, but not very often. Those freak me out the most though. It does feel like a baby! Typically it's my legs-every day. I just ignore them more now than I used to. I can't ignore it when its my arms, abdomen, butt, face. Then I'm annoyed." Love this. What a gift to have a neighbor and friend who relates to this whole thing and has medical knowledge and has had this for thirteen years.

great post i'm hopefully hooking with a long timer in San Fran in March to share a gluten rich diet and a drink BTW i was at the airport yesterday and the United counter lady turned to her co-worker and said "this eye twitch i have is driving me crazy. its been going on for an hour" i though to myself lady don't even *beep* go there and your little eye twitch you have no idea what i've been through if anyone ever coordinates a big get together anywhere let me know...first round for everyone is on me )

Yet another example. I just got back from visiting my brother in Chicago. Hes left eyelid was twitching for a day. A couple days later I showed me how hes calf was visibly twitching. He then admitted to me, that he gets in in his quads sometimes. No where near as much as I do but.......

Really interesting stories! Especially the butt twitch, lol!I went to a neurologist this past July (not my main one but a second opinion one when I was at the height of my anxiety) and he was like "ok you had 2 EMGs that were clean, and I know the doctors who performed them, they are neuromuscular and ALS specialists, so why are you here? Incidentally yesterday I had someone about your age complain about twitches on her stomach and legs, so we did an EMG and it was clean too, so stop worrying," and he sent me on my merry way. So yes, BFS is pretty common if he had a twitcher come in the day before I did. I bet neuros get at least one BFSer a week, but unlike us, when those folks get a benign diagnoses, they believe it and they don't go home to join this forum because they don't have health anxiety as we do.Yesterday I went to grab a (gluten free, LOL) drink with a friend, and she was complaining about a twitch on her cheek that she's had for two days due to work stress. I just smiled and said "yes, those suck don't they!" Yep, so many benign twitchers in the world!

I think trees a difference between hey I twitch a little bit and us who twitch non stop and it warrants a dr visit I don't know how many people fall into that category but a senior member said it was about 2% of the overall population

I think muscles twitching are extremely common, what is less common is when the condition interfere with daily life due to the symptoms itself or the anxiety of a more serious condition. From the moment I started noticing twitching two and a half months ago, I discovered that the two persons to whom I mentioned my problem were twitching also. First a coworker, who in the beginning told me that he, had never twitched, but a couple of weeks later he came to confess that the night before while working at home on his computer his thigh twitched nonstop for 2 hours. Same with my girlfriend, whom now became extremely aware of her twitches, and told me yesterday that she is feeling a lot of random sporadic twitches that jumps from her arms to legs then elbow then thigh etc. So random twitches are common, but the big question is when do normal twitches become BFS? The condition is still poorly defined and seems everybody label themselves as BFS sufferer while they can just be normal twitchers with abnormal hypochondria. If we take Fibromyalgia for example (that some people link to BFS), people diagnosed with fibromyalgia goes to the doc because they are in pain not because they are anxious. Same with chronic fatigue syndrome, where people seek medical help for extreme fatigue not anxiety. In BFS it seems to be different, since most (not all of course) people go to the doc not because they are bothered by the twitches to the point of not functioning normally in daily life, but because they are anxious to death after googeling their symptoms. ALS patients go to the doc because they feel weak, Fibromyalgia people because they are in pain; CFS because of fatigue, BFS patients because of extreme anxiety. Peopkle with BFS will not go to the doc and ask for a way to stop the twitches, the pain or the fatigue, they will go to a doc after another just to hear ad nauseam that they don't have ALS.Personally I would have never visited a doc if I did not google about twitching first. So I truly believe that muscles twitching are extremely common, even my neuro said he twitches frequently. So now it’s been more than two months that my life is completely on hold due to extreme anxiety triggered by one and only one thing: stupidly typing “muscle twitching” on an Internet search engine.

"Are there more twitchers than we realize?" Definitely yes and there are obviously even more twitchers who don't realize themselves that they are twitching. Count me in as well! I just talked to a former colleague with whom I had worked together for some years from 2002 on.I told him about my twitching and the anxiety coming with them. Guess what he answered: "Oh, but your eyelids have always been twitching like crazy when you were stressed. I always thought you were aware of that."The strange thing is that I really wasn't. Maybe it was so normal for me that I never realized it ...

Well, you are confusing people who twitch occassionally, which is pretty common, and us, who twitch nearly non stop in all extremities, sometimes bulbar muscles, which is BFS.While the former is really common (eye twitches, thumb twitches or calf twitching), the latter is quite rare and - as confirmed by a few ALS specs (including prof.Carvalho and Eisen) - this is the reason why no formal study except for the old Mayo (where only like 1/4 had widespread fasciculations) has been performed. Dr. Swash (London MND specialists) said that he had seen like 10 people in his whole career with widespread benign fasciculations.As someone in this thread mentioned, our twitching affects our lives which is nothing people who occassionally twitch can say. If I roll in my bed, my back, abdomen and thighs starts twitching - this is nothing like stress-related eye twitches So we are quite unique. In the years of existence, this board has not had that many participants if you realize we are from all around the world and many people have had only calves twitching.If I remember correctly, Al Awaji document stated that "widespread and frequent fasciculations are very rare" - and I belive so. I wish I could meet anyone here like me

I have wondered when you hear everyone twitches what is actually normal. I know people on here twitch 24/7. I would have maybe 10-15 a day which are like pops and can occur anywhere which to people who twitch 24/7 probably seems normal but I didn't use to twitch so it's not normal for me.