Dealing With Health Anxiety

[SparkyTaco10]

Hello,

Im a 20 year old male, and I know I have severe health anxiety.
About 2 months ago I started having twitching in my legs, so my first reaction is to go and look it up on the net. All I read about is ALS. I have been worrying myself sick ever since. I have seen a Neuro, "I can assure you there is absolutely nothing wrong with you" were his exact words. But I dont believe him. I get twitches all over my body, legs, feet, arms hand, stomach, face around my mouth and lips, sometimes nearly all at once. My arms and legs sometimes feel really tired and it feels like Im going to fall over. Sometimes I feel like food gets stuck in my throat when Im swallowing, or there is just something stuck there. When Im speaking, sometimes in mid sentence I will totally screw up my speech. I can move my tongue around from side to side really quick though and form all kinds of expressions with my mouth though. I check myself constantly for weakness etc.

Ive recently just noticed that my left hand is smaller than my right hand, not in dimensions, but just doesnt feel as 'thick'. My fingers are thinner than my right. But I dont seem to have a weak grip or anything in my left hand. It probably has always been like this, I just havent noticed it before. Is it normal for one hand to me be bigger than the other?

Im just so scared and it has consumed me completely, I cant think about anything else. Im going to see a hypnotherapist soon to see if I can get some relief from my anxiety, sometimes the fear just feels like to much to bare. Im only 20 and cant stand being like this.

Anyone else experience similar things? Any response would be great, I just dont want to feel alone about it anymore...

 

[KirkLaMarr]

Hi Grant,

You're among many people here who have had similar experiences. The bottom line is that you *must* learn to relax.

My own experience is somewhat similar. I was a complete wreck for a few months once my twitching began (I was hit very hard very quickly by the twitching, it was all over and frequent) and only after I decided to trust my doctor's opinion did it begin to subside.

The symptoms of BFS are not *entirely* anxiety-related; that much is very clear. You may have them forever. But everything else you describe (including the realization and concern over one hand being smaller than the other) can be attributed directly to anxiety. You're not weak, you're fatigued - part of that may be the BFS - but almost certainly, the majority of it is anxiety. Anxiety will make a mess of your body in ways you can't imagine. Your body will continue to react to that stress in new and different ways until you get your act together. It's a defense mechanism of sorts.

To put it bluntly, if you don't calm down, you will continue to develop more and worse symptoms until you drive yourself utterly mad and feel like crap all the time. And many people here can verify that that's exactly what will happen. You've come to the right place, made a good start. There are a bunch of testimonials here that will encourage you to a) see a doctor, and b) believe what the doctor tells you.

Your doctor has no interest in hiding the truth from you! If it will help you relax, by all means seek another doctor's opinion. If you really really must, insist on a neuro workup. But the reality of ALS is that you'd be much more of a mess than you think you would if you actually had it, and the symptoms you describe that make you worried about ALS are all very much within the domain of anxiety. So chill out. Do everything you can to recognize that you're much better off trusting the opinion of a medical professional than letting message board zealots fry your brain. Stop by here once in a while for a dose of sanity, then stay the hell off the internet!

My doctor's way of dealing with me was to be blunt about what the real problem was (my MIND), and I'm hoping that passing that along will help you have the same success in getting control that I have had. See your doctor again, be very direct about how anxious you are, and ask for help in dealing with that. He/she would probably find it refreshing

Good luck to you.

 

[CosmicVisitor]

Grant
That's quite a load for a 20 year old. I don't gamble too often but I would in your case. (BFS) You may have some physiological issue that triggered the symptoms but you have let your mind run with it compounding the imbalance of body and mind. Not knowing your complete story It's hard to give advice, but I can tell you that you are not alone, not the first or last 20 year old to visit this forum. Stay away from Google or any other seach engines. The information available on the net is so antiquated, just stay tuned here for cutting edge BFS information and support. You can get through this, and you probably will recover much faster than us older folks .. (OMG) I am old arent I ?
Get on a good diet concentrate on that. Avoid caffine, aspartame, refined sugar and foods with a high sulfur content. Stay hydrated to keep your system moving. Ask as many questions here as you need..
Again.. stay away from other websites...

Doug

 

[Diego4Life]

Grant, read this board and listen to the advice; firstly your age makes it very unlikely that you have als. BUT more importantly you have seen a neurologist who said you do not have it. You don't. You have widespread twitching, ALS does not present like that. You need to STOP worrying about this NOW otherwise you will do what many on this board have done and go into a downward spiral of fear and anxiety totally unnecessarily. Differences in limb size, muscle bulk, strength have all been discussed and angsted over on this board. It is NORMAL to have these differences and yours have probably always been there, it is just that you are now focusing on it. In real neurological disease, the weakness is real and measureable; i.e. your neuro would have detected it. Your neuro will also have looked for tell tale signs of atrophy and clearly did not find anything. Therefore you MUST conclude that the disparity in your hand size is insignificant.

I can't diagnose you, but you know that you don't have ALS, and the most likely diagnosis is BFS. The best advice I can give you is look after yourself, keep to a healthy diet, try a good magnesium supplement, drink plenty of water and get the anxiety under control.

Best wishes,

Diego4Life

 

[DJohnDavies]

Hi Grant

I was worried as well that the fleshy part of my hand, just under the thumb, was smaller on the left than on the right.

I told my neuro about this - three points
a) because i'm right handed, and because the human body isn't completely symmetrical, the right muscles are bigger, b/c i use the right hand more.
b) neuro got me to push the thumb up against his thumb and the muscle bulged out - he said that's a better indication of my underlying muscle bulk in that fleshy part

c) there's a common condition called carpal tunnel - people get tingling in the first three fingers. people with carpal tunnel may have slight thinning of that fleshy part as well.

hope this helps