Dealing with Stress and Anxiety

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DoctorJesseHill

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Hi guys.Hopefully joining this board will help me out. I see some people on here are still suffering from stress and anxiety after several years! I'm not sure I can deal with that.Let me tell you briefly what I'm dealing with:I'm a 25 year-old, overweight (working on it!) male. Before all this started I suffered from a minor case of cyberchondria, but my anxiety always went away after a few days.That was until 6 months ago....On the 4th of July of 2008 I started getting these very weird, very brief, very sharp headaches which radiated from the back of my neck to the crown of my head. It happened three times over three days, and they were unlike anything I'd felt before. Frankly, it scared the crap out of me. You see, I'm a Googler like many of you and when I checked my symptoms all I kept seeing were things like "sentinel headache" (for a brain aneurysm). This got me scared enough to run to the hospital. They did a CT scan and a lumbar puncture (which ended up giving my post-lumbar puncture sickness). Both came back clean and they sent me home.Two months later I was finally able to see a neuro. By October we did a CT scan and MRI of the neck and discovered a C4/C5 and C5/C6 bulging disc which explained my pain. Case closed.... One would think.But I was FREAKING OUT for those three months. I was very stressed and anxious, convinced I had spinal cancer or some other terminal disease. One night I found a lump in my cheek and became convinced I had salivary gland cancer, too. Maybe this is too much info, but I also developed a bad case of IBS I think from the stress. I basically had diarrhea for three months. Not pleasant.And then it was in the October issue of DISCOVER magazine where I read about this brain implant that was supposed to help ALS sufferers communicate with the world. Of course, I looked up ALS and its symptoms and literally the NEXT DAY I began feeling fasciculations in my calves. There were a lot of them, too, all along the side. I couldn't believe it... What next?Flash forward to now...I'm not worried about my neck any more, or my swollen salivary gland. My IBS is mostly fine (only flairs up when I get anxious about my calves). But these calf fasciculations haven't gone away, though they're not as severe as they were. I thought maybe it was a magnesium deficiency due to my IBS, so I started taking magnesium supplements. They don't seem as severe or rapid as I've seen on some YouTube videos, but they are often times visible.They usually get worse when I go for a walk, or get done walking on my treadmill, or if I look up ALS symptoms. Heh.I also sometimes get jerks in my thighs or arms, and a few weeks back I noticed an increase in hypnic jerks when I was trying to fall asleep. Anybody else have that? It doesn't happen every night, thankfully.I am somewhat concerned because the fasciculations seem mostly isolated to my calves and sometimes the arches of my feet. From what I've read, BFS is often more widespread. However, I haven't noticed any real weakness... No tripping, and I can carry my whole 300 lbs frame on my tiptoes and heels if necessary (yes, I've been strength 'testing' myself I'm ashamed to say).I have an appointment with the neuro on 1/13 under the guise of a follow-up for my neck.I try to convince myself that noticing the symptoms of ALS right after reading an article about it is stupidly unlikely... But it's hard. I also worry that it might be MS. I can't imagine my mind is manifesting actual fasciculations... I mean, I can SEE them.6 months and suddenly some days all I can think about are these stupid health problems...Any words of comfort for my particular case? How should I approach the neuro on this?Sorry for the long post. Any comments would be much appreciated.-Jesse
 
Hi Jesse, welcome. it sounds like BFS to me and like the rest of us, Mr. Google was not our friend :( I'm glad you are seeing the neuro to put your mind at ease. Basically if you have no weakness, you don't have the dreaded disease. Hope you find comfort in the forum. It has helped many of us.Linda
 
Jesse, read a post I just wrote in the personal experiences forum called "An interesting convo with a doctor." It will be helpful for you.
 
Thanks for the replies, guys. And that was a good post, Mario.I'm really a pretty logical guy. It seems obvious to the logical part of me that this all started with my overwhelming health anxiety... But then there's the little part of my brain that whispers, "But it COULD be ALS. It's timing could all be a coincidence!" Then again, about a month after my twitching started I went to Yosemite and went hiking for 8 miles... Up hill and down. Didn't fall once or anything. I guess someone with ALS wouldn't have been able to do that, right?When I go to the neuro, should I insist on an EMG? Many here seem to have found reassurance in it, while others seem to have gotten a renewed fear by a "dirty" one.
 
Hi Jesse, I too started experiencing calf twitching and it drove me to the internet, to an ALS Forum no less and finally a neuro. (I also noticed my twitching calf was a tad smaller than my other one and it made me panic more!) The neuro did the standard office exam and sent me home asking that I not worry about it and that yes, it's BFS. The twitching went on for 3wks, then finally stopped. Incidentally, when I visited the neuro, I had only had it a week so even though she advised I not worry, I did the remaining two weeks! I also experience random twitches all over (but no atrophy or weakness) the place! Most recently, I developed this finger twitch - my left hand ring finger - and guess what?? I went from thinking it was ALS to now believing I have Parkinson's. My anxiety level is out of control so I am going to see my family doc Monday morning, then the neuro in the afternoon since I just don't know what's going with all these twitches. I keep getting them and want to believe they are only BFS related. I am typing this at 3am since I was ALSO experience the hypnic jers - but A LOT to night. I can't sleep that good anyway since I'm constantly worrying about these terrible diseases, but with the jerking, it's next to impossible - not to mention they are making me panic more. So guess what I did? I logged on my laptop and googled "hypnic jerk". I just really want something that will relax me! I just took a Tylenol PM. maybe THAT will help, who knows. But I did want to help alleviate your thoughts - this sounds nothing like ALS. Trust me, I got to know some folks on the ALS Forum, and they became furious with me not believeing the neuro and continue to ask about my symptoms! lol.Marieaka "BOO BOO"
 
Thanks, Boo. I appreciate your thoughts!I also Google searched the hell out of hypnic jerks and, ya know what? Amazingly I couldn't find a single neurological disorder they're linked to. They just "happen" to some people, and neurologists don't give a *beep* about them. I definitely had an increase in them when I was getting anxious about my twitching and IBS flair.My suspicion and my hope is that it's a nasty feedback loop. You get nervous about one symptom, which leads to more symptoms, which leads to anxiety, which leads to more symptoms related to the anxiety, etc.
 
I wouldn't be too worried about hypnic jerks (or however you spell it). My wife claims I have done that each and every night of my life, ever since we met and first shared a bed back in 1993. She claims I twitch and "kick" every night, right as I fall asleep. That's just the way some people are. There are lots of explanations for it, but none of them sinister. It's either anxiety, or it's just what you do.
 

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