Health Anxiety: Need Reassurance

[GamerSociety1509]

Hi all.This is a long post divided into two sections. The first post is about hyper sensitivity. The second post by me is actually the part where I'd like some reassurance if anyone can provide. THANKSI'd like your help if possible and hopefully others might gain some reassurance from this as well. I have always had health anxiety. I am not an anxious person. But health anxiety I have had in phases where they effect me for a period of up to a few months. There have been many since I was young. (Tinitus, unable to breathe, brain tumor, MS and now possibly the worst one I've had, ALS).To keep it brief, I was sick with bronchitis and 2 fractured ribs from coughing (low vit d) for a period of 3 months. Body wide twitching started straight after.I will not take you through the anxiety and the fluctuations but I am more going to focus on one issue that I call hyper sensitivity. I have lots of experience with it and have become very good at doing it.We all have experience with what happens when you focus on something. For example, have you ever been outside and randomly started listening to the sounds around you and found that they got REALLY LOUD. Or focused on a specific noise that you hardly noticed before? What about that feeling when you learn a word for the first time and then for the next couple days you feel like you heard it said so many times but have never heard it before that! Well that is another version of this. You subconscious becomes aware of something and you can't help but notice it.In health anxiety, this is something that can be very bad. Normal things that happen in your body you start to notice to a degree you shouldn't. You'll ask the person next to you if they feel the same thing, and they will say no. Unless it's someone who is able to focus on it and possibly confirm the same.Does everyone know the noise you hear in your ears when it is really quiet? That is blood rushing through your head. Some people hear that noise quite loudly (called tinitus) due to a variety of issues. When I was young my uncle told me that some people hear it so loud they go crazy. I dismissed this fact, but around 6 months later I woke up one night hearing it very loud. I know in hindsight this was due to wax build up in my ear. But guess what happened. I spent the next 3 months thinking it was going to get so loud I'd go crazy. I heard it every day 24/7. 12 years later the fear has passed but guess what? The sensitivity is still there. I can hear the buzzing any moment of the day I decide to, no matter how loud the noise is around me.One more example. I have had tremors since I can remember starting gym at 18. My muscles quiver as I do movements (no matter how fresh I am). After my ACL reconstruction my physio asked me if I had ever seen a doctor about that. I asked why and he said it was not natural and could be a problem (potentially MS). Guess what happened then? I WAS TREMORING EVERYWHERE. In my hands which i had NEVER noticed before. They were shaking like crazy. Do you believe the shaking started the day my physio asked me? Of course not. I simply became aware of something I had never paid attention it.This ALS thing is the worst. Sure we are twitching. But how many NORMAL twitches are you now noticing? One hand is weaker than the other? Was that like that 2 weeks ago!Do you notice that with health anxiety you are always scared about FEELINGS generally? Things FEEL different? And when you explain them to people you generally feel a bit silly because the thing you are feeling is a little wishy washy? Do you think a person with ALS complained about funny feelings ? Or something seeming different?I encourage you to share your thoughts with hyper sensitivity. I haven't gotten into half of mine and as an added note, I am a high pace completely functioning person in every other aspect of my life. Most people don't know the above is happening.I actually have one more funny one to add. When I was going through the tremor scare, I was consistently checking to see if my head was tremoring. I had to get a head scan done (for my dentist to see my teeth) and the lady asked me to keep my head perfectly still. WELL GUESS WHAT THE FK HAPPENED! I COULDNT HOLD IT STILL! It was tremoring like a leaf and guess what happens now! Every time I am in an intense situation when I feel the need to keep still (Such as a job interview or a serious discussion with an authority) I feel my head tremoring and shaking... SIGH!

 

[GamerSociety1509]

Hello again! Anyways, in relation to the first post here is the current POSSIBLE Hyper sensitivity issue I am having. The truth is I am having trouble telling if this is in my head. I'd like people to help me work it out OR potentially point out how that is not ALS in any way if rationally possible. Thank you all So 3 months of twitching now. I want to point out that I have read the possible symptoms of ALS aside from weakness that people are scared of (cramping, twitching, spasticity). As all people with health anxiety do we love to try and fit out feelings into the medical term I might be doing this but am not sure, I'd like some adviceSo here goes. About a month ago now, my toes on my right foot started feeling uncomfortable. I want to point out why toes is where have lots of twitching and they also appear to be the place I have my permanent twitching (24/7). To see it properly I need to cast a shadow over it with a light and they are popping off like crazy in both feet along the big toe side of my foot. (Only a person with health anxiety holds a bright light to their feet to cast shadows and scout for twitching -_-)Anyways. My toes started feeling out of place. Naturally I have examined them. Do you seem more bent than the other foot? Are they weak? Is this normal? Should it see like that? Is this early spasticity or a symptom of ALS.My big toe on my right foot hangs low (below all the other toes by about a cm). This scared the crap out of me. I thought it was weak and drooping but it is very strong and if you google dropped big toe there is almost nothing to be found. I also noticed my mother has it to a slightly lesser degree than me. But my saving thought was that if the toes was hanging cause it was weak then it would be weak which its not. So the current issue is that the toes always feel funny (almost always on the right foot even though the twitching is on both). What's odd is that even when I feel like I am fine and it's nothing and I go a couple days without stressing, they will still come back feeling wierd and out of place. I can't really explain it better than that. No they aren't curling.I know this is in my subconscious however because the first thing I think when I wake up is (how do my feet feel?!) and the pinky toe often feels tight or strange.I think that's it for now... Does anyone have any thoughts how this isn't ALS or weakness? It's been a month, there is no real difference. It feels better when I have shoes on and not as good when I am bare foot.Thank you all The wierd thing about this is that it hasn't past yet. But in saying that, this ALS fear has probably been the worst of my life.

 

[Gracer]

Yes sure every day and even now becasue I have my brain structure changed in the early childhood or probably even I was born with that type of worrying brain at which natural action of frontal lobes is decreased in favor of amygdala (which is a pure alarm guard to be honest).I seem to have compression trauma or tendinitis in my left hand and to a certain degree in my roght one due to typing. But I still need to apply all my therapy experience in order to stop going thinking about MND damage. Repetitive damage and hypodynamy of the rest of the body for 5 years, especially intense work for the last three years - and my brains still trying to find a shortcut, becasue I suppose otherwise I would have to think about what can I do to change my life in a positive way However I am thinking in that way I mean, what to do to spare my hands and how to change to more active life keeping same maoney income )) How to work less and be paid more in other words

 

[SecretAgent007]

I know exactly what you mean about hyper sensitivity and broken thoughts (or better yet thought process). Like almost everyone here I was negatively impacted by my own cycle of fear, worry, and anxiety. I was able to turn it around completely though and I will try to tell you how. The first realization that you have to make is that you are not a helpless victim against your own mind and the way it works. It's your mind and you have the power to change it. The second realization that you have to make is that fear and worry are choices. You can decide to take your mind in a different direction and refuse to play along with your habitual ways of thinking. Yes, our minds do learn habits but new ones can be learned to replace old, unwanted habits. That is where the key to your happiness lies. It is up to you to empower yourself and actively work to change your thinking patterns and perspective to more positive ones. Our perspective is really what determines how we experience something.For a crude example let us consider 2 different people, Carl and Bob. Let's say Carl and Bob are both given a gift of $1,000. Carl might receive this gift of money and is reminded of all his worries about money. He worries about not being able to make ends meet, worries about bills, and worries about his mortgage. At the very sight of money his mind kicks in to his habitual negative thinking patterns and by the very nature of this feels like this gift of $1,000, while nice and all, isn't anywhere nearly enough to calm his nerves. Overall Carl still has a somewhat negative experience despite receiving a gift of money. Bob on the other hand always tries to look for the positive in any situation and even tries to find the silver lining when something goes wrong. Bob receives this gift of $1,000 and may very well have the same bills and mortgage as Carl, but because of his positive perspective has a much more pleasant experience. Bob chooses to have a positive perspective and therefore has a more positive experience. Whether Carl does it consciously or subconsciously, he is choosing to have a negative perspective and therefore has a more negative experience.When you realize that it is your perspective that can determine your level of happiness it can empower you to take control of your level of happiness. This has ramifications that touch every aspect of your life because your mind and your experience are one in the same. A series of events or a set of circumstances are what they are. It is we who decide to label things positive or negative. If a tree falls in the forest it is simply a tree falling in the forest. It is your thoughts on the subject that determine how you feel about them.I also like to believe that the mind and the brain are two separate things. The mind would be where conscious thought takes place and the brain would be the physical organ that is the hub of the central nervous system. The brain is constantly monitoring the mind to anticipate what to expect. Have you ever read those studies that show how athletes perform better when they mentally run through an event before actually physically doing it? Brain wave monitoring during the mental run through and the actual thing show that as far as the brain is concerned both are just as real. When you couple that research with all of the studies that link stress and anxiety to illness and disease, is it really so surprising that our BFS symptoms get worse when we are more stressed (mentally or physically)? Your mind makes it real. Choosing to have a positive perspective does translate over to all kinds of positive health benefits. When we participate in proven relaxation exercises like meditation, breathing, yoga, hypnosis, or countless others there are different brain centers that activate and neutralize the negative influences of stress, fear, worry, and anxiety. Furthermore these relaxation exercises combined with positive affirmations have been proven to help replace negative habitual thinking patterns with positive ones. The logic behind this is that when we do relaxation exercises we slow our brain waves down from the busy, normal waking state (beta range) to a calmer, relaxed state (alpha range) or an ultra-relaxed state (theta range). When we slow all the way to the delta range we are fully subconscious. This is where we sleep and dream in the REM state. The conscious mind and subconscious mind seem to overlap in the alpha and theta ranges, so subconscious habits can be consciously replaced with positive affirmations and patterns when you intentionally focus on them. It is not something you can do once or twice and forget about it. New patterns need to be developed over time with repeated focus and attention. Persistence does pay off though.If you truly want to fix your broken thought process my advice is to realize you are in control and that all is going to be just fine. Then you must empower yourself and actively work with tools to accomplish what you want to do. Replace negative thought patterns with positive ones and stick with it. There are even new studies that recently came out from two different scientific sources that have shown how relaxation exercises actually change the body's expression of genes for the positive after just one session. It is pretty amazing how our ability to heal works. You just need to learn to get out of your own way and learn to trust the process of life. I hope this helps.

 

[veryconfident321]

What a great response I'm trying to master that I do well for a few days and then I notice I'm twitching and then I revert back to my old habits I start thinking why am I still twitching, why won't this stop, why always I'm the same stop, I flex and then look and say oh my I this atrophyThe only thing that seems to help me is when I have reduced twitching Any advice on how to not fall back into this negatively?

 

[veryconfident321]

Thanks again you and a few other seniors on here are truly why makes the site great and helps keep our sanity As mentioned I've had lower leg and feet twitching for 4 months...I do well but then I read or hear something like twitching in the same spot continuously for long period of time is not good or could be a sign of something more dangerous and then I lost control