Living with Health Anxiety

[Annie32005]

Hi everyone...I just want to start off by saying that this board has helped me a lot and made me realize that I'm not alone out there. Here is my story my whole life I have had extremely bad health anxiety I am always focusing on some new illness....now obviously my worry is the dreaded ALS my symptoms actually began AFTER looking at a web-site for ALS because I stumbled across the disease in a health anxiety message board and was curious to what it was...well the next day I started noticing a twitch on my thumb which actually moved the whole entire thumb and since then its just been a downward spiral I started getting twitches everywhere my butt, my lip, my thumb, my right leg....sometimes even in my stomach...they come and go but my right leg always seeems to have something going on....I have no CLINICAL weakness I can still walk on my toes and heals and unscrew things and stuff but I sometimes just feel random pains and stiffness all over my body....my question to everyone is that would it be very rare at 19 for me to have ALS...I am so nervous I just hope someone replies...

 

[EyeoftheWild]

Hi ange:

We have had a number of 19 year olds that have found there way to this site. I am always amazed, because when I was 19 I was so busy raising hell that it didn't occur to me to have health anxiety. I guess I'm a slow learner.

In answer to your question, YES it would extremely rare for someone of your age to contract ALS. In fact, it is very rare to contract it at any age. It is clear from your description of your health crisis, that you are very well indeed, except for some of the aggravating symptoms of BFS.

You have read a number of the posts here and that is good, if you haven't already, read BFS in a Nutshell. It is a sticky at the top of some of the forums. Further to that, do not read any postings, for the time being, dealing with ALS, MS or others that might freak you out. Turn your mind to only positive things. This site is Godsend, but it can also make your anxiety continue. Many people post on this site, and information sometimes can get thrown around willy nilly. When you feel you have a handle on things then you can broaden your reading list. For God sakes do not read any other websites dealing with health issues, particularly ALS, MS, and Parkinson websites.

So in conclusion; you do not have one of the baddies. You are a young and vital women with a long, long fulfilling life ahead. I look forward to hearing about your speedy recovery from this little set back, a set back that is BFS. I am seldom trouble by my symptoms now and I am an old man of 45. At least my kids, who are almost as old as you, think I am ancient.

Go out with your friends, have a coke and some nachos and forget about the twitches. Okay!