SynthwaveGod
Member
Hi all, my name's Dave and I'm 19, from the UK. About 18 months ago now i noticed some twitching in my neck. It was on the right hand side of my neck, and felt like a strong, irregular pulse at the time. I wasn't sure what it was, but tried to forget about it. However, over the following weeks, it seemed to get worse, occuring in diferent places over my body - sometimes small twitched under the skin, like in my legs, or whole muscles - in my arms. Well I've always been a bit or a worrier, and this was no exception- I got very scared about what it could be, and this was the start of my symptom searching phase on the internet. Of course, the first thing I found was ALS, which didn't go down too well. As one of the few illnesses that were listed on the web pages I visited, I convinced myself that this was the source of my problems. It didn't help that in a biology lesson we discussed Stephen Hawking, whose picture had me shaking all through the lesson.
I carried on symptom searching, and partly due to my anxiety, my twitching got worse. I convinced myself that I was losing muscle, and spent numerous occasions in school in the bathroom examining my legs and arms. Of course this worrying had other effects on me too, such as trembling, sweating etc which I thought might be connected to the ALS
I stumbled across a health anxiety website, created by a woman called Malissa who had been struggling with health anxiety (HA) for years, and only recently managed to sort herself out. I kinda agreed that I was a bit young to have ALS, and, about 3 months after the twitching had started, my strength and ability had not changed.
Nevertheless, my twitching persisted, and I've spent the last year with ALS in the back of my mind. Also, since then, I've developed pain in my lower back and legs, making me more worried about ALS, or MS. Now, I'm more worried about my legs and back, that I might have MS or that it's a slow progression of ALS, due to my age. But, I'm quite happy that really, the twitching is probably benign. In which case, I've tried having days where I don't drink any coffee (a normally daily consumption) and have realised that I hardly twitch when I don't have any caffiene. Also, whenever I drink a few pints, I spend the next day twitching like mad. What I'm not sure about, is that if the twitching is benign, is it ok to carry on drinking caffeine and alcohol if I don't mind experiencing the twitching?
With my legs and back, is pain in these areas another symptom of BFS? If not, does anyone think I might have Fibromyalgia? Or could it be MS? I also get some pain in my arms and shoulders, and in my ankles and knees.
I carried on symptom searching, and partly due to my anxiety, my twitching got worse. I convinced myself that I was losing muscle, and spent numerous occasions in school in the bathroom examining my legs and arms. Of course this worrying had other effects on me too, such as trembling, sweating etc which I thought might be connected to the ALS
I stumbled across a health anxiety website, created by a woman called Malissa who had been struggling with health anxiety (HA) for years, and only recently managed to sort herself out. I kinda agreed that I was a bit young to have ALS, and, about 3 months after the twitching had started, my strength and ability had not changed.
Nevertheless, my twitching persisted, and I've spent the last year with ALS in the back of my mind. Also, since then, I've developed pain in my lower back and legs, making me more worried about ALS, or MS. Now, I'm more worried about my legs and back, that I might have MS or that it's a slow progression of ALS, due to my age. But, I'm quite happy that really, the twitching is probably benign. In which case, I've tried having days where I don't drink any coffee (a normally daily consumption) and have realised that I hardly twitch when I don't have any caffiene. Also, whenever I drink a few pints, I spend the next day twitching like mad. What I'm not sure about, is that if the twitching is benign, is it ok to carry on drinking caffeine and alcohol if I don't mind experiencing the twitching?
With my legs and back, is pain in these areas another symptom of BFS? If not, does anyone think I might have Fibromyalgia? Or could it be MS? I also get some pain in my arms and shoulders, and in my ankles and knees.
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