New Here - Twitching, Anxiety, and More

[sLilacbrooks]

Hi there - I'm new here to this board, and have been experiencing my own set of twitching symptoms exacerbated by anxiety and its related ongoing vague symptoms that seem to appear every day. Reading the numerous experiences people have shared has been so helpful and I want to thank all of you so much.

I noticed a couple of recent posts about neck/tongue symptoms and replied to one. I'm afraid it might have been too long of a reply for anyone to notice - so I'll try to make this shorter.

If you have strange neck/tongue symptoms like stiffness/numbness/swallowing issues, etc., it is VERY possible that you have an issue with your TMJ. It seems most people on this board have anxiety along with their twitching - Teeth grinding/clenching is VERY common with anxiety - as is poor posture (shoulders scrunch up when you're anxious as opposed to down/back). This, along with generally tense muscles can *combine* to create the most bizarre symptoms in your neck/tongue/head/etc. Many of which are described throughout this board. AND there are things you can do to relieve it.

I say this because I went through a full work up for MS over a year ago becuase of a numb feeling in my tongue/under my chin/face/neck - i was scared out of my wits - finally it was a dental practice who specializes in TMJ who figured out the obvious - they actually coined a term for me "neck-tongue syndrome" haha... and gave me a holistic plan to deal with it: specialized appliance to relax the jaw, intensive Physicial Therapy for the head/neck/jaw, rearranged my office, accupressure and deep breathing.

I'd be happy to share any further information with any of you if you'd like. For more information go to: - there are lots of research articles on the site along with diagrams showing where you might experience the variety of symptoms.

Now if only I could get those dentists to figure out why I'm twitching I'll be all set.

 

[sLilacbrooks]

Ouch --- I don't know what compression massage is but it sounds painful! My PT used ultrasound to warm up the muscles in my shoulder/side of neck area first - and was able to go deeper with less pain. I never tried an espom salt bath - but am all for a hot bath of any kind! Probably a good idea no matter what.

Here's two of the acupressure points I learned that might help things along in between massages:
For the front area of your neck: follow your collarbone on both sides to the middle and point the 2nd/3rd fingers of both hands on each of the two middle ends of the collarbone. Turn your head to one side and you'll feel the tendon (I think it's a tendon or ligament or whatever?) on one side of your neck protrude above that spot. It extends from behind your ear down your neck to the center of your collarbone and feels almost bony it's so strong. Basically you want your fingers to be at the very bottom of that tendon. This is an acupressure point that can help to relax it. Same on the other side. Simply apply pressure with your fingers in a little circular motion for about 15-20 seconds. Do this frequently (3-4x/day).

For the back of your head - sit up strait and put both hands on the back of your head as if you're holding your head up. So - your right thumb is in the lower right corner of the back of your head and your left thumb is in the lower left corner of the back of yuor head (toward the base of your ears)- and your fingers are in the middle of the back of your head. Imagine an upside down V where your thumbs are the tips of the v and the corner of the v is in the middle of the back of your head. Apply pressure in a circular motion with your thumbs, then move up slowly, towards the corner, applying circular pressure to the top middle point of the upside down V. You are likely to feel tender spots in several places along this V - so go easy. Do this frequently too.

Also - notice how your chest feels - interestingly, i had pain in my chest area too (went to the doc for breast exam just to be sure it wasn't another scary subject!). These muscles are constricted when you are stressed and have bad posture as well as your neck/shoulder/jaw/etc. and can cause what's called "costocondritis" - which is injured chest muscles. They're all related!! You might ask your massage therapist to spend some time on your chest muscles too. And - on occasion, take a break from your computer and stand in a doorway, put your arms on the inside of the doorway and lean your body forward to the outside of the doorway - it's a good stretch to the chest muscle area.

Hope that helps!

Deb

 

[RyanBabz]

That does sound interesting, and thank you for the info. I have had the "numb tongue" stuff for over 6 months (on and off...migrates left and right).

 

[occasins]

One thing it did impress on me though: how connected different parts of our bodies are. While she was torturing my shoulder, I felt the pain above my ear!