Newbie Intro: Anxiety Symptoms

[DavesGiantPole]

So...hi! I'm new here, and I felt a bit relieved that stuff like this can be benign, but I guess I have to post something to get a responce. So here it goes.I started having symptoms that can be anxiety caused, psycho-somatic "things". It all began with a blunt, head-to-toe right half of the body tingling like CRAZY (and I mean crazy), racing heart, extreme sense of being cold, a trip to the ER, and stuff has been going on ever since. I managed to deal with things pretty well. BUT the thing that worries me now since late December 2012, is my foot. At first it was a tingling spot the size of a tennis ball, that tingled most of the day, all day. When I thumped my foot (like a bass pedal in a drum set), I would get a light shock-like sensation in that area travelling from big toe to the heal (bottom of the foot arch towards the inside). Sure, got used to it, but since then it has progressed. It moved towards the rest of the toes from the big toe, and I twitch on top of my foot with very fast twitches. Atop of that the sole of my foot is buzzing all the time. And I mean ALL the time. I get twitches in other places, but they're rare compared to that.In short: constant foot buzz, more intense when I'm sitting with my foot on my other legs' knee, then I also get a tingling/buzzing spot on the bottom of my left thigh. My left foot seems a thinner than the right, but this could be due to anything, I might as well have had it for years, but I dont think so, since the way I "feel" the floor underneath my feet is different per foot. I had a brain MRI done, clear, blood work with B12, clear. I am struggling with some immune system weaknesses, had an infection for 3.5 weeks now, and developed a candida "down there", which really sucks. Yesterday my leg started feeling a bit stiff from knee down, and today I started having knee pains. The tingling is perpetual. I didn't notice any strength drops in my foot, calf, or thigh. I live in a "specific" family, where anxiety has been the case for 2 out of 6 members, 1 other had migraines, and hence I don't really have a chance to go to the doc because "I need to learn how to deal with this myself" since I had an MRI and bloodwork done already, which is not easy when you have constant symptoms, that seem to be progressing, and you fear MS or ALS at the age of 20. Also, in the morning it does not seem that bad, or to be there at all, then "develops" throughout the day and "moves" forward by the width of a hair.Icget cramping pains in the foot as well as random very short, stabbing pains in fingers, toes, hands, and random eyeball pains. It's a whole zoo of things I do not know how to grasp.So...yea. I guess this sums it up. Constantly tingling, even now. How far can it go?

 

[Gracer]

Hi Dave,you might easily have sensory fiber neuropathy which is nothing like MS /ALS but it is wery unpleasant because of weird sensations emerging here and there, migrating pains etc. Rapid pain in the eyeball is also quite common symptom in this community (I personally have it in a flareup patterns, usually when I am quite tired).If your MRI is fine and you do not have acute neuritis/demyelinization symptomes, then it might be just sensory issue, sometimes they are aggravate with viatmne D and B deficiency which is qite common in early spring time. You also may have some physicaltraumas usual in your young and active age causing neural pain in your foot. Infection and immune weakness are also a good rich soil for nevre hyperexcitability, so up to now it does not look to worrysome.How other members of your family manage chronic anxiety? If you have a positive experience in the family, it may help.Considering the fact that you had initially unilateral issue, did you check your brain and neck blood circualtion? Youngsters like you usually should not have such troubles but if you are a hard student sitting all the time ahead of PC. or vice versa, if you are an athlet in the sports like boxing, jiudo or other fighting arts, or any games in which you may have chance to damage your neck, then it is possible. changes in blood supply may be subtle but enough to create inpleaseant tingling sensations etc.

 

[DavesGiantPole]

Well that's reassuring to hear. I had an accident in 2011 where I crashed my bicycle and broke my collar bone ( I have a metal plate there now), with hitting my head pretty hard, but no brain issues were discovered then. I did have a CAT scan done that showed some "very minor increase in the diameter of the left brain artery", and the doc said to watch this when I'm 65. Since then I didn't do much sports. I tried going to the gym, did for a while, then the anxiety stuff began, stress with college, internships and bla bla bla. So motivating is an issue. I do sit in front of the PC a lot, especially the last 8 months. I sit at home, at uni, in my car (it takes 30-45min to get to uni for me). Maybe the fact I had an automatic gearbox in my car for 2 years cause a difference in foot structure, since the left foot is essentially useless in an automatic car.Chronic anxiety is a common topic. They dealt with it with therapy, and I'm trying as well, but my anxiety began during therapy, so it is a bit more difficult. The rest still gets minor symtpoms when in stress, but during the worst period agoraphobia, sever cramping in legs, heart-disease-mimiching issues (my mother was clinically diagnosed with a heart issue, which then "disapeared" when she got her anxiety under control). Unfortunately I don't have pleasan experiences, because it's the "stop whinning! Life is great! People have so much worse!" approach.I didn't have an EMG done, but I'm considering doing it alone, without the family knowing, to avoid stress. The thing that worries me is that it seems to be progressing and the fact that it's constant. I don't know what it depends on, or what caused it. Foot-to-foot differences, spinal issue (trapped nerve or whatever), but going to the doc is the only option if in secret, because I have better days and worse, which solely depends on my approach to my symptoms.I mean c'mon, I'm 20, go to therapy for 3.5 years now, 4 times a week since a year, have college, "difiicult" family, and dealing with this by mindpower is literally impossible. I am honestly thinking whether weed caused some damage to my body, or was it a trigger to things I had in me for years. Either way, it's out, and I'm losing to it. PLUS I'm a big fan of Jason Becker, who at the age of 20 was diagnosed with ALS, which started with a "small limp in one leg", which I have since this late December, and this knowledge is NOT helping. On the check list: see a neuro, have an EMG (if he says so), start excercising, the biggest: accept this is there and that it's harmless? Tough tough tough.Thanks for the post Gracely, it's nice to hear that. It's the first time in my life I heard of something like BFS. I also bumped into a lot of stuff that says that it's anxiety caused in a big part, but can get pretty bad in rare cases. What do you think about BFS and anxiety? Anxiety ---> BFS? Fjordian: it's going in the foot VERY slowly forward. And that's freaking me out.

 

[Fjordian]

Have you been to a neuro already? I assume you did because you had a MRI and bloodwork done or was this ordered by your GP? Your sensory issues (tingling/shocking sensations etc...) steers you away from ALS, hope that will calm you down a little bit.

 

[Gracer]

Hey, Baker started with a limp because he had a classic foot drop and soon he was unable to stand as far as I remember his sad story... There is nothing like that happening to you, isn'it?Because you are a student, it means there is a hell of pressure on you. So all that might be a part of the way how your body says it is too much. Therapy efficiency might be different and it depends on what is the method, whether it fits you, whether you have a mutual trust etc., you know In any therapy however repalses are possible, and it is generally a long way but proven Wish you good luck with EMG (because many people do not feel easier after clean EMG) and with the rest of issues.They did not resemble ALS, believe me.BFS is a progressive condition too, so you should not worry about that feature. However in BFS it is about weird sensations, while in ALS it is about clinical weakness and paralysis. that is the difference.

 

[DavesGiantPole]

I'm back, unfortunately. Things are pretty rough now. I get the buzzing/fast-twitching sensation in my foot, both from the bottom and the top of it, around the area betweem my big toe's and the neighboring ones tendons. I started to twitch in both of my calves when I sit, pretty intensly, but the foot thing it constant, regardless of what I do. I noticed my right bicep twitches, right forearm every now and then, and the area around my left shoulder blade too. I get sensation that remind someone placing a wire on my skin, and zapping me with electricity, that then causes me to have goose bumps on the half of the body on which it happens. Eye pains (stabbing), and cramping-like pain in feet, neck, and tightness in left side of chest.Today was really rough, because the twitching is there a lot, and I'm freaking out about ALS again. No matter how much I reassure myself, I always lose to the fear of it. Makes me feel weak. I'm seing a neuro next week's Friday. I do realize the things poeple say, but I'm terrified with it.

 

[Gloria123]

I completely understand that you're terrified. Just about everyone on here has been until they got that final clear from their neuro.But, you are only 20 years old. The chances are so extremely miniscule that you could have &LS. I get that you found one famous case, but this is truly an older person's disease when you look at the demographics. Plus - you don't have the key symptom which is weakness, so statistically you probably have a way better chance of getting struck by lightening. You are having a load of sensory nerve issues, and sensory doesn't correlate to &LS at all. The twitching means that you have something neurological going on. As you will see if you search on here enough, is that there could be a thousand reasons for this, anything from psychosomatic (meaning you're having real symptoms, but repressed anxiety or something else psychological causing you not to supply your muscles with enough oxygen, for example) to Vitamin/Mineral deficiencies, to something auto-immune, to an excess of something (B6 mentioned recently), etc. You've already ruled out a lot, and I have a feeling you are probably going to land in the same boat as the rest of us, with lovely BFS.The one thing about BFS is don't let that "benign" part of it confuse you. Our symptoms are very real, very disturbing, sometimes painful, etc. They just say "benign" because our symptoms are nothing to worry about long-term.Hang in there!!