One Year Anniversary of Twitching

[catlady2]

Hi everyone,My name is Lauren. I'm 24 years old and my one year anniversary of twitching is coming up next month. I was just looking through my emails and it was in February I emailed my mom saying, "I've been twitching a lot lately, it's so weird.. doctor says to not worry but I am." I just started crying reading that. I didn't think I'd be having to deal with this still a year later, and coming on here to see that some of you have had it for 20 years and it's just so upsetting.I know that I am lucky that it is nothing serious but it is still a condition that I will probably have to live with forever and that gives me a lot of anxiety. Because it is a really annoying condition and sometimes I can't just ignore it. I already have suffered from anxiety and OCD since I was a child so you can imagine how my health anxiety has been through the roof with this. I will probably have you-know-what in the back of my head every once in a while for the rest of my life.. or until I'm looking back 10 years from now and still alive. And that bothers me. I'm already in therapy for OCD (purely obsessional, all in my head kind) and I feel like I'm going to have to start going to cope with this. Knowing that I'm never going to have just a calm twitchless body is just sort of devastating. I've also been having trouble sleeping for about a month now and all of my blood tests have come back normal so I don't have any deficiencies or anything, so I'm betting that BFS is to blame for that. Great. For those of you who have had this for years.. do you get used to it? Can you somehow come to terms and accept it? I just wish I had a normal body and I'm feeling really upset about this. It's hard enough trying to calm my anxious mind down but the fact that I can't calm down my body and have no control over that is bothersome. Like no medicine can help? It's just insane. I have tried magnesium, CoQ10, and there was another supplement..but none of them worked. I recently had the flu and was stuck in bed for days and really didn't move unless it was to the bathroom. I found that my twitches were almost non existent. So basically if I just never ever use my muscles they won't twitch. I like to be active and work out because it helps my anxiety but those are the days the twitches are the worst. I can't win. I am so frustrated and also scared, I will probably always be scared. Please if anyone has any words of encouragement or advice it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[ycb2002y2]

Lauren,I know exactly were you are coming from. If you search the board you will find the majority of persons are or have dealt with anxiety. In regards to the twitches, anxiety makes them worse for sure. It is a cycle of fear. It generally goes something like this: worry type personality ( all sorts of reasons for this)→major stressor in life ( physical, emotional, spiritual, mental)→worry→anxiety→twitching and other physical symptoms→worry about symptoms→anxiety increases→twitching increases→worry→anxiety→twitching... The cycle continues and you get worse. How do you break the cycle? Stop fighting the twitching because there is nothing you can do to improve them and the more you worry about them the worse they get. Work on your anxiety through medication, lifestyle changes, therapy, etc. Eventually you will begin to forget about the twitching more and more. You need to get down to the root of your anxiety. Are you a people pleaser? Do you put pressure on yourself to make others like you? Do you feel uncertain about the future? Why? Get your mind off of the twitching through some type of hobby or activity you enjoy. It is a lot easier said than done. It is hard to break the cycle. You can do it though. There is hope. Hope you find healing. God bless.Jerad

 

[SecretAgent007]

Lauren,Jared has some good advice above. I also recommend learning meditation and incorporating it into your daily routine. You already seem to know the areas you need to work on, attitude and mind. Meditation is a great tool to help those both, but it requires daily practice and a commitment. Einstein defined insanity as trying the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Perhaps it is time to start adding new tools to your *beep* or that cycle is just going to keep repeating.