Twitching & MS: Worried & Confused

[EnlgishBirder]

Hello, I feel like I should not be on this forum sometimes but I wanted to ask if twitching can be associated with MS?I have been twitching 9 months, have health anxiety but have had weird neuro symptoms thinking about it for years. I'm 44 so at the older end if spectrum for MS but for at least 20 years I have experienced bouts of stabbing head pains which I think are ice pick headaches, weird visual migraines with no pain and in the last few years occasionsal bouts of vertigo (GP has diagnosed BPV). The worst episode lasted 6 months mainly in the morning. Also I find my words get mixed up but I just think it is anxiety. If course the twitching is not usually an MS symptom but I get buzzing in my feet and legs - a recent symptom and my eyes have been twitching for 9 months. My neuro says i have no neuroligcal abnormalities but would there be with Ms?Any thoughts?Thanks

 

[princessshelia]

I went through the whole MS scare in May; an MRI of the brain ruled it out. Did you have that already? If it was normal, you should rest assured you don't have MS. Tingling and numbness can be signs of MS (and I've had lots of that), but I don't think the ice pick headaches are associated with that disorder. I get those, too, and I believe it's related to decreasing estrogen in my case (I'm 46 and beginning the whole perimenopausal ride). I get lots of vertigo, by the way, and I'm never sure if that's BFS related or due to peri. My vertigo feels more like my head tilting sideways. I always think my head's shaking, and I have to keep asking my husband to look at me and check, but he insists it's not. A good neuro can tell if MS is likely from a clinical exam -- at least that's what mine told me. And by the way, my neuro also said 9 out of 10 patients she sees have unexplained tingling/numbness. It's really common.

 

[EnlgishBirder]

Thanks for replying. I've not had an MRI and went to see a neuro (specialist in MND) about 6 weeks ago after I started twitching in my leg. Before that I had been twitching since February. He found no abnormalities and said i did not need an EMG. Since then I'm still terrified i have *** and my thumb / hand feels weird and weaker than the other but my GP and physio both say i have normal reflexes and strength. I suppose I can't believe that anxiety would cause all these symptoms.I have always been anxious but never experienced so many physical symptoms. The ice pick headaches come and go and I have bouts where I don't get them and then periods when I do. Re the vertigo again this comes and goes but it feels like my eyes are rolling in my head like in a Tom and Jerry cartoon. There was about 6 months when it was awful and especially after drinking even a small amount of alcohol. I couldn't get out of bed for 2 days. I should stop searching for reasons for my symptoms and just accept this is me but always in the back of my mind i think I have something really awful.

 

[Nenkochen]

My eyes started twitching relentlessly a while back. Started on the left and now on the right....bizarre and annoying!

 

[Gracer]

I think main pitfall is that people think 'how anxiety can cause this to me?"... but the issue is that anxiety is not the only casue and often not a cause at all, at least for twitches.look, it is quite clear that our disorder develops after significant and prolonged stress, physical or emotioanl or both (recently I had calculated on the basis of one of the fellows that it could be up to dozen stressors in a short period, after which person starts to feel the symptoms). And the symptoms of disorder are:- twitches, pains, cramps.- weird sensations, auras, sensopaties, vertigo- high (often unusually high) anxiety levelusually the vicim has no significant neurological changes and little if any changes in the bloodwork (usually the only change is extremely low B12), no signs of inflammation processes related to twitchs or pains, etc.so instead of saying "how could anxiety do that to me' it is better to ask 'how stress can do that to me".stress has plenty ways to affect your muscle tissue, your central brain and your guts - three parts suffering most of all in our cases. our anxiety is a kind of post-traumatic stress syndrome. We have low criticality, more lability of emotions, we have stubborn circulating thoughts (obsessions). They can not cause twitches. They are also a SYMPTOM.As part of automomous features related to stress damage, we have globus, GERD, cricopharingeal spasms etc. (typical components of bulbar fear phase)the only symptomes directly caused by anxiety in our case may be hyperventilation and related issues - sleep apneas, numbness in the face and distal limbs, feeling of lacking breath.so anxiety is not a reason of twitches but a symptom of stress, a part of our condition.

 

[princessshelia]

Sorry, I realize now that I read "twitching" as "tingling." That's what happens when you're perpetually sleep deprived! In any case, I wouldn't worry about MS. The fact that your neuro wasn't worried about it should reassure you. I went through the round of diseases...first MS, followed by ALS, then Parkinson's. Nothing you've described sounds different from the typical BFS nonsense.