massagefanrx
Well-known member
Hi everyone!When July rolls around each year, it reminds me to take time to post a quick update.Last year (at 3 years into my twitching- all the time in my calves and random ones that crop up elsewhere), I finally came to terms with the fact that I'd probably have this twitching forever. Then, lo and behold, I realized that at some time during this 4th year, I would go weeks ...even a month before I gave any thought at all to the twitching. It was basically gone! Yes, there are definitely things that make it start full force again- viruses and lack of sleep mostly- but when I'm not in a panic about it, it goes away quietly- unnoticedThat said- just for a bit of my history- I have had health anxiety for as long as I can remember. This year I took some steps to address it through some behavioral therapy books focusing specifically on health anxiety. Though I don't feel the twitching was "caused" from the anxiety over health issues, I think it made it 100 times worse and made it continue on far longer than it should have. The reason I'm bringing this up is because one of the things the book suggests is a real in-depth immersion into whether disease it is you fear most. Over time, it loses it's fear hold on you. However, I have a lot of trouble with that suggestion- it's just too difficult for me and causes too much anxiety (even though my background is in clinical psych and I know that's what it takes to get better- LOL) So, I think the reason why you don't see more people like me who are years into this and posting is because a lot of people with health anxiety just can't bring themselves back to this forum for fear of starting that anxiety loop again. If I'm completely honest, I know that my heart rate starts going up when I log on- sounds so silly but it's true.Another thing I've learned through all this is that we experience a lot of oddities in the course of a day without giving them a second thought. For example- I drop A LOT of stuff. And I'm sure I always did. It's not weakness- I'm just a class A klutz. I get weird little twitches, buzzes, etc...without the anxiety component, they go away quickly. If I focused on them , I know they wouldn't. Don't know why, but it's a fact. And yes, though my twitching has gone away nearly completely (unless I'm up all night or have a cold)- I'm sure that if I focused on my calves, they would be twitching. To be honest, I haven't looked for twitches on my calves for over 3.5 years because it set off terrible anxiety. Do I look now- nope! And yes, the behavioral therapy approach would have me checking out those twitches all the time. For those of you who can do it- I say go for it because I'm sure that over time it does help. So, my goal now is just to work on dealing with my health anxiety. Just because I'm good on twitching doesn't mean I haven't found other areas to freak out about from time to time ! Best wishes to all of you out there who are new to dealing with this. I know how scary that time was for me which is why I come back to post and note a big thanks to all those great people on this site who helped me out during that difficult time