1st time experiencing severe health anxiety - ALS rabbit hole

[Anxiousmama87 0]

Hello everyone- where do I even begin? It's 3:30am- I've maybe slept 30 minutes tonight because a tongue twitch woke me up- after a week of having new twitches all over my body and going down the ALS rabbit hole.

i know I have anxiety- have been on Wellbutrin since April, dose upped in July. I am 34 year old mom of 2 and the thought of any symptom I have being ALS have put me in a bad spiral! Ugh! 
 

history- I had a DVT a few years ago during my pregnancy- healed fine. The leg that had that has recently been having some mild aches. I attributed this to some circulation issues post clot & went down the rabbit hole there- trigger anxiety to a level I didn't even know was possible. The next day- I noticed a few twitches here & there in my calf muscle occasionally.. now I'm HYPER SENSITIVE to every little thing my body is doing.. I now notice every little twitch... throughout  the day- 1 in my calf, 1 in my thigh, 1 in my arm, shoulder, other calf, foot, hand... just a quick little twitch- that's it. Google symptoms- convinced this is ALS & go down that rabbit hole. 
the anxiety has been unreal since- I am losing sleep, I've lost weight due to no appetite, am checked out from my kids & husband because I'm so consumed with every little symptom & the twitches are happening more frequently & I notice every single one... 

 

tonight I got somewhat calm- then my jaw twitches (1st time) sends me in a panic.. can't sleep. Doze off finally- and wake up to a tongue twitch/spasm. Everything I've read says that is almost always associated with ALS & here we are- 3.30am, unable to sleep. 
 

i am seeing my doctor in 2 days- to discuss overall symptoms & anxiety. 
 

i have no pain (just that dull ache in the calf) no weakness that's at least noticeable or new (I'm out of shape so yea.. lol) no speech issues or falling... but the rabbit hole.. 

i would appreciate hearing similar experiences, symptoms... 

also reading so much that most twitches are caused by stress/anxiety. Seems crazy an emotion can trigger physical symptoms but wow... 

 

thank you all. 

[Ironman 190]

On 10/3/2022 at 6:46 AM, Anxiousmama87 said:

Hello everyone- where do I even begin? It's 3:30am- I've maybe slept 30 minutes tonight because a tongue twitch woke me up- after a week of having new twitches all over my body and going down the ALS rabbit hole.

i know I have anxiety- have been on Wellbutrin since April, dose upped in July. I am 34 year old mom of 2 and the thought of any symptom I have being ALS have put me in a bad spiral! Ugh! 
 

history- I had a DVT a few years ago during my pregnancy- healed fine. The leg that had that has recently been having some mild aches. I attributed this to some circulation issues post clot & went down the rabbit hole there- trigger anxiety to a level I didn't even know was possible. The next day- I noticed a few twitches here & there in my calf muscle occasionally.. now I'm HYPER SENSITIVE to every little thing my body is doing.. I now notice every little twitch... throughout  the day- 1 in my calf, 1 in my thigh, 1 in my arm, shoulder, other calf, foot, hand... just a quick little twitch- that's it. Google symptoms- convinced this is ALS & go down that rabbit hole. 
the anxiety has been unreal since- I am losing sleep, I've lost weight due to no appetite, am checked out from my kids & husband because I'm so consumed with every little symptom & the twitches are happening more frequently & I notice every single one... 

 

tonight I got somewhat calm- then my jaw twitches (1st time) sends me in a panic.. can't sleep. Doze off finally- and wake up to a tongue twitch/spasm. Everything I've read says that is almost always associated with ALS & here we are- 3.30am, unable to sleep. 
 

i am seeing my doctor in 2 days- to discuss overall symptoms & anxiety. 
 

i have no pain (just that dull ache in the calf) no weakness that's at least noticeable or new (I'm out of shape so yea.. lol) no speech issues or falling... but the rabbit hole.. 

i would appreciate hearing similar experiences, symptoms... 

also reading so much that most twitches are caused by stress/anxiety. Seems crazy an emotion can trigger physical symptoms but wow... 

 

thank you all. 

Stress and anxiety can cause twitches, especially if you are trying to monitor it.  Circulation issues would cause numbness and there is no description of that.  ALS is a far stretch from what you have here, though.  Catastrophizing is classic anxiety; as far as I have recovered myself, I had a bout of it with my most sensitive area - work.  Getting it out helps put things together.

[Anxiousmama87 0]

Ironman- thank you for the response. As I have calmed down over the last few days- the twitches have become way less frequent & noticeable. Still present if I think about it- but nothing like they were. Which is comforting. I am following up with my GP & a therapist to work through the anxiety. I think what put me into such a scary spin is I had never experienced anxiety like this & then to have those physical symptoms accompanied with it scared me.. 

 

[MARC 429]

My daughter years ago was in college and under a lot of stress from final exams. She developed this terrible eye twitch. My wife and I could see it twitch too. Once the exams were over the twitch stopped. My friends wife passed away from ALS in December 2020 at 62. Twitching was a symptom she did not have. 

[MARC 429]

Try to also remember ALS is extremely rare with only around 5,000 new cases per year in the US.