Burning skin that feels sore but dosent look sore

[Okmom 9]

Hi everyone...

needing encouragement today badly. Today marks one year that all these crazy symptoms started. I've tried so many calming and relaxing techniques, read books, done everything I can think of and that has been suggested and the symptoms persist ...

it doesnt seem to be slowly getting better over time even. Just persistent ..

does anyone have any advice or encouragement to offer. Guys, I don't want to live in this nerve pain forever?

its ruining my life.....

[tarn 51]

Hi Okmom,

I totally understand I get sick of the physical symptoms too. You just have to remember we are all here and you are not alone. I know it feels like you are sometimes. I'm currently dealing with all my symptoms coming back. They went away for awhile which was nice, but now the burning, twitching, buzzing is making a come back and it sucks. I hate it. And the more i hate it, the more it comes back...grrrrr!

I try to remind myself that my physical symptoms are my bodies way of telling me I need to rest, to slow down and take a good look at my stress levels. I know we cannot all eliminate stress, it is a part of life, but we can take small steps to take a bit of extra care of ourselves. Like a relaxing bath, or 5 mins a day to do breathing exercises. Whatever you can fit in. I'm going to do this for myself too.

I have plenty of stress right now, things are tough and my bodies screaming at me, slow down, rest and give yourself a break. I'm screaming back 'I don't have time to rest, I don't have time to have a break'....but I have to find the time I have to listen or its going to keep screaming louder and louder and LOUDER! We need to recognise it as a gift a warning signal as such.

One thing I have realised with Anxiety is we are very in tune with our bodies, we hear every whisper, we Definitely hear every scream, but what we don't do is listen and make steps to change. We try to ignore it, wishing it away...but that never works. I'm choosing to listen and welcome the physical symptoms as my bodies way of getting me to slow down, relax and percieve differently. Try the time out, try the breathing exercises and I will too. Let me know how you get on. Much love :-)

Edited September 17, 2015 by tarn

[Torontogirl 73]

Tarn that was an encouraging response that will undoubtedly help anyone who reads it. Thanks for posting. Did you ever see doctors for your symptoms?

[Okmom 9]

Tarn,

thank you for your post. My symptoms seem to be getting worse and I don't know why. They've been back this time for a year now and it's starting to wear me down. The burning, stinging and prickly sensations are going on most the day.

i wonder, is this my lot in life? My mind keeps telling me no! But I'm not so sure. The only thing that makes it stop is a warm bath or laying down to rest. Why is that? Can anyone, maybe Jon or Gilly explain scientifically what is happening ?

tarn, I'm sorry your symptoms came back

we have to figure out what triggers them.

how long did they go away? Did they completely go away and what did you do to make them stop?

what are your symptoms like?

 

[Mark G 1186]

The buzzing and stinging is the result of over sensitized nerves misfiring due to introspective gazing.  As you have it at a constant, your gaze at it must happen frequently.  The adrenalin release due to the worry/frustration affects the nerves, sensitizing them, making the ready for battle, making you feel every single breath of air, clothes on skin, hot, cold (can sometimes get confused in this state).  This becomes locked in as you fear the unknown of it.  When you have a warm bath, you relax, the only thing your nerves can feel is warm, so they relax back.   When you rest, you relax, your conscious and subconscious move away from the symptoms, you release less adrenalin, your nerves respond by standing down.  It's the relaxation and your chance in mental attitude which gives relief.  As soon as you get up again/get out of the bath, you instantly, through memory, nervously anticipate the symptoms again.  This will automatically bring them on.  On the other side, when you go and have a bath or lay down, you KNOW you will be relaxed so you feel relaxed.  It's all about how the body responds to fear.  Strip it back and that's where the symptoms originate from, fear.

[Okmom 9]

Wow Mark!

that sounds very much like what this all is..!

yesterday I had a horrible day with the symptoms .. Especially the stinging feelings. Today I woke up feeling positive and strong and here they are back again. Why do they continue to show up when I'm not feeling stressed?

do they ever go away and did you get yours to stop and how??

I cried hopelessly all day yesterday .. My husband doesn't seem to be able to take it and it's destroying me, my marriage and it's becoming hard for me to work like this.

i feel like even if it does go away, now that the body has started doing this it's always going to come back isn't it?

im freaking out guys. I don't know if I can live like this.

thanks for the help. I don't know where else to turn. Family and friends are done with me and the doctors can offer nothing.

[Mark G 1186]

You see, your frustrated, massively frustrated to the point of not knowing what to do.  This is like filling your anxiety car up with tonnes of super rich anxiety fuel, it will keep your symptoms going.. More and more, strongerstronger and stronger sensitivity.  Your mind is in lockdown, starved of positivity, all it can do is think of one thing and one thing only, which is, my stinging, my tingling, my frustration, my fear.  All based around your fear.  Your situation with your husband, how you feel about yourself, all adds up, it adds fuel to the fire.  Your crying, finding any way to release the tension.  No wonder you have constant stinging, how could you not.  Anxiety has you good and proper. 

I have strange numbing sensations in my lower leg, foot and arm at times.  I know what it is, its introspection.  Introspection is a blighter, its so difficult not to think bout it right? Because not thinking about it makes you think about it.  You cannot stifle thought.  What I do is ACCEPT... I accept its there, yeah, its a pain at times and yeah, I sometimes want to cut my leg off but underneath the occasional frustrations, I know what it is so I don't fear it.  Its the not fearing it which is the key you so desperately need.  Relaxation through acceptance, no matter how long it takes, is the key. Its slow progress, it takes time but it WORKS.  It will normalise your thoughts, make you fear it less. This is the key.

[Okmom 9]

Do you think it can eventually go away ever?

its so hard because mine is extremely painful. Like bee stings ... And the crawling sensation is just aggravating.

I wish someone could say "it will go away and you will be ok and your old self again" but I guess for most of us some symptom seems to linger ... A reminder. I would rather forget.

Mark thanks for chatting with me. I've felt so alone ... I don't want my babies to remember me like this ..

its hard not to think about it, you know.

it seems to be all I think about anymore.

[Mark G 1186]

Will it go away?  Of course it will, it is being kept alive by your fear of it, so loose fear, and it lessens, gradually, slowly but surely.  The secret is to try and keep frustration at a minimum, although thats is a very tough ask granted, but frustration only keeps it going.  It will take as long as it takes so long as you change your attitude towards it.  Thats what needs to be changed.  You have every chance of recovering from this, there no mistake in that.

[Okmom 9]

Mark, thank you...I needed to hear .. "Yes, you can get better".  I've never been sick or really never dealt with anxiety. I've been depressed before but it always passed and I accepted it as a normal part of life, no biggie.

then this came upon me one day while sitting at my sons karate class. It still doesn't make much sense to me. Why out of no where could this happen. Doesn't this happen to people with a history of anxiety. Never even had an anxiety attack. Now I live with gruesome symptoms that most people can't imagine. The way this has all happened makes it so hard to believe it's not some other illness that hasn't been found yet.

even those who have known me for years tell me it's weird because I was always the clown. Acting goofy and making people laugh. I don't get it.

my doctor keeps telling me if this is stress it's the most extreme case he's ever seen. Huh!? But I'm not that person... He also tells me that the longer it stays the less likely it is to go away.. Ok, now I'm really freaking out. If my doctors are losing hope how do I accept stinging and pricking and crawling as part of my life now? I've been doing more things for myself these days, massages, quiet time in prayer etc but things have still gotten worse. Does it just have a mind of it's own? I feel like I accept it although I still cry over the life I feel like I'm going to have to live now. Not the one I had in mind.

I really needed your help. I feel so best up and broken.

[Mark G 1186]

'The life you feel like your going to have to live with', see what anxiety has done there? It's throwing you what if's, the feeling that you will never recover, it's basically depriving you of hope, hope is what you need at the moment.  Hope can be obtained by taking a different viewpoint on this illness.  Doctors just don't think about what they say sometimes and how what they say, can be interpreted in a suggestible, anxious mind.  I take it that you have been cleared of anything wrong for them to be diagnosing stress?

I think progress with you is going to happen IF you change how you feel about these sensations.  Your mind has locked it's gaze, this gaze has fed these symptoms for a long time, long enough for habit to take over.  It's now something that just happens seemingly without reason.  It's programmed into your mind to feel like this.  But habit can be changed, changed by a different point of view.  A stance where the fear of the symptoms does not exist.  If you lessen the fear, the symptoms decrease.

Anxiety doesn't mean panic attack all of the time, you have not had one but that does not mean you do not have anxiety and that it has not caused all of this.  This is easy for anxiety to do, your helping it do it.  Your doctor should not have said that the longer you have it, the less likely it will go.  That's absolute nonsense.  Your nerves can recover very quickly, no permanent damage will occur.  The key for you is to start to manage this fear and the adrenalin which it's pumping into your system.

[Okmom 9]

I have had more testing done than one could possibly imagine!! Nothing comes back abnormal... They are trying to tell me it's stress of fibromyalgia but I didn't know fibro had these types of symptoms??

I will take your advice and try acceptance ... Every thing in me wants to fight it and accepting feels wrong because I don't want to accept it. I want to kick it's ass!!!

I've tried everything else .. So what you're saying is go on with my life and stop paying it so much attention. Tell myself it's a temporary problem and stop feeding into it?

[Mark G 1186]

If you go in, all guns blazing, full of aggression, all anxiety will do is gobble it up and hit you back 4 times as hard. Anxiety loves that kind of stuff, being confronted.  Its the mistake a lot make, myself included.  What anxiety hates is no fear.  So what you do is 100% nothing.. Drop everything and let it do what it wants.  As soon as you start to lose the fear, the symptoms lose there archor and drift.  KNOW that it is a temporary problem and it WILL go.  That's how you kick anxieties ass.

[Okmom 9]

Mark.... I love it!!

Ok, I FINALLY get it... I'm a "make it happen type person" ... I'm a doer and I see my personality type is probably my worst trait in this situation..

Ok, I can do this. You may very well have saved my life ....I'm serious ... God is good and He put you here to speak truth.

I'm ready, not to fight, but surrender and therefore overcome.

No fear...!

Big bear hug to you Mark...

Thank you friend

[Mark G 1186]

You got it, that's exactly what you do.  Glad I could help.  Listen, you will wake tomorrow with the sane old thoughts, the same old stinging, everything will feel the same EXEPT, you now have the knowledge of how to combat.  It will take time, I'm still recovering myself, you will have setbacks but these setbacks are good.  They mean you can practice more.  You will be fine, just believe it.

[Okmom 9]

From all of my heart .. Thank you?

[Mark G 1186]

No worries, pm me if you need me.

[tarn 51]

Tarn that was an encouraging response that will undoubtedly help anyone who reads it. Thanks for posting. Did you ever see doctors for your symptoms?

Thanks T :-) Yes I did get my symptoms checked...it took about 7 trips to the doctors for them to take me seriously, they kept saying it was nothing. This only made the anxiety worse because I turned to google for information and fed my symptoms, after a week google searching I had diagnosed myself with all sorts of awful disorders, it was such a terrible time, I cry thinking about it. It took constant persistance on my part before I was finally referred to a Neurologist - who told me 100% anxiety! That put my mind at ease for about a day then I went back to worrying, lol...

With the help of AC I worked through my physical symptoms and managed to overcome them. I only did this by truely accepting them as anxiety and nothing more. It was crazy as soon as I truely believed it was anxiety, they almost went away overnight. It's the most bizarre thing. I thought I had fixed myself, yay, no more physical symptoms. But since then I've realised as soon as I'm stressed, busy, etc they start to come back. I think of them as warning signals now that I need rest and relaxation. When they come back I can always sit and look back over the last few weeks and see the triggers. It's like lightbulb moments. I'll realise I had been freaking out because my dad is sick, or worrying about money, or worrying about something at work. And I start to realise 'ok, I've been taking on too much, I've been worrying too much'! Its time to add in some relaxation time. I find it hard to take stuff out of my life, I have stress, I have worry's I can't eliminate them, but I can add in time for me. Somewhere even 5 mins, time to breath and just be in the moment, it's not always easy but if I don't my anxiety will just explode.

I still have the odd moments when I freak and think what if the doctors are wrong, what if, what if, what if....but I remind myself that this is all part of anxiety and I come on AC and talk to you guys, it always makes me feel better and less alone in my own worrying mind! :-)

[tarn 51]

Tarn,

thank you for your post. My symptoms seem to be getting worse and I don't know why. They've been back this time for a year now and it's starting to wear me down. The burning, stinging and prickly sensations are going on most the day.

i wonder, is this my lot in life? My mind keeps telling me no! But I'm not so sure. The only thing that makes it stop is a warm bath or laying down to rest. Why is that? Can anyone, maybe Jon or Gilly explain scientifically what is happening ?

tarn, I'm sorry your symptoms came back

we have to figure out what triggers them.

how long did they go away? Did they completely go away and what did you do to make them stop?

what are your symptoms like?

 

Hey Okmom, I know that stress triggers mine, absolutely 100%, there isn't a doubt in my mind. If I'm stressed they come back. My symptoms got better when I changed how I thought about them. When I hated them, fought with them, avoided them, ignored them, screamed at them they stayed, they fought back, they screamed back they did everything they could to annoy me and frighten me. When I decided to accept them as nothing more than anxiety, as nothing more than over sensitised nerves (as Mark G said) then they stopped coming. They just went away.

My symptoms, where do I start; burning skin, tingling skin, muscle twitches, muscle aches, muscle spasms, finger spasms, finger twitches, foot twitches, feeling like bugs crawling on my skin, pins and needles in my head, lighting bolts in my head, back ache, tight sore muscles, heart palpitations, vibrating chest muscles, feeling like I'm falling or swaying side to side, I'm sure I'm forgetting some!

They come back from time to time, I've learnt now that this is always when I need a break when I'm over stressed. Like right now my thigh is burning as I type to you, haha goss darn it. There are moments when I think 'OMG' what does this mean, whats wrong with me, but I shake it off and go, you know what, I know what this is, darn anxiety...I need a break. I need to rest and look after myself. And I come on AC and get some reassurance from you lovely folk :-)

[Mark G 1186]

Great stuff tarn, exacty right, you have practiced acceptance the right way and are now reaping the reward.  Anxiety always comes back at times, inevitable, but like you say, just shrug at it and carry on.  Heart warming to read of your progress

[Torontogirl 73]

Tarn, Gilly, Jon, Mark and any other wonderful person I forgot to mention, I feel I have been dealing with my prickly leg sensation fairly well but I guess I need the reassurance of hearing just one more time that it could be anxiety related when it is located in one specific region. In my case it is my legs excluding my feet.... ?

[Mark G 1186]

It's anxiety  you just have to go that extra mile to complete acceptance.  To the point where your leg can buzz away and you can simply sit and watch the telly without any scanning, or concern, or fear.  When you get to this point, this buzzing will fade out.  You will habituate to it even if it comes and goes.  I get buzzing in one particular place on my cheek, it comes and it goes.  If i just get on with work, i notice later that it's no longer buzzing.  However, when i was really bad, i would lock on to it and scan it's every sensation.  The buzzing would spread and intensify and i couldn't tear myself away from it.  Now it can do what it pleases, it goes.  It will with you too.  Patience, acceptance and time, plenty of time and you will get there

Edited October 16, 2015 by Mark G

[jonathan123 2368]

Hi TG.I wondered where you had got to. Mark is right. Give it time. I KNOW we have said that before, but there is no time limit you can put on this. Not 'could be', is! If, by now it had been anything else you would have been in trouble and you are not really, are you? I have been told by the docs that there are valves in the legs that prevent fluid from draining into the ankles. These have, apparently, lots of nerves involved. So there you go. I had this problem some years ago. Good to talk to you again. 'Keep calm and carry on'. An old saying but a true one.Go about your business with true acceptance in your heart in as calm a manner as you can.  Ok?      Jon. 

Edited October 16, 2015 by jonathan123

[Okmom 9]

Mine stings and burns... On my arm and legs and it hurts. It feels horrible and very painful.

i believe I will end up losing my marriage over this. I cry a lot because what kind of life am I going to have and what kind of mom will I be. 

Its been over a year now. I've been working on diet and exercise and relaxing but the burning and stinging insist on staying....

does or did anyone's hurt like this?

[Torontogirl 73]

Thanks Mark and Jon , I guess I just want to expand upon what I said a little more and then I promise to work on acceptance, more than I have. My sensation is more of a prickly feeling, sometimes accompanied by abnormal goosebumps (legs only). I also get chest surging feelings too. (Kind of like adrenaline) I have had this bout (3rd) for a long time. I have been seen by numerous doctors and had many tests, with all results coming back normal.. Blah!