Anxiety/especially health anxiety

Nice to see I am not the only person worried abt ALS...........started in November when my twitching started, still going on. My HA is so bad some days I cannot get it out of my mind. I also have arm/leg/hand/foot pain and cramp-like pain sometimes. Like an idiot I also googled this stuff back then and I think that has taken me into full blown hypochondria. My symptoms do not really seem much worse (if at all) since it all started 8 months ago. Every day I worry abt my health, it is driving me crazy. I twitch every day but most are the once-and-gone twitches. BTW Leslie, the most common place for my twitches seems to be in the tricep area!

Keeping busy seems to help.

 

Md you've wasted 8 months. Average lifespan of people with ALS is around 2 to 3 years. By now you would probably be paralyzed in someway or another. This brings up a nice topic on tms. In one of Dr. Sarno's books he said Something similar to the fact that people develop symptoms of conditions And diseaseS that are in vogue. Thanks to the ice bucket challenge ALS is definitely in vogue right now. All the coverage on it is sending people into mass hysteria. It's like people's minds trick them Into considering and believing that they have ALS. In the mind-body prescription by Dr. Sarno look up the nocebo effect. You can make yourself believe anything in time and sometimes your mind will follow with symptoms to convince you more

 

With that being said about the time you've been worrying about it don't feel bad. I spent a good amount of time worrying about it too. Worrying and searching the web will not help you convince yourself that you don't have ALS. Believe me I know. Just really try to focus on the psychological aspects that might be causing the symptoms you're having. You have nothing to lose only to gain

 

Will have to look again at Sarno's book tomorrow J.......I read it a while ago, think I need to read it (and Steve O's book) again. Funny you mention the in vogue thing........I had not even known about it until a friend of mine who is a nurse anesthetist told me abt a patient he was dealing with that had it and how it affected the body, and I remember thinking it was just abt the worst thing a person can get and hoping that I didn't get it. That was abt 3 years ago......so perhaps my unconscious mind was thinking abt it all along and is now producing symptoms to make me think I have it.

My worrying is off the charts most of the time, cannot seem to get it in check. It has def affected my sleep big time which is prob fueling my anxiety even more.

 

mdh157 I'm so sorry you are dealing with the same anxiety. Its awful! Some days are better than others but not a day goes by I'm not thinking about it. I've gotten to the point I can't even see anyone in a wheelchair in public. It brings my anxiety back and makes me wonder why they are in a wheelchair. I'm going to send you a private message so we can talk some more. Sounds like our anxiety is pretty similar.

 

You know whats funny, well not funny. My husband has sleep issues. His ENT Dr. prescribed him a CPAP machine to wear at night. He brought it home on 6/29. He set it up on a table next to our bed. Everytime I walked into our bedroom I would see it and it would freak me out. It immediately made me think of people who have ALS wearing a breathing machine. The sight of it was enough for me. Wouldn't you know my twitch in my shoulder started about 2 days later one morning when I woke up. Related? hmmmmm It just occurred to me yesterday. Could that be the nocebo effect coming in?

 

could very well be

 

Anxiety is sneeky like that. hmmmm Anyone else have any input on that scenario?