Bilateral arm tingling & buzzing — could this be TMS?

Hello! I’m new to this page but not new to TMS work. In the past I dealt with IC, which has improved a lot. Recently though, I’ve developed a new symptom: tingling, buzzing, aching, and easily fatigued arm muscles, along with a fine motor shaking feeling in my hands. It affects both arms.

Last August I started a very demanding graduate school program. During the first few months I didn’t have a desk set up and was doing a lot of schoolwork on my laptop on the couch. In November, after spending about four hours working on my laptop at a coffee shop, I suddenly developed very intense tingling, heaviness, and pain in both arms that lasted about four days. Since then it has settled into persistent tingling, buzzing, and aching mostly in my forearms and hands, but sometimes throughout my entire arms.

I tried physical therapy in January focusing on posture, neck mobility, and upper body exercises, but didn’t notice much improvement. The PT mentioned it reminded him somewhat of thoracic outlet–type symptoms. I also saw my GP, who wasn’t overly concerned but did order a nerve conduction study (scheduled for April). I do not have any arm weakness although sometimes I find my arms get fatigued quickly. In the meantime I saw a chiropractor once who took X-rays and said I have some neck and back misalignment, & tight scalene (neck) muscles. He also mentioned some aspects of the importance of nervous system regulation.

There have been brief times where the symptoms seemed a little better, particularly after I saw my GP and she reassured me she didn’t feel this was anything life-threatening. However, recently they feel more noticeable again—especially tingling, tremor-like sensations, and electrical feelings in my arms, often when I’m at rest or after excessive computer work.

Part of me wonders if this could be TMS. I’m in a very demanding program, still working part time, preparing to quit my job soon, and we’re also moving states for school. There has been a lot of stress and life change lately.

At the same time, the symptoms started after that long laptop session and poor ergonomic setup during the first few months (which I have since changed), so it makes me question the posture angle. I also haven’t had any MRI or CT imaging done, and part of me worries about missing something structural—even though I know imaging can sometimes find incidental things that aren’t actually the cause of symptoms.

I’ve read books by Nicole Sachs, Alan Gordon, and John Sarno, and I still see a pain reprocessing therapist from my previous TMS issue.

I’m curious if anyone else here has experienced similar bilateral arm symptoms (tingling, buzzing, tremor feelings), and whether this ended up being TMS for you.

I know this is the human condition, but it truly feels hard to be excited about all of the upcoming life changes in my life right now. Really just needing any encouragement or thoughts about all of this. Thank you for allowing me to be a new member here!

 

"it truly feels hard to be excited about all of the upcoming life changes in my life right now"

You certainly have a lot on your plate!
Welcome!
A few suggestions that might help you out - make a list of your stressors but do it in two columns - writing things out sometimes begins to put things in perspective and also can help your mind get a better picture of the larger stressors (sometimes the small stuff can all point in one direction): is it fear of the unknown, inability to control outcomes? In the 2nd column write your emotional feelings/emotional thought feelings about the stressor: how is this really effecting your mental/emotional state. You mention it's hard to feel excited - what else? Worry, fears, insecurities?

Our human brains tend to bias to the negative: yours is avoiding feeling "excitement" (an aside, anxiety and excitement tend to effect the nervous system the same way because they are processed in the same place in the brain) - it's also a LOT to feel excited about. Can you break things down and find tiny bits to look forward to: I will have a space of my own to create a sanctuary I feel safe in, or quitting my job might be a financial pinch but will give me more time when I feel so many demands on my time.

When can you grab a bit of time for yourself? Can you find 10 minutes in the morning and evening to mediate or even just sit to process your day?

What can you add to your day that isn't more "work" or "demand" but will help you keep the focus off worrying about erognomics, tests etc? Can you simply gaze out a window every 1/2 hour for a few seconds to re-group? Can you do a stretch or two - not to "fix" anything physical but to alleviate your mind from the worry of sitting the "wrong" way?

Experiment! See what might work and what doesn't work or resonate with you. I also think you might really benefit from "writing sh*t down" a few times a week to offload the stress. Recently I've been watching a TMS doc who asks his patients to do this and adopt it to their own needs: some folks write three words, some a short list of annoyances/fears etc, others are the type that write pages...he says it does not matter. Do what you have time for, and again play around with it. Maybe once a week you can write a few pages and other days only three words.

Best wishes for all the things you have going on.

 

Thank you for your kind reply Love all of this!

 

Hi Alex! Yes, I have what you describe—the buzzing etc in arms—and it’s TMS. Have you ever read Hope and Help for Your Nerves, by Claire Weekes? It really explains how a body just finally snaps under enough pressure. The pandemic put most people at a higher nervous vibration, so to speak. And we never came down. Then add more life onto that, like you have, and eventually your nerves just fry. It takes some time to quiet them down. That book helps explain it. It was a big help to me.

 

Hi, thank you for responding & recommending this book. I will buy this! I do feel like a component of this is TMS. I have really bad anxiety and have all of the TMS “personality traits” which I feel like further exacerbates the anxiety. Have you found your symptoms ease up at all? Truly, thank you!

 

That’s good you recognize that your TMS traits also feed your anxiety! You’ll want to try and calm yourself through changing a lot of how you see life. You’re in the right place to learn about that. And it sounds like you’re on your way with that. Good! Yes, the buzzing itself eventually stopped. But now and then if I get really nervous, it will come back but just a little. When the buzzing finally subsided (it took more than a year), I was totally convinced my problem was nerves. Before that, I was always secretly wondering if I had something terrible wrong with me. But Claire Weekes was right. It’s nerves. Mixed with TMS. Actually, TMS is anxiety and anxiety is TMS. It’s all a big tangled mess. But you can get through it.