Anxiety. Odd things that it does to you.

[Beaverdam]

Ive had a terrible flare of anxiety which has manifested beyond the norm of panic attacks, night sweats etc.

I now have twitching and odd bursts of pain in my lower arms, lower legs, hand and feet. Doctor has done every type of blood tests and they are all normal. My anxiety has been horrific and somehow it has manifested into the above.

What is the weirdest thing anxiety has done to you?

I gag Its horrible. I also feel sick and like I can't eat. I get hot flushes in the night but that could be menopause.

When I used to have anxiety which would inevitably lead to a massive panic attack, apparently I used to walk like I was drunk, like not in a straight line. I would also clutch my neck with my right hand and would not be able to lift my head up so just looked down at the floor. Worst thing. 😞😞

@Mumma1984, really glad to hear about the CBT. Remember you don't have to wait for it, though. I found acceptance based approaches more helpful personally. Accept what's going on right now, do what needs to be done, let the obsessive thoughts do their thing in the background... I know this is SO much easier said than done. But you can start living now. Hope today is an OK day, whatever the future may or may not hold

I’ve had this too OP! Presumed I had a terrible illness, obviously being highly anxious. It seems to be the neuropathy system.

You know it’s gone now.

I foolishly googled symptoms, when I had this - And I’m not a GP so don’t quote me - however I think MS is more muscle weakness, and vit b12 / diabetes can be ruled out through bloods.

I also thought MS! I was getting whole body shakes too sometimes. So scary really violently shaking. And electric shocks and twitches all over my body. Very scary as I’d never experienced it before. My vision was being weird too! Convinced I was on the start of some horrific disease.

To be honest I now think that there are so many things, like infections and flare ups in the body that of course we should get checked, however many of these are from being a bit worn out or are transitory.

Do you know what helped more than anything? Really great company. I went on holiday to friends and laughed. And talked, and thought about other people and had so many distractions. My symptoms actually lifted too.

@SqueezyKetchupBottle thank you lovely - today was ok - I'm finding now most my symptoms have gone from my most recent 'flare up' 'attack' whatever it may be (I had a day of burning skin, foggy head and a week of a numb arm/ shoulder that then turned to a bit of neck pain) - my 1 year old only slept one hour last night though so I have a headache and I'm tired and feel a bit spacey ! @Longlongsummer this weekend I'm off to a cabin with girlfriends, hopefully that helps! Xx

I second the accepting it thing too. I just accept that my anxiety rises and falls, and that I’m just a really anxious person.

Of course we are going to feel even more anxious with these strange twitches and pains! That is what I tell myself.

I know someone with MS and I do remind myself that yes, it exists, people live with life limiting illness, but you know what? They live with it, they live their lives. Another friend with COPD. Spending time with them really jolts me out of it.

We don’t know we have these things. We haven’t been told. So I think we just get on with life and if we feel really anxious? Well that’s just how we feel.

Often I do all my worst housework jobs when I’m really anxious. I think we’ll, if I’ve got MS at least the hoovering is done, the garden is tidy and the bin is clean. and then when it subsides a few hours later I reward myself by watching tv.

@Longlongsummer I'm still a bit on the 'if I had it it would be the worst thing in the world' I'm hoping the CBT will help me understand things happen and the biggest thing is I am unable to deal with uncertainty... which I guess you have to just get used to, no one can 100% tell me I don't have MS just like they can't 100% say to me I don't have cancer. I have had a brain scan that was clear... that's all I can do right now. But I just find that really hard to accept atm and I analyze the symptoms to death and read stories of people etc ... why is it we know so many people with MS but there are only 100,000 people in the UK with it - there are bloody 8 million in London alone! Surely then it should be rare to know someone!

I feel for you health anxiety is pretty awful isn’t it. You have fixed on MS even though you’ve had a scan so it’s so unlikely you do have it. However anxiety creeps back in but I do think over time it can be managed. Depending on your other stresses?

Does it help to read that me and other posters have similar symptoms and don’t have MS? I still get odd tingles and eye vision. I haven’t got MS and I haven’t had a brain scan.

Does it help to look at other stuff in your life? I was highly anxious for about 1.5 years, like pretty constant, when I was pregnant and with my baby. I probably did have something physically wrong too, my breathing wasn’t always great. Thought I had lung cancer actually. It was probably a mild heart thing or I don’t know, something was not quite right in my body, I’ll never know. However I was under huge, huge stress in my relaitonship. And now with some perspective I can see that the stress was a huge factor and it was kind of understandable it took so long to start feeling better.

I did online CBT however realized that I was able to challenge my own thoughts anyway. It was slowly putting in place other stuff, like exercise, healthy eating, seeing friends, and really a lot of time in the end.

I am always low-key anxious, but when I'm at my worst I feel like I just want to run away - no idea where I'd go.

I also cannot settle to anything. There have been times in my life I haven't been able to read a book for months (usually read at least one a week) because I can't focus).

I also have sort of OCD tendencies, but I don't have OCD in that I don't have intrusive thoughts. It's like, I have to do things, but it's not that I think something bad will happen if I don't.. I just have to do it. I always have to touch the living room curtains before I go upstairs.

The main cause of issue in my life is needing the toilet, though. When I'm anxious (which, remember, is all the time) I feel like I need a #2. This causes me to stress about having an accident, or what if I'm somewhere that I can't get to a bathroom, or what if this, that or the other. It stops me from doing things that I want to do. I actually thought to myself the other day, if I didn't have to use the toilet, I could do everything that I currently don't do. That is my main concern, and I don't know why. If I can relax and stop feeling anxious, the feeling of needing to go disappears, and I won''t need to until the next day most likely.

I'm also always very fidgety when anxious, and get chest pains.

Tbh, anxiety is completely ruining my life, and I hate it and resent it completely.

@Longlongsummer yeh it helps if people say they have similar things, I keep trying to remember as well, the GP didn't want to refer as he felt it was anxiety, but he did because I begged, them the neuro did a few tests etc and he didn't want to scan me because he said it wasn't necessary but because I was a crying mess ... he did and it was fine. So if both doctors including the specialist didn't think I had it when everything was at it's worst... maybe I need to hold onto that, they must be familiar with how it presents. The dead arm thing was the scariest for me, it did come and go, and also one day it switched to the other arm - which I'm told wouldn't be how ms would work, and also it wasn't numb skin it was like numb inside my shoulder, compressed nerve kind of thing? Was always worse after waking and it's the side I sleep on. Because I've watched someone slowly die of it, I can't help it's my worst fear :(

Prior to this episode - I had been fine 3 years symptom and MS worry wise but for the last year I'd been desperately worrying about breast cancer after a benign lump was discovered in pregnancy ... maybe the build up of that stress displayed as those symptoms... god only knows!

I know I spent a year thinking I’d gone mad and lost everything in my brain after being spiked in my drink at a festival when I was young. In the end I took an IQ test and believed that actually I was okay. I was walking around thinking my life was over. So I decided to be a volunteer and help others just so I’d feel my life wasn’t pointless!

@Mumma1984 I know they do say it’s health anxiety if you’ve been told medically it’s okay but you still worry. I’m sure you haven’t got MS you are like me, honestly I have numbness too, also headaches and weird pains in my head sometimes. I am hyper hyper sensitive to anything my body feels. I realize most people would not even register most of the stuff that sends me on high alert.

Also get bad bad brain fog. Like where the hell am I? And I’m standing in my own kitchen! I started to realize that I could actually still make the dinner, even if it did feel really strange and like I was out of my body.

Our anxiety does pass, eventually. Or get a bit easier. And then flare up. In some ways out anxiety is like MS, we have a disease in a way, of the brain, we get anxious and it affects our lives sometimes severely. It flares up and then sometimes we are trouble free. Our anxiety is the illness.

I look back and think. I’m so anxious I really do get on people’s nerves if I admit it, they think I’m an over reactor. And that is true! But you know I’ve had kids, had adventures, had fun, had relationships. There are some things I don’t do, but hey it’s not everything and j can live with that.

I watch The Anxiety Guy’s YouTube videos and it’s helped a lot. He’s a bit annoying but he speaks a lot of sense and I now fully accept my anxiety diagnosis and am getting the help I need

For me it's the stuttering and tics. I have phrases that I repeat over and over and I need to do it. Luckily I can control it when I am work and when it happens with DH he thinks its cute.

Not feeling great today, I have a bit of a fuzzy head and I'm tired - I'm wondering about asking my doc for some tests next week, I have an app Wednesday to discuss my anxiety but I would like to see if she can just do some bloods and discuss my symptoms a bit more. Check for vitamin deficiencies and that kind of thing perhaps ... I know my body doesn't feel right ... and maybe it is anxiety ... or maybe it's my body not feeling right causing me anxiety :(

Found my people here.

There was a thread recently similar to this one I think.

I have the numb left arm that feels heavy and chest pains at time's.
Also the throat issue and the swallowing. It's horrendous when it's at its worst.

I get the pins and needles and twitchy arms aswel. Never put them all down to anxiety but all the weird symptoms are the same as most pore on this thread.
I get really bad brain fog and feel totally drained aswel. Also get bad headaches v

I'm on citalopramnbut have been on the same dose for 18 months now.

I think I'm feeling more anxious than not recently so need to look at my dose although it's been hugely stressful at work and hectic at home lately.

I've also gained nearly two stone in nearly two years since starting the citalopram which doesn't help as I feel hefty and uncomfortable a lot of the time

I've been diagnosed with a panic disorder and can pretty much say every illness pain or discomfort I've ever had is stress or anxiety related. This week it's dizziness but like a vibration in my brain that stops me in my tracks hourly
it's a living hell isn't it

I stammer and get stuck on words. Sometimes can’t even speak, just keep on trying to say the one word then give up. I get icy cold and shake, and feel really sick too, and panicked.

I’m on setraline which keeps a lot of it at bay luckily.

I don't really have panic attacks but I have bursts of energy and I can not stop until I'm at the point of collapse.

This usually happens when I'm putting off doing something so over compensate with something else.

So, I need to renew my passport and update my electoral role.

I am stupified by the thought of these tasks.

Instead I have (as well as usual housework and weekly shop, school pick ups and pt work) scraped the Guinea pig hutch and disinfected it to the point that I was coughing (fear not, when I came to my senses I made sure it was safe for them to go back the next day, we have temporary hutch for foster pigs that I put them in) and then washed the carpets, including stairs and then almost started to repaint the hall and stairs which was freshly decorated just 6 months ago.

Thankfully I'm more self aware these days so mabaged to stop myself.

That night I was exhausted but couldn't sleep and I spent the next asleep during school hours and forgot to make the kids tea.

I'd messed my meds up the week before and this was the subsequent fall out!

@Ryan at least your home is probably very clean!

Ah yes when I'm "on one" it is.

Unfortunately I then tend to have weeks of inaction where the best I can hope for is to just tick over.

I love good days and weeks when everything is just right. I appreciate them greatly.

Ah man terrible day, I spent all day looking up symptoms and MS and panicking and wondering and worrying - I CANT RELAX!

@mumma1984 which of your symptoms are you most worried are MS? Maybe one of us could explain why those symptoms can also happen in anxiety for you. Try and remember that a neurologist has trained for years to understand things like MS. If he thought there was even a small chance you had it then he’d be pushing for more tests like a lumbar puncture. It’s incredibly rare (something like 3%) for a brain MRI to be normal in someone who has MS. My neurologist said so many people mistake anxiety for MS and MND as there are so many similar symptoms like the dizziness, twitching, burning sensations, pins and needles, other weird sensations

@Ellabella989 I think the numb ish feeling in my shoulder or arm bothers me - when I google it though I presume it means like a dead arm as in where you can't feel it or the skin is numb but it's not like that it's more the muscle inside feels a bit numb like you have laid on it funny so maybe not as bad? Then the skin burning does bother me although last night I thought I had it then realized I shaved my legs and actually had a bit of shaving rash 🤦🏻‍♀️

It's the not knowing and the panic over uncertainty I think I don't like uncertainly - well I suppose the mri is as close as they can get but because it was 2013 I panic it was too long ago even though my symptoms were at their absolute worst then.

I'm going away this weekend and I hope I can stop worrying, have no symptoms and enjoy myself :(