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Anxiety Community
This patient support community is for discussions relating to generalized anxiety, anxiety and eating, anxiety and sleeping, mood swings, and phobias.
sensory problems
by longingforpeace, May 29, 2007 12:00AM
Good morning, and thank you for taking the time to answer my question -
I am a 40 year old mother of three, and have been of great physical and mental health all of my life. Right now I am a mental mess. I had a particularly stressful period in my life for 4 months, which may have been the catalyst for all of my problems. This was Dec/04. Started out as muscle twitching everywhere, then within days all these other sensations came on as a flood - crawly feelings, a few stabbing sensations, electrical zaps, sore left shoulder, burning feeling in arms and legs, depression. Most have subsided after a few months, but 2 1/2 years later i still experience wierd sensations over my body - the odd twitch, sore shoulder or the odd buzzing sensation. When this began, a google search led me to question MS, and then I became really scared. In Dec., my doctor said it was a virus, the next visit she said it was anxiety, two weeks later she said it was likely anxiety, but could be MS. Two MRI's - with contrast (One is Jan/06, one in Mar/06) revealed nothing. I am unremarkable! It did show a sinus infection, and a couple of slight disc problems that she said were signs of being 40. The neurologist said it could be MS, but after reading the MRI report she said that it could be a number of things, fibromyalgia, peripheral neuropathy, guillan barre. But her MS comment has stayed with me and I admit I am OBSESSED. It is on my mind every minute, and I can't stand it. I am on cipralex to deal with my anxiety, but i have a really hard time believing all of this is due to anxiety, and feel that something is being missed. And now something new popped up - two days after i started wearing sandals, my toes started feeling strange during sleep - they feel swollen and numb, yet they are neither swollen nor numb, as I can feel every touch. They return to normal when I wake. Doctor said that is nerve problems from shoes., I believe that my anxiety is getting the better of me. I want to go back to being a happy mom.
what are your thoughts on this?
I am a 40 year old mother of three, and have been of great physical and mental health all of my life. Right now I am a mental mess. I had a particularly stressful period in my life for 4 months, which may have been the catalyst for all of my problems. This was Dec/04. Started out as muscle twitching everywhere, then within days all these other sensations came on as a flood - crawly feelings, a few stabbing sensations, electrical zaps, sore left shoulder, burning feeling in arms and legs, depression. Most have subsided after a few months, but 2 1/2 years later i still experience wierd sensations over my body - the odd twitch, sore shoulder or the odd buzzing sensation. When this began, a google search led me to question MS, and then I became really scared. In Dec., my doctor said it was a virus, the next visit she said it was anxiety, two weeks later she said it was likely anxiety, but could be MS. Two MRI's - with contrast (One is Jan/06, one in Mar/06) revealed nothing. I am unremarkable! It did show a sinus infection, and a couple of slight disc problems that she said were signs of being 40. The neurologist said it could be MS, but after reading the MRI report she said that it could be a number of things, fibromyalgia, peripheral neuropathy, guillan barre. But her MS comment has stayed with me and I admit I am OBSESSED. It is on my mind every minute, and I can't stand it. I am on cipralex to deal with my anxiety, but i have a really hard time believing all of this is due to anxiety, and feel that something is being missed. And now something new popped up - two days after i started wearing sandals, my toes started feeling strange during sleep - they feel swollen and numb, yet they are neither swollen nor numb, as I can feel every touch. They return to normal when I wake. Doctor said that is nerve problems from shoes., I believe that my anxiety is getting the better of me. I want to go back to being a happy mom.
what are your thoughts on this?
So to my point - in Aug. 06 I was having a stressful time and my toes started feeling funny, creepy crawly, numb and then burning. Then my feet would burn in Nov./Dec. and then my calves started burning and getting weak. I became depressed from the chronic pain. I have the twitching too. The burning was worse at night. I went to the Dr. when I couldn't push the brake pedal on my car without great effort and a jumpy, weak leg. I got the entire MS scare also. That is how I found this forum - through the neurology forum. They ran every test for MS - MRI, lumbar puncture, visual evoked potentials, and every blood test known to man. Nothing but a small spot in my brain that is common in people who have migraines (but scared the ever loving hell out of me of course) and they found a small immunological "blip" in my blood test. They said it was just a small variation and was nothing. Well, my neurologist labeled me with fibromyalgia and then gave up on me by sending me to a pain clinic, which I haven't been to. Needless to say, I got a second opionion from another neurologist. He said the MRI is completely fine, and with the lumbar puncture being negative for MS - my chances of having it are about .00000001%. In other words, I don't have it. (Still, I worry of course - that's what I do). He ordered a blood test to look for viruses - like epstein-barr, cmv, hsv-1, hsv-2, hhv6 and etc. I had some definite immune responses to hsv-1 (cold sore virus), cmv and hhv-6. I have never had a cold sore. He said that research is very limited on the subject, but in chronic fatigue/fibromyalgia patients, they have had some success in treating these patients with anti-virals, like Famvir. Sooooo, I am taking Famvir to see if it is the viruses manifesting in nerves they shouldn't and causing my neurological symptoms.
Sorry so long, but it takes some info to explain. My neuro says it's a virus, my psych says anxiety. I am going to listen to both for now, since I am in pain and have nothing to lose at this point by trying the antiviral and then the counseling/meds from my psych. Take care of yourself - exercise, eat right and make sure you are getting tested for B12 levels and thyroid (low B12 can cause these symptoms - mine was fine). STOP WORRYING ABOUT MS DEAR. You can't have MS without lesions (although they say in very rare cases it has "silent" lesions, but they are not even sure). You can trust that I have researched the entire stinking internet about MS by this point and know way more than I ever want to know about it. So, trust that anxiety can cause this, but so can some other minor health probs. They go straight to MS because it is a diagnosis that has to be ruled out (they honestly don't understand it completely yet). I can tell you this as well, I have now read many posts about funny feelings like we have and people have no answers. If you have a clear MRI, I would search other avenues. I chose to get the lumbar puncture to ease my mind. It was scary but it didn't hurt, and your doc may not want to order such an invasive procedure if you don't even have one lesion on MRI.
Anyhoo, better get back to work! Hope this helped:)
I've been through all the MS testing as well along with test for everything else - this was about 20 years ago. Most recently had a brain MRI for an acute headache, but the MRI was fine!
You don't have MS or probably any other major illness. Anxiety can and does wreak havoc on our systems.
I really don't know the answer to resolving the physical symptoms that come with anxiety b/c so many people experience them. For myself, I have just come to the realization that I will have physical ailments, but they are not serious. Now this is only my opinion of myself: If I should develop a serious heart/brain or whatever condition, oh, well. I have to let it go or I'd drive myself and my family crazy with worrying about every little thing. And I think by having this attitude, my physical symptoms have subsided a bit. Now, it's kind of like funny (not really, though) that every time I complain of something, it's just like Oh, well, I'm old and falling apart (I'm 42 but have been dealing with the physical symptoms of anxiety for over 20 years).
For me, I just really need to live life with this condition and make the best of it. What else can I do? It's there, it's never going away, so I work with it/aroundn it.
Hope my info helps, but really - 396SS's comments say it all! Best to you......
Best to you.......