My husband has had this type of spasms for almost two years. He's gone to several doctors, one of which was a neurologist (in his dreams!) and Hubby was told he had myoclonus. The doctor gave him Paxil, which worked great for about 1 week, then it all started up again! Another doctor after this gave him Buspar, which gave him horrendous headaches, so he stopped that. It's so unusual when he has these spasms. It's his entire body, his head goes back, and if he tries to talk, it's like a blocked tongue. He goes "um, um" and then he grips the arms of his chair, shuts his eyes, and tries to rest, but here comes another spasm. We've even tried holostic treatments from a naturalpist. Nothing. It almost resembles a tourette's type of thing, because he's uncontrollable when he has this spasm, and wants to swear very badly when he has one. By the way, he's 57 and otherwise in excellent health. Thanks!
hi everyone,
lately i have been experienceing the shakes during the night. it lastes 15 mintues. i feel like i am going to lose it. i try to take control but i feel like it wants to take control over me.i went to the nuerologist and i was told that i have three herinated discs on my neck. i did bring to the docs attention about my shaking and he said its probably from my neck.
these shakes are making me so misrable i hate it.
i been feeling really down because i want to feel normal again.
does anyone goes through this?????
please someone talk to me
Although it is nice to feel as though the problem is over and it was a quick fix, I would definitely keep a close eye on the situation. It seems to me that your daughter would have other more noticable symptons of chronic sleep deprivation before she would have such violent muscle spasms. Also it seems there would be a point where she would grab some sleep rather then talk the entire night with her boyfriend night after night. One can only go so many nights without sleep before the body completely shuts down.
Coming from a point of view that had been involved in drugs in my early twenties, i would highly recomned you continue to test your daughter. I am concerned that she may be involved with a drug that would allow her to stay up for nights on end. Drugs such as speed, meth-amphetamine, cocaine and others will allow her to miss many successive nights of sleep and such drugs will certainly make a person very chatty (enough to talk on the phone all night).
Drugs of this nature are at an all time high in this country and are extremely popular with young girls. Also the detection time is short using standard urinalysis. I would recomend surprising your daughter with a blood test.
I am not a professional in any way. However, I think you may want to not shut the door on this situation just yet. Something doesn't seem quite right with this handy cell phone diagnosis.
Hi EVERYONE...I'm new to the forum. Ive got tons on my mind and many questions to ask. Seems as if my probs started one day when i used cocaine. Just that morning I suddenly freaked out and was afradi my heart was going to explode cause of how it was beating etc. Had used the stuff for two months on weekedns with no probs. EMT's told me everything seemed fine and that it was prolly a panic attack. But deep inside i thought for sure i may have screwed up my heart or something. Few weeks later i tried it again and a few times after that and each time i freaked out swore I was gonna die. Anyhow i stayed clean and didnt mess with the stuff anymore. However then i starteed to get thesee weird episodes like I had trouble breathing like a smothering feeling and concentrated alot on my breathing cause thought if i didnt i would stop also a slight abnormal feeling or i guess sense of sight was weird or seomthing not sure how to explain it. Suddenly one day i had a panic attack i guess again and that was the end of that afterwards i think i fell into depression. Then started to get these weird heart skips..alot everyday for about a month and a half all day long really scarey. Bad thing is i was afradi i messed up my heart and now it was doing all that weird stuff. got my heart checked out and doc said everything came back normal maybe just stress. Ive got alot of symptoms including sleep disturbances like i wake up suddenly in a panic i guess doesnt last too long and i go right back to bed easily but very scarey. I still worry about my health alot..just wondering if something is being overlooked etc. get tons of muscle twitches all over my body..in the mornings when i wake up i feel shaky inside and out..i also kinda feel off balance like i feel like i sway alot when standing straight up or light my head or body rocks back and forth when i am at rest kinda goes along with my heavy pulse rate. I am taking paxil 37.5mg CR. I am alot better than I was but still have tons of doubts. Can somebody help me with my questions or have any responses..please email me at ***@**** THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!!!
P.S. also a little more depth about my history..previous to this all the only thing I can think of that has some importance is i ised to take alot of Ephedra dieting pills also drank lots of coffe and smoke cigarettes...and did have a bit of a stressfull realtionship too...dont know i was thinking maybe all that had to do with it too...who knows?
We would like to thank you for your concern and responses. After a second trip to the ER, where our daughter was put in a lock down ward and given a 10 minute diagnosis by an incompetent Dr. who claimed she was bipolar and manic - then treated with Alavan and Zyprexa (sp) she was so doped up she was terrified. Though we demanded neuro testing, none was admistered. We did manage to get a new Dr. to see her and finally listen to us about her symptoms. She was released the following day with a follow up at the Mental Health Center and after 3 visits there, we have all come to the conclusion the she is suffering from severe sleep deprivation! The cause? Well, in Oct. of last year she got a cell phone for her birthday and she has been on the phone at all hours of the night for months now, with her boyfriend who moved to Alabama. This was unknown to us as she has free evenings and weekends so it didn't show up on the bill. The loss of REM sleep has caused an inability to tolerate stress, problems with concentration and memory, blurred vision, changes in appetite, depression, fatigue, irregular breathing patterns and most recently, culmunated in muscle contractions that appeared to be siezures of some sort. She was very good at hiding the fact that she was on the phone as her bedroom is the entire attic floor of our home and we were not checking up on her at 1:00 in the morning! In hind-sight, we saw the onset of deprivation symptoms over the past few months affecting her grades and her frustration with her school work and teachers, her impatience with her friends and family members, her constant complaints about being tired, her loss of appetite, a gradually increasing stress level, occassional headaches and finally the muscle spasms. Needless to say, she no longer has the phone at night. It is going to take a while to get her back to normal, but she is on her way now that we know what the cause was. And now we all know how very crucial sleep is and how very dangerous it can be to have a lack of it! We are very thankful it was not a more serious condition and that she will be well. What a challenge kids are!!!! Thank you again
It sounds to me as if the doctor in the emergency room was quite correct. It sounds as if your daughter has a severe case of anxiety and her body is reacting as if she is in panic. The Valium and the Xanax are both good medications for this. Going to the mental health Center and having someone to talk to is even better because I would guess that some of this is related to your husband's illness and vulnerability. For a young adolescent that means that a layer of safety has been stripped from her mind and she is exposed to a greater intensity of fear because of that. She has two learn how to manage that and the best way is in psychotherapy.
Absolutely, she must have a full neuro workup including EEG, MRI, etc with these abrupt onset of new symptoms, before ANYONE writes them off as anxiety/panic disorder.
Please, please be sure she is seen by a competent neurologist preferably at a major academic center if you have one relatively nearby.
In the meantime, document carefully when she has the attacks; what she is doing immediately prior to them, how long they last, whether she appears to lose consciousness, is there any repetitive movements such as eye blinking, lips moving oddly or lip smacking, chewing movements, note what happens as she comes out of it. Be sure you look carefully at what she is eating on days she has these, relationships to eating to the attacks, etc. In other words, you will have to journal carefully to help the docs figure out what is happening.
Please post back and let us all know.
Very good chance that the picture is the expresion of stress.
But before the mental health intervention I would insist in a thorough neurological exam
Valium is good in the meantime