Terrible Anxiety over MS fear

[flt86]

I am a bit in a frenzy and would appreciate any type of comments or suggestions.  I am weeks away from a neuro appointment and am afraid the mental damage I am doing to my health will continue to eat away unless I get some advice.

5 weeks ago, I had an episode where it would appear that I had tunnel vision.  It happened very fast and at first I thought it was a migraine.  I was not dizzy, just very concerned and panicked.  I came home and went to bed.  When I woke up, my vision was fine however I was still very cautious and overly concerned.  Over the next two weeks, there were moments where my vision was not as clear as I remembered it being.  I felt like I was straining my eyes much more which I believe was causing headaches.  I devloped an eye twitch for about a weak.  I don't recall eye pain, however I do know the headache was behind my eyes.  I have just started to notice a "floater" as well which concerned me yet again.

I went to a chiropractor and had my neck adjusted as it had been hurting for months.  I do sleep on it wrong and have known this.  I told him about my eye episode and he did a flashlight test and all appeared fine.

A few days ago, I woke up and felt fine.  Bent over and it felt like my lower back was thrown out.  It took my breathe away and has been sore since.  Hours after the incident, I noticed slight "pins and needles" all over my body.  I had stumbled on MS articles when looking up eye issues and was aware of the other symptoms.  I immediately became alarmed and went into full panic mode.  The past few days I have had slight prickling, but nothing has gone completely numb.  It is on both sides and not just one.  I also seem to notice occassional muscle twitches now too, however my anxiety is causing me to question EVERYTHING!

I am terrified this is the start of MS.  My strength has remained great and I am still extremely active.  I play sports weekly.  I don't have any real pain.  I have not been dizzy or experienced vertigo, although the past few days the anxiety has certainly raised my blood level.

Should I be concerned of MS or are my symptoms of late more anxiety driven?  

[Leslie1967]

I too have an ms fear from too much researching on the internet. Its consuming me. It started out as facial tingling now my left arm burns..sometimes I have tingling in my legs and feet. But if I take a Klonapin they pretty much go away. If it were ms would the drug be able to do that?

[essdipity]

Hi and welcome.

You know that you are an anxious person, so have you ever been treated for that? It's true that anxiety can make symptoms worse, but it's equally true that anxiety can *cause* symptoms. If you do some research on that, you will find that many anxious people complain of the same things you do.

It's possible that your initial 'tunnel vision' episode was a variation on a migraine. It is not rare for migraines not to cause pain, and these are puzzling but not evidence of something seriously wrong. It's possible that after that disturbing incident you started to pay intense attention to everything happening in your body, and thus became aware of normal feelings that everyone gets on a frequent basis. It's as if you'd turned up the volume.

Please understand that I'm not saying that's what's happening to you---I can't know that, nor can anyone here. I'm only saying it's a very reasonable possibility, especially in a person with a history of health anxiety. You owe it to yourself to have this checked out.

You should also know, by the way, that tiny twitches, including eye twitches, are not a sign of MS, nor is anything that is an 'all-over' symptom, nor is anything that moves around in a day. MS does not work that way, because each MS symptom is caused by a lesion, and lesions don't form and heal fleetingly.

Good luck to you as you get to the bottom of things.

ess

[Sumanadevii]

I think it is rather normal for us to panic or have anxiety when our bodies are not cooperating with us.  Plus there is so much information available to us today on the web that if we didn't have a worry, we could find one after using the search engine.  I know about six months before my dx I began to search. I had decided if the doctors couldn't figure it out, I would.  It was this very site that finally pushed me (No, I didn't join.  I just spent time reading here) into finding another neuro.

Do you have something to worry about?  Maybe.  Some of the things that have happened to you definitely are signs of MS but also signs of so many other things.  It will take a good physician to figure it out.  

The anxiety you are feeling can make the symptoms larger than life.  My suggest is while waiting to see your neuro ask your PCP for something to help the anxiety.  We can sit here all day saying "don't worry" but it will do little good.  Until you begin to get some answers that anxiety is going to stay and continue to play havoc with your emotional being.

Please keep us posted on your journey especially so during the waiting time.  You will find people here ready to listen and always an "opinion" ....lol