Re: Fear of ALS

Posted By CCF neuro MD MM on April 12, 1999 at 13:06:20:

In Reply to: Fear of ALS  posted by mary on April 11, 1999 at 10:29:18:






Hi iam in my 2nd month of a severe ALS panic that is destroying my life
Here are my symptoms
I feel like a can't talk right i feel like iam  slurring my words but everyone
around me says i sound fine . I can swallow fine but sometimes it feels like something gets stuck in my throat and my tongue feel strange like its to big. My mouth is always dry. I wake up with a very sore and stiff neck every morning                                                                                  
I don't have any weakness in my muscles but at times my left arm and leg
feel strange they feel weak like i can't move them  but i can. I know i sound crazy but am real scared.  I've been to my doctors and he says it  anxiety I am under alot of stress. my 4yr. old son has a rare brain .
but i can't believe that stress can cause all these symtoms (symptoms).
Thanks for listening.
Iam 34  and a mother of three small children
  
All my symptoms come and go
Thanks again  mary




I think you certainly do have a serious disease which needs definitive
treatment , this disease is anxiety not ALS.
If you suffer frommanxiety ans are fixated on this question then nothing
whcihnI say here will make any difference, the real underlying problem,
anxiety needs to be addressed.
From what you describe all of your synmptoms sound to me as if they are b
due to anxiety and  there are no features which are suggestive of ALS.
To suggest ALS you would have to have severe, constant,  ( non-fluctuating*** )
weakness and wasting of muscles.
The speech problem and the sensation of something stuck in the throat is a
classic symptom of anxiety called globus hystericus.
You need to have this severe anxiety treated properly, but you do not have ALS.









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