Wife's hands, toes, side, and face move by themselves, or twitch

Since August of this year, my wife's hands started moving by themselves, as well as her toes. More recently it is her side or stomach, and now also her face. Tonight she had a really scary bout of face moving or twitching, her eyes and her mouth and nose would move involuntarily, and it scared her. She says it felt weird because she could feel her face moving and she is not doing it. We are going nuts, trying to figure out what is wrong with her, and no answers. She has seen a doctor twice, and has an appointment with a neurologist on October 2nd. So far they just say she is under stress and anxiety and want to put her on Trazodone. But we refuse to do anything like that until we can figure out what is wrong with her. Can anyone help? We are desperate

[ILADVOCATE]

  Yes a neurologist is the best type of doctor to follow up with these concerns as they would have the specific knowledge. Depending on what else is happening it could be any number of concerns but you can follow up by providing them with information that could be of help to them. Also if there are further concerns a neurologist who would specialize in movement disorders would be helpful as well depending on if further follow up is needed. Anxiety disorder can cause movement changes but there is a lot more that could occur. If a neurologist rules out other concerns and states it might be anxiety disorder it would be best to accept a referral to a psychiatrist.
  In the meantime (likely they will send you a questionaire) detail any other health concerns she has had in the past, family history of health concerns of any kind and any medications she has taken in the past (regardless of what they were for so they can rule if they caused movement disorders). Also take note if she experiences anxiety episodes at any time and if the movement changes occur then, if stress brings them on or if there are any other factors. Then discuss all this with the neurologist and they can tell you if a referral to a psychiatrist is needed to treat anxiety disorder but first let a psychiatrist diagnose this.

[ILADVOCATE]

  Yes a neurologist is the best type of doctor to follow up with these concerns as they would have the specific knowledge. Depending on what else is happening it could be any number of concerns but you can follow up by providing them with information that could be of help to them. Also if there are further concerns a neurologist who would specialize in movement disorders would be helpful as well depending on if further follow up is needed. Anxiety disorder can cause movement changes but there is a lot more that could occur. If a neurologist rules out other concerns and states it might be anxiety disorder it would be best to accept a referral to a psychiatrist.
  In the meantime (likely they will send you a questionaire) detail any other health concerns she has had in the past, family history of health concerns of any kind and any medications she has taken in the past (regardless of what they were for so they can rule if they caused movement disorders). Also take note if she experiences anxiety episodes at any time and if the movement changes occur then, if stress brings them on or if there are any other factors. Then discuss all this with the neurologist and they can tell you if a referral to a psychiatrist is needed to treat anxiety disorder but first let a psychiatrist diagnose this.

[Itaruga]

It kind of doesn't seem like it is anxiety disorder. Last night when her face started moving, it looked like she had tourette's syndrome. But she is 29, and never had this problem before. Her toes would move up and down rapidly, with her hands its a number of things, her arm will raise up, then drop. Or her hand will make a gesture as if she is showing her palm, or her finger will be pointed and move up and down rapidly. Her toes move up and down rapidly as well. Her face, which started more recently, well it looks like someone with tourette's syndrome what her face does. It makes puckering lips, or her eyes widen, eyebrows scrunch, nose scrunches, and twitches. Her side is difficult to explain. It moves..it's like a muscle spasm, a visible one.
     She's been crying a lot, having trouble sleeping, stressing(because of this), I notice though, at work it's not as bad because she is busy and not focusing on it so much, it's at it's worst at the end of the day when she is relaxed or sitting on the couch. When she is asleep I have observed her, and it seems to stop altogether, but I can't be certain. Maybe a small twitch here and there.

[ILADVOCATE]

  Yes one thing that would be worthwhile to ask them about and rule out is the potential of any long term movement disorders that can be caused by certain medications. One condition is known as tardive dyskinesia. It can emerge years after taking medications that can cause it. Some of the movements you described sound similar to that but only a neurologist would understand this in full. Also these motions can occur in other conditions as well.    
  For more information look up the Emedicine article on it which you could discuss with them. Also google "Patient Education Tardive Dyskinesia" (note as the site itself says "some of these medications can be medically neccessary". Make a list of what medications she has taken throughout the past up until now and in the Physician's Desk Reference it will list whether this is a potential side effect and you could discuss that with the neurologist.

[Itaruga]

Thank you, I very much appreciate your feedback, I will write everything down that I can think of, and try and explain to the Neurologist as much as I can, I plan to go with her to her Dr. Appointment. Hopefully this person will take her seriously and not just want to put her on some medicine without first being thorough. Thanks again, I will do some google research on that.

[Itaruga]

Sorry for double posting but, one more thing, my wife seems to be able to stop the movements if I ask her to. But as soon as she stops making an effort to control anything it sarts up again.