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Avatar universal

Stress and numbness

Greetings, here's my story in short:

       I'm 22 years old, and was diagnosed with ulnar neuritis on my left elbow august '11, with pretty minor symptoms (pinky was statically numb for a 2-3 weeks). After it passed, I had 6 months of just an odd sensation of touch on my pinky and no numbness at all. However around mid February '12, my pinky and ring finger started having moments of numbness again (not 100% static). Since then it has remained the same, except the intensity of the numbness is varied throughout the day. I've stopped my gym workouts since february so it generally not overworking the arm, however I'm working 10-12 hours a day on the computer, so I spend a lot of time typing. But what i've noticed is, it goes worse when I'm stressed with university projects or similar stressful situations (I'd say as a person I stress more than I should).

       I took a neck MRI and elbow/wrist EMG in March, which showed no blocking of the nerve at any point. Also in the latest EMG the nerve looked better than it was in August.

       So my question is: is stress reflected on my nerves just because there is some underlying cause making the nerve worse  (which means being stressed otherwise wouldn't have an impact), or could stress be the actual cause of numbness (would be a bit weird since its just on my pinky and nowhere else on my body)? When I used to stress in the past I had no such symptoms.
    Also, can high heart rate be associated with numbness?

Note that I haven't experienced pain or grip strength loss throughout this whole thing ever since it started last August.

Thank you,
Steffan
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Avatar universal
I've looked around the anxiety forums, it seeems that prolonged symptoms of numbness aren't really related to anxiety?
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Thanks, I will check the anxiety forums about it.

My doctor didn't tell me anything about symptoms when healing, and I'm wouldn't want to take anxiety relief meds. I think a psychologist might be a better way out.

The symptoms are far from severe, I'd say they're more of a nuissance at the moment, I'm just worried about over-time damage I might be doing on the nerve, and I'm not sure if this "deterioration" means something happened, or its as you said part of the healing process.

I'm curious however, considering my age, as to if it's possible for the nerve to take more than 6-8 months to heal from what seemed to be a mild case of neuritis back in August.
Helpful - 0
209987 tn?1451935465
Stress or anxiety can play a huge role in tingling/numbness etc.

Check out the anxiety forum and see for yourself. I'm willing to bet that you find at least a dozen people in that forum who have the same symptoms.

Did your doctor happen to tell you that sometimes as nerves heal that they do " weird " things?  Odd twinges, pain, etc are common while healing...but too much is not.
Ask your doctor about anxiety relief.
Helpful - 0
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