ALS or anxiety?

[Bunbun]

Hi everyone.

I’ve been getting ALS like symptoms for the past 2 months.

I’ve gone to the doctor/doctors a million times and they keep telling me it’s anxiety, but I truly feel like they are wrong.. nothing I do makes these symptoms go away, in fact I feel like they are even getting worse.

Does this happen to anyone else?

[geoff]

Hi Bunbun, thanks for getting back to me.

Can I just say once again that I'm not qualified, I'm sorry, the rules permit me to say this, but the reason I ask this is I wonder whether you are having 'intrusive thoughts', these are unwelcome thoughts that go through some people's mind, I have anxiety and have these thoughts as I have OCD.

Whether psychosomatic is related to any of this a doctor or a psych would be able to tell you, the tendency we have is to use the google search which may give us some sort of explanation or it's possible to imagine what we want.

I'd just like to know, thanks.

Geoff.

[Claydo]

We sound so very similar and I feel for you because I know what you’re going through. It sucks waking up every morning and it’s the first thing that comes into your head as you scan your body looking for signs and symptoms. Then you obsess about it all day conducting your own physical checks to see if things have progressed.

it feels impossible to believe it’s just anxiety but your fear of what’s wrong with up drives your anxiety up which causes more physical symptoms. It’s a cycle that you need to break. You have to believe in the medical professionals if you seen more than one and they are all telling you it’s not ALS and it’s anxiety. You have to trust them that you don’t and try and move past it.

My advice is to start taking steps to work on why and what causes your health anxiety. Try and get the right help to achieve this. I found this all very confusing. I’m still on my journey to recovery but things are a lot better now.

[black_rose]

Anxiety is the pits and the worst thing is it can mimic many other conditions.

I once had friends call an ambulance because I was convinced I was having an asthma attack, turns out I was hyperventilating and having a panic attack.

I've gone to the doctors convinced there was something wrong with my heart, I was experiencing chest tightness and heart palpitations, it was anxiety.

I've curled up into a ball before close to screaming convinced I was going to die because I couldn't breathe and was home alone so no-one was around to help, it was another panic attack.

Anxiety is the worst it can jump out and bite you when you're least expecting it and because it can produce such strong physical symptoms we often think of it as being something much worse. Honestly though, if you are still concerned, talk to your doctor explain your fears and ask them how they came up with their findings