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Physical anxiety symptoms - muscle twitches, cramps, weakness
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The past week or two I’ve been totally ruled by my health anxiety. I started having a weak feeling in my left hand and arm and something about MND came on TV and now of course I have MND. I’ve been experiencing muscle twitches and cramps/sore muscles, mainly in my calves and forearms. I saw my Dr in relation to this and he tested my reflexes, strength and pulses and all was fine. I keep trying to reason with myself but I just can’t shake this MND idea. It’s ridiculous. My Dr only prescribed medication to take when I’m having a really bad moment but the problem is I’m having these every day for most of the day.
Is anyone else experiencing this type of physical anxiety symptoms? This is all new to me as I’ve never experienced this type of anxiety before.
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My physical symptoms have been going on for about 3 weeks. They include the following:
- pins and needles/numb patches in legs
- sore muscles in my right leg
- waking up with pins and needles in my right thigh
- burning feeling in legs
No day is the same, and its never on a specific spot. I had a serious health scare a few months back and am thinking it may be residual effects of the stress that put me under.
I am getting an MRI done next week, my GP seems to think these are all stress/anxiety related but I'm absolutely petrified that is MS. Thats the problem with looking up Dr Google I guess. Will be a long wait, was hoping to get something done sooner but obviously services are very busy post covid.
Although these feelings are terrible, this thread has provided much comfort knowing that people are feeling similar symptoms.
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Hi everyone, hope everyone is safe and doing ok. 🙂
It can be worrying when physical symptoms pop up. Some of the physical symptoms that relate to my muscles can be inclusive of:
- random twitches in my body
- cramps (mainly in my legs/hips)
- muscle 'knots' which can present as stiffness, localised pain and burning sensations.
Regular massages, heat, menthol rub, stretches/yoga, keeping active, and resting when needed are some things that help for me personally. I've been to a doctor who referred me to my therapist after doing tests and getting the 'okay'. My therapist and I discuss physical manifestations of anxiety. It really helps me understand my body better.
However, I suggest you all speak to your personal doctor or therapist to find the best management plan for your symptoms.
I wish all of you the best! 🙂
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how are you all going?
Just remembered to check back in here, I still have the same old twitching etc, more when im stressed, pretty confident it's just anxiety and doctors continually reassure me that is the case, despite not wanting to refer me to a neuro (which is the next thing i'm anxious about), as i feel the neuro will ease my mind, but then i'll probably find something else to be anxious about, as have done that with various other fictional ailments doctor google has diagnosed me with
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I've been suffering from pretty bad anxiety for a month or two now and a week ago I started getting this strange twitch where my legs feel like they are vibrating. I believe the term is internal tremors. Anyway, I found some relief with the following two methods:
1) focus on relaxing your legs. Yes it sounds silly but if I really relax yourself in bed and just focus on one part at a time I can actually stop the twitch, even just for a few minutes.
2) by moving my feet back and forth pretty aggressively for a few seconds the twitches all stop for a short period.
I hope this is useful to someone else suffering from twitching and tremors.
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Hi All,
Just checking in. It's been some time since my last post and although I do still suffer the odd twitch here and there I have to say the majority of symptoms (twitching/spasms/pins and needles) myself and my wife were having at the start of this year have all but nearly gone.
I have always suffered with anxiety but never had any real physical symptoms until late last year. My wife isn’t an anxious person but also started to have symptoms just before me.
I had started to look for anything different in our lives around that time for the very sudden onset of twitches and one thing stood out: I had excessively used a product on our sofa containing a vastly used product chemical preservative: methylisothiazolinone (MI). Also named allergen of the year 2013. There are also 2 other closely related preservatives: methylchloroisothiazolinone and benzisothiazolinone.
This is present in many cosmetic, cleaning and washing products we all use daily that comes into contact with our skin. To my surprise, one of the symptoms of this chemical preservative is the onset of twitches because of the body’s inflammatory response that this chemical preservative induces.
I also found that general stress and anxiety increase your adrenaline production, and this in turn further increases the bodies inflammatory response putting your central nervous system into overdrive… causing twitches/spasms/pins and needles etc.
Earlier this year, we as a family removed any products from our home that both contain and come into contact with this chemical preservative. It was after this mass removal from our home that we have both seen a decrease in symptoms over a few months to the point where they are few and far between, in fact my wife even less so. This is no coincidence.
I cannot say this is the reason for everyone's issue here, but it may help a handful of people, even some who haven't posted here. A quick search for this chemical preservative will give you an insight into it and how manufacturers are continually removing it from their products and swapping for other preservatives. Take a look at your house-hold products and check for it.
I have reported this ingredient and spoken at length to many leading neurologists who have both checked to confirm my findings.
I wish you all well and I hope like me and my wife, you can find your path to managing your situation, whatever the reason/cause.
Much love
Rich x
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I am posting because I am recovering from my twitches and wanted to share what worked for me.
Twitches started in the bottom eyelid of my left eye 6 weeks ago. On some days, I would get strings of twitches for 6 hours non-stop. I was worried that I had hemifacial spasms after looking at google. About 2 weeks in, I noticed an ingrown eyelash poking in my left eye and pulled it out. I thought that was the cause. The twitch got a bit better but didn't go away. Another week later, I started to get involuntary twitches/jerks in all parts of my body (left and right) - head, shoulder, elbow, foot, fingers, mouth. They would be one off pulses, but strong enough to move my body part and I would feel them especially at night, lying in bed. Sometimes, I would get a buzzing sensation on certain spots on my face. It got to a point where I didn't want to go to bed because when I lay there, I felt everything and it was hard to sleep when your body parts move without your permission. I started getting worried that I had a brain tumor or MND. These things worked for me:
1. Find out from your doctor if you have vitamin deficiencies, and follow their advice. People say supplements take weeks/months to work but for me, the effect was pretty immediate, and when I skipped taking it for a day or two, I really noticed the difference in twitching.
2. Keep a diary of the twitches (incl severity) and what you were doing at the time. It might help with diagnosis.
3. Go see a doctor to get tests and get them to refer you to a specialist. The neurologist got me to do an MRI, blood tests, EEG, EMG. I haven't got all the results back yet but the MRI came back with no tumor. As soon as I knew that, a huge weight was lifted and it made me see my twitches as a nuisance, rather than a threat.
4. Exercise - I took walks for an hour everyday. When you are moving and have the wind in your face, you don't feel things as much.
5. Some days would be better and you start getting your hopes up, only to have them dashed when they are followed by bad days. This will happen. Just try to ignore the twitches. Dwelling too much makes it worse.
6. Having a faith really helps. I am Christian and I prayed a lot. Knowing that God was with me no matter what happened to me made the fear bearable. I had all my friends praying for me and supporting me as well. And the worst thing that can happen is I go to heaven.
I've had almost no eye twitches for 1.5 weeks and only minor body twitches at night now. Be patient and stay positive.
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thanks for that, have to agree, i had an emg and ncs last week after obsessing over this for months. both came back fine and nothing sinister (apart from some nerve damage in a leg from an old back injury)
symptoms have improved greatly since I got those results back - go figure!!!
Raisin - really odd one, but any advice on how to go about starting to look into faith etc, as someone who has never been to church of any kind?
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Hi everyone! I’ve been off her for quite a while so I’m sorry I didn’t get back to a lot of you.
its been 18mths since this post and all twitches and weakness has gone, except for eyelid twitches which come and go but probably due to stress and sleep issues.
Anxiety and depression are still hanging around but am slowly gaining control.
Keep on trying everyone! You will get better and please look after yourself 🙂
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