Health Anxiety (How Powerful The Mind Can be) Or potential early signs of bulbar als?
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So hi there everyone, i just want to share about my current situation right now so please bare with me because this is gonna be a long one haha. i'm in a dilemma for the past few weeks and its my first time dealing with 2 anxiety attacks on just a single month. the first one was i kept thinking that i might become anemic, raising the chance of me having leukemia or just straight up an acute one. it first started when i had my Blood Pressure checked and when the result came in, i was shocked by it because it was 99/57 which is already on the surface of lbp territory. and then my grandpa added up some facts that if i didn't had enough sleep, my wbc would increase even more resulting for leukemia. it triggered my anxiety so because of that, i just did my best to sleep early as possible even tho i don't stay up that late at night. then, after i've already resolved my issues on my first attack, i had a flu shot last week of Sunday. then the next day, i felt a mild deep pain within my left joint when i poked it but i decided to just ignore it. the next day, when i stood up from my bed, i felt some subtle stiffness and cramps on my right leg and i felt a bit confused. of course, i wanted my questions to be answered, i searched on google and one of the things that popped out was both MS.... and ALS. so here we are, a second anxiety attack but it was also solved after 2-3 days of me feeling anxious because i looked up again on google of what are the effects of the flu vaccines in a person's body then i saw myaglia being one of it so i thought, yep thats what i had but a mild case though my other family members here didn't got it and only me i think lol. but then i've also thought that als could also happen on the head area (bulbar) then i kept checking my pronunciations and there were some words that i've said that sounds a bit off? so i became worried about it and then i also started having this weird sensation while swallowing where i would even feel my food going down to my lower chest/diaphragm area. and just yesterday, i've noticed that my tongue looks off because it looks uneven and there is this one chunk or part of my tongue near the tip on the left side where the atrophy occurred and that part looks a bit lifted up thought i haven't started feeling any involuntary fasciculations within my tongue yet. but as of today, i feel like my tongue is a little bit heavy but i could still talk with some abrupt interruptions and some mispronunciations on some words especially while i'm reading it out loud. So, i wanted to know if what i'm feeling rn is the start of my expiry date or that anxiety can also mimic the symptoms of Bulbar Onset ALS. i really feel like there is something a bit off on my tongue rn but its just that i couldn't afford having an appointment with a doctor because of many reasons (being a jobless student and if i tell my mother about it, she'll just use a tone at me and will give that "what the heck are you saying" type of response. its so hard especially on my position to go to the doctor whenever you want so i'm just handling these body issues on my own hands and just kept looking for answers through the experiences of other people that is or has been on my situation before. does too much anxiety affect the shape of your tongue and make you sound a bit off? i want to know more about the capabilities of what anxiety can do. thanks for reading this if you have reached this part 😃
0 likes, 13 replies
miguel34492
Posted
i really wanted to know if this is just the effects of anxiety or my body is just being weird :<
ana32759 miguel34492
Edited
Hello!
one student to another with anxiety, I know how It feels. If I could go and see a doctor twice a week I probably would and not even complain about the money that I spent there but asking family members is really tough because they usually never believe us... so when I tell you that I understand your situation I mean I UNDERSTAND it.
about your symptoms. I am not a doctor but the way you spoke about it, the way you pay attention to every single detail and every single mild pain or change in your body... seems like health anxiety to me. I would literally observe my tongue for good 20 minutes and think various things were wrong with me "It's blue, does this mean my blood circulation is failing?" I can't keep it still, do I have neurological issues?" " it feels numb, am I about to have a stroke?" and a list goes on..then I just thought to myself...ani, you are spending 20 minutes looking and observing your tongue, of course you will notice SOMETHING.. in my country we have this little quote "whoever searches for it, will find it" and it's sooo true... like you are searching for issues and at some point your brain just goes "ughh whatever let me cause some symptoms so you can finally be content".... I HIGHLY doubt that you have ALS becuase it usually causes wayyy more symptoms and is quite rare at our age...Google is our only doctor, it's free and it's right there and it has answers but the thing is, majority of those answers are wrong...and I know it's extremely tough but please try to not search up your symptoms and in a week you will see how your symptoms will slowly decrease and maybe even dissapear.. overthinking about your health causes physical symptoms and they feel real, so I absolutely believe that you felt whatever you felt but just know that it's most likely nothing but anxiety and the horrible "what if" pattern
I wish you health and happines, know that you are not alone! we will overcome this I promise you. but please do me a favor and quit googling okay? have a nice day 😃
miguel34492 ana32759
Edited
Its just so weird that my tongue suddenly became a bit off 😕 like it really affected my speech a little bit but idk if its really early signs of als or not but as y'all say, i think maybe anxiety can also be the reason for the subtle change on my tongue. i just hope that after a few days, everything will just become normal once again so i can be at peace but for now, i'll just do my best to cope with my current mental dilemma that i've been dealing with for the past few days. or probably just anxiety making my whole body a bit weak that my tongue had a bit of an atrophy i guess. thank you so much for clarifying my issues and enlightening me 😃 wishing you all the best! now i know where to go if something came up to me again hehe i'll try to keep in touch while resting my mouth lol
ana32759 miguel34492
Posted
please update me about your improvement!!! everything's gonna be okay I promise!
miguel34492 ana32759
Posted
UPDATE: When i woke up a few hours ago, i felt a bit of a weird stiffness on the side part my left neck and i was like "oh boi what the hell is this now" and then just by this morning, i could feel like a bit of a muscle weakness that COMES and GOES around my face but yeah, it would go away eventually and i've also realized that on ALS, it would take months for symptoms to be a little tiny bit obvious but for me, its just been a week and i'am starting this episodic minor weakness and mild acheness/soreness that comes and go as well so i was like "nah fam, this sh** be moving a bit WILD for it to be classified as ALS" so yeah, i'm just trying my best to keep on thinking that my brain is just probably messing with my facial or throat muscles due to me having anxiety. i just hope that this shtty experience will come to an abrupt end as soon as possible. so yeah thats my update 😃
jan34534 miguel34492
Edited
I am sorry that all of this is getting you concerned but you are definitely over thinking this. Just like the last person who responded said, when you look for something you will find it. But what you are finding sounds more like your intense anxiety about your health.
Anxiety can give you symptoms that are similar to other conditions. However what you explained does not sound at all like ALS. My neurologist said that first of all, with that condition you do not get sensory symptoms. in the beginning. In other words you’re not going to feel muscle fasciculations, soreness, achiness, all of those may or may not appear way later in the disease process. on the other hand, anxiety can produce all of those sensations including how we talk, some people will stutter with anxiety others will slur the words once in a while, etc.
w. googling is only going to make matters worse. It’s not going to pertain to you at all. It just gives general statements and worst case scenarios about everything. It’s also going to give you more bodily sensations due to the anxiety. Sounds like you are young and most likely very healthy. just need to get some support to help you manage the anxiety that you have. Maybe talk to a counselor would be very beneficial. Otherwise life can be very miserable when you are in a constant state of worrying about your health. Take care of yourself
miguel34492 jan34534
Edited
i really don't have that much of fasciculations nor constant ones. it just gets a bit more tired than usual but its not accompanied by frequent twitching or whatever but the strained muscles will go away after a few minutes of me stopping what i was doing. its good to hear that a lot of people has already told me that i might just be in a deep state of anxiety that my brain is all over the place. thank you so much for enlightening me more about the differences of the two. though i still wish that a cure for ALS and some other terminal illnesses will be available as soon as possible. have a good day! 😃
ana32759 miguel34492
Posted
yes it's obviously anxiety playing tricks on your brain! I love the attitude change tho! keep the same energy and you'll see how those symptoms will disappear. and about neck stiffness- maybe you slept in a bad position? or maybe due to stress muscles got tensed up and that's where the stiffness came from. don't overthink please...
have a great day today 😃)
miguel34492 ana32759
Posted
i had the same thought too but its gone now... i'm still having some subtle weird feelings of my tongue touching the back of my mouth or something like that but overall, i could talk a bit better now i think probably my anxiety is already subsiding a little bit since i didn't felt that anxious anymore for today. or probably i'm having some minor thyroid issues early at our age lol
sasical72 miguel34492
Edited
You ask about the capability of what anxiety can do?? they are endless, it can mimic ANYTHING
miguel34492 sasical72
Posted
sheesh, then i guess that our minds are powerful indeed 😦
Sofi4563 miguel34492
Posted
1 in the morning and I'm laying in bed obsessing over my tongue being thick and heavy and the random muscles spasms iI have everywhere. Thank you for posting this. It makes me feel less loony.
I've been paranoid about als for the past 3 years. It started with random muscle spams, they would come and go, something they would be gone for months. Then I started having heart palpitations, pain on my left arm, pins and needles. I went to the ER they ran an ECG, blood tests, even called a neurologist to assess me, but the over 600$ ordeal (I had just started working) turned into an anxiety diagnosis. Afterwards it stopped for a few months, until about 8 months ago I read an article in the newspaper about a guy who had pain on his tight, and 1 and half year later he was basically a vegetal due to als. At that moment, my leg started twitching like crazy and it never. I've been having severe anxiety and depression since then, my tongue feels fat and heavy, I keep checking it when I speak because iI think I sound odd, like I'm not pronouncing things properly, I had sciatic pain, all blamed on the advancement of als. My doctor thinks I just have anxiety, because I don't fit with the typical age group for als (I'm 27yo female, started having these sensations at 24) and prescribed me some natural remedies (i ain't taking antidepressants or strong drugs ever. My mom has been on these for 20 years to treat depression and now she can't quit).
I keep checking if my muscles are trembling, twitching, if they are still strong, if my brain is able to function properly, if my tongue is still weird. Every day... From the moment I wake up, until I manage to fall asleep. I even started losing hair because of this... Its really hard, a few years ago I obsessed over cancer, but since I found out about als, this has kind of turned into my recurring nightmare, to the point i barely think about cancer anymore, and this is coming from a person who almost got an ulcer because I was paranoid and stressed about getting pancreatic cancer... I wish I could jump forward 5 years, just to see if I'll still be alive, or if I really did have something serious
miguel34492
Edited
Hey there! sorry for the late reply since i had some technical issues on this account but hoping that my reply would be worth the wait. 😃
I'am so sorry if you kept on having these weird and unexplainable body sensations for a long time already. anxiety has a lot of effects on every single person who is suffering from it from what i currently know. i also can't still avoid these thoughts that oh no, i've been just having these symptoms for just a few weeks 'till now would it get progressively even worse or would it stay this way for the rest of my life or would these weird and unfamiliar body sensations go away after a while like i have no way of gaining any further assurances despite the fact of me already having a discussion of this type of topic towards other people from the als forum and here on the anxiety forum as well and all of them has said that i'am just only having anxiety effects and me not really having that type of horrendous illness especially because of my age. I'm still quite a bit concerned and curious on a subtle atrophy on the lower left part of my tongue tho i'am not having some frequent muscle fasciculations or weakness around it i would only feel a tiny bit of strainous feeling if i'm really using my tongue forcefully which i think is already reasonable lol. i also started to have a much more thinner hairline on the central part of my head starting from september of this year but i think that was just because of my anxiety + stress. the brain is really powerful making you think that you have these type of diseases that are life-threatening by providing you some unfamiliar body sensations like a sharp/sheer pain on a body part, headache, palpitation, lightheadedness etc and tbh, me hearing from other people as well that are having this type of sensations that aren't really helping towards their anxiety as well but when they already had a check-up from medical professionals and them saying that there is nothing wrong with them despite the years of months of them having this shtty experiences on their life, i felt a bit relieved for y'all and for me as well but i still feel bad because mental health issues should also be taken seriously.my own ways of dealing with my health anxiety is just by avoiding things that would trigger it like just me seeing vids about patients of als, i would just immediately filter it out orjust me avoiding of thinking that word as much as i can by distracting myself. though i still do some checkings on my pronunciations everyday especially on some words lile emperor, mirror, conqueror etc i would always say those words to see if i could still pronounce them perfectly or correctly even though i'm not an american nor a native English speaker. i think i should just work out on my confidence and self-esteem these days in order for me to recover from my health anxiety and so that i could be more confident on speaking because i know for a fact that my brain is the one who is enabling these struggles of mine when it comes to speaking whether if i would slur some words or stutter or have some struggles reading words on one reading. i also had the same idea of time travelling atleast 5 years from now to see if i'am still alive as well lol i generally do not fear death since it will be an inevitable thing in our world but just dying young or pre-maturely is what i'am afraid to happen, i still have some goals that i wanted to do with my life like having a job, having a girlfriend that would be a perfect match for me, get a lot of money and be able to spend it on my wants and needs, hang out with some people after this stupid corona is done and etc. i really hope that i could recover from this health anxiety that i'am having right now or if its something weird, i hope that this is just a weird unexplainable effects from the body that would not end up as a life-threatening sickness and i hope that it goes the same for you as well, i hope that you'll be able to recover from your anxiety as soon as you can. take care of yourself 😃 i'm also doing my utmost best to overcome my inner demons endlessly feeding me some bullcraps over my brain.