I am 19 years old and have been in relatively good health so for. Due to presious events i now suffer from intense anxiety mainly about my health. So much so a few months back i fly convinced myself i have HIV which actually turned out to be glandular fever. However a few weeks ago my arm left arm kept going dead whilst i slept that lead to tingling during the day. I then did what i always did and and took to google to check and ms came up. I was frozen with fear, crying myself to sleep at night worrying to death. After that the tingling was then apparent in my legs mainly my right getting intense at times and and then mild at other. Futhermore i had dizzy spells and blurred vison but that has since stopped. Oh and then at one point my left writst got to be very very sore but that has also stopped. The tingling is stil there at different points in my body midly with the occasional muscle twitches, but i dont want to get happy it is caming down/going because i know ms can be intermittent. I am soooooo sooo soooo scared and it terrifies me and i dont know what to do. I have yet to book an appointment with the GP but im scared about what will happen. Please help me
âHalloâ Rachel, I am 57 years old now and I had similar issues in my teens! Still, I have âlivedâ (did IâŚ) my life and âTBCâ⌠I emigrated from Holland and married the most wonderful lady, only at the age of 33, I could think of in my dreams! The diagnosis of MS only followed, finally!, at the age of 40 by the way. We have 2 children of which one is mentally disabled⌠Still, I count myself lucky, especially under todayâs circumstances! (so far that is, God knows -not religious btw- whatâs to come!). Just book that appointment and find out what the underlying reasons are! If negative, then just âconfront itâ, at least you know!, even when difficult in the beginning! Just donât hide, book that trip (well, maybe not at the momentâŚ) or whatever⌠There IS someone waiting for you to share your live with, you just havenât met that person yet who will enrich your life! Whatever it is, IT is what it isâŚ, just donât hide! (sorry for being repetitiveâŚ, must be âthe MSââŚ). Take care of yourself.
Rachel not surprised your scared with all that is going on which is just heightening your anxiety.
With the same strength you used to convince yourself you have MS use it to convince it you dont.
Glandular fever can leave residual things. Its quite a nasty infection. So I would expect you to have some residual stuff from the virus that got into your body.
these can be vague. like you express.
My neice had it and was in hospital with it she was so ill and it took six weeks to even begin to feel better from it.
We all get dead arms in the morning its quite normal, and during the day you will get tingling as the nerves are released.
all this can be also down to anxiety.
I would stop googling for now and try to find a support network you can talk to, as I feel some of this in part is down to our current situation.
I know your scared we all are hun. If it is MS what will happen? so many on this forum have had it years, work, married, have children, grand children. I bet google didnt explain any of that. xxx
big hugs. xxxx you need to talk to someone. xxxx
Hi Rachel,
I am not a doctor, nor are you, but most importantly, rest assured that neither is Google. I wouldnât be so quick to diagnose yourself. I have had my fair share of health anxiety since I was 14 years old and still deal with it today. I have gone through the same things you have. I just recently came back to thank the people on this forum for their kind words. I hope my words can help you too. But just to start, I will tell you right now (as someone who should follow their own advice) please stop googling. Google has convinced me of many different ailments in my life (I am 24) and 3/10 times it would reassure me that I was fine while the other 7/10 times would send me down a toxic spiral. Now despite how bad those odds are, I would constantly look for that 3/10 in hopes of reassurance. It is not worth it.
Again, I am not a doctor, but given what you have mentioned in regards to symptoms, I think a more immediate concern should be focusing on being mindful and helping your anxiety. No one can promise you that you do not have MS, but I am here to promise you that working on your anxiety will help you regardless. Some other kind forum members took the time to remind me on my post that anxiety will not help my situation. They were 1000% right. Anxiety made me sick and it made my symptoms worse.
I too have had (and am still having) strange neurological symptoms but I just came back with a negative MRI despite having been so entirely convinced it was MS. For the past 5 months I let the fear take over my life. I wouldnât wish that on anybody. But the truth is the body is strange and some symptoms can be very illusive. For me, some of my âMSâ symptoms were the result of the anxiety itself. I am not saying that your symptoms are not MS nor scary and legitimate, I am just saying something I myself wish I had realized sooner: some things you have no control over, but you can control how you view things. You can take the time to practice good mindful habits to help your anxiety and take care of yourself. I really wish I had during my months of constant panic. I finally did it a week before my recent MRI by some miracle and the empathetic words of kind people on this forum.
I know it is easier said than done but take care of yourself. Do things you enjoy. Eat 3 meals a day. Get 8 hours of sleep if you can. If you find yourself tempted to google something, stop yourself (ex/ every time you want to Google something, go onto Youtube and watch a funny animal video or whatever it is you enjoy). Keep doing it until you can break that Googling habit. I wish I had done that. It would have saved me months of crying, stress, and mental self destruction. I still havenât gotten a complete handle on my anxiety and am still working on figuring out what is happening with my health, so you are not alone. I came here seeking reassurance that no one could promise, but I got comfort and kindness which I needed more. I hope you can get that from this forum like I did. There are some real strong MS fighters here-- new and old. Trust their advice and trust in yourself. Give yourself more credit. Youâll be okay.
If the anxiety really is unbearable or difficult to handle, make an appointment with your GP if possible. They can help you if not lead you to a professional who can.
In the meantime, I recommend this blog post that someone shared on a health anxiety forum. It helped me out during my early days of panic. Plus it is long and distracted me from googling: nothingworks.weebly.com
I hope it helps you! Youâll be okay. It might not feel like it right now, but you will. The brain is mighty powerful.
Great advice and words of comfort IshereenB.
Boudsxx