Reflexes and movements just plain jittery and jumpey!

[Mrworrymaster]

Hey all, It's the master of worrying again.

I pat myself on the back as I write this because I'm actually not in a state of panic! Just here to see if anyone else has anxiety hit them in such a way as mine is right now.

I'm finally coming down from my ALS fears. I'm thinking reasonably and assuring myself that my dang anxiety has just left my nerves shot.

Now I'm trying to function, but my reflexes are just jumpy. When I reach for stuff I'm clumsy. When I move my feet i'm clumsy. When reaching for a cup of water my movements just feel off.

I chalk this up to two things:

1) I've been severely anxious now for 8 months and my body is just wrecked from all the adrenaline and cortisol. Which is now starting to cause physical side effects. Basically, my body is begging for a break.

2) I'm being hyperaware of my actions and movements...which is making things seem worse than they really are.

I'm open up to your thoughts here friends. Feel free to share if you have had the same, are experiencing the same, or even something different.

Regards,

[daisychained]

Hi Master of Worrying!

I would say it's a bit of both. After even a day of general anxiety I feel quite unwell and wobbly for a few days. I think muscles need time to relax, not necessarily heal but relax. And the mind.. I mean it's a very traumatic experience.

Imagine throwing a person without anxiety but with a fear of spiders into a room of tarantulas.. you wont see them stopping in the room and messaging a forum for ways to cope, the screaming, flipping their arms about, trying to run out of the room etc it's the same response we get - fear and trying ti save ourselves except that often we have to try stifle the response and keep it contained because "nothing is really wrong" the fear is inside our head. We could point to a spider and ask someone to get rid but often we don't even know what the problem/fear is.

To feel that level of fear and still be able to convey how you feel through text is worth a pat on the back.

X

[Mrworrymaster in reply to daisychained]

Thanks Daisy,

I think the single largest hurdle with anxiety is coming to peace with the statement: "I don't feel overly anxious"

When you deal with anxiety for a long time you learn to live with it a bit, and then you don't flip out like you probably did when it first starting becoming more commonplace in your life.

So Inside, like you pointed out so wisely, you're flipping out. But you're able to keep it together and not crawl into a corner and cower from the fear of your panic/anxiety.

This creates a weird balancing effect where you know you're ok, you're trying to present yourself as you're ok..so you feel like you should "feel" ok. But really, you're the farthest thing from OK as your mind is doing anxiety backflips!

Today my anxiety isn't that bad. I'm not so focused on my obsession that I have ALS. My arms and hands are still sore....but all I think about all day is if my hands and arms feel "normal".

I would bet you that I'm subconsciously tensing my arms and hands all day long. Not helping the soreness at all, I'm sure!

Thank you for your kind response and explanation!

[daisychained in reply to Mrworrymaster]

I do the same with my jaw and neck. I could be cleaning up or watching t.v. and I'll tense up and clench my jaw tight. It's the opposite to dealing with panic where you would distract yourself to get rid of the feelings, but with this jaw/neck it's habit and if I'm distracted I do it! So I focus on relaxing them. Its great until I'm distracted again....

annoying. I have such an achey face lol

X

[Mrworrymaster in reply to daisychained]

Anxiety is a crazy thing!!! Float through the panic, but focus on relaxing. lol

[Aazz]

I know exactly what you are talking about with the funny body feeling. Your two points are exactly what is happening to you. My anxiety also causes my body to feel weird when it all first started I analysed my body and body movements all the time I kept comparing my body and movements to other people, I was always making my partner do all these weird movements to see if his were the same it was obsessive. I have stopped that finally and I notice things a lot less now although this last week my anxiety has flared up and I find myself analysing again. But anxiety can definitely cause somatic neurological type issues. You need to find a way to reduce your anxiety and you need to stop being so hyper aware just brush it off say 'whatever' 'who give a bleep'. Hope you feel better asap

[Mrworrymaster in reply to Aazz]

anxiety is my mind simply lying to my body that something is wrong, so my body then starts acting all funky because I'm hypersensitive to autonomous actions. This, of course, drives me to think that "hey maybe something really is wrong because my body is being weird." BOOOOOM welcome to the health anxiety circle!

Lol. thank you for the response Aaaz. I've managed to stay off of Google now for atleast 2 weeks. I have some bad days and good days now, but my bad days are never me sitting by myself thinking about how my will should look. Google does wonders doesn't it?