yet another person scared that they have MS

Mental health
1

Hi there. I should start with saying that I just turned 16 earlier this month. I'm aware that MS is rare in general and is even rarer in someone my age, but I'm scared that I have it anyway.

I have health anxiety. I haven't been officially diagnosed with it, but I know I have it. I also may have other types of anxiety as well but at the moment the health anxiety is the worst.

But anyway, I've got myself worked up that I have MS.

A few months ago, maybe closer to a year now actually, I started having sore pain in my shoulders/upper back. It stayed that way for a few days and wouldn't go away. Then, suddenly, one day, I started having this weird burning or tingling or pins and needles type sensation down my back and in the back of my throat whenever I turned my neck in certain directions.

This went away after like a day, and my parents said it was probably a pinched nerve. After that I continued to have some minor issues, like mild pain and stiffness in my arms/shoulders/neck area.

Then, at some point, I started having an issue where one side of my body would feel somewhat numb. Not numb to the point where I couldn't feel it at all, but it felt strange. I don't know whether it was all the way down into my legs or not, but I know I had it in my arm and I think I had it in my face, which is what scares me because everything I've seen has said that is NOT a symptom of a pinched nerve.

Also, along with that, I felt like I was having some trouble swallowing.

Both of these symptoms seemed to only happen after I was laying down in bed.

Flash forward to more recently, and I had an episode where I had a bunch of weird stuff going on that all seemed to be coming from my back. I can't explain exactly what it was like, but it was like sharp pain/pins and needles sensations or something like that. It all seemed to be centering around my upper back.

This was, again, when I was laying down in bed.

I stood up to see if it would stop and I was shaking all over. I don't know whether that was just from the panic because of what was going on or whether it was from what was going on, but it was scary.

I have other issues too that worry me- My legs sometimes feel stiff/sore, usually after sitting in one position [like in a car] for awhile, or after walking for a long period of time.

Sometimes I wake up with my upper leg feeling sore. I have various sharp pains in different parts of my legs.

I occasionally have my backside go slightly numb, again, usually after sitting in one position for awhile.

I sometimes have dizzy spells. They're usually very quick and very minor but they're there. And I've recently been getting some minor headaches too.

I also have, for several years now [maybe forever but I'm not sure] had trouble learning/understanding certain things. I'm very bad at more complicated math, as an example.

I know this was long, but I felt like I needed to really explain what was going on with me that was making me worry to get good advice. Thanks in advance, Color. [my actual nickname lol]

2

Hey Roses,

I too suffer from health anxiety

I had all the symptoms you mentioned for 4 months from Oct 2017 to Jan this year . I had all the nerve related symptoms like numbness,tingling, headaches,crawling, some others. I had countless doctor appointments with brain and neck mri. I was told it is anxiety.

Then i told my self it just anxiety. This symptoms doesn't mean I have terriboe disease. The less I thought about symptoms they started fading away.

But from feb I started getting oains like you on biceps, hips, and thighs. Those are awful. I work full time. So I worried about how i will be able to work and paniced. The more I felt sad about my pains, the pain increasesed. I used to search google and worry about fibromyalgia.

I still have pains. But I am able to enjoy my life by not concentrating on pains and living in the moment.

I dont suffer from fatigue only pains. So I think its not fibromyalgia.

I started yoga recently, it helps me. Exercise helps a lot. I would recommend to any one

It releases endorphins and decreases stress levels. Be very disciplined about it.

Even though i suffer from pains. By exercising daily and living in the moment helps me stay happy.

Dont worry about future how I am goibg to live with pain and all health problems. Furst do all test to clear your mind.

I do below to keep my health anxiety in check.

I wait a week to check if syptoms persists.

During that period I dont worry much.

If syptoms persists after a week, then I go and meet a doctor and get tests done.

Thankfully, till now there was nothing major.

By God's grace.

Hope this helps!!

3

Thank you! I have read that a lot of these symptoms can be caused by anxiety. But I do think there's something physical going on as well. Not necessarily anything horribly serious, but something. I wouldn't doubt that some of the symptoms I'm concerned about are coming from anxiety though. I guess I'm just having trouble believing they could be unrelated to whatever the physical problem is.

I have moments where I've managed to turn the health anxiety off and convince myself that there's nothing seriously wrong with me, but then something will happen and it'll set it all off again.

I do need to see a doctor and get stuff checked out, but there's a lot of other stuff going on in our life right now so it's not that easy to just get me one. I'm just trying to reassure myself in the time being that I don't have MS or any other horrible thing going on with me.

It's not the first time I've done this to myself either. I've had a bunch of other worries too- Cancer [pretty sure everyone worries about that at some point in their life], blood clots, gum disease, an ear infection, meningitis [from the theoretical ear infection], and other things too but that's what I can remember right off the top of my head.

Health anxiety sucks. I'm trying to deal with it as best I can and reassure myself that most of the things I worry about aren't that likely in my age, but when that paranoia sets in it's hard to shut it off.