Scared senseless about ALS...15 year old girl

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fairygirl183

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I’m a 15 year old asian girl with severe anxiety about als,, ik it’s extremely rare in kids but here’s some backstory

When I was 10 or 11, one night my thumb randomly felt stiff. eventually the stiff thumb became a stiff arm, with twitching all over my body( I’ve had twitching since I was in 5th grade). At 11, I was already worried about ALS. Eventually, nothing happened. 3 or 4 years passed with no progression of symptoms; I found that the stiff/weak feeling in my arm got worse with emotional stress or anxiety. The feeling never really disappeared, but it never got worse and I had no trouble doing the things I usually did.

a week ago (I’m a sophomore) after I took a test I fell asleep on my desk. The desk was hard and uncomfortable and I have shift a lot so I ended up resting my head & neck in a bunch of weird positions for about an hour. After that I headed to Spanish, and I also have a tendency to sit on my hands, so I did. But when I lifted them up I had a strange stiff/weak feeling in my right arm. I shrugged it off.

Then that night, I had an awful dream ( the worst I’ve had in my life, I dreamed that I had cancer) and when I woke up my right arm was weak/stiff and trembling, and so was my leg. I worried that I had cancer, because I read about cancer patients dreaming about cancer before getting it. This fear turned into my long-standing terror of ALS, and ever since my life has gone downhill. My right leg feels slightly stiffer/heavier than the left (the feeling never goes away), and sometimes I bump into the wall when I walk out of my room. My right arm is always stiff/weak and rarely goes away. I break down &cry every night because of horrible anxiety and look at ALS forums finding out how people were diagnosed and how their symptoms are so similar to mine. I told my parents and they took me to my pediatrician on Tuesday; she performed tests on me (pressing her hands above my eyebrows and telling me to push up, making me put my hands on my hips, close my eyes, and stand on one leg, making me squeeze her fingers for 30 sec, testing my reflexes, etc) and she said there was nothing wrong with me neurologically and it was just anxiety. This reassured me, but then I came home and read stories of ALS patients whose symptoms were overlooked by several doctors and how symptoms could progress slowly over the course of a year or more. This made my anxiety come back worse than ever. I consulted my friend and my parents and they all think it’s in my head. I suspect that too, but I can’t shake the feeling that it’s something more. I even arm wrestled with my dad (whos really strong) and managed to hold my ground with both arms. I’ve noticed muscle twitching all over, especially in my legs and arms, and during a bout of anxiety my neck went weak and its been there ever since. I have since had trouble keeping my head up but I have little to no trouble doing the things I always do.

My anxiety has just gotten really bad and my grades have dropped severely because of it, idk About any underlying causes but I’ve been sleeping about 6 hrs every night, I rarely eat breakfast before school, lack of exercise and low levels of vitamin D and high sugar levels, I’m on the “thin side of normal” for my weight, and I have a history of being paranoid about diseases and conditions that I never got (batten disease, leukemia, rabies). I’m also very stressed and have poor diet/exercise regime. Idk if this contributes to anything but my parents have noticed my posture has been slacking since freshman yr and prob a month ago I tripped twice over nothing on my way home from school, I’ve also been dropping things on occasion n keyboarding errors

is it possible for ALS symptoms to progress so quickly over the course of a week, or is this just in my head/some other condition? And can ALS remain stationary with little progression for 3-4 yrs? I appreciate anyone’s input on this matter, and I thank everyone in advance who is going out of their way to respond to me.
 
It doesn’t remotely sound like ALS. By your own admission you have severe health anxiety and it is ruining your life and health. Please log off stop Googling and get help. Talk to your parents, your doctor and see a counselor
good luck. Closing the thread. Staying here is very very bad for you
 
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