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Blackness

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Mar 29, 2017
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Learn about ALS
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Nj
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Newark
Well, I had been reading up on it as well as its subcategories. It seems thar FTD and ALS are linked genetically or by a protein. The thing is, FTD/MND is almost predominantly associated with the behavioural variant of FTD (BvFTD) and not usually the PPA variant (progressive aphasia) that causes language issues but not behavioral.

All this being said, PPD can still happen in MND if the right protein or gene is repsponsible...only reason it is not usually is cause PPA, at least 70-80% of the time, is caused by TAU pathology...which doesnt cause ALS but causes FTD alone.

My issue is, I had twitches last month...as well as tremors in my fingers. I still have twitches, however the fasciculations have lessened about 60%. I have though, noticed lately that my speaking is wonky, as in I said "100 percent" when I meant to say "100 dollars" or saying hamburger when I meant to say hot dog. Apparently these are called paraphasias, and are either due to a stroke or brain degeneration/lesion. I also occasionally fumble over words or need to repeat them cause I messed them up whilst speaking. My handwriting, if say I am writing a paragraph ..sometimes I mess up like... I write ant instead of and and need to fix it. My behaviour and understanding of what I say or hear is not impaired at all, just what I say or write. Realize though that, when I point it out to people I talk to they go "...so?" as if its not surprising or unusual.


So naturally I am worried I have that unusual PPA type of aphasia since I had symptoms of ALS as well (aka...pnfa-mnd).

I am worried, freaked out. I am only 30 years old and I am worried silly. Does anyone have some insight or anything to say that will calm me down or basically slap myself out of this?
 
It's super difficult for someone on the internet to help you with your anxiety. Anxiety can be such an overwhelming feeling that it's impossible to reason with, regardless of facts. When someone has a worry over potential disease, there is a common reaction- hypervigilance. All of a sudden you notice things that are perfectly normal and you start to see it as a sign of disease. EVERYONE has aphasia. All the time people substitute words, forget other words, mispronounce words and generally mess up their speech. On a daily basis. But you are noticing it more due to your concerns. Your first step should be to speak to a doctor and give them the list of issues that are troubling you.
 
It just really scares me. I tried to find anything relating paraphasias or aphasias to anxiety and couldnt find anything on google, however it is a notable feature of anxiety to stumble, fumble, or mix up words..which technically is paraphasia...

I also have trouble reading outloud sometimes. Like if I read something that says
"Whether you paint, draw, color, sketch, or anything else" I will read it outloud like "whether you paint, draw, color, paint (and then realize I repeated paint) "or maybe say it like "whether paint, draw, color, sketch, and anything else (realizing I omitted YOU and added AND at the end)

All this being said, my general wpm verbally is still around 180-200..
 
Hi
Anxiety can cause all sorts of problems with speech and communication. Just after I had my kids around twenty odd years ago I suffered from a bout of fairly severe stress and depression, I had panic attacks and severe anxiety. During this time I twitched and developed tremors I had a severe stammer regularly mixed and mispronounced words and even just made them up without even realising I had done it! The situation was very noticeable to others. I was signed off work for three months. I was given citalopram as an anti depressant and given counselling and encourage to increase my physical exercise levels. I worked very closely with my doctors to get through it.
It took over a year before I was back to a relative normality and I could come off the happy pills. Not once did my doctors feel that I had anything else than depression stress and anxiety, I trusted them and they helped me through it.

It's natural to be scared but you need to talk to your doctor and find out exactly what is wrong. It's possible that your anxiety over your symptoms is making them worse.

Good luck

Wendy
 
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