Anxiety-related muscle twitches. Does anyone get them?

[Rafterman]

Hey all,
I am not taking about cramps, but instead those little high-speed twitches that one may sometime get on their eyelid when stressed. Does anyone here get them anywhere else? My wife suffers from these on her quads and upper arms, and she is about to jump off the roof because they can sometimes indicate serious disease. Technically known as "fasciculation's", some people get them from working out too hard, stress, or tapering off any psychoactive med. Some other's experience them when on an ATD. None of those apply to my wife right now. I have suffered from them for quite a while now, but I do have motor-neuron disease and that is what is freaking her out. She is afraid that she might have it, too. I told her to stop worrying. Those group of diseases are classified as "extremely rare", affecting 1 person in every 50,000. I got mine through excessive exposure to environmental toxin's. She has never been exposed to anything like that. With her, it is probably a case of benign fasciculation  syndrome...which is a well recognized phenomenon affecting those in the medical field. She has tried increasing and decreasing her magnesium, calcium, potassium and b-12 intake. Nothing slows them down. In any event, stopping them is secondary. Her primary worry is with regard to what made them start in the first place.
SO, I promised her that I would post on here to see if anyone is suffering from them, and any further details that that person would care to share. Thanks for reading.  Peace.  RM

I should also mention that she been for testing to rule out any serious diseases that her twitching might be a part of. She has had nerve conduction testing, EEG, EMG, and MRI...all normal. Her neurologist told her that he thinks that it is stress. He said that sometimes the body reacts that way after years of unrelenting stress. It is just odd that she would get non-stop twitching body-wide, while never ever having had a single twitch in her life. 

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Hey Rafterman, hope you are holding up well.
Anxiety related twitches hit me hard if I am in a social situation, by bloody lip tremble is a dead give away. The benzo can help in that department ( When will they develop a benzo type drug without the complications!!!.....It is well overdue. (We put a man on the moon for god sake - depending on your view of proper-gander.)
As for psychoactive med tapering problems, this is the first I have heard of this, I am lowing my Seroquel at the moment, will have to keep an eye out for any problems. I get more heads-up information here than I do from my Psychiatrist.

All the best
Slipmat  

Thanks Slipmat. I am sorry that you are suffering from the twitches due to anxiety, but it is comforting to hear that it does not mean that you have any underlying disease. I have had many client's over the years with the facial twitches...eyelid most common, then lip, cheeks, neck, and forehead. As you say, some responded well to a benzo, but the problem was the unwanted somnolence that it brought. I so much agree, when are they going to develop a benzo that doesn't cause people to walk into the walls? I still believe that benzo's, particularly ALP, are the greatest medicinal development in our lifetime...but without the excess somnolence, they could have been perfect. Interestingly, ALP really helps attenuate my tremors. I have seen studies that say that it works magic with tremor and is marginally effective for the twitches when they are on the body. I dealt with the fasiculation's since a year before I was diagnosed with MND. You don't even notice the twitches after a while, but your mind goes crazy thinking that they may indicate a horrible disease.  That, in turn, adds more stress...which really sends the twitches into high gear. I think that once my wife accepts that she probably doesn't have a muscle disease, the adrenaline will stop pumping and she will return to normal. It may take some time, though. Regards, RM