r/BFS

I have been dealing with BFS for 16 years. Nothing seemed to help, although the day after alcohol or before a rainshower my symptoms were much worse.

Then I started propranolol.

This is a beta blocker and is used commonly for social anxiety or performance anxiety. I initially used it for interviews, but I incidentally noted something strange. A few hours after the dose, I was no longer experiencing fasciculations.

I hypothesize that my symptoms are driven by my high sympathetic drive. I am type A and can be tightly-wound when things in life are not under control. Thus the propranolol is helpful because it reduces the sympathetic tone enough to mitigate my symptoms.

I just wanted to make this to help some people who are especially anxious about this. I started twitching right above my elbow at 14 years old, I remember it distinctly. I am 32 now and have twitched consistently and all over for the last 18 years.

It goes through phases where sometimes it's significantly more intense, but I am the strongest I've ever been and to my understanding in good health. The single best thing to manage them has been working on my mental health. I am a therapist, so having awareness around my nervous system states has helped to some extent.

That said, it's just annoying as hell now.

Hi, im just checking in to see if someone else have experienced this the same way as me. In 2021 i began experiencing a crawling/twitching/pressure in my right upper lid of my eye. Its been there constantly in various degrees ever since, i raise my right eyebrow to ”compensate” for the heavy feeling. When this first started i had my eyes checked thinking it was the eye but everything came back normal. Ever since that ive been ”afraid” to look this up but i cant ignore it anymore its driving me crazy. Ive tried everything, Nothing helps the sensation is always there, like something is under my eyelid crawling on my eye and spasming. What doctor is best to turn to and is there any form of medication or relief if lets say this is just benign twitching?

Does anyone get twitching while using a muscle, or after using it? I just carried a really heavy bag of trash with my left arm, the one I think is weak, and after walking with it for a bit, the tricep in that arm actually started twitching or spasming really hard. It was honestly scary. Usually, if I flex that arm hard and then relax it, it'll twitch. But I've never had it twitch while I was actually using it. And it felt really weak.

34F. Last October I started feeling tugging in my right calf when walking and then twitching. I had an EMG in mid November and it came back normal. Since then the weird calf sensation comes and goes intermittently and varies between a tugging sensation to feeling like the calf muscle doesn’t fully engage when I walk. When I flex my calves it feels like the left one flexes deeper and more throughout than the right. I don’t have muscle atrophy exactly but when I flex the right one looks slightly like it can flex less. I also randomly will feel burning down there. The calf not engaging I feel mostly when I’m barefoot. I’ve had an MRI of my leg and knee and it came back normal and I’ve also had a vascular study and it was also normal. The doctor didn’t think it was ALS and thinks it’s lumbar radiculopthy. But in the last two weeks I’ve felt an increase in fasciculations in both legs. Like a lot. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night and noticed I was having them in my legs. Could this be ALS? I mostly notice them at rest but they happen in my arms too. I have so much anxiety and it’s all I think about. Any insight is much appreciated

Hey you guys all no my story by now for those that dont here is a quick run down...Its been 6 months of bilateral constant muscle twitching in my calves and feet.. i also get pop ups and hot spots in my thighs hamstrings biceps triceps forearms shoulders chest back neck and face.. i have face tingling... had a clean emg at 19 days in... emg 90 days in that picked up a couple fasciculations i had another emg 105 days in that picked up lot of fasciculations in my bicep but doctor said normal emg i got another emg 153 days in and that came back normal.... i had L3 L4 L5 S1 lumbar back surgery on August 11th after that I got some weakness in my left calf.. 3 days now my right foot has been pins and needles ..i have been so depressed that i got the dreaded disease i can't stop thinking about it..

Hi, Everyone. Hope y'all good.

My twitching first started in March, when I noticed a muscle in my right thigh twitching. It lasted for about two days and then disappeared completely, and for months I went on with my life without thinking much about it. Then, on the 24th of August, the twitching came back. This time it was different—it seemed much more widespread, affecting different parts of my body, and some of the movements felt much stronger and more violent than what I had experienced in March. That was when I started paying much closer attention to my body.

What started as a strange physical sensation gradually turned into an obsession with finding out what every twitch could mean. I began searching online, reading about muscle fasciculations, neurological diseases, ALS, MND, and countless other possibilities. Every new twitch seemed to give me another reason to worry. If it happened in a new muscle, I wondered whether it meant the condition was spreading. If it became stronger, I wondered whether that meant something was getting worse. I started testing my strength, comparing one side of my body with the other, and analyzing sensations that I probably would have ignored before all of this started. Instead of finding reassurance, every search seemed to lead me further down the rabbit hole.

Over time, the fear became more exhausting than the twitching itself. My attention became consumed by my body, constantly waiting for the next twitch and trying to interpret what it meant. Something that began as an occasional muscle movement turned into days and weeks of anxiety, fear, and constant self-monitoring. It has affected my ability to concentrate, enjoy things, and focus on my life, and at times it has left me feeling stressed and depressed. Looking back, I can see how the search for certainty became part of the problem: every answer created another question, and every new sensation became something I felt compelled to investigate. I don't want the twitching to control my life anymore.

Unfortunately, I can't simply book an EMG where I live and have it done whenever I want. I have to be assessed by a clinician first, and they have to decide whether an EMG is necessary and give the go-ahead for the test. I have already been evaluated by a clinician, and based on the physical examinations they performed, they told me that I was okay. You would think that would be enough to give me some peace of mind, but I'm still struggling to accept it. Every time I feel another twitch, my heart starts beating faster and the fear comes rushing back. Even after being physically examined and told that things look okay, my mind keeps demanding absolute certainty, and that constant cycle of fear and reassurance has become one of the hardest parts of this entire experience. I just want to see my life back the ways it was😭

I posted on here about five years ago when I started getting twitches all over amongst a host of other sensory issues. I had a lot of painful sensations as well including burning, soreness, etc.

It took a year for the most painful symptoms to subside which I am so grateful. I ofc went down the rabbit hole and saw two neuros amongst a host of other doctors. Five years later, I still twitch but not as often but of recent I’ve started to get an increase in the insect crawling sensation in my legs. And I feel like I’ve just been seeing more people with ***, like the pro footballer and the *** influencer who just died (who took 4 years to get a diagnosis) and first got symptoms at the age I’m at now.

All of this has caused me to worry again.ive been rehabbing a basketball injury the past year and did a full weight bearing run which caused some bad hip pain that I’ve now convinced myself is ***. I’ve even started thinking maybe I’m healing slowly because of it. It’s a lot. I don’t want to spiral further so I just thought I’d talk out loud and see if anyone could send some reaffirming thoughts. Won’t keep this up long but just needed to do this.

Still new to all of this. I started getting all over twitching a week ago after starting Zoloft. I am also 4 weeks postpartum and went through a pretty traumatic readmission for postpartum preeclampsia (hence having to get on Zoloft.) I had horrible side effects to Zoloft and went off of it. Not sure if my twitching was hormones, stress, Zoloft, or a combo. But I’ve noticed the twitching has subsided a lot and so has my anxiety. I had a lot of twitches in my lower legs, primarily left calf and foot. I now have occasional very mild light buzzing sensation intermittently in my calf and foot and other spots less frequently. Is that typical in BFS? Not sure if that’s what I have going on or not

Can witnessing a twitching be the cause for ur neurological symptoms

I posted it on here not too long ago worried about ALS. However, I still am but i’m waiting on a neruo appointment. I was curious if you guys had any of the same feelings that I have experienced which are widespread body twitching of course we all know that we have that however I’m having burning sensation in my arm that feels weak tremors in both hands and sharp pains all over my body. Also, what feels to be vibrations in random spots. This has been going on for two months now just about I still haven’t lost the ability to do anything like holding cups, writing, typing, etc. I do all the basics. and I don’t know how long it takes in more serious situations. I was curious if it still points to benign stuff or other nerve issues my CT scan got denied and doctor ordered MRI however the insurance never accepted it in time so I had to reschedule that. 🤗 this has been such a crazy two months.

For years, and I mean at least 5 years I’ve had daily chronic muscle twitching, before I just called it “popcorn popping in bursts” and it’s in my thighs, both upper arms, my eyes, temple, and even sometimes my feet. Of course, I looked online due to random wondering one day, and of course the first thing that popped up is “ALS vs BFS” and well, safe to say I freaked myself out about ALS now. But I haven’t noticed any changes in my ability to live daily, just some strength lost in my right hand that I feel has been that way for a long time and my right arm feels tired. Interesting

I have seen a couple posts about this but anyone else wake up in the night and then are unable to fall back asleep due to random body jerks? I assume its myoclonic jerking. I remember having this in the past but it really annoys me when I wake up at 3am then each time I try to doze off I get a jerk that makes me alert. Par for the course with bfs/anxiety?

Hi,

I (34M) have been dealing with tingling in both feet since Jan’25 and have had a wide range of other symptoms such as sense of worse balance, ringing in ears, loose stool, leg stiffness, occasional twitching (usually calves but can move around with hotspots).

I was cleared from anything sinister last year and doctors said it was “benign”.

However, since then I’ve had 1-3 week periods at least 5-6 times where my forearm has had this weird dull ache or burning sensation.

Last years health check up had my grip strength with Dyno at 57kg left and 57kg right. This week it was 53kg left and 60kg right which made me very alarmed since I’ve been going to the gym a lot since last year. Doctors say it’s within the normal range of difference between arms but I find it very odd that it moved in the wrong direction after a good year at the gym…

Should I be concerned?