This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

I have long term problem with feeling nervous, I feel like I should write a very difficult test at school. The nerovusness includes also stomach problem and so on. Does it belong to MS symptoms? It does not matter If I am on Anti-Depresive cure or not, this feeling persists. I can´t stay on one place, and still I have to do anything with my hands. I do not know many people with MS, who have similar problem, so I am looking for help or advice everywhere.

I have MS 2,5 year and this problem is for me new (about 1/2 year), I am on copaxone and prednison. Thanks for appropriate reactions!

Hi jana,
Although one case obviously isn't enough to draw valid conclusions from I've found my wife's situation interesting in that she wasn't diagnosed until 1 1/2 years ago but in the preceding years she had medically pursued heart arrhythmia, anxiety issues and depression had been an issue with her.

Obviously after diagnosis the question becomes one in which you have to wonder how much of a part the very diagnosis plays in these things but my wife was dealing with them before being diagnosed and before a diagnosis of MS was even a remote consideration.

There have been inconclusive studies looking into these things and their possible ties to MS but it's hard to directly tie them to MS when they are also so common in the general public.

There are many things which "seem" to be related to MS (among them anxiety, depression, migraines/optical migraines, heart arrhythmia etc..) and because I don't require the level of proof researchers do, I've convinced myself that they are related to MS. On the other hand it's so difficult to disentangle the results from the general public that I don't think we will ever know with confidence one way or the other.

Bob

prednisone also has some effects on mood.

Ive had simmulare problems. I my heart kept raceing from a laying down position. I was breaking out with night sweats. These sweats were so bad that I would wake up with wet sheets all around me and my bellybutton filled with water. I went to the doctor but they couldnt find anything wrong with my heart. I never got an answer about the nightsweats. It happened for about 3 or 4 weeks then stopped. Did your wife have anything like I am discribing.

I think this comes with the package. In my trial I have to fill out about 20 questionnaires and they ask about 15 different ways if you've been feeling nervous or anxious. I think it's a nervous system thing. When I get that feeling like I'm "vibrating" from my nervous system, it is almost always followed by a feeling of nervousness or anxiousness.

I think anxiety is natural in this disease course when you start thinking about the future. I get scared, especially in bed at 3am, and then I feel it in my stomach as well. It has to be common for it to be such a huge worry on the questionnaires. It seems they ask that one more than any other repeat question. I take 2mg Diazepam 3x/day for bladder help and it also helps a bit with the nervous tension without knocking me out like the 10 or 15 mg dose would do.

I don't have much experience with depression. I had a bout of it from the Avonex, but once I went off of that, it was very soon that I didn't feel that way anymore. However, I don't think Copaxone has a warning for depression like the interferons. I hope this helps!

Lew

Hi Jana
I went undiagnosed for a long time, maybe 8 years or so, maybe more, and thought I was a nervous wreck in that time. My Mum had even said that perhaps I should see a psychiatrist. I had panic, anxiety, depression, nervousness - it was fairly constant.

I realise now that that nervy feeling now often appears (for me anyway) when the disease is active, but not obvious - like before a relapse. I had noticed I get a huge, unreal burst of nervous energy, anxiety etc before a relapse. I have now learnt to try to calm myself, chill a bit, before it strikes. The last time this happened I rested when I got the nervousness and the relapse only was minimal, just a bit of optic neuritis. And I agree about anti-depressents making no difference. I took anti-d's for about 6 months a few years ago to get me through a bleak patch, and I was just as nervous. Maybe even more so. Just much much less shy on the anti-d's - I became a party girl extrovert, it was great!

I look back now and I think I was putting a physical feeling (anxiety) onto things in my life, like fitting the feeling to an issue, and complicating how I was coming across to everyone, even myself. Does that make any sense?
I think it takes a long time to sort out what is going on for yourself with MS. 9 years after dx I'm just starting to slightly get the hang of it!


p.s. as CureOrBust says prednisolone has effects like this too - I was so "revved up" when I take prednisolone, my anxiety was double what it normally was.