Hey all, I was posting on another thread and it got me to thinking....Most of you know my story, 33, found out about 8 months ago that my dad has HD and saw him for the first time in 15 years. about 10 years ago, newly married, working full-time, and overtime and going to school full-time I started experiencing anxiety symptoms. My mom who doesn't have HD, used to always have anxiety attacks, so I watched that all growing up, and I'm sure I adapted some of her coping skills to stress, anyways, I did some self-help tapes and they worked wonders, it all went away, then about 7 years later, I started to have anxiety again, when I was under stress, and it went away after reviewing my tapes (cognitive behavior tapes), then I found about my dad and my at-risk status and I have been having mild anxiety, although not near what I used to experience, and "muscle twitches" for the past probably 6 months right after I found out about my dad and it all sank in, of course it could be just stress (hoping), but it's also early symptoms of HD, so I go into this cycle of thinking I have it, and this is the onset.....Barb you helped reassure me once in a chat, but still is it Normal to still feel "stressed" after 8 months, seems like I should quit thinking about it. We went on a mini-vaca for about 4 days, and all my twitches magically disappeared. Does anxiety come and go away after self-help with HD and do twitches just go away? I'm able to talk with my husband and he is very supportive, so that does help and I feel like I'm getting better with dealing with this, just taking forever! sorry for rambling.

Hello rj, if don't mind I have a similar question, so people may help us both here. My husband is in his thirties and we've know about HD (his mother was finally diagnosed) for almost 3 months. Even tough he had always had uncontrolled movements during his sleep (most of all when he was falling asleep), I've noticed all of a sudden he has movements almost all night long, and they've worsen. I can't sleep, not because his movements are so bad, but because I worrie so much. Could this be stress? What worries me the most is he's never been the kind of person who stresses about anything.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/2009 07:28AM by Luz.

My husband (no HD, I am at risk) twitches when falling asleep and in his sleep. My mom, mid stage hd is still (no movements) when sleeping. I have had muscle twitch periods throughout my life that come and go - have not had any in about a year. I think it's normal.

Here is the deal. Twitching is not a symptom. Movements are. In very few cases is movement the first thing you have. Secondly... first symptoms are slight and very gradual. Do you have them? We never really know. Even looking backwards we don't know if some anxiety attack was HD or just stress. If your anxiety is bothering your happiness, treat it. If you can use coping techniques.. just use them. It doesn't matter if some imperfection is HD or not. It's not like you were perfect in the first place. Treat that stuff for what it is and don't worry what it could be. When HD hits... someone will know. You are too depressed for what is your nature.. or too moody. Find a trusted family member who will tell you the truth in the future.. get it in your mind you will believe them.. and then forget about HD until they tell you to pay attention to it. No one judges themselves very well. So leave it to someone else. I don't mean they don't judge HD well themselves..I mean they generally speaking a person doesn't.

If you are a spouse who is symptom hunting.. you will know when it matters. Just go to sleep.. You will be doing the best thing for you both to do that. I personally don't appreciate a tired and possibly crabby wife.. Honestly.. my dog twitches.. it's not killing him. The brain always misfires in sleep. Stuff in there is always changing.. sleep changes through our lives. Don't sweat the details. It's like guessing that song with one note.. you can't.

Wow, Eric, thanks for the good advice, You pretty say the same thing my husband says, so I guess I will take both of yall's advice, sometimes he even says he has all the symptoms of HD and he's not even at risk, secretly when he says that, it does make me feel better, he says I should be doing all the prevenetive things anyways like exercising, eating well and relaxation whether I have HD or not, and I know he's right, I know I will get through the initial stress of all this, I guess it just takes time. Also, Luz my husband jumps in his sleep alot and he's not at-risk.

First, which is the difference between twitching and moving? I looked up in the dictionnary but still don't get it (maybe because I'm not Anglophone)

Second, poor husband is used to dealing with a crabby wife , so nothing new under the sun.

Third, it depends on the song, Eric! I can recognise many songs with just one note (because you can recognize other things like the specific instruments used- an Eric Clapton guitar tends to have a certain sound).

Now seriously, I know I shouldn't freak out, but it's hard when I see how he moves. It's like whole sequencies of movement, not just a little isolated movement. Anyway, I'll get my answer soon when we get our results and we consult with a specialist who can make him do some tests.

Wow rj, he jumps?? scary...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/2009 01:26PM by Luz.

Luz, Maybe Eric will answer better, but I think a twitch is like a small muscle movement, like sometimes after you work out really hard you may see some twitching in a certain muscle like your leg, but your whole leg doesn't move, just your muscle. a movement I think would be like the whole limb moves, make sense? Am I right Eric? Just my thought Luz, I'm not an expert. And yes my husband jumps sometimes, i think because he doesn't get alot of sleep and his body is so tired, I don't know. I wish you the best with your husband, doesn't his mom and dad both carry the gene, refresh me?

Then I guess my husband moves, it's not just a twitching, the whole limb moves, not just the muscle. Sometimes it's a whole sequence of movements.

It seems his mother inherited two copies of the gene, so she's homozigous which means both her father and mother had a copy of the gene. My husband should only have one copy because his dad doesn't carry the gen. This translates into an almost 100% chance of my husband carrying the gene ("almost" because he could inherite a very low count allele) but back to a 50/50 for our children (we don't have children, yet).

Thanks and I wish you the best, too rj!

Disclaimer: I am not symptom hunting!!! But just out of curiousity, and since we are already on the subject of "twitching" before falling asleep or during sleep...has anyone ever literally come up off the mattress while drifting off to sleep? I am talking like getting your heart restarted with electrodes and your whole entire body jerks upward. Anyway, I do that about once or twice a week. Does that happen to anyone else?

MrsPippens, okay, I will ask my husband, but he like somethimes jerks around, like upwards right after he drifts off to sleep, I don't know if he realizes it or not, but it seems to happen maybe a couple times a month, but it doesn't wake him, I notice it's when he's really tired and he doesn't have HD! Kind of strange , huh? Luz- I noticed my dad seemed to move his feet and legs around, like he couldn't get still, doesn't seem to bother him though and right now he's actually looking for a job.

I think most ppl jerk and twitch when going to sleep or just got into a gd sleep, I know I do!!

I also had twitches, felt like I was `walking funny`, had memory problems, balance etc which can all be early signs only to test and find out I was negitive. Stress can mimic Hd, its hard not to stress but litrally as soon as I got my results my `symptoms` were gone, that was a few years ago and im now 25 and Iv not had 1 `symptom` since (barr the sleep twitching! )

Louise

thanks Louise, that makes me feel better. Glad you are negative!

Glad I could help even a little, ment to say I also have anxiety attacks and have done for years (on and off). I figured out along with my sister about Hd when we were 11 and 12. Since my teenage years up until now my anxiety remains strong, which my doctor put down to fear of Hd and it seems its so deeply engraved I cant get rid of it! Im working on that.

My main point to you is stress causes alot of early Hd like `symptoms`. I truely 100% believed I had it until I got my results

rj,

I don't have HD at all, and I have "twiches" from time to time. You are over 30, so let me introduce you to getting older. When I'm really stressed, my eye twtiches. I have finger twitches occasionally.

Anxiety attacks are not really normal, but they aren't rare either. Being at risk doesn't help anxiety. When I hit my 40's, I started having chest pains on top of that.

Getting older sucks, just ask ERIC, he's way old.

You will drive yourself crazy symptom hunting anyway. If you go back in the archive, you would find multiple threads like this one, where an at risk person thought they were having symptoms. But once they tested, they were negative.

mrspippens,
I don't have HD and I know exactly what you are describing. It happens to be occcassionaly and occurs just before falling asleep. It really is a jolting experience.

Mrspippens.. same here.. i didn't even know i could move that fast anymore. In a quiet room, just as I fall asleep, if a bug flies into window the noise sounds like an explosion with a color flash..scares the crap out of me..

Eric, that reminds me of when I was a teen. If I was taking a nap and an airplane passed overhead, I woke with a jump, in terror that the Russians were attacking and WW III was beginning. This was early 70s after a childhood of learning to duck under desks in case of communist attack. Funny. If you are of the same generation (since you say you are so old --I'm 55) maybe the fly reminded you of Bay of Pigs danger or something. haha.

I must say that jerking and excess movements and hollering in his sleep was one of my phd's 1st really noticable symtoms. Below is an interesting article.

[www.nhlbi.nih.gov]

Fred, thanks for reminding me that I'm getting older!!! LoL!! yeah, I know lots of people have twitches, even dogs, I get it. Im just noticing every little thing right now. It will get better in time.

My husband is not at risk for hd and I am... my husband definitely has a lot more movement in his sleep than I do. When I am stressed I twitch a lot. I also notice that I do it a lot more around that "time of the month". When I am having big anxiety problems I will twitch so much that I wake myself up.

I agree with Eric, in the end it does not matter what is causing the issue- if it effecting the quality of your life, you should address the issue itself.

I have personally learned that symptom hunting is worthless. It has caused more "symptoms" than I can count. If you want to know if you have hd, you have to test. I have chosen not to.