I am indeed going to therapy (I've been a therapy regular since I was a teenager) and I've upped my therapy from every other week to weekly since all of this started. My psychiatrist recommended that I enroll in an intensive outpatient therapy program if I don't get a handle on this soon. Unfortunately, I wasn't particularly reassured by the EMG even though I know it is an important diagnostic tool and, due to my already not fitting into the typical demographics for ALS, a clear EMG would make ALS extra unlikely. It is so hard to disentangle anxiety/stress/insomnia/depression symptoms from physical conditions. Believe me, I know the stress will kill me!! I'm a lifelong overthinker and neurotic. I have convinced myself that the intermittent numbness I've been experiencing, mostly in my legs/feet (but also weirdly in my pinky finger - which I think probably originates because of poor posture/leaning on my elbow too much), is a sign of increased muscle weakness, but yesterday I forced myself to go outside and take several walks, and aside from fatigue and a ton of twitching, I didn't notice any increased muscle pain resulting from the exercise that would indicate loss of muscle. I think I've just got to keep doing activities that prove this wrong.

Another thing: I was also experiencing an extremely unpleasant tightness/gripping sensation in my ribcage/chest, most often at night when trying to sleep, and a thrumming/vibrating feeling under my skin. This, to me, was initially another sign that Something Terrible was going on, but now I'm thinking that it was probably just a panic or anxiety attack, especially since it has not happened to me for the past two days after I learned that there could be an explanation for my symptoms that isn't fatal (BFS). I agree with you that the anxiety has to be addressed and expelled in order to regain a realistic view of what's going on with one's body. It is astonishing that this can just happen to people without any identifiable cause, and without an underlying serious condition.

It is great to hear that your symptoms have almost entirely disappeared! Obviously, if I start feeling worse, I will reconnect with my neurologist (and I will update here), but in the meantime, I am going to focus on improving my mental health and overall quality of life. All of the obsessive researching I've been doing is sometimes detrimental and sometimes beneficial--one of the positive things I've learned is that apparently, it is pretty unusual for ALS patients to initially present with fasciculations as their initial complaint, and they often don't even notice them.

Thank you so much for your reply. It was helpful for sure. It is good to have somewhere to talk about this, because I am driving my family and friends bonkers.

Amen!! So true! As soon as I calm down from the stress of not having a deadly disease like ALS also MS I improved