Twitching?

[2aspirin]

I have this odd thing where when I'm trying to get to sleep, my entire body twitches exactly once. It happens about once a month. I can't remember when it started but I think it was in the early 2000s. Caused by medication, possibly?

That may be this phenomenon: Hypnic jerk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Arkanu of Galatiel]

Is there anyone here who has BFS? I'm wondering because I:

*Have random twitches all over my body. I normally can't feel them, but they get worse after exercise and anxiety, and also they manifest as facial tics. There's no apparent clinical weakness or atrophy, which is good, I guess. Recently, I've been having an unusual twitch in my right bicep that intensified after I did some yardwork, and my legs had intense twitching (it seems to be gone now).

*Random "crawling" or "tingling" sensations in areas that are twitching, and my legs get the pins-and-needles sensation...while twitching. It gets more pronounced after exercise.

*Swallowing feels "off", and I have the sensation of a lump in my throat.

*random jerks and movements in my arms and legs.

*fatigue, fatigue, fatigue!

I take citalopram and wellbutrin (for anxiety and depression, and the citalopram was a trial I took as a kid to see if it could treat autism or some of its symptoms). I also "fail" to drink plenty of water, eat regularly, sleep regularly, and I drink at least one medium-large sized mug/cup of coffee.

Are these normal for autism, and if so, has this ever happened to anyone else?

 

[tlc]

Sometimes when my muscles twitch really bad I strain a muscle and it hurts for a few days. For a visual idea: imagine your calf muscle instead of bulging outwards, suddenly caving in and forming a "dent" in your lower leg. The immediate pain sensation often makes it feel like the muscle is going to snap my bone. I just have to get up somehow and put my foot flat on the floor, since even my foot arches because of the muscle. Its not just my legs. Sometimes I have this in my muscles in my lower jaw as well... That's how you make funny faces, lol

Are these normal for autism, and if so, has this ever happened to anyone else?

I get this often, more as I get older. Usually means I need to ram more water down. Even when I'm not thirsty. Any drinks with aspartame seem to actually make it worse, despite the ridiculous amount of water that they're made with. I learned it was a water thing after it immediately following bouts of IBS, and after I started drinking a lot of Diet Coke because the gas station was running a special. And I've always had it in my jaw, often get a cramp when I yawn, then I have to hold it for about 10 seconds and wait for it to start pulsing before it eases off. Sometimes my brain says thinks my jaw is open when it's not, it's a weird sensation.

I have this odd thing where when I'm trying to get to sleep, my entire body twitches exactly once. It happens about once a month. I can't remember when it started but I think it was in the early 2000s. Caused by medication, possibly?

I've had this since I was a kid, happens maybe once a month too. No telling what could cause it, but my body jumps once, similar to how the TV shows shock a heart patient back to life. The jaw open thing also often accompanies this. I also don't sleep very hard and can hear everything going on around me. I can hear the circuit in my alarm clock switching right before it goes off, and will be ready to shut it off instantly.

Other than that, yes I twitch a lot. More often, I can't sit still. Feels like my skin is always crawling. Literally every 2-3 seconds, I'm scratching an itch, adjusting clothes or glasses or hair, or myself in my seat. I probably look ridiculous. I know how I looked when my dad recorded me playing on stage, often twitching as I adjusted the bass strap over and over. Not even really adjusting it (or the glasses), it's more of like breaking the surface tension then reseating it. Kinda like people would say if you keep your face that way it'll stay that way, or like images getting burned into CRT TVs.

 

[pjcnet]

When I saw the headline I first thought you were talking about Twitch streaming lol!

Occasionally I can be sitting and my entire body will very suddenly go into a kind of spasm, I will literally jolt as if I've just been electrocuted where my arms and/or legs can also suddenly fly out and I have absolutely no control over this in any way what-so-ever, luckily it only happens about once a month and it doesn't appear to have increased in occurrence over the years. This is however totally different to a nervous twitch which I believe many people on the autistic spectrum can do more often than NTs and it maybe sometimes related to stimming. I don't often twitch, but I do fidget and I also stim sometimes. Swaying back and forth, and pacing is common for myself. I am also told that I often have unusual facial expressions where I am apparently screwing my face up, people can ask me what the matter is when there's nothing wrong and I don't realise I'm even doing it, it's not really a twitch, but it maybe still worth mentioning.

I'm not sure whether it has any relevance to the original thread or not, but I would also like to mention that I was diagnosed as having spasticity in my back as a very young child in the early 1970s when they believed I was full blown lower functioning autistic because I was extremely slow developing speech (this was the only autism that was properly recognised back then). Apparently these type of co-morbid conditions are more common with autistic people. I have only ever been able to get as close as my knees if I attempt to touch my toes even when I was a child and I was told that it could cause back problems in later life, which it is, although I'm having absolutely zero medical treatment for it as all doctors in the UK have so far completely ignored me and fobbed me off repeatedly with no tests or examinations what-so-ever, especially since for some reason my original paper medical records of the diagnosis were never transferred to computer and no-one seems to want to bother looking for them. In fact my back has become so much of an issue that I can no longer lie down because of pain that comes on after a few minutes and have to sleep in a chair which is obviously very bad for me, especially since I have various other medical conditions including sleep apnea. I mentioned it in case any similar co-morbid conditions have caused anyone to twitch, even though this particular condition doesn't cause twitching for myself.

 

[Arkanu of Galatiel]

I get this often, more as I get older. Usually means I need to ram more water down. Even when I'm not thirsty. Any drinks with aspartame seem to actually make it worse, despite the ridiculous amount of water that they're made with. I learned it was a water thing after it immediately following bouts of IBS, and after I started drinking a lot of Diet Coke because the gas station was running a special. And I've always had it in my jaw, often get a cramp when I yawn, then I have to hold it for about 10 seconds and wait for it to start pulsing before it eases off. Sometimes my brain says thinks my jaw is open when it's not, it's a weird sensation.



I've had this since I was a kid, happens maybe once a month too. No telling what could cause it, but my body jumps once, similar to how the TV shows shock a heart patient back to life. The jaw open thing also often accompanies this. I also don't sleep very hard and can hear everything going on around me. I can hear the circuit in my alarm clock switching right before it goes off, and will be ready to shut it off instantly.

Other than that, yes I twitch a lot. More often, I can't sit still. Feels like my skin is always crawling. Literally every 2-3 seconds, I'm scratching an itch, adjusting clothes or glasses or hair, or myself in my seat. I probably look ridiculous. I know how I looked when my dad recorded me playing on stage, often twitching as I adjusted the bass strap over and over. Not even really adjusting it (or the glasses), it's more of like breaking the surface tension then reseating it. Kinda like people would say if you keep your face that way it'll stay that way, or like images getting burned into CRT TVs.

It does get better when I drink water, so it sounds like I'm either dehydrated or have a deficiency/imbalance of minerals and electrolytes. I was quite surprised to learn how a vast majority of deficiencies have neurological symptoms, and blood work revealed I had a severe vitamin D2 deficiency.

 

[pjcnet]

I find this very interesting! I do take antidepressants but never new that it could affect me in that way. Come to think of it, the twitching has increased sort of in sync with the upped doses.

Antidepressants are barely ever a good thing, best to gradually come off them, you can't come off them suddenly because they're psychologically and often also physically addictive despite any wording that states that they're not habit forming which are blatant lies. When I was on an antidepressant I used to wake up punching out in my sleep after having violent nightmares and it adversely effected me in a dangerous manner, they're now banned in some countries after someone got acquitted for killing his family while under their influence which I can understand being on them myself, but many antidepressants and antipsychotics cause adverse effects to varying degrees and only sometimes help in the short term where you often pay for it with interest later, remember even illegal narcotics can help you feel better in the short term and some used to be prescribed in the past too. They're a "quick fix" when there's not enough resources to give people proper treatment and the very powerful and also evil pharmaceutical companies who obviously know the adverse effects are the only true winners.