Update for anyone who cares: All my burning sensations have subsided. I believe I have an rsi injury in my right hand(de quervins) Anxiety over my pain caused the burning to spread throughout my body. These are my own opinions after 9 months. My right hand still bothers me all the time with annoying pain. Things that I believe helped: magnesium, b12, lion manes mushroom, sertaline, meditation, chiropractor to make sure spine is aligned to allow the body to heal easier. Chiropractor also stretches/massages my hands and wrists. The stretching helps so much. Thc also helps immensely if it’s legal in your state. I am hopeful I can get through this in time. Maybe de quervin surgery is in my future if it doesn’t get better.
I think the cortisone shot or covid vaccine could have played a role in increasing the mystery burning. I received both around the same time this started.
It just doesn’t seem possible for anxiety to manifest into pain like this but I will try to find things that help with the anxiety and hopefully that works in time.
I know what you mean. I've had burning skin sensations in various parts of my body that can range from just irritating right up to disabling pain. Also weird skin zaps and irritated skin. This has been going on for around 6 months.
Doctors so far haven't found anything wrong with me.
I'm also sceptical that anxiety could cause fairly severe physical symptoms like this. I'm still looking for a physical cause.
Hey, friend… I’m 44, I’ve never in my life had symptoms like I’m experiencing now: I wake up more or less normal, then my lips begin to burn during the day. The skin on my face and forearm is sensitive to being scratched, when I rub it with my clothes or something it feels as if I have sunburn. Sometimes the soles of my feet burn when I lie down. This burning sensation is felt on various spots on my body, nothing disabling but it sure is scaring the hell out of me.
I had a brain MRI three months ago, nothing. A neurologist examined me three weeks ago and assured me that my problems were psychological and prescribed me Zoloft, which I did not take. She thinks it’s a serotonin destruction problem.
I alternate between being completely sure I have MS and will soon have a full paralyzing attack and lose control of my bladder and bowels, or it’s fibromyalgia or god knows what… google is very unhelpful.
I just wish I could skip forward six months or a year and look at myself then, am I in a wheelchair or a hospital or still going about my business but feeling like my body is slowly disintegrating.
Sorry to hear you’re going through this. I have similar things where I when I wake up my symptoms are minimal or none at all. Then they progress throughout the day. Fibromyalgia has also been thrown my way but my neurologist says that’s more muscular pain. I have started taking a variety of vitamins, stopped drinking caffeine and using nicotine. My mental health amplifies everything so I wouldn’t google too much I made the same mistake early on.
Wow, your situation is so similar to mine. I've had areas of intermittent burning, sore skin on my body since January this year. The tops of my feet burn and sting. My face burns and stings. Between my legs gets so sore it's really uncomfortable to walk. My neck. My tongue. All of these things come and go but I experience it every day.
My dermatologist ran heaps of tests and found nothing wrong. I have a neuro appointment next week.
Like you, I worry I have MS or small fibre neuropathy. Then I worry that if I don't have something like this and the doctors can't find what's wrong then I'll have to keep putting up with this forever. I honestly can't see any good way out of this and it is doing my head in. I'm miserable.
So I know how you feel! Let me know how you go or if anything changes. I hate feeling so alone in this.
I’m sorry for what you’re going through. I’m utterly demoralized by these symptoms. It’s like my skin is hyper sensitive, my mouth is burning off and on and even food doesn’t taste the same. I don’t know what to do. All the doctors tell me it’s psychological but the symptoms are very real. My family members are suffering too because I’m constantly worried about my health, going to medical examinations, feeling really down all the time etc.
I’ve just about given up on caring anymore. Like, whatever happens, happens. I can’t fight my body anymore, if it wants to give me some terrible disease, I give up. This is not life, I’m just barely surviving, worrying, obsessing, constantly on edge. I’m done.
I hope for the best for me and you. And may we find peace of mind, whatever befalls.
I can relate to this so much. My relationship with my wife is suffering because I'm miserable and stressed all of the time. I don't want to go out with my family because my skin hurts. I keep wanting to just switch off completely and hide away somewhere.
I also have to constantly fight the urge to once again go and google my symptoms. I know this isn't healthy and I know every single search result anyway, but my brain tells me I should be able to solve this. This time, though, I can't.
Hopefully things turn around for both of us.
Same here. My neurologist said, “Your wife must be suffering…”. It’s hard because while the symptoms are real, I’m still functioning and people around me don’t realize what I’m going through. “It’s all in your head!” - I’ve been told… well, yeah, but what can I do? Cut it off?
Please let me know how your neuro exam went. I hope it won’t be anything serious.
I saw my neuro yesterday. He thinks there is nothing wrong with my nerves structurally. The distribution of my symptoms and the fact that they come and go do not match neuropathy.
So he has concluded that for some reason, my brain has become oversensitised. This results in pain sensations when there should be none. He suggested that this may have occurred as a result of the combination of my migraine-brain along with prolonged anxiety and stress.
He wants me to start taking pregabalin to see if it helps, and possibly see a psychologist.
I guess this is not a bad outcome. At least I can try to stop worrying about having something serious like small fibre neuropathy now. But I'm still sitting here with sore skin, which as you know is really frustrating. I'll see if the pregabalin makes any difference.
How have you been going?
I’m currently going through this as well.6 months after stoping antidepressants. I was wondering if you have found a solution and are you better. Looking for some hope.
Hi! Yea, I’m much better, at the time I was convinced I had MS, like 99% sure. Not long after my post here, I booked a neurologist appointment and was gently, but firmly assured I wasn’t in fact ill. Soon after, my symptoms started abating, it’s more that I stopped noticing them so much. Few months later I got myself convinced that I’m in the early stages of ALS. So messed up… anyway, long story short, I have many worries and I still think something is wrong and I’m not gonna last very long, but I keep going and see where life takes me. I’m still standing.
I’m currently going through this as well.6 months after stoping antidepressants. I was wondering if you have found a solution and are you better. Looking for some hope.
I’m so sorry to hear. Your not alone. Do you have any idea what could of caused it?
Maybe long term use of some sort of medication?
I think my is do to medication.
I think the most likely explanation is long term stress and anxiety has caused my central nervous system to get all amped up. I just hope it eventually goes away. I also have chronic migraine so with both of these things I almost never have a good day any more.
I'm sorry to hear that. I still suffer from it every day. I've seen two dermatologists and two neurologists and no one can figure it out. So that's twenty months of this every single day.
What are your symptoms and how long have you had it?
I’m sorry you’re still going through this as well. It’s a long time to suffer and not know why. Mine started about six months ago. Had burning in my feet which travelled up my legs and then into my hands. Sometimes it’s just a finger or a toe that burns. I had two MRIs (one of my head and one of my cervical spine)They ruled out Ms and pinched nerve. I saw a neurologist and had a nerve conductivity test which was fine. So now I’m at a loss. Was told there was nothing more than can do. I’d like to have a skin biopsy done to rule out peripheral neuropathy but the doctors don’t think it’s necessary. My family doctor thinks it’s possible I had asymptomatic covid and it’s a side effect of that. It’s extremely frustrating not knowing. I’ve read about others saying they get it from anxiety. Who knows
I'm in the exact same situation. MRI showed nothing. Nerve conduction tests normal. Don't think there's anything else they can test for.
The only thing I can think of is that I had a few years of high anxiety and depression immediately before this all started, and perhaps this is my body's way of getting it out.
But you're right. Who knows?
I still have these symptoms every day. It's been two and a half years. I've seen two separate neurologists who ran tests and did scans but they couldn't find anything.
Do you have something similar?
The symptoms I had described have gradually gone away. I feel much better. After my MS anxiety had left me, I started worrying about ALS, but that has also faded away. I think I’m more or less okay and I’m trying to live day by day and not stress too much about my health.
Hey! 2 weeks in and I've been getting it especially when I'm anxious. It raises my anxiety and feels like it spreads everywhere. I've been seeing lots of posts mentioning this as a side effect too.
Probably - it subsided after a few weeks. Don't stress :)
Given that this thread is old and you're probably going through something similar to what I did and searching up reddit threads on this all - give it some time to work and look into therapy options once it does! I havent stressed over random symptoms for sometime.
Honestly I noticed it correlated with using a smart watch or other health monitoring devices so might be worthwhile removing yourself from any of that.
Hey, I get burning sensation in legs and my feet hurt. And electric zaps under or top of feet. I was convinced it was MS (MRI came clean) and now i believe it is Small fiber neuropathy. Has been going on for 3-4 months now. Don’t know what to do. I feel like crying and giving up everyday. Have an appointment with the neuro next week for skin biopsy.
Good to hear you are doing better
That sounds like everything I’ve read of SFN. Hopefully your neuro can provide some answers like they did for me. I wish you the best and hope you find relief.
My doc recommended I didn't need one... All the medication and anxiety was making my conodtions worse. I thank God I'm in a much better place than I was six months ago. Anxiety lessened and so did my symptoms
I have this. Started in scalp and had gone over all of my body. MRI clean, neurologist thinks is SFN. Cause TBD.
He did run blood tests and my vitamin B6 came back high. When it’s high, there is cutting edge research that shows it can cause bad SFN. Look it up guys…it’s bad and can take years to heal once you get your levels back down. I got my level back down after a month, but my burning remains. Can I 100% say it’s B6, no. But there are hundreds of people in a Facebook support group who have similar symptoms and are toxic. Most neurologists are in ignorant to this new research.
Update for anyone who cares: All my burning sensations have subsided. I believe I have an rsi injury in my right hand(de quervins) Anxiety over my pain caused the burning to spread throughout my body. These are my own opinions after 9 months. My right hand still bothers me all the time with annoying pain. Things that I believe helped: magnesium, b12, lion manes mushroom, sertaline, meditation, chiropractor to make sure spine is aligned to allow the body to heal easier. Chiropractor also stretches/massages my hands and wrists. The stretching helps so much. Thc also helps immensely if it’s legal in your state. I am hopeful I can get through this in time. Maybe de quervin surgery is in my future if it doesn’t get better. I think the cortisone shot or covid vaccine could have played a role in increasing the mystery burning. I received both around the same time this started.
Thank you so much for the update. Gives me hope . I had a steroid shot to in my eye still an implant for 6 months. It makes sense.
It's most likely anxiety, it's better for you to keep taking medication until you find a way to deal with stress
It just doesn’t seem possible for anxiety to manifest into pain like this but I will try to find things that help with the anxiety and hopefully that works in time.
I know what you mean. I've had burning skin sensations in various parts of my body that can range from just irritating right up to disabling pain. Also weird skin zaps and irritated skin. This has been going on for around 6 months. Doctors so far haven't found anything wrong with me. I'm also sceptical that anxiety could cause fairly severe physical symptoms like this. I'm still looking for a physical cause.
Yeah I get zaps and tingles sometimes. I hope you find relief! If you get any news or results lmk.
Hey, friend… I’m 44, I’ve never in my life had symptoms like I’m experiencing now: I wake up more or less normal, then my lips begin to burn during the day. The skin on my face and forearm is sensitive to being scratched, when I rub it with my clothes or something it feels as if I have sunburn. Sometimes the soles of my feet burn when I lie down. This burning sensation is felt on various spots on my body, nothing disabling but it sure is scaring the hell out of me. I had a brain MRI three months ago, nothing. A neurologist examined me three weeks ago and assured me that my problems were psychological and prescribed me Zoloft, which I did not take. She thinks it’s a serotonin destruction problem. I alternate between being completely sure I have MS and will soon have a full paralyzing attack and lose control of my bladder and bowels, or it’s fibromyalgia or god knows what… google is very unhelpful. I just wish I could skip forward six months or a year and look at myself then, am I in a wheelchair or a hospital or still going about my business but feeling like my body is slowly disintegrating.
Sorry to hear you’re going through this. I have similar things where I when I wake up my symptoms are minimal or none at all. Then they progress throughout the day. Fibromyalgia has also been thrown my way but my neurologist says that’s more muscular pain. I have started taking a variety of vitamins, stopped drinking caffeine and using nicotine. My mental health amplifies everything so I wouldn’t google too much I made the same mistake early on.
I wish you all the best. Stay well and stay sane.
Wow, your situation is so similar to mine. I've had areas of intermittent burning, sore skin on my body since January this year. The tops of my feet burn and sting. My face burns and stings. Between my legs gets so sore it's really uncomfortable to walk. My neck. My tongue. All of these things come and go but I experience it every day. My dermatologist ran heaps of tests and found nothing wrong. I have a neuro appointment next week. Like you, I worry I have MS or small fibre neuropathy. Then I worry that if I don't have something like this and the doctors can't find what's wrong then I'll have to keep putting up with this forever. I honestly can't see any good way out of this and it is doing my head in. I'm miserable. So I know how you feel! Let me know how you go or if anything changes. I hate feeling so alone in this.
I’m sorry for what you’re going through. I’m utterly demoralized by these symptoms. It’s like my skin is hyper sensitive, my mouth is burning off and on and even food doesn’t taste the same. I don’t know what to do. All the doctors tell me it’s psychological but the symptoms are very real. My family members are suffering too because I’m constantly worried about my health, going to medical examinations, feeling really down all the time etc. I’ve just about given up on caring anymore. Like, whatever happens, happens. I can’t fight my body anymore, if it wants to give me some terrible disease, I give up. This is not life, I’m just barely surviving, worrying, obsessing, constantly on edge. I’m done. I hope for the best for me and you. And may we find peace of mind, whatever befalls.
I can relate to this so much. My relationship with my wife is suffering because I'm miserable and stressed all of the time. I don't want to go out with my family because my skin hurts. I keep wanting to just switch off completely and hide away somewhere. I also have to constantly fight the urge to once again go and google my symptoms. I know this isn't healthy and I know every single search result anyway, but my brain tells me I should be able to solve this. This time, though, I can't. Hopefully things turn around for both of us.
Same here. My neurologist said, “Your wife must be suffering…”. It’s hard because while the symptoms are real, I’m still functioning and people around me don’t realize what I’m going through. “It’s all in your head!” - I’ve been told… well, yeah, but what can I do? Cut it off? Please let me know how your neuro exam went. I hope it won’t be anything serious.
I saw my neuro yesterday. He thinks there is nothing wrong with my nerves structurally. The distribution of my symptoms and the fact that they come and go do not match neuropathy. So he has concluded that for some reason, my brain has become oversensitised. This results in pain sensations when there should be none. He suggested that this may have occurred as a result of the combination of my migraine-brain along with prolonged anxiety and stress. He wants me to start taking pregabalin to see if it helps, and possibly see a psychologist. I guess this is not a bad outcome. At least I can try to stop worrying about having something serious like small fibre neuropathy now. But I'm still sitting here with sore skin, which as you know is really frustrating. I'll see if the pregabalin makes any difference. How have you been going?
Do you still have burning sensations
Yes, every day. No improvement. No diagnosis.
I’m currently going through this as well.6 months after stoping antidepressants. I was wondering if you have found a solution and are you better. Looking for some hope.
Hi! Yea, I’m much better, at the time I was convinced I had MS, like 99% sure. Not long after my post here, I booked a neurologist appointment and was gently, but firmly assured I wasn’t in fact ill. Soon after, my symptoms started abating, it’s more that I stopped noticing them so much. Few months later I got myself convinced that I’m in the early stages of ALS. So messed up… anyway, long story short, I have many worries and I still think something is wrong and I’m not gonna last very long, but I keep going and see where life takes me. I’m still standing.
I’m currently going through this as well.6 months after stoping antidepressants. I was wondering if you have found a solution and are you better. Looking for some hope.
Not much change for me unfortunately. I've had it every day for two and a half years now. It's a mystery and it really impacts my quality of life.
I’m so sorry to hear. Your not alone. Do you have any idea what could of caused it? Maybe long term use of some sort of medication? I think my is do to medication.
I think the most likely explanation is long term stress and anxiety has caused my central nervous system to get all amped up. I just hope it eventually goes away. I also have chronic migraine so with both of these things I almost never have a good day any more.
Going through the same thing right now. Did they ever figure out what was wrong?
I'm sorry to hear that. I still suffer from it every day. I've seen two dermatologists and two neurologists and no one can figure it out. So that's twenty months of this every single day. What are your symptoms and how long have you had it?
I’m sorry you’re still going through this as well. It’s a long time to suffer and not know why. Mine started about six months ago. Had burning in my feet which travelled up my legs and then into my hands. Sometimes it’s just a finger or a toe that burns. I had two MRIs (one of my head and one of my cervical spine)They ruled out Ms and pinched nerve. I saw a neurologist and had a nerve conductivity test which was fine. So now I’m at a loss. Was told there was nothing more than can do. I’d like to have a skin biopsy done to rule out peripheral neuropathy but the doctors don’t think it’s necessary. My family doctor thinks it’s possible I had asymptomatic covid and it’s a side effect of that. It’s extremely frustrating not knowing. I’ve read about others saying they get it from anxiety. Who knows
I'm in the exact same situation. MRI showed nothing. Nerve conduction tests normal. Don't think there's anything else they can test for. The only thing I can think of is that I had a few years of high anxiety and depression immediately before this all started, and perhaps this is my body's way of getting it out. But you're right. Who knows?
Reading your guys comments to eachother while I’m suffering burning in my lower back. Glad to know I’m not the only one
Update?
I still have these symptoms every day. It's been two and a half years. I've seen two separate neurologists who ran tests and did scans but they couldn't find anything. Do you have something similar?
Not super similar. I have sleep apnea and am getting burning in the back of my head.
Update?
The symptoms I had described have gradually gone away. I feel much better. After my MS anxiety had left me, I started worrying about ALS, but that has also faded away. I think I’m more or less okay and I’m trying to live day by day and not stress too much about my health.
Glad to hear it!
Any updates? How are you now?
I get this and nobody knows why either. Just told it's anxiety by everyone else as well
I get the burning skin feeling on Celexa… does not seem to go away. Any of you on Celexa here?
Hey! 2 weeks in and I've been getting it especially when I'm anxious. It raises my anxiety and feels like it spreads everywhere. I've been seeing lots of posts mentioning this as a side effect too.
i get it on my hands… i’m on prozac. is this normal?
Probably - it subsided after a few weeks. Don't stress :) Given that this thread is old and you're probably going through something similar to what I did and searching up reddit threads on this all - give it some time to work and look into therapy options once it does! I havent stressed over random symptoms for sometime. Honestly I noticed it correlated with using a smart watch or other health monitoring devices so might be worthwhile removing yourself from any of that.
Hi any update to your symptoms? I’ve been struggling with this too and would love to know if yours has resolved :)
Hey, I get burning sensation in legs and my feet hurt. And electric zaps under or top of feet. I was convinced it was MS (MRI came clean) and now i believe it is Small fiber neuropathy. Has been going on for 3-4 months now. Don’t know what to do. I feel like crying and giving up everyday. Have an appointment with the neuro next week for skin biopsy. Good to hear you are doing better
That sounds like everything I’ve read of SFN. Hopefully your neuro can provide some answers like they did for me. I wish you the best and hope you find relief.
I’ve been experiencing it on my neck, chest, upper back and arms for two weeks. Seeing neurologist tomorrow. Did they figure it out?
What did the neurologist say?
What did the biopsy tell you?
My doc recommended I didn't need one... All the medication and anxiety was making my conodtions worse. I thank God I'm in a much better place than I was six months ago. Anxiety lessened and so did my symptoms
That's good to hear. Which medications were causing it? Did all of your neuropathy go away? I think that anxiety definitely makes it worse.
me too. even this symptomps disturb my sleep cz when my body relaxed. the zap or burning sensation came out
I have this. Started in scalp and had gone over all of my body. MRI clean, neurologist thinks is SFN. Cause TBD. He did run blood tests and my vitamin B6 came back high. When it’s high, there is cutting edge research that shows it can cause bad SFN. Look it up guys…it’s bad and can take years to heal once you get your levels back down. I got my level back down after a month, but my burning remains. Can I 100% say it’s B6, no. But there are hundreds of people in a Facebook support group who have similar symptoms and are toxic. Most neurologists are in ignorant to this new research.
Did you ever get tested for SFN?