Changes in sensations such as numbness, pins and needles and tingling are common MS symptoms, related to damage to nerve covering in certain areas. These sensations can occur anywhere on the body such as the arms, legs and face.
MS: Strangest Symptoms From Head to Toe
Extreme fatigue, clumsiness, weird prickly sensations, sluggish thinking, wonky vision -- these are classic and common first symptoms of multiple sclerosis, or MS.
Contents. You may have to adapt your daily life if you're diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), but with the right care and support many people can lead long, active and healthy lives.
Some MS symptoms that can worsen your balance include muscle stiffness (spasticity and spasms), muscle weakness, numbness or altered sensations in parts of your body, tremor, pain, visual problems and fatigue. Not all balance problems are MS related.
In fact, it's estimated that more than half of people living with MS will develop cognitive issues. People may experience such things as forgetfulness, trouble concentrating, and confusion. Brain fog is also referred to as “brain haze” or “cog fog” — short for cognitive fog.
While spacing out can simply be a sign that you are sleep deprived, stressed, or distracted, it can also be due to a transient ischemic attack, seizure, hypotension, hypoglycemia, migraine, transient global amnesia, fatigue, narcolepsy, or drug misuse.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the central nervous system that can affect the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves. Common symptoms include fatigue, bladder and bowel problems, sexual problems, pain, cognitive and mood changes such as depression, muscular changes and visual changes.
These include fibromyalgia and vitamin B12 deficiency, muscular dystrophy (MD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), migraine, hypo-thyroidism, hypertension, Beçhets, Arnold-Chiari deformity, and mitochondrial disorders, although your neurologist can usually rule them out quite easily.
Disease Course of MS Is Unpredictable
A person with benign MS will have few symptoms or loss of ability after having MS for about 15 years, while most people with MS would be expected to have some degree of disability after that amount of time, particularly if their MS went untreated.
How long can MS go undiagnosed? MS is usually diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, but it can go undetected for years. In fact, a 2021 study suggested that many people with MS experience disease symptoms several years before being officially diagnosed with the disease.
Possible triggers include infections and stress, but there may also be no noticeable trigger. Anyone who notices a worsening of symptoms or that new symptoms appear should contact a doctor in case they need additional treatment or monitoring.
Multiple Sclerosis: It's in Your Head
Brain lesions are a hallmark of MS, but they're not the only way MS can affect your brain function. MS can also contribute to brain atrophy, or shrinkage, over time — a process that occurs in all people as they age, but typically happens much more quickly in people with MS.
Here's where MS (typically) starts
You may experience eye pain, blurred vision and headache. It often occurs on one side and can eventually lead to partial or total vision loss.
Early MS symptoms may include blurred vision, numbness, dizziness, muscle weakness, and coordination issues. MS is progressive and can worsen over time. Eventually, the disease can do damage directly to the nerves, causing permanent disability.
Some people are told they have benign MS. The term benign MS is sometimes used to describe a version of relapsing remitting MS with very mild or no attacks separated by long periods with no symptoms. 'Benign' means 'something doesn't cause any harm'.
Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is a rare chronic disease that happens when your immune system attacks specific parts of your central nervous system. Experts previously thought this was a rare type of multiple sclerosis (MS) but now recognize it's a separate condition.
Sarcoidosis
Sarcoidosis is another inflammatory autoimmune disease that shares some symptoms with MS, including fatigue and decreased vision.
Sjogren's syndrome is an autoimmune disease that can mimic some of the symptoms of MS such as fatigue and joint pain. However, Sjogren's syndrome is known to cause dry mouth and eyes, which are not associated with MS.
While there are no definitive blood tests for diagnosing MS, they can rule out other conditions that may mimic MS symptoms, including Lyme disease, collagen-vascular diseases, rare hereditary disorders, and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).
Depersonalization symptoms
Symptoms of depersonalization include: Feelings that you're an outside observer of your thoughts, feelings, your body or parts of your body — for example, as if you were floating in air above yourself. Feeling like a robot or that you're not in control of your speech or movements.
This thought may surface in times of heightened stress, but it can also be a manifestation of a mental health condition, such as anxiety,1 panic disorder,2 or depersonalization. 3 Sometimes the thought itself can induce even more stress or anxiety. Feeling as though you are losing your mind is a very scary idea!