Hi all, I’m trying to get a handle on some of my symptoms. Is it ataxia or something else, that’s my question.
What happens to you when you are overwhelmed by emotion, any emotion, saddness, anger, frustration? Do you have any physical reactions? Are they upon feeling the emotion? What parts of your body are physically effected by the emotion and can you describe it in detail, please. What do you do to control or minimize these reactions?
I do not want to prompt any responses. I will reveal my symptoms later.
My ears gain a high pitched ring and I grind my teeth sometimes biting my tongue..I need to sit alone and wait for the 'storm' to pass.
It's Ataxia.The notion that this is now your life forever, can be overwhelming..To overcome these feelings I attempt to play guitar,which is now difficult or play a Sudoku Puzzle which,surprise surprise I'm good at..My dreams sometimes have me walking around as normal !! This is perhaps wishful thinking...Best wishes to you Phoebe..We are not alone,so always post like I do when I get a bit down :-D
I try to color when I get overwhelmed. Coloring is hard for me now because it is hard to hold the pencil but one can get lost in coloring. They make adult coloring books like color me calm.
I also made a calm jar, where you shake it and the glitter swirls. I watch it until all the glitter settles and shake it until I am calm. I think a snow globe might have the same effect.
It is hard to pinpoint the physical reactions because the ataxia has gotten worse but I hope those work.
I have trouble handling the extreme ends (either) of emotion. Whether I am happy or sad, I come down in fits of giggling, then laughter. I even get tickled at myself getting tickled. I take 75 mg of Sertralene (Zoloft) a day. It doesn’t make it go away, but it’s more manageable. I’m not depressed, but I have this problem.
Just a note. Actually "ataxia" is a combination of symptoms; it is not a cause for the symptoms. In actual use people just use the term interchangeably. We are all somewhat different while also being the same. We are all trying to identify our particular cause. It is a mystery of sorts. Even so, there is no recognized cure. That being said, we all try and trade different treatments in some type of hope and support. There is a lot of info. out there, so keep looking. Glad to have you. As for me, I am without pain, but my balancxe is shaky. I generally use a cane, but I am ambulatory(others are not as fortunate). Still, I am given to falls and stumbles. I have double vision, but the medical professions will not specifically state that it is reloated. Concentration is poor. Memory continuome is decreased, especially on short term items. Speech is not slurred, but writing is less. I can get irritated very easily and finger dextery is greatly reduced. I do have a mutated gene,but not the ones normally associated with spinocerebellar ataxia. (there are some 28 different degrees within the sca group, (you can look that up also.) It would be important if you could get a diagnsis of which you have, if any.---Silky
As a 72-year old, it's not surprising that I have senior moments ... however, apart from my CA, I am in quite good health.
I personally feel that, as having any type of ataxia causes problem with the tracking of messages in the brain, we are bound to have mixed emotions and general confusion.
Even on home or familiar ground, I suddenly get an anxiety attack when my brain stops and often results in a fall.
We need to concentrate on each movement every waking second which is scary and tiring me thinks. x
From what I have read, what JoeG described is ataxia-induced emotional issues (like a misrouting), and it can be more disturbing to others than to us. I think most of us can relate to regular ol’ coping emotions of just dealing with a degenerative disease. I have anger issues whenever I’m stressed, which I like to deal with by exercising. Of course I can’t do that so well if I’m falling all over, so I get even angrier when my ataxia is bad.
I have had bad anger problems a half dozen times I guess and I usually destroy something like my walker or my pipe or whatever is near. So what I do now is if I am getting agitated I tell the other person to quit talking to me or I leave the room so I don't get angry. It seems like everything I destroyed was something favorite of mine that was handy. I get insulted or get my feelings hurt easily I think and it does not take much...Jerry
Like others with Ataxia, I find myself getting overwhelmed quite a bit. I have really bad depression. I get agitated very easily sometimes. After dealing with it for about 12 years, I am just starting to feel like myself again. Taking the right kind of antidepressant helps but talking to people also helps. It is still really difficult to think clearly sometimes. So another thing that I have found is it whenever I have really strong emotions, my muscles well just relax. For example, I cannot laugh if I am transferring or I will fall down. If I am laughing or sneezing my head will drop down. Even when I am crying it is really hard for me to move. I have found that just sitting still helps and sometimes even going to sleep. But as for overall help I have found working with my hands doing things such as crocheting, Knitting, And doing those loom band bracelets really help me and it help with my handwriting is well.
