What is normal?

[cefitz]

Hi there. This is my first post.

I thought it would be better to come here than keep googling everything...that only makes things worse.

I have been suffering from anxiety for the last 2 months, and in particular health anxiety. The thing that I feared had me kept changing over time, but after most of my anxiety symptoms disappeared, one remained - tremoring hands. The specifics of the tremors keep changing too. At first both hands shook, now the left one seems to shake a bit more than the right and my little finger and thumb in particular seem to be the worst digits.

When I complain to friends, sometimes they tell me they can hardly even notice the tremors and that I am worrying about nothing. The tremors are particularly noticeable when my hands are in certain postures (e.g. I seem to cock my left hand and rest on one finger when I'm not typing with it - I don't know why - but this makes that hand shake more noticeably). That makes logical sense since it is under unusual stress.

This is my problem - I have lost all sense of what is normal. I am sure my hands and fingers were never rock steady, but clearly they didn't shake enough for me to notice or care. Now that I keep analysing my hands and fingers I am sure if they went back to normal it would still seem like they were tremoring. I know everyone has a physiological tremor and that anxiety can produce an enhanced physiological tremor (which is not essential tremor or parkinson's), I just can no longer relate to what that looks like.

I wonder if someone who doesn't have tremors at the moment can share how much shaking and movement is normal in various postures so I don't go insane.

BTW - I have a neuro appointment in a couple of weeks, so please, I don't need any encouragement to get this checked out, I am just hoping for some helpful advice in the mean time.

[Evap]

I'm a 21 year old male and I'd probably be worried if my fingers stayed completely still. :p I've always had a mild "tremor" in my fingers as far back as I can remember.

[tiggs01]

It def sounds like Anxiety to me.
I've been dealing with Anxiety for the past 8 months, and let me tell you, it can manifest in the strangest ways.
I've had every symptom in the book, and it's all turned out to be nothing.
When I'm having a "bad" day, I'll notice my hands, usually my left hand, shaking a bit more than normal.
Of course, anxiety makes you super aware of things you may not have noticed before either.
Keep your appointment, but in the mean time, call it anxiety and tell yourself there is nothing to worry about.

[cefitz]

Thanks guys.

I found it disconcerting that on this forum website where it has a section on "symptoms of anxiety" and tremors it talks about the worst kind of tremors and doesn't mention how regularly people with anxiety have them or how everyone has some kind of natural tremor which can be exacerbated under stress.

I got particularly freaked out when it was strongest in a specific finger (little finger and thumb) since this started to feel more sinister than just a general shaking.