Restless Legs Syndrome

Post Reply New Topic

I suffer from RLS, and have had it for as long as I can remember. Sometimes it's just a slight tingling in my legs, and sometimes it's a needle-like prickling pain flowing throughout my legs and arms and torso. It sometimes prevents me from falling asleep, and it makes it very uncomfortable for me to even lounge on the couch while watching television! Pacing or jumping usually relieves the symptoms, but the RLS resumes as soon as I return to a resting or lounging position.

My mom doesn't believe me when I describe these symptoms, however, because she herself claims to never have it. (Same reason why she denies I have AS, even though I have been diagnosed! )

Does anyone else here suffer from RLS, and how bad is it?

I can relate to how you feel. I get the pin prick feelings too. Also people doubt I am aspie even with diagnosis and claim that they are such know it alls based on what the television told them autism was

I thought I had mild RLS, but then I read about Aspergers and found that moving the legs around is a common stim.

I don't get the "pin prick" feeling or anything like that.

I'm 99% sure I have RLS, but, I don't experience it the same way I've heard it described. I don't get prickly feelings or any kind of similar feeling, it's a feeling I can't even really describe. It's a bit like when your arm "falls alseep", you know the bit just before you get the pins and needles, you know, the heavy, stretching feeling and then as soon as you move, you get a wave of pins and needles? Well, I get the stretchy feeling, but not pins and needles. That's really the only way I can describe it and it doesn't really explain it well.

I've also had it since I can remember. It's such a horrible feeling, and when it happens at night, I do find it very difficult to fall alseep. Moving helps for about 1 second, but as soon as the movement stops, it's back again. Keeping my legs in constant motion doesn't help either, as the feeling eventually "adjusts" to the movement, so to speak, and I feel it again. Stretching my legs helps a little, but I've yet to find anything that works to stop it, except for just letting it die out itself naturally and trying to take my mind off it.

I have this occasionally - most commonly though when I have taken certain medications - antipsychotics or antidepressants, and it has normally been quite a temporary side effect. Can be very unpleasant though, particularly when trying to get to sleep.

Yes, same here. Thankfully it is not constant for me but i have yet to discover my pattern for it and what may bring it on. It is a torturous feeling, especially when you are lying down in need of sleep. If you are also an insomniac, and only hit the pillow when you finally know sleep will overtake your brain, it is double torture. This has literally had me whining like a puppy at times!

I hope you can get some help for it.

Wow, I didn't imagine I would see this topic. I've suffered from it all my life. On the nights it starts, it doesn't let up until sometime the next morning after I sleep. It seems to get worse as I get older. It will start usually in one of my shins and then move up and down that leg before going through my lower back and then into the other leg. It's this annoying sort of pain, kinda hard to describe. But no matter how I sit or lie down when this is happening, I cannot get comfortable.

I have had something kind of similar to what you're describing...it's only happened a few times in my life...once not too long ago, and another time after I got out of the hospital (lasted for a few days)...I figured it was some sort of anxiety attack, because it was mixed with this yearning to just...go somewhere...anywhere that wasn't here. Not exactly sure how to describe it. Might've been related to disuse of my legs while in the hospital.

My legs just felt...Idunno...weird...so I would hop on the exercise bike and just pedal until I got tired.

I get it sometimes. Actually, GSK makes a drug to fight this, if you're interested.

Would your mother be open to you being evaluated by a sleep specialist or neurologist (or a suitable specialist that your family doctor may suggest) in this respect? Even if she doesn't believe you, if its enough to disrupt your life, it should be investigated. Sometimes mothers don't believe teenage complaints because they feel a certain amount of aches and pains are a natural part of growing up (and even if she is in denial about the AS, in the back of her mind she may even be thinking that it is a part of the diagnosis - denial is a funny thing...) but if a relieving feature for you is getting up and moving around, your body is trying to tell you something - what that message is, the doctor could hopefully interpret - you might have to seek out a medical opinion on your own (write the symptoms down, I know when I walk in to talk to the doctor sometimes the symptoms fly out of my head unless it is obvious what is wrong). Hopefully your mom will help out with this, though, even if she thinks she is proving you wrong...

I get those pin prick feelings all the time. I thought it was normal. The only times that the pain was truly unendurable was when I would wake up with numb limbs, but I attributed that mostly to the cold.

Yes, same, but I didn't read about it being a common still. Mine has the couch thing too from the original poster - sometimes it starts in bed, but mostly it's if I try to lounge.