by Jghallis on January 13th, 2015, 2:24 am
I still twitch as much today as when it started back in August. I agree that there is definitely a link between twitchers and intelligence. I think that is due to the analytical nature of high Intel people. And being an analytical person often leads to being over analytical which often leads to stress and anxiety.
I'm convinced that BFS, in most cases, is caused by anxiety. I think people too often dismiss this but when you understand the physiological mechanisms that anxiety set in motion then it becomes clear that the are linked. As has been documented on this site in other posts, when we experience anxiety, stress, or fear, our brain signals for the release of adrenalin. This is part of the fight or flight mechanism. As we have evolved, we have developed the ability to escape danger by either fighting our way out of it, or quickly escaping it. The thing that allows us to go from completely normal to all out Rambo mode is adrenalin. Adrenalin is a good thing that helps us deal with dangerous situations but it can also do a lot of harm to our bodies if we live in a constant state of abnormally high adrenal levels. When we are overcome with stress or anxiety, our body releases adrenalin. Our body is constantly in fight or flight. Because of this, our muscles are constantly getting signals from our brain to wake up, move, jump, run, escape, punch, kick, fight, etc. However, our mind overrides these signals because rationally we know we aren't in imminent danger. As a result, instead of our muscles totally responding to fight or flight and springing into full action, they just........twitch. Especially the calves. Twitch twitch twitch. They just twitch. It's like flipping the switch to your garbage disposal and just hearing it ***hum***because something is stuck in the impeller and preventing it from turning. Adrenalin is the switch, the impeller trying to rotate is the fight or flight response, the object that is stuck that is preventing the impellor from turn is our rational override, and the hum- guess what that is? That is the twitch that is caused by the whole process. Garbage disposals hum but don't turn and human being twitch but don't fight or flight. And overtime, the high levels of adrenalin caused by stress erode the seratonin levels in our brains which leads to depression, more stress, and more anxiety which causes more twitching. Sometimes we are able to calm ourselves down long enough for our adrenalin levels to subside and our seratonin levels to rise back up. This can take weeks or months to occur. Sometimes years. It doesn't happen overnight. But once it does, we will begin to notice that the twitches start to become less noticeable, and then sometimes they stop! But guess what? As soon as we get over anxious again, or really stressed out, here comes the adrenalin, the cortisol, and the twitches are back.
I hope this helps someone. It has helped me.