Hi,
Sorry I am late getting to this.
I had 100% body wide on. Burning and prickling. I had some degree of dysautonomia too. Testing was always normal and I was discouraged that they would never find the cause. I was having daily panic attacks and was very very discouraged. There would be days I would wake up and not want to live anymore and that's the truth! It went on like this for 3 solid years getting worse and worse and it included global twitching and muscle cramping. Then it started to go away and before I realised it I was like 75% better. I started living my life again and I didn't think that was even possible. Over the last 11 years I have had a few more exacerbations of PN caused by antibiotics and also hurting my neck in a whiplash accident. All of which lasted 8-12 months and then abated to near normal again. Most recently sugar is aggravating it a lot and I am having pain in my hands and feet. I went for blood work and passed all my tests with flying colours. My glucose monitor always shows perfect numbers, so I just chalked it down to my own body chemistry changing again (after all I am 11 years older)in such a way as to be causing my nerves to be irritated by carbs and sugar though I am not even technically pre-diabetic.

I can tell you fear drove this monster and made everything worse. It's bad enough to have PN but developing anxiety, panic attacks, and depression are clear signs that the coping strategies one is using to manage this illness are not working. The one thing I had to learn to do was to make a diary of all my daily blessings and keep on reminding myself things could be worse. If you have $200 or $2000 or $20000 you wouldn't know which one was worse unless you compared it to What you thought was the better sum. So in essence don't compare yourself to 100% painfree people. That will surely get you down. I know it's hard but that's what I do. I forgave myself for not being perfect anymore and I explained to loved ones what I had. Admitting to it was a big burden lifted. Trying to pretend I was 100% normal was exhausting!! I took a class over the weekend with a young woman who had a double mastectomy and her uterus removed due to cancer. She had lost her hair and all she talked about was how not having hair affected her life. Her even younger sister had already passed away from ovarian cancer. In the same class was a lady with agressive MS. Then there was me and after hearing their stories it put things back into perspective for me. I stopped comparing myself to normal people long time ago or what I perceived as normal. That's when I started coping better and my anxiety and panic attacks started getting better. that's what I mean about living in ones head and to a great degree creating your own reality. Your reality is the sum of your thoughts & emotions. Though we have this disease or illness we don't have to live in fear and dread. Take care matey.