Hello Neurotalk members,

I just ran across some information that makes me feel very confused about what might be going on with me neurologically, and I hope people here who have more experience could maybe help. This is a little long, but if you have the time I'd appreciate it!

When I am very relaxed (or sometimes just randomly, but that is rare), my arms and hands will involuntarily move. This has been going on for about 8 years, and I have previously just ignored it. I can stop it by moving voluntarily again. It was sort of disturbing at first, but since it's not particularly invasive, I haven't tried to figure out what might be causing it. I've also experienced my hands doing things when I'm focused on something else, such as picking up objects, and then I have no idea where I got the objects or when (this is also very rare, happening maybe twice in the past three years).

Today the involuntary movement happened when I wasn't relaxed but already moving, and that freaked me out. I decided to research on the internet about what might cause involuntary movements, and found out about "dyskinesias" and in particular the movements I experience look most similar to dystonia movements.

As I read further about dyskinesias, I found that tics were also considered one of these, and were also associated with obsessive compulsive disorder and schizophrenia in being disorders centered on basal ganglia structure of the brain. I also read that dopamine was the primary neurotransmitter associated with the function of the basal ganglia.

My issue with this is that I was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive disorder in 1996 when I was 11 years old (I believe this diagnosis was over-reaching because while I did have some OCD tendencies, my behavior issues were largely due to family problems and could have been corrected with proper counseling). I was put on dopamine reuptake inhibitors. When I was 14 I was still on them, and I began to have symptoms of overdose. This included tremors, eye-twitching, hallucinations, delusions and paranoia similar to schizophrenia.

This is also when the involuntary movements started. When I was finally taken off the drugs at 15 (against doctors orders...) my behavior became normal and the tremors stopped. The eye-twitching tic stayed for another year or so, and then finally subsided. I just realized that the only thing that hasn't left is the involuntary dystonia-like movements when I relax... and perhaps those movements weren't a coincidence but a result of the drugs; the result of some modification to the basal ganglia or similar.

I'm not sure who to talk to about this. I am angry about what happened already. I'm afraid that as I grow older this might become worse, after today, when the movements started when I was active. Is there any precedent for this that anyone has heard of? Should I go in for a neurological exam or just continue to ignore it? Is it possible there isn't a connection at all, and this is normal?

Thanks for reading,
Bri