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luna_llena_feliz

Formication ... anyone experience it?

luna_llena_feliz
14 years ago

Ok, I know what you are thinking ... you didn't read it correctly. Go on, read it slowly F-O-R-M-I-C-A-T-I-O-N. No, it's not that naughty deed the Bible warns you against! It is a medical term for the sensation that you have bugs crawling on you.

I thought I was going nuts. I often feel like I have a bug crawling on me. Sometimes it's my scalp, sometimes my face, other times my arms or my legs. It feels exactly like a small bug like an ant is crawling around on me. I get a bit freaked out when I feel it on my head. I will scratch at my scalp and almost jump up from my desk at work and shake my head around. I can only imagine what my co-worker, who shares the office with me, would think of me then!

So I did some investigating on the internet. Seems formication is something that occurs when women go through menopause. Either that or they are meth addicts. lol!

I have never heard of it before! No one I know ever complained of it. Has anyone else experienced this or known someone who has? And I'm not talking restless legs syndrome, that is something totally different that I also suffer from time to time.

Comments (12)

  • lindasewandsew
    14 years ago

    I think this is very common and have had it here and there over the years. DH says he gets it, neighbor gets it. Bet if you ask any number of people, most would know exactly what you're experiencing.

    There are lots of hits on Google. Looks like this is pretty normal, and may be caused by nothing, or a variety of things, as simple as dry skin or a mild allergy, to more serious diseases and disorders. I've never thought about it being caused by anything, just seems like something that happens once in awhile, like a tingly feeling, or your hair standing on end, etc. Here's a good one. You're falling asleep, sort of midway from awake to asleep, and hear a loud bang, and it startles you awake, but no one else heard it, even if they were wide awake in the same room. Others here might have other examples of the funny stuff that goes on with us.

    It's amazing the common things we've never heard of just because we don't experience them first hand, or we've never heard anyone discussing them. (It IS annoying, lol.) Linda

  • smickerdoodle
    14 years ago

    I have had both of those things happen..more so since I have had Chemo. Never asked the dr about the loud boom when I am falling alseep but she says the bug feeling is just nerve endings firing off excess energy. Normal and nothing to worry about. But I agree. They can be annoying when they happen.

  • susiewantsroses
    14 years ago

    I didn't have it before, but I do now. Yikes. Another disease!!!!

    Usually if I feel bugs they are really there. I've got bug fermones. If I dont see them I just assume the 1 1/2 pound spider jumped off right quick and went under my chair. Now I know that it is caused by Fornication. I'll have to stop that. Thanks Luna!!!!!!!

  • leveta
    14 years ago

    I feel that way at times on my arms...So that still go for those of us who had it all takin out(to put it delicatly).

  • sunnyca_gw
    14 years ago

    I "saw" it in a very intelligent man about 30, rented my GF's back house, came up scratching away & was bleeding, asked us if we could see bugs or worms, said they were driving him crazy. Both arms were scratched up badly. He had given notice that he was going back east. When we cleaned the house we realized he was mentally ill. He had fought to live a normal life, he made up video games & sold them, but just couldn't deal with "us" We found a letter he had written his mom & letter she had told him that anytime it got rough he was welcome to come home, his room was waiting. We sat down & cried. I woke up 1 night & felt a bug so grabbed the flashlight from under my pillow(earthquake country)& guess I startled the spider as he stopped, I flattened him with my hand as couldn't reach the tissues & don't like spiders. I will get an itch in same place for several days & sometimes it's allergies,change of lotion, forget to put it on etc. so maybe just dry skin. I have 3 bros. that have a weird response to hitting elbow,2 pass out, 1 was on a navy ship & when he came around crowd around him, just happened that their head officer had same problem. Youngest bro. "feels" it & tries to get safer as when in tree he slid down in crotch of branches & dropped saw to ground, he goes out for up to 30 min. very strange stuff! They actually have a name for it.Don't remember what it is anymore. With all the chemicals in food & our homes these days wonder we don't have more problems. Jan

  • luna_llena_feliz
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Never heard of the elbow thing. That is just as weird as formication. I have just noticed this since menopause has set in (but not completely).

    Are you sure the guy renting the house from your GF wasn't a meth addict? They also experience formication. I wouldn't be surprised if they have DTs too and actually see bugs.

    Susiewantsroses, lol is all I can say to you!

  • sunnyca_gw
    14 years ago

    Luna, GF's renter could have been on something but we didn't find a single pill or needle etc. lots of pizza boxes & total disorganization. Kept all junk mail. I think he had gone off his meds. He had a good job & she had checked him out & he was fine for couple of years. GF had rented to people for over 30 yrs. Last person she interviewed(I was there) showed up in UPS outfit said she just got off work & GF said to her that she still had to check her out. She said that was fine. UPS had never heard of her. The uniform fit fine, wonder where she got it. UPS did want all the info GF had on her. GF sold after that to move up close to her son & GK's. Jan

  • lindasewandsew
    14 years ago

    The 'bugs under your skin' thing is called Morgellons syndrome. According to some articles, the CDC and Kiaser P. are studying it. No one knows if it's something in the brain misfiring and causing the itch, or an actual disease caused by a bug or something. Dr. Dean Edell used to talk about it on his radio broadcast. His website is healthcentral.com. I don't think drug addiction usually has anything to do with it, although drug addicts probably have some similar things going on. There's a lot of stuff on Google about it.

    A high school friend of mine used to faint when she bumped her funny bone. As soon as she grabbed her elbow, she fell on the ground, out like a light.

    Another one is getting goose bumps for no obvious reason.

    How about why fingernails on a blackboard give most people 'the creeps'?

    Susie, I remember those BIG spiders when I was in Killeen, TX, a long time ago. Oh, and maybe a few crickets, lol. Linda

  • jitterbug4756
    14 years ago

    Luna..had to laugh when I first read title to post... thought to myself I sure hope so..then re-read it...hee hee. Have had alot of wierd things go on in my body once menopause hit...I get the itches occasionally, unfortunatly its usually my left breast or butt cheek, and most of the time when it happens I'm at work in the middle of a big banquet or event...no way to discretly scratch either of those places in front of 100 people !!! It makes me crazy!! I have to run to the back to the employee bathroom..most of my servers think I have a kidney problem.
    Alot lately I "hear" the phone ringing right when Im dosing off. It had woken me up also.... I had an aunt who would pass out from the smell of chocolate on your breath.

  • susiewantsroses
    14 years ago

    This sounds like my Family Reunions!!!! LOLOLOLOL

    I have a relative who has excessive compulsive disorder. He has to drive with a washcloth on the steering wheel and you cant move even a pencil in his house or he breaks out into a sweat of anxiety.

    I had another distant relative with Alzheimers who started off trying to kill non existant fleas and believed they were in the attic.

    Another relative could not function at all under florecent lights and would shower and brush teeth in the dark bathroom to keep from turning on the light.

    Another relative had a large collection of squirrel tails hanging on the foyer wall. I think that was caused by something else though.

    Had a middle school teacher who kept his hands in his pockets (and of course us girls wrote naughty a song about it).

    Had an X son-in-law who drank so much alcohol he wet his pants in Walmart.

    Have a yorki and a poodle who showed those same symptoms of itching the head until they would have bloody sores and it was ear mites.

    BOTTOM LINE IS THAT ALL people have some form of EAR MITES.

    susiewantstobeadoctorthepayisbetterandaccuracydoesntmatter

  • sunnyca_gw
    14 years ago

    Thanks for info on "bugs under skin"! I knew a 20 yr old girl once that went deaf if she ate chocolate, she loved it & her parents were very concerned as drs. thought she might lose her hearing altogether. I've lost track of her so don't know if she married or had kids with same problem or if she is deaf. Linda, your friend passing out is same as my oldest bro. Dad & he were hunting & all of a sudden he disappeared, dad thought he might have been shot & ran to find him,there he was laying in the ditch,no blood so dad went to turn him over & he said"Oh, my elbow" he had just caught the gun on his jacket & managed to hit his elbow. He has the lightest case of this. youngest bro. has been out for up to 40 min (just once that long). They would just walk around him at work(he wore a nice suit) as there is nothing to do about it except be sure not in way of door etc. Happened on the roof when he was building his house & he feels it coming so pulled safety rope around his arm .When any of them "wake up" they are fine & go about their business. Never happened in car so that's good. Strange things happen to people sometimes! Jan

  • Marlene Kindred
    14 years ago

    I finally read this post and have nearly laughed myself to tears! 8D You guys are too funny! But, what's even funnier is that I have that formification thingie too! I had no idea what it was...I just stacked it up to being nuts! I'm forever feeling like there's something crawling on me or I also get these "stabs" or "pin pricks" too! Sometimes I nearly jump out of my skin! My DH just looks at me and shakes his head! ;-) But, here's the real funny one...my DH says that every night when I'm falling asleep...he can tell when I've really gone to sleep because my entire body lurches up out of bed like someone has put the "paddles" to me! And I know he's telling the truth because sometimes I lurch so hard I even wake myself up! Amazing what our bodies can do to us, isn't it? Thanks Luna for making realize I'm not alone in my craziness!!

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