2. The Stealthy Culprit: Unexpected Muscle Spasms
The clandestine nature of proctalgia fugax extends into its second symptom: involuntary, and oftentimes jarring, muscle spasms. These are not your typical, run-of-the-mill cramps that might be dismissed with a mere shrug or a quick stretch.
Imagine being seized by a sudden, unwavering grip, one that doesn’t discriminate between time or place. This isn’t merely a fleeting cramp; it’s a brazen theft of control over one’s own body, an imposition that leaves its victims momentarily incapacitated, rendered helpless by their own musculature.
The spasms don’t announce their arrival; they storm in uninvited, taking command over the physical and hijacking the mental. There’s a psychological dimension to this symptom, a quiet trauma echoing in the dread of when the next uninvited contraction might strike.(2)
