Numbness of extreme limbs

This happened to me a while back, and is happening again.

It's quite hard to explain, so bear with me and ask questions if you're confused...

When I move my hands over a surface, a lot of the time my hands will suddenly go numb and I can feel nothing except hot and cold. This is assured to happen when my hands have lots of stimulus, like moving under a blanket or through my hair. The same goes for my feet.

The weird thing about it is that I can somewhat control it. I can initiate the numbness if I concentrate hard enough on doing so, and (though it is more difficult) I can stop the numbness.

Even weirder, if I can see my hands, they will not go numb. Meaning if my hands are in front me on the keyboard like they are, I will definitely not experience any numbness.

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I thought the issue at first was some sort of nerve problems from my past drug use, which I cannot speak about on this forum as per the rules, and it might be. But why do I have some degree of control over it? Why does it only happen when I cannot see my hands? If it truly is a nerve problem, then why does looking at them make a difference to the problem?

I'm afraid to go to doctors because I fear they will think me a loon by my description of the issue.

I have tried to answer the questions, but my mind keeps racing to some sort of 'supernatural' power. I know it sounds crazy, but like anything else, that's the conclusion many jump to when no answer is apparent.

Know what's going on? I really need help here, it's interfering with my daily life when I drop things, don't close gates and the like simply because I cannot feel what my hands are doing.

Apparently it's a type of conversion disorder known as glove anesthesia.

There's a short paper on it here.

Simpler, and harsher explanation here.

Originally posted by MajorMalfunction
Apparently it's a type of conversion disorder known as glove anesthesia.

Well at least now I know I'm not crazy. Or now I know that I AM crazy. Not sure which one.

Either way I still don't know how to approach the problem. I suppose I should just talk with my doctor first.

Always your best bet, ask a real professional.

As it says in my ava, I'm not a scientist, I just play one on ATS.