health anxiety help

[sillyflipflop]

I'm not sure why I'm posting but I guess I need to get this out and see if anyone has advice.

I have struggled with health-related anxiety for around 20 years and it has consumed my life for long periods of time.

I have a doctor's appointment today for a bumpy node and since I felt it last night, I have been in bits. I was shaking violently for about 20 mins after and today I feel sick, my heart is racing and I have this sense of dread.

Does anyone relate or have any advice? I am terrified of hearing the worst and constantly imagine that I'm going to die and leave my son

Had the same for years.Always health or accident related catastrophic thinking.
Tried talking therapy, CBT, the lot. Then I had a major depressive episode when my mother died and started on SSRI's.
Health anxiety went just like that.
Much more able to cope with worrying situations and health scares now.
Really feel for you. Good luck.

I also suffer with health anxiety and have done since I was about 7/8. It’s awful and totally consumes your life at times. I always think of worst case scenario, it’s awful. I’m currently having cbt which is giving me ways to manage it but it’s still there. Hope you’re ok x

I've had health anxiety for years and it's been awful, but now I've actually got cancer and I'm much calmer than I have been about imaginary illnesses, it's weird. I'm trying to focus on the things that I'm in control of (diet, exercise, relaxation etc.,) distracting myself, and telling myself that things are okay in the present and refusing to speculate about the future other than the specific actions I can take. Health anxiety is horrible though.

I also suffer from health anxiety. Have done for a long time but it's really got worse since 2019. I started on sertraline in January and although I'm much better I still have days where I'm checking for lumps and bruises, every thought is centered around leaving my kids or being too ill to care for them.

As soon as one fixation passes or symptoms disappear I'm onto the next thing. I hope your doctors appointment went well.

@SierraSapphire I'm so sorry. I always feel really pathetic and ashamed of myself and my feelings when I actually think of people who have had a diagnosis. Sounds like you have exactly the right approach xx

Thanks @AlwaysFlappable, hopefully it's caught early and will be completely curable with surgery. Once you've been diagnosed with something there is hopefully some sort of a plan and people are looking after you. With health anxiety there's often nothing very practical you can focus on other than general healthy behaviour, and also there's often no one supporting you or even worse people have been dismissive and / or you don't have any confidence in professionals. That makes it hard and things go round in your head repeatedly. I'm hoping with the cancer that I've learned some things that will see off future health anxiety. It's certainly quietened for the moment things that I was previously worried about (which weren't cancer!)