To ask if you have health anxiety, has anything helped you?

[healthanxious]

I have health anxiety and it is so frustrating and upsetting, there is always at least one type of disease I am worried I have.

@ACCx I’m sorry you’re feeling this way Do you drink any alcohol at all? I only ask because I haven’t had any alcoholic beverages in 5 months and the improvement in my health/general anxiety has been really significant.

I hope you get into CBT soon!

CBT and prozac.

Prozac for when I'm so bad that I am convinced I am going to die. CBT has really helped me to have different thought patterns.

I'm not out of the woods though. I still avoid medical stuff (which CBT told me not to do) as I tend to "catch" whatever I have recently heard about. I met a friend with a tumour this week, and I can see my brain already trying to convince me I have one after speaking to her. But I am a lot better than I was. (I have been relatively normal through covid.)

Oh gosh have suffered for years, then when I had children turned to not only obsessing over my own health but also there’s.

I spent the whole of my last pregnancy crippled it’s anxiety and convinced something terrible would happen to the baby or me; it really is a brutal illness.

I’ve been taking citalopram for a few months and have to say it has certainly taken the edge off xx

Health anxiety has burdened my life since I was in Primary school & I'm now in my 30s. I lost my dad to leukaemia when I was 3 & him being ill/dying are my earliest memories.

I've convinced myself so many times over the years that I've had heart problems, a brain tumor, stomach cancer, an anurisym, anaemia, the list goes on. I've been in & out of hospital & on meds/talking therapy since I was 14.

Pregnancy was the worst trigger for me. I was convinced I was having a miscarriage, pregnancy was ectopic etc. I had a C-section which was horrendous for my HA & I was convinced for weeks after that I'd developed DVT.

People who don't have HA don't understand how real the symptoms are. My OH struggles to cope with it & it causes problems.

I'm sorry you're going through this & I have no advice. Strangely for me, the pandemic has helped as I found myself not scared of Covid. Sadly though since having my vaccine it's flared up again as I keep getting pain in my leg & I keep thinking DVT!!!

It's a never ending circle. Keep talking to whoever will listen, speak to your GP & stay off Google. Please DM me if you wish to chat.

Don't open any threads about disease, or even those that seem like they might potentially be.

Never, ever Google symptoms!

And the hardest one of all - go to the doctor and just get checked when you have a health worry. Usually I never did this as the anxiety building up to it was too much. But I did recently and for the first time in a long time felt totally calm and free.

I'm a CBT therapist and if I could choose one thing to treat for the rest of my life it would be HA. It generally responds very well to CBT. Make sure you do as much of the CBT tasks as you can, and keep them up for the long term.

It's hard, but worth it.

Morning all, wow thanks so much for all your replies last night. So glad I posted on here because the support feels really good. I’ve woke up this morning feeling positive (I don’t have any aches/pains) although I’ve still been feeling my body for lumps and wondering what will happen today to ruin my positive thinking. I’m back to work today after 15 months off so it’s going to be strange but I hope it helps. To answer a question, no I don’t drink much alchol maybe a few once or twice a month but that’s about it. I’m thinking of buying that CBT anxiety help book on Amazon I’m not sure if anyone has tried it? X

@AliceAbsolum Wow that’s reassuring. I can’t wait to start as I just want to feel better. Is there anything you could recommend whilst I’m waiting? And books ect? X

Yes - the book Overcoming health anxiety. It's evidence based and will be a great place to start.

Thanks so much I have just ordered on Amazon for delivery today luckily! I will start reading tonight. I know it won’t be a quick fix but it’s worth a try. I was prescribed with sertraline from gp but haven’t taken this due to the side effects being night sweats ect, currently my HA worry is lymphoma and if I start having night sweats I’ll automatically think it’s due to that. Also it says the anxiety gets worse in the first few weeks and I just don’t feel strong enough for it to get any worse. X

I have this, it’s worsened since my DS was born 11 months ago and I’m top of the waiting list for counselling but unsure when an appointment will become available. Not CBT though because I’ve already exhausted that and didn’t find it very helpful personally. I’m reluctant to try medication because everyone I know who uses anti depressants never comes off them once they start, I don’t want to rely on medication for the rest of my life if it can be avoided.

I’m currently constantly worried about having cancer or one of my DC having cancer. It’s fuelled by stories of young people dying of cancer so the Azaylia Cain story for example set me off and now I’m constantly looking for signs of leukaemia in my DC and myself too. It’s totally exhausting, I’ve had to stop myself googling things but I already know the symptoms of most major illnesses so every time I have a bruise or pain somewhere I think it’s definitely that.

@Whyhello So sorry to hear you’re also struggling with this. I have to say I feel the same. Constantly checking bruises thinking ‘where’s that come from’ like you, I also know all the symptoms for most cancers so any symptom I get I instantly assume it must be the worst case scenario. It’s a nightmare isn’t it. I haven’t tried the anti depressants either, I have heard good and bad stories about them. I always think I have cancer at the moment my worry is lymphoma:(, I think it all stems from the fact I don’t ever want to leave my daughter behind. X

“I could look at the list and remind myself that this feeling was probably stress, which made me less convinced I actually had MS which in turn made me less stressed.”

I’ve had terrible health anxiety since I was a teen. My lifelong fears were HIV and MS. I don’t have HIV and MS is appalling but I’m coping 🤷🏻‍♀️ The health anxiety has mostly faded after my dread disease actually hit me and I’m still here.