DP thinks I have medical issues

[AlwaysAnnoyed]

Am I normal? DP seems to think this is very strange and I need to seek help for it.

once or month, I have a panic episode where I think I have something wrong with me. Today it was floaters in my eye. I’ve had floaters for years but today I thought that’s it I’m dying.

last month it was a spot on my leg thinking skin cancer.

I have one day a month where I’m worried, then I’m over it.

had a weird childhood, which DP thinks is effecting it. Very medical family & the only way to get attention was have something wrong.

I had DD this year, so I think my once a month irrational fear of death has been made worse.

do I call GP? But what do I say? Once a month for a day I’m worried then I don’t think about it for a month????

DP says he’s sick of it. But I mean surely it could be worse.

i don’t know

I would agree with dp. It’s called health anxiety and is relatively common. I’d try gp and see what they say. For me, keeping. A diary of symptoms, concerns and any actual diagnoses helped enormously. And I not take very low dose duloxetine to keep it at bay.

You do seem very anxious. Maybe as a result of your upbringing. Also I think you can be a bit loopy just after having a baby! My emotions used to be all over the place.
Maybe you could do with seeing your GP just for reassurance / advice / maybe antidepressants for a short period or hypnotherapy for your anxiety?

I’d say you have anxiety and need to get sone help with it. Please see your GP.

Track when it happens. Track your cycle. Google PMDD.

This.

it’s a Thing. And it is treatable.

Speaking as someone who has debilitating health anxiety- it sounds like you have health anxiety. Don’t underestimate the impact that can have on a partner- I know mine finds it cripplingly stressful. Not sure how helpful the gp is likely to be- unless you want to try meds? Setraline really helps me a lot. Other than that, I think just having some self awareness and developing some CBT strategies can help x

Health anxiety. I have it, but worse than you. I don't mention it out loud any more because I know how annoying it must be to my DP who doesn't see things the same as me. .
I never suffered with it before having my son, never knew it was a thing. Now i think im constantly dying. I did mention jt to GP who said he could put me on a waiting list for counselling which is about a year long, other than that he told me to basically get out more and start doing things i enjoy more or get a hobby🙈 i might reach out again one day but for now i suffer in silence.
Hope you get some help OP

It’s hypochondria (also known as health anxiety)_ you are a hypochondriac and it’s very difficult for doctors to deal with.

That would drive me up the wall if I was your husband, and you're running the risk of people not believing you one day when there is something actually wrong.

Go to the GP and get help for this.

If it's literally one day every month I think it's probably PMDD. If it's just one day can you keep the worries to yourself? If it's literally one day a month and you're completely fine the other 29 or so days then health anxiety or hypochondria sound like a stretch. Anxiety doesn't just effect you for one-day a month. I wish it did.

I have this too but my panics last more than a day. It’s horrible and it’s health anxiety.

I can really relate to this. I always had anxiety however when I got pregnant and since having dd 10 years ago my anxiety has been worse than ever. Deep down I worry about living without her or her having to survive without me to protect her and it’s more than my brain can handle. I now loon back and realise my mum had this too.
sorry can’t help but your not alone xx

It might be that on those specific days, for some reason your brain is treating your thoughts as more real and more powerful than they truly are.

Take the floaters. You've had them for years. The fact that today you had the thought, "This means I'm dying", does not make that statement any more true than it would've been yesterday, or last week, or last year. But today, the thought emerged, and for some reason today your mind gave it the power to appear true, purely through the power of it existing.

It's really difficult to control thoughts, and if you try to suppress them it often just makes them push through even harder. But what you can do is recognise thoughts for what they are, just ideas that your brain happened to throw together from the tangle inside it, that don't necessarily have any intrinsic truth to them and can't make themselves become true.

If you can learn to just look at the thoughts happening, and get yourself to a place where you know deep down that thinking a thought has no power to make that thought true, then you can let the thoughts come and go more easily without them taking you over.

There's a type of therapy called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy/ACT which has, as one part of the approach, some useful exercises to help you learn to treat thoughts more like what they are, just thoughts. It might be that, if these episodes of worry do just last for one day, some of the ACT techniques could help you get through those short periods of time. Might be worth looking up, anyway?

My DH has developed health anxiety fairly recently after a more difficult year health wise. He has had panic attacks and became incredibly anxious and suffering physical symptoms of anxiety. I don't think your DH saying he is sick of it is particularly helpful but it is not easy being the one to help someone through health anxiety. For example he is now on citalopram which has been life changing for him and he often feels like himself again but can suffer from headaches.

I can talk him through his headache, there is no particular worrying features of his headaches, he has no neurological symptoms that I would be worried about, its 4/10 pain not 10/10, its a common side effect, he works with a computer and is at his desk 7-5 then on his phone googling headaches in between, he might skip eating or drinking while he is particularly anxious not helping his headache, he can go a full day without being outside. But no matter what I say his body is so hyperaware of this sensation in his head that he is utterly convinced he is having a subarachnoid hemmorhage. All I can do is help him with self care (get him out for a walk/encourage him to eat and drink/grounding techniques) until he can work through it.

Studies have shown that what we call postnatal depression is actually much more likely to manifest as anxiety. I had tremendous anxiety after my third child, but not until he was about 9 months. When I took some medication my mind quietened right down and I realized that I had been constantly ruminating. I think its normal (probably a survival instinct) to be on high alert after having a baby. Its also not unusual at all to have anxiety but you can get anti anxiety medication which can help (also exercise, a healthy diet and plenty of sleep). I took meds for about 9 months and was fine after.

If it is once a month it's really likely to be hormone related, as others suggest look up PMDD. I have found in recent years PMT has got to these terrible levels with associated anxiety and tracking and knowing when it's coming, arranging my diary and deadlines around it as much as I can as I know I will be less productive all really help. It's a bit goofy sounding but there's an app called Hormone Horoscopes that tells you what your hormones are up to each day of your cycle and you can write symptoms down to look back at so you can look for patterns. The first I knew I must be pregnant with DS was before any tests would show, didn't get my monthly anxiety episode. Hope you get to the bottom of it and find the right help whatever it is.

Since it's once a month, is it connected to the menstrual cycle? I can get anxiety with PMT. I think talking it out with a Good therapist would help. Journaling helps to identifying patterns of thoughts and behaviours.

I second the person saying it could be linked to your menstrual cycle

had a weird childhood, which DP thinks is effecting it. Very medical family & the only way to get attention was have something wrong

this is a weird thing, did you do this as a child? Are you attention seeking from your husband?