If you USED to have health anxiety - how did it stop?

[CatchYourselfOn]

That is it. Mine started when pregnant and five yrs on I still have a sense of foreboding about my health. I do not see how you stop - truely stop worrying. Appreciate any experiences.

Watching this with interest as I am about to be referred for CBT for health anxiety.

I hope you get some relief soon CatchYourselfOn as its a truly horrible thing to live with.

Hi. I have never had it diagnosed, but I had really acute health anxiety just after my baby was born. It was terrifying. The thought of dying and leaving this poor, defenceless tiny baby was incredibly debilitating. It manifested itself in my thinking I was going to have a stroke, eclampsia or a pulmonary embolism as a result of pushing.

I have suffered previously with a total aversion to car travel. I couldn't travel in a car, I have jumped out of a moving car and I have missed weddings and such like as they involved car travel.

Both episodes I am thankfully over, but on reflection they both share similar traits. For example, the car thing started because my best friend died in a car crash when we were 17. I was learning to drive at the time. I ploughed in and passed my test but didn't want to drive. At around the same time I was involved in a minor accident as a passenger. It was like the perfect storm. In my mind the most dangerous thing in the world to do is travel by car. My DH was so patient. I used beta blockers to go on a couple of longer journeys because I started to get sick of missing all this stuff, my life was passing me by. 10 years I didn't drive for. Finally I decided driving would be my cure. So I took so e refresher lessons , got a car and a job that required me to drive and hee I am 6 years later driving every day. The fear was rooted in some fact.

The health anxiety was rooted in fact (like the car travel) I had high blood pressure for the last couple of weeks of my pregnancy. Immediately after delivery I had chest ache from pushing. This meant a blood clot, not just exertion and so it began. My mum was great. She really helped me through it. I stopped googling anything health related at all. Went to my GP a couple of times, had my bp monitored and a chat. One told me to go home and enjoy my baby....which at the time I was miffed about, but slowly I understood. My life would pass me by. My baby's life would pass me by. So I started trying to be less worried. Eventually it worked and I feel better now, 7 months post partum. If it hadn't had got better I would have gone to my GP and asked for counselling and medication, only because I didn't do that with the car thing and it stole my life. Only the knowledge that it stole my life before made me realise this so quick.

Sorry it is long. Also, I don't know what will fix it for you guys, but I really hope it does get fixed as I do know how awful it is. Finally, just because I 'sorted myself out' doesn't mean you will/can/have to.

I really do hope that helps. X

In hindsight, I have had episodes of anxiety on and off since my teens but it became full blown health anxiety after I suffered badly following glandular fever. I think I had become so used to worrying about my health during that period that I then developed anxiety about it. For me I worried about cancer, mostly, but occasionally other things.

I had CBT and I am much, much better. About once a year I will have one of those "oh my god I have definitely got this disease" moments but thankfully the voice of reason steps in after not very long at all and I am more able to reason with it. Now, i am very good at saying 'I recognise this feeling as anxiety, and my anxiety has never really been correct'. Hope this helps. It's about weighing up the evidence of you truly suffering from something life threatening, making sure you give enough weight to the positives, and if all else fails distracting yourself from the worry. That worked for me anyway.

I used an online CBT course....called Living Life to the Full.
It's a free course run by NHS Scotland.

By reading through it and thinking things through, I realised that I was a catastrophiser...automatically assuming the worst about everything.

Just that realisation was enough to help me begin breaking the cycle. It wasn't immediate bit I have got there mostly and have only had two brief relapses in the past four years. [Smile]

Mine started when I had very high bp in second pregnancy, which didn't go away afterwards. It's mostly gone now. I have found regular strenuous exercise (running) and mindfulness very helpful.

I have never managed to get rid of it but I manage it much better with the help of therapy (not CBT, didn't work for me). I have long periods when it goes entirely now but it does come back after stressful times/events. I get over it quicker. I don't ever think I will be cured as it is just the way I am tbh. But it can be made a LOT easier.

Mine comes and goes, and I don't think it will ever go away - when it's really bad, the only thing that works to get rid of it is a course of SSRIs - and then once the bad patch is over, I can use CBT to keep it under control. It does tend to recur again when I'm stressed or tired or hormonal, so I don't think I'll ever be cured of it - but I do know that the meds are the best way for me to manage it.