health anxiety

[hopeliss]

has anybody ever found a cure for health anxiety. it has plagued my life for 7 years and don't see an end to it. awful day today.
ps never been on mumsnet before. sorry if this is the wrong place to raise this.

Yep, me too-I feel like something dreadful must be about to happen and everything else is quite good really! I can't really link mine to anything specific, but I did nearly die from whooping cough when I was six and my mum got me later on.

yes get this also , i can be singing in my car to a song , then get a pang of oh im happy ....then i shouldnt be.....will come over me ....
think its all part of the HA again not allowing myself to be happy as my punishment for all the worry pain and anxiety i cause myself ...well thats how i feel about it anyhow ...
couldnt sleep last night mad headache ....things going round in my head and i have DDs cold and sore throat thing i think ...

glad can let off steam on here with folk who understand , x

I'm finally admitting this to myself, I feel so low.

I'm almost 14 weeks postpartum and since about week 2 I've convinced myself that I have every cancer there is: cervical, ovarian, bowel, oral...

Right now I'm suffering with back pain and frequent urination and my temp has been consistently 37.1 for the last week (I have the same ear thermometer my docs have). Not sure if that's high.

I've just paid for a cervical smear (I'm 24) and I've also just paid for a pelvic scan for next week. I know I have health anxiety but the real symptoms are scaring me. I'm finding it hard to function.

Hand holding needed, I'm so low. I don't want to die. This sounds so dramatic doesn't it? I don't know what's happened to me.

Hi howaboutno
I have these thoughts also, constantly worrying my kiddies will be mummyless. It's a horrible way to be and it seems most of us on here are like it which we could try to take comfort in? Crappy when u always feel ill though xx

Hi can I join please? I had problems with health anxiety until a few years back. I think mine was caused by a traumatic experience at the dentist when I was 7 or 8. I had two teeth removed with gas (general anaesthetic). My mum wasn't allowed in with me and I was basically pinned down on the chair by the dentist and gassed. Ever since I have been scared of becoming ill and having anything medical done. I managed to recently overcome these fears to have two babies in a surprisingly calm manner. I had CBT and also a mindfulness course which were a massive help.

Recently I have had bladder problems. UTI symptoms but no infection. Microscopic blood in urine, nobody knows why. It seems to have mainly cleared up now but I have sharp pains on and off in the side of my pelvis and my shoulder blades. I also feel short of breath. I have convinced myself I have bladder cancer which has spread to liver and lungs and possibly bone. Back to the doctors on Tuesday to test my urine again. I am terrified. Trying to get a grip but am scared I have an illness which I will not recover from. :(

Thinking of anyone else who can't stop thinking about illness, it's a horrible situation to be in.

It's hard to think about anything else when the worry is there. Don't be scared purple . The more we think and google about these things the more real they become.

We all feel different things and all suffer very real physical symptoms with anxiety; back pain, shoulder pain, chest pain and shortness of breath to name but a few. These are physical symptoms of a mental illness. While they should be checked out and taken seriously their cause is the way we tie ourselves up in knots with fear.

Monday's going to be awful weather wise. I'm going to make sure I spend as much time outside in the sun tomorrow, that always helps.

Then GP next week. I think I'm for the ADs now. I've tried everything else and I can't go on putting my family and myself through this any more. I can't go on letting the past dictate my present - and my future.

I'm in tears this morning, I feel like I can't cope anymore. I don't trust myself anymore - I went to the GP with lower back pain and some abdominal pain and he said to come back if it carries on and mentioned gall bladder issues, and that it causes burning under the right rib, which I now have. Or do I? I managed to convince myself I have pancreatic cancer last night.

It's almost laughable if I wasn't so convinced. I'm weeing all the time, apparently this can be a symptom of cancer too?

I'm scared of telling my GP how I feel incase they don't take my symptoms seriously anymore and miss something. This is hell.

Hi everyone - I'm new, and not sure if this thread is still active. But I've recently been 'diagnosed' with health anxiety, and am looking to share experiences with fellow sufferers. I'm signed up on a course with some local psychologists, which I'm really hoping will be the beginning of the end of this awful nightmare. It's all consuming, and I'm really struggling with it. I feel like I'm just going through the motions most days, doing things because they have to be done, rather than actually wanting to do them. Every ache or pain I have is cancer - in the last few weeks, I've convinced myself I have bowel, anal and bone cancer. This is taking over my life - I'm a single mum to 2 children, and I just want to be happy and 'normal' again. Has anyone who has suffered with HA come out the other side?

I'd love to come out the other side and thought I was doing ok until now! I've had a headache since tues so obviously I have a brain tumour. My family are great but don't know what to say when I'm ill. I also think I'm perimenopausall which is making me feel crappy. It's hard to be positive when you're always ill xx

Again repeat after me.

We do not have cancer. We have health anxiety!

I tend see HA and Anxiety in general as lifelong condition really. I've developed ways of thinking about health and life in general that have their beginnings in my (anxious) personality. These thinking habits have become more entrenched because of things that have happened to me; CBT can teach you that there is a different 'route' of thinking about a situation that you can choose to take. So instead of automatically thinking 'this pain is cancer', we think 'oh, I have a pain' and then think nothing more of it. Or if it continues, to think 'I have a pain; it's probably nothing major'.

So I guess it's not really coming out the other side. More like riding the waves for me. There are bad times but there are good ones too and therapy helps the good times get longer and the bad times get shorter.

I still have awful patches and think I'm just about emerging from one now though.

Great post awful

I'm just flitting from one illness to the next at the moment. Roll on Tuesday when I can hopefully see the GP

howaboutno
I could have written that myself! Exactly how I feel xx

mandms it's terrible isn't it. Can't stand myself at the moment

That's exactly what I said to my hubby last night. Got upset and apologised for who I am and he was lovely as always. I feel exhausted with going to the doc because I feel they see me walk in and think 'anxiety case' and don't take me seriously x

I don't know if it's of any help to anyone, but I suffered from crippling ha for the best part of twenty years, it's now gone.

It took four years of CBT/ACT therapy that was so hard I was often suicidal as it seemed easier than trying to recover. If I didn't have dcs than I have absolutely no doubt that I would no longer be here.

It also took making a major life decision (half way through therapy) that forced me to confront my anxiety head on and put me in a position where I simply couldn't indulge myself in it.

For me, it was a coping/avoidance tactic, I constantly discovered illnesses in order to convince myself that I didn't have to engage with life.

Post ha, life is still hard, but better than it was, I will always be an anxious person.

Just wanted to show that it is possible to come out the other side :)

I've always been a worrier, but never to this extent. Up until last August, I suffered with abnormal smears for the best part of 10 years, and had to have treatment at one point a few years ago as they found some pre-cancerous cells. But never, at any time, did I feel the way I feel now. I'm having an okay day today - woke up feeling bad, but have since gained a bit of perspective and actually feel like me again. But I know this won't last, and I think that's what I'm struggling with. The next time I feel an ache or a pain or the slightest twinge, I'm going to jump to the absolute worse case scenario. Why is it, that just a few weeks ago, if I had back ache, it was simply that. But now if I have back ache, it's an incurable disease that's going to take me away from my children?! AAARGGGGHH!!! The worst thing is, I can't stop it. I hate being this way - I want to be happy again - but I just can't do a damned thing to stop it, which I find difficult to deal with, as I'm normally such a strong person. Roll on my course next week - I'm really hoping it will provide me with the tools I need to control this. Sorry for the rant everyone - it's awful that we're all here for the same thing, but talking about this to like minded people makes a huge difference. Thank you :-)

lozza it's so shit isn't it? As soon as you start to feel alright and think "no, I'm fine really" something in the back of your mind knows that it's just a matter of time until the next thing. I'm really struggling with it, and it doesn't help that I just ache all over. Not sure if it's the anxiety or if it's something wrong, either way it's really getting me down. Here's to taking it one day at a time! Sound dramatic but hey ho...

Anxiety has a very strong physical effect on the body too so it's possible for it to actually make you feel ill. Such a horrible vicious circle to be in; you worry so you feel ill, you feel ill so you worry.

That sounds like a good course. It sounds as though it will give this illness the respect it deserves. Instead of putting everything down to 'just' anxiety, acknowledging how crippling it can be.

HowAboutNo It really is shit, and I don't even know where mine has come from. Rubbish things have happened in my life, but nothing that bad in the last few months to result in the way my mind works now. So if there's been no trigger, how the hell am I supposed to change it?! It's all so frustrating. But yes, taking it one day at a time really is the way forward. What we've got to keep reminding ourselves is that these are just thoughts, not facts, and if we can rationalise at all, we know that it is just our minds playing awful tricks on us. I hope you're having a good day today...

Awful - I'm hoping it's a good course. I have to admit, I'm a little sceptical. I've been promised it's not group therapy, that it's more of an educational couple of hours. Here's hoping, hey?!

I'm right back to square one with my HA, too - odd lump on leg and pains etc that are just vague enough to convince me it's something dreadful! I'm not going down the flooding myself with illness stories/exposure as it would just be too much for me. I find being as physically healthy as possible and listening to guided meditations from www.meditainment.com help me, but I need to stop drinking so much wine and start trying to control my dreadful catastrophising way of thinking! I do think it is something that a lot of mums of young children suffer from, to a greater or lesser extent. I am an anxious person by nature, too. I am desperately trying not to pass it on to my children. Am off to the GP tomorrow as she wrote me a letter asking me to make an apt to discuss results of ultrasound - I am sure there was nothing sinister, and that she wants to discuss my mental health more, but obviously I am panicking slightly, too!! Hope everyone sleeps ok tonight. I will almost certainly be on a nightowls thread as that is when I struggle the most - 3am!

haggis I hope you are not up worrying too much! This is a bad time of night for me too as it's when DD wakes for a feed and I find my mind wondering! Fingers crossed for your ultrasound - that is exactly the approach that is normal and reasonable. Hopefully it will rub off on me!

I need some reassurance (ha). I've got a couple of moles that changed during pregnancy, I want to get them checked out. I have an appointment next Tuesday, can it wait until then?! Sounds bizarre I know but I'm going for a late post-natal check (bad tear!) and don't want to go to the doctors anymore than I need to, I know my anxiety is just making me think too much about skin cancer etc, but if something were wrong, it's still okay to wait until Tuesday isn't it? I hate going there so much, I've already been once this week to get some results. Basically if it were MM, is a few days going to make the difference?

I despair that I'm asking.

It is fine to wait until Tuesday. Moles can change a lot in pregnancy, because your placenta secretes melanin (the dark pigment) which is why you get the linea nigra as well. I got zillions more moles and freckles while pregnant, including loads on my boobs! I quite envy you the night feeds - bf is the best anti anxiety drug I have used! I really miss the calm feeling it can induce - I used to feed DD loads on flights to calm me down. Dr did indeed want to discuss my anxiety with me and has said she'll phone back in a couple of weeks to see how I'm doing. I'm fortunate that my drs are all great. Hope you got some sleep, too!

hello everyone and welcome to new posters , how is everyone ??
been away for a while as my DS had a bad accident and had to have surgery on his wrist on sunday as broken so badly and tendons , was truly awful .. back home now and im looking after him , my anxiety has been awful .

and now today just as i beginning to smile as DS seems to be feeling a bit better my HA has come back , iv had breast pain (when i touch /poke it ) and pain goes down my arm , for last 2 days , i have been pressing as want to see if can feel any lumps ,which i cant ....but then the bad devil is saying maybe you have and you just missed it ....(if you see what i mean ) then rational head says no you havent ...
my period isnt due till next week 7 days away so cant be linked to that ....
so im thinking BC ...
any one els had similar > im 42 ....

Yes, I have. I still get an odd sore boob. when it comes to BC, pain is usually a good sign. You've probably been tense and holding your arm funny, and so the muscles under the boob are sore as well. Poor DS - hope he gets better quickly. I go to my GP every three months and ask her to check my boobs - she's happy to do this for me.