Health Anxiety - Part two

[MrsWhites]

Hi everyone, it seems we have reached 1000 posts on our original thread which is amazing, just shows how much support we have been able to give each other.

I thought we would benefit from part two!

@Skyliner001 trust me your reaction is totally ‘normal’ for most of us folk, I had stinging down there for some months and I used to unscrew the bathroom mirror and have a good look down there, I even made my husband check! I was convinced there was. Lump which was a vein, I analysed the colour and I thought one bit looked more red then the rest but I think it was the lighting.

I know it’s easy for me to say but try not to worry. Stress plays havoc with my periods. They can be late, one month I had a very light bleed for 2 days then nothing. Another month it was stopping and starting. I honestly think it’s a stress related thing.

@Skyliner001 yes if you have just finished it’s definitely period related.

@Goolies Thank you so much, this has made me feel so much better. Glad it's not just me. I also examine the colour, and cross-referenced it with the Internet… 😳😳

@Goolies You are a legend, thank you so much, you have calmed me down. I was spinning 😖😭

😊

@Skyliner001 no worries at all. I’ve also cross referenced from the internet. If anyone ever saw my search history omg!! 😳😳😳

I know! Mine too! My search brought up some questionable results! 😱

😂😂

@ofwarren something you said earlier stuck with me, that when you are worried/you go to the GP etc it is because you have real symptoms. This is what I find confusing. I seem to get various real symptoms all the time that I panic are serious but so far have never been. But it always turns out to be something causing it i.e. not in my head. Eg breast pain I panic I'm dying from cancer but its breast cysts, sore throat for months that won't go away I panic its throat cancer but its reflux (LPR), thought I was having a stroke but it was labrynthitis (couldn't walk in a straight line and vision went all funny and bad vertigo).

So I know these things aren't in my head but I always seem to have something going on! Whereas DH hasn't been to the GP or worried about his health for years. And I'm pretty healthy in general, slim, fairly fit, eat well etc. so no reason why I keep getting all these symptoms.

For example, I've had a total of 5 covid tests over the past 9 months (all negative) while DH hasn't had one!

I do wonder if the level of anxiety I have makes me more prone to illness or affects my hormones causing things like breast cysts. Or maybe DH is so laid back he just completely ignores any minor physical symptoms and eventually they go away?!

@Catsneezies I am exactly the same. I even said to the doctor today that I feel like there is always something. I've never gone to the doctors or hospital and it was all in my head. I do sometimes think it is something worse than it is but its never just nothing.
You may be right about the anxiety making us more prone maybe? Is our immune system lower because of the stress or are we just genuinely unlucky? Here are a few things I've been the doctors for:
Extreme tiredness and brain fog, thought I had cancer but I have hashimotos disease

Numbness down leg, I thought it was neurological and it was a compressed disc

Milk leaking from breasts, I thought it was a pituitary issue, it was because of my hashimotos

Pain and pressure behind my eye, I went the Opticians first because I thought of brain tumour but it was sinusitis.

When I look up health anxiety, it's mainly about people who's symptoms are in their head and mine are definitely not. I am terrified of every twinge though and can have full on panic attacks about them.

Sounds v similar to me. And I can see DH sort of inwardly roll his eyes whenever I get a new symptom. I even find myself annoying 😁

Gah! Caved and poked this morning. Left breast. Ridgey bit, feels like normal tissue just more raised. Different to right. Know it's been scanned! Arg!! Determined to do better rest of day!

@Skyliner001 me too! Broke and poked and poked at my neck even though I made it so painful yesterday! Don’t know how to stop!

Well I caved too this morning. I've been on the phone to the GP about my sore nipple and said I couldn't feel any lumps or anything behind it so she said to try Aveeno or another emollient cream, take paracetamol when it's sore and if it's still the same in a week or two she's happy to examine me if I want. I've still got them raised bumps all over it you get when pregnant (Montgomery glands??) so I'm wondering if it's those that's causing it

Positive day to us all after our wobbles this morning! Put my make up on to go to Asda to hide my face under my mask and visor... 🙈

Morning all. I think my sertraline has been helping as I’ve been able to avoid all internet for a couple of weeks - so I’ve not popped in here.
Anxiety is back a bit due to ear problems - I failed last night and googled so that’s put me in a spin. Why do we do it to ourselves! I’m using my CBT techniques though to help. Waiting for the GP to call me this afternoon.
Hope everyone has a calm, non-anxious day x

@Skyliner001 I have asked almost the same question on here in the last few months, I had a random bit of pink discharge a few days after my period and this month I was stressing because I had some similar a few days before my period. It went away for a couple of days and then my period started. But it was the day in between that freaked me out, like maybe the pink was from something else and not my period so I totally get what you mean but i’m sure in both our cases it’s just period!

I have also done some seriously intimate examinations with a bathroom mirror and a phone torch and the stuff i’ve google would make me ashamed if anyone else seen my search history!

I haven’t poked today but i’m getting that ‘what if’ moment, does anyone else get that? ‘What if I just felt it on a good day and it’s really bad today’, ‘what if it’s grown’, ‘what if I missed something’....really I think it’s just the anxiety trying to trick me into going back into the poking and prodding cycle. I know I need to stop listening to it and break the cycle!

@Ethellsmum glad you have been feeling better, I hope you manage to get through the ear problem without too much stress.

Hope everyone else is feeling ok today x

Big waves of anxiety today over this new antibiotic. The side effects talk about issues with your heart and even the doctor made sure I didn't have heart issues before being given it.
I'm not allowed to take my omeprasole with it so my acid returned and I can feel it in my chest, but as you can imagine I immediately think it's my heart 😔 I had an ECG last year so I KNOW my heart is fine, but the anxiety tricks you so badly doesn't it.
I hope everyone is having an ok morning

@MrsWhites glad it's not just me, it seems to have gone today, and so I think it probably was related to my period.It's insane because yesterday that was sending me mad, but this morning I was really worried about a lumpy bit on my boob.

And now I've gone back to a spot on my side, which hasn't gone. It's just like a little raised purple lump, possibly around 2 mm big, it doesn't look like a skin cancer from what I've googled, but you know how it goes in an anxiety head…

I decided to try and see if it was ingrown hair, and poked it a bit with a safety pin, which made it bleed, and made me sore.

Seriously, I do think if people could see me they would think I was mad… Yesterday the examination with the mirror, today lying down and sitting up repeatedly in bed cross analysing a lumpy bit, and then jabbing at myself with the safety pin.

😑🥺😑

Here it is! Sorry, left personal details on the previous post! This is what it's like in my head, I left the Frodo thing on there too, because that is also what it is like in my head! I opened up my browser and this is what I saw…

@Skyliner001 that is very similar to my search history, I delete them straight away though because otherwise I find them a few weeks later in open tabs and it’s sends me back to that worry.

Your spot sounds like just a spot in an ingrowing hair to me too. Sometimes I get them and when they pop I can’t even see a hair but they always heal eventually. I actually found one on my stomach a few days ago.

I’ve taken to sitting with my dressing gown on today right up round my neck to stop me poking these bloody neck lymph nodes! Not a long term solution... doing the trick today though

@MrsWhites funnily enough, I had googled ingrowing hairs, and found things that looked similar, which is why I thought I would have a poke with the safety pin…

It's been there a couple of weeks, I'll just leave it alone I think.

I completely agree on finding the history, this amused me because of Frodo, but yes sometimes I reopen and I'm like "oh that's what I've not done for awhile, I'll poke that"

😳
Thanks for your support, that helps to know you think it sounds like an ingrown hair!

@Skyliner001 do you have stretch marks there? When I get a spot in a stretch mark it’s exactly as you describe!

@Skyliner001 that could be my search history! Honestly I have so many random thoughts and searches. Then because of me searching I get random ads too popping up on Facebook!

@Goolies that happens to me too, I search for things and then it causes google adds which then freak me out because I see that as a sign telling me there is something wrong with me!