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!

Morning all, and welcome to @motherrunner and @amblonyxx and any other new posters I've missed.

I used to bloody love hospital dramas but couldn't watch one now. I blame my Septemberish trigger (two years in a row) on starting to watch Grey's anatomy. Having loved Casualty, Holby, ER etc I started GA in 2019 and then got paranoid about a flobby lump in my arm. Still there. Think it's some sort of bruise that never quite healed. Then in 2020 I started GA again and immediately spiralled into where I am now.

Money Heist is my favourite and I'm watching it for the third time.

I'm a teacher too, and often make myself laugh thinking how the kids would react if they saw that the gobby, sure of herself woman they see in front of them in one context is a gibbering wreck in others.

Sore stomach today. Could be crispy chicken skin irritating gallbladder but of course I'm not going to let logic get in the way of a good panic and poke.

The breast thing resonates too- I am capable of finding 20 lumps in each one, panic, then tell myself if I really had 40 they'd be using my (presumably dead) body for research.

I'm so relieved to see that I'm not alone in absolutely freaking out when things feel wrong with my body! I think I might be going back to my psychologist to get a handle on my general anxiety again, it usually takes something like this to set me off badly 😣

@chorusline79 I know that feeling so well, it's what I'm going through every day at the moment, worrying about there being something so wrong with me that my kids won't have a Mum and my husband will have to move back to the city after we've just bought land in a country town.

I hope you can keep yourself busy enough to keep it off your mind today

Morning everyone. I wrote out a big response last night about not having any medical equipment because I know it would make me more anxious and I’d probably hear something perfectly normal but convince myself that it was something bad....but for some reason it didn’t post!

Hope everyone is well this morning, Monday’s are an anxious day I think, it seems like pressure to have a good day to start the week which has the opposites effect on me.

@tmh88 glad your dentist appointment is coming up this week, tooth pain is awful!

As predicted my breast pains have kicked off this morning with my period being due next week. Can I ask - does anyone else’s breast pain almost feel burning?

Sorry @chorusline79 I missed your post! I had some horrible intrusive thoughts like that last night. They are the worst part of the anxiety for me.

When the kids went back to school last time I was so disappointed with myself that I hadn’t just fully enjoyed the time having them at home with me because I let my anxiety get in the way. But now I’ve got another chance to enjoy it again I’m letting my anxiety in again! It’s so frustrating and incredibly upsetting when your thoughts go in that direction!

I hope you are ok and that the rest of the day gets better for you. My only advice is to keep reminding yourself that they are just intrusive thoughts brought on by your anxiety, they aren’t real x

Good morning @MrsWhites yes my breast pain sometimes feels like that. It can be a throbbing, it sometimes also feels like shooting pain to the nipple.

@Jericha thank you. I get the shooting pains too, there are so many different types of pains aren’t there! It’s reassuring that other people get the same ones. I get them in both but all of my pains seem to be worse in the left one which causes me anxiety.

@MrsWhites same here. It's normally lefty for me also. That's where my little red mark is as well so I am hyper aware of it at the moment. The fact my period is due and I often have achey boobs is what I try to focus on.

@Jericha I’m sorry to hear your mark hasn’t gone yet. Have you been using any creams or anything on it? I

@MrsWhites thanks. I have been putting daktacort on it for the past two weeks which is anti fungal/steroid. It's not shifted it. I've requested a GP appt today to discuss this plus my anxiety levels, waiting to hear back.

I have no idea what it is, it's not got bigger in the month I've had it and it's not hot, lumpy, large etc so I know that should reassure me greatly. You know how it is though.

@Jericha could it be eczema? I would try something like Aveeno on it. Hope your GP appointment helps x

Thankyou @MrsWhites. You're quite right. It's such a shame the anxiety stops us enjoying the present - I was hoping CBT would help me manage it but I have lost momentum with it with so much else going on

I get the burning pain, it's horrible but has been better since I started evening primrose. I also get throbbing breast pain and recently a lot of neck throbbing too!

@MrsWhites Yes, my breast pain is always a burning type ache. I get it only on the left side and it follows my menstrual cycle. Dr said my breast is more glandular on that side so it shows more effects from the hormones.

I've stopped taking the clarythromycin and rang the doctors this morning. The GP is ringing me back thus afternoon.
My jaw has started throbbing. I do have an issue on that side that has never been treated. I'm a teeth clencher.
Just another pain to add to the collection.
Still feeling dizzy with pain down my left arm.

Thank you both! It helps just to remind myself that other people get the same pains.

@chorusline79 I think it’s really hard to keep any sort of routine at the moment isn’t it!

@ofwarren I hope you feel better after your chat with your GP. The arm pain and dizziness is probably a symptom of your anxiety, it’s awful when the physical symptoms trick us into thinking there is something wrong with us!

@Jericha did you notice a spot before you got your red mark? Sometimes when I get a spot on my breast the redness lasts for ages after even when the spots gone! x

@chorusline79 I’m really struggling with neck pain lately! I’ve put it down to stress/holding myself tight subconsciously x

If it helps anyone my right breast is ever so slightly larger than the left and I get shooting/stabbing/burning/aching/weird sensations in both of them x

Hey @tmh88, quite possibly. It did look like a little bite or spot for the first couple of days. Now it's pink with a couple of broken capillaries in it and sometimes fades, but mainly stays pink. But I am hoping it's my anxiety that is making me think that boob is itchy. The skin there is very pale and very stretched/thin so I'm hoping it's just one of those things that takes a while to shift.

It looks like we are all in the same boat this morning, I struggled with health anxiety all weekend, and it was really bad this morning. To the point where I had to pull over in the car and write something down, because I was so stressed out.

I'm massively obsessing over breast cysts at the moment, even though I have been checked over by the doctor, and they weren't concerned. I do have several by the way, including one which is around a centimetre big underneath my nipple. I just can't get it out of my head… What a nightmare!

Sorry not to reply to posts individually, there were so many!

Hi @Jericha Just wanted to chip in and say I too have been obsessing recently over a little pink mark. I think because it's on the breast one automatically worries about breast cancer, but of course breasts have skin that is just like other skin so I think we should try to tell ourselves not to worry about something we wouldn't otherwise worry about just because it's on the breast if you see what I mean. If it doesn't seem to fit with breast cancer symptoms then it it might just be a bit of something and nothing that a person without health anxiety wouldn't worry about. Easier said than done I know!

@Jericha It sounds like something that is completely normal, and will just go away by itself, completely get that remark that because it's on the breast it seems more scary. Plus when you have health anxiety it's even scarier!

Regarding the burning pain, that is the type of breast pain I get cyclically. It's not particularly bad, but it just worries me because it's near the breast or armpit.

Reached an all-time low and decided to examine my breasts in front of the mirror in the works toilet. Because the light was different…

Then went to the actual loo, and had some pink discharge, it's my predicted day of ovulation, but that hasn't stopped me brain from going mad 😳🙄🥺🥺 It's never-ending.

@Skyliner001

Reached an all-time low and decided to examine my breasts in front of the mirror in the works toilet. Because the light was different…

Just to clarify this was a locked loo. Not a public space, not quite there yet but give it time 👀😳

@Skyliner001 sorry you’ve had a bad day! I’m sure we have all done worse! At least it was a locked toilet...I had a vision of you in the middle of an row of mirrors 🙈