Health Anxiety - part three!!

[MrsWhites]

Hi ladies, back again for thread number 3!

An accurate representation of my morning so far, well the good news is I haven't poked! And I haven't googled! And I haven't obsessed too much in my head.

I diverted my eyes away from the mirror completely while I got dressed! To avoid the hunt for anything visual on my breasts… I'm still a bit worried about my period, as I'm due on Tuesday, but they are irregular. And I had that spotting about two weeks ago for 48 hours, which at the moment I'm thinking with ovulation spotting. But if the period doesn't come I might get stressed.

@ofwarren So sorry to hear this, hope you get cosy and then can face the day again.

@tmh88 i've done quite a lot of work in a hospital context, following nurses and doctors, and one of the things which quite often happened is people coming in with what they perceived as a lump and actually being an organ in the abdomen. I feel our education is a bit lacking really, because I honestly don't know what's going on in there. And what I should be able to feel.

There was also occasions where somebody might be examined, and a med student might think there was a lump and then a consultant would say well no that's actually the stomach, and it's because this person is overweight/underweight/just slightly shaped differently!

Morning all.

@ofwarren I get awful TMJ pain too. It's always a low-level nagging thing for me because my jaw is badly mid-aligned but when I'm anxious it increases a million fold. It runs down my neck, shoulder and arm too which makes me panic more because they're classic heart symptoms. Such a horrible cycle. I hope you manage to calm down soon.

Hi everyone (I namechanged and haven't been on these threads for a while, but was a ways back)

On Googling --

As far as health anxiety is concerned, Google is pure evil. (Ironic, really, considering their company motto used to be 'don't be evil'.)

It's worth remembering that there are technological and business reasons as to why Google (and other search engines) shows us the results it does, that have nothing to do with our actual health.

When you search for stuff on Google, two things happen.

First, the primary business aim of Google is to get you to click on things. So it's designed to show you things that you will either agree with entirely, disagree with utterly, or scare you completely. (Facebook does this too.) Our health anxiety fears fall into the final one, for the most part.

It is basically a psychological trick, and why search results for frightening (and in most cases extremely rare) illnesses come up so high -- because people click on them.

The other thing that Google does: over time, it stores information about the searches that you do and uses this data to fulfil future searches. If it learns that you often click on search results about alarming/serious illnesses, for example, it will show you more of those. So its results are increasingly based on what it knows you've searched for and clicked on in the past.

DH and I did an interesting experiment a few weeks ago. We both went out to a 4G area and did a search on the same term. I used Google Chrome on my phone (which has all my web browsing history on it) and he used Safari with the cookies and history cleared.

We got totally different search results. I got links to ultra-rare Fatal Ibbly-Wibbly Disease*, he got anxiety and food intolerances. It was really shocking. (Surprise surprise, my issue turned out to be anxiety and a very mild food sensitivity. And not Fatal Ibbly-Wibbly Disease.)

Dr Google is the diagnostic equivalent of Chicken Licken, who thinks the sky is falling just because an acorn fell on his head.

Just thought I'd mention this, in case it helps anyone. It's a very personal thing but when my HA is bad I get some rational comfort from remembering how bloody awful a doctor Dr Google actually is.

*Made-up illness for the purposes of this post

This may be quite basic, but for all you pokey people it mind be a gentle reminder as to why it's completely unhelpful.

@WitchSharkadder

This may be quite basic, but for all you pokey people it mind be a gentle reminder as to why it's completely unhelpful.

Thank you so much, this is actually helpful 😊

@LadyCounterblast Love this 💚 thank you for sharing

@WitchSharkadder that’s very helpful.

I’m in a twist today because the lymph node just below my left ear is a bit more prominent than my right, only just noticed it this morning after noticing the bruised jaw feeling. I asked my husband if he thought lymph nodes should be symmetrical - why would they be was his answer. He’s got a point I suppose but can anyone reassure me that they aren’t always symmetrical?

@ofwarren thank you for reassuring that your jaw pain is only on one side, mine is also left. I hope you are feeling a bit better than this morning x

@MrsWhites Mine aren't! Have a more prominent one on the right side (cervical)

I have a big lymph node on the left side of my neck and not much I can feel on the right.

My gland is bigger on the side of my sore jaw too.
I guess it's because the jaw is inflamed?

Hello! This thread moves so quickly!!! Hope everyone is coping and those having a bad day my sympathy!! I'm doing well with regards to myself but horrendous when it comes to the baby. I've booked her first imms and I'm fixated on her having a rare side affect (1 in 1000 to 1 in 10,000 risk)/allergic reaction to them! I've got like this to the same of lesser extent with some of the other children. This time it's really bad and I'm convinced she's going to come to harm but know she should have them...I've already put them off a month (Thai was also because our eldest son is a shielder and I didn't want to risk anything more than absolutely necessary - we haven't even been shopping!)

@MrsWhites I have a few on both sides of my neck they don’t match the other, in size or place x x

@onlyreadingneverposting8 I was the same with DS, kids are anxiety inducing at the best of times I think! I’m sure they will be just fine but easier said than done!!

Asked DP to feel his stomach earlier he thinks I’ve officially gone mad and doesn’t understand why I feel every part of my body when he never checks anywhere

I think it’s stress but at the minute I am getting horrendous spots! I honestly look like I did when I was 16 at the minute!!

@tmh88 thanks! No one warns you when you become a parents about the anxiety!
I'm generally not a prodder - mainly because I know it'll set something off! But if I get a symptom I'm in the - it'll be serious camp...I think this has come from the experience of my Mum having lost her hearing on one side over night due to a benign brain tumour and a couple of other things. I can look at all the stats I like but it doesn't help. Before this baby I'd had 3 miscarriages and I think I'm quite traumatised. I refused to buy anything until she was basically here.

Stress plays havoc with skin!

One brief google for me so far! No poking though 💚

@onlyreadingneverposting8 I know exactly what you mean about statistics. I have had a lot of things happen to me/my family that are extremely unlikely in statistical terms. It means that even if there is only a 1% risk of something, to me that feels significant because I have been in that 1% before. I wasn't really worried about covid at the start of the pandemic until I read about the young healthy people who died from it. Highly unlikely to happen I know but when you've been in that 1% before it kind of feels more likely that you could be in it again.

Well done @Skyliner001! Keep going

Well done Skyliner!
Me too KasparKat my son's medical condition was one in 10 million people so I know that's it's possible.

I've had a headache all day today. I can't tell whether it's from stress, from my TMJ, from my neck, from the vaccine or from my sinuses. It drives me mad when I can't work out why I have a symptom.

ofwarren I also detest when I can't work out exactly what is causing a certain symptom, it's definitely a control thing! I hope your headache has gone this morning.

Haven't been on this weekend, I've missed so much, the thread moves quick!

I hope everyone is having a successful no poke or no Google weekend.

Friday was a disaster for me, we were awaiting the arrival of a little foster child and everything was up in the air during the day waiting on court slots etc so my anxiety was sky high and manifesting into "you've got a fever" I must have taken my temperature about 25x that afternoon I'm ashamed to say! Prior to having children I didn't even own a thermometer and had no idea what my normal temperature was but the last 6 years it's become an obsession 🙈 yesterday was a bit better though as I was so busy settling the foster child/helping the kids break the ice that I didn't have much time to pay attention to myself!

This morning I'm focused on my stomach pulse, a doctor once told me that my aortic artery was very pronounced for someone of my age and ever since then when I can feel it pulsing it puts that thought back into my head again for god's sake.

I hope you all have a lovely and relatively anxiety free Sunday ❤️