Health Anxiety at it's peak! Tips please

[SunshineCrescent]

I'm really struggling with Health Anxiety (HA) at the moment, though I guess I would be classed as high functioning. Either way it's not working for me.
Not only am I obsessing over my latest horrific diagnosis but im dwelling on the fact that I'm not enjoying my precious life and am spending at least 50% of the time in HA grasps.
This takes away from my ability to be a present mother and a focused professional, let alone being a wife. The guilts awful.
I'm triggered by a symptom or a new sensation which are unavoidable.
I have had CBT I was referred a while a go but when the trigger is a change in the human body it's unavoidable, I do try and rationalise this but my brain gets carried away.
I just wondered if anyone can relate or has any tips on how to overcome this.

Medication and therapy with a clinical psychologist

"What you focus on grows, what you think about expands, and what you dwell upon determines your destiny."

Quote by Robin Sharma.

Do you remember when you were younger and you had a spot that became so big that you would have sworn it was visible from space? Yet when you moaned about to your friends they had to squint to be able to see it. That's what happens with health anxiety. You get a twinge or a symptom and you laser focus in on it. This tells your subconscious mind that there's something to worry about so that's exactly what it does - worry. That worry then transmits to your body as it prepares the fight or flight reaction in response to the perceived 'danger' and bang - you're in the anxiety cycle.

Finding the root cause of why you're worrying is the key to stopping the cycle. What else is going on in your life? Was your mum or grandmother a worrier?

That quote is great. Thank you.
Through CBT we never got to the root cause of this.
My Grandad had cancer at the time that my HA was at its worst this is 10+ years ago now.
I do find other worries coincide with a new health concern.
I can go a month, 2 months with no worry, a new symptom triggers me. I can't break the cycle new symptoms sensations are inevitable.
My dad suffers with HA. Though as a child he was never unwell and I would not have known only as I got older did I realise.

CBT doesn’t aim to get at the root cause. It aims to target the way you think and behave.
CBT and medication have been helpful for me. I also exercise, spend time outdoors each day. Mindfulness has helped too.

That all makes sense - from the original HA coinciding with your Grandad's cancer (very natural to have a heightened awareness of illness then) and now that other worries set it off; in a way it's become your default way of coping.

Remedial hypnosis would allow you to connect with your subconscious mind and, in a nutshell, tell it to stop. It takes around 3 sessions.

Thanks for the comments 🩷