Health anxiety (C word)

[EJEL]

I’ve suffered with health anxiety on and off for 2 years now or just over. Since I had a lump scare in my breast which thankfully turned out to be tissue I wasn’t used to feeling due to weight loss. Anyway I’ve been ok for a while, been doing bio energy healing and it seemed to be going great. Fast forward to July this year and I noticed one of my nipples smaller than my other all of a sudden. I looked back on photos I had taken of them in april as before photos for a breast lift I’m hoping to have next year, I can now see in those photos they were like it then but I hasn’t noticed, now I’m worrying that I’ve had it months and just left it. After hours of googling obviously I’m convinced it’s cancer. I really don’t want to go to the GP it makes me worse, I feel deep down I’m being silly but then my head is telling me what if you’re not? 😩 my youngest is 2 and a half years old and I’m not pregnant so I don’t understand why it would just change. Has anyone else just had nipple changes for no reason? I have no pain or lumps or discharge from the nipple. I’m 29 almost 30 btw and my mother passed away from breast cancer in 2009. It wasn’t genetic kind but still makes me terrified none the less. Thank you If you’ve gotten this far.

Health anxiety is crippling. You're not alone x

...I’m convinced it’s cancer. I really don’t want to go to the GP...

Read that sentence again. The only way you will know if it's cancer (or not) is your GP, or whoever s/he refers you to if necessary. Very few peoples have symmetrical nipples (or eyes/ears, etc) but you will only get peace of mind by having them checked by a HCP.

I totally get what you mean, but what I mean by is I’m convinced it basically my anxiety is convincing me, deep down logical me feels I’m being silly. Also the last time I went to the GP I ended up not having an appointment letter until 11 months later. I had to pay to go private in that end which wasn’t cheap. I can’t do that to myself again and give in to the meltdowns everytime. I need to learn to manage it and I think running to the GP everytime only fuels it for individuals with HA. The reassurance only lasts a short while before we fine something else to obsess over. By this post I was just hoping to find someone going through similar x

@EJEL I'm the same. My Dr is very understanding but I feel silly going. Health anxiety is crippling and hard to explain because the logical part of your brain knows it's silly but the anxious part takes over x

I understand. Anxiety is the human emotion that is designed to make sure we don't ignore/forget stuff that's important to us. But when it goes into overdrive it's distressing and debilitating. So rather than have a knee jerk reaction to the mind going "OhmyfuckinggodImabouttodie" at anything and everything you need to be the adult in the room.

Imagine your child wakes in the middle of the night screaming that there's a monster under the bed. Do you scope them up, run into the night shrieking for help or do you reassure them that there's nothing to be frighten of, you're there and you are in charge? That's what you need to do with your thoughts. Thoughts are not facts. They are random ideas that flit in and out of your mind. You can decide which ones are important and which ones you can discard, or at least dismiss as too unlikely to be pursing.