Health Anxiety

[ReadytoRun]

Anyone suffer with Health Anxiety????
Always checking my breasts.
sometimes up to 20 times a day.
really need someone to talk to. 😢

Oh bless you. It’s horrible isn’t it.
I’ve had this in the past… if I get a symptom, I still get really anxious but I’ve stopped the checking behaviour.
I made myself a rule at first. No checking in the eve before I go to sleep and no checking at weekends when I’d not be able to get an appointment. Now I check once a week in the shower and try to leave it there.
Can you tell your GP? For reassurance about your breasts and also with dealing with the health anxiety. Hope you can get on top of it as it really is debilitating and hard to understand when you’re not in that place.

WolfStar Thanks for the reply
I have been to my GP and I’ve had reassurance from her.
I just can’t stop checking, I’m always feeling different lumps in my breasts.
I check with soap, laying down, and sometimes on my hands a knees. They always feel so different.
Apparently what I’m feeling is Norma breast tissue.
It moves around when I feel it.

I've heard some breasts are naturally lumpy, it makes it difficult, doesn't it! The more you check, the less reassured you will feel – as there is always the feeling that you may have missed something.

If you're checking around 20 times a day, it does sound like compulsive behavior and possibly OCD related. I think health anxiety and OCD are pretty closely related
anyway.

Did you tell your GP about that aspect? You might benefit from counseling to help you overcome the health anxiety. I'm guessing that if you weren't fretting about your breasts you might be working about another health aspect?

Do try to cut down the checking gradually – like I say, not doing it in bed or at weekends (for starters) helped me to get on top of it. When you feel the checking urge, can you try and do something else to take your mind off it?

Thanks WolfStar
Ive been on medication for a very long time now.
Sometimes it just gets overwhelming and tiring.I’m so exhausted it’s interfering with work and family. I guess I just needed to chat with someone that has same or similar issue.

I’m really sorry, that sounds awful. I do know how you feel as I’ve had various ‘focus’ obsessions over the years… oral cancer, obsessively feeling my glands, breast checking and worrying about moles.
I completely avoid googling now, which has helped.
I did discover I was anaemic, which may have affected my anxiety. I feel a bit more chilled these days.
I seem to avoid checking now but I do still get focused on minor symptoms. It is exhausting and all-consuming!
So lots of sympathy and I do hope you can find a way forward. Seeing someone who specialises in ocd / compulsive behaviours might be helpful? It’s a difficult area and needs someone who really understands the issues.

Anxiety really bad today…
I couldn’t even concentrate at work.
im finding it so hard to cope with the OCD and thoughts of maybe I missed something.
😢😢

You say you’re on medication. Have you had counselling with someone who knows OCD?
Sorry you're feeling so unsettled. 🌺

WolfStar
I have had counseling in the past.
my doctor seems to think it’s a seasonal thing. She looked back through my notes and it’s the Same time every year my anxiety is at its peak.

I suffered with health anxiety for many years. I thought it was just who I was and it’d never change my dr suggested CBT, I didn’t think it’d make a difference but it really did. A couple of years on I sometimes get the thoughts but I’m able to rationalise and stop them much better with the techniques the give you

CBT helped me. As did the right meds. If it’s the same time each year could you up the meds around then?
Seeking reassurance doesn’t help with health anxiety.

You may be able to self-refer for CBT.
Have a look here.
https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-treatments/talking-therapies-and-counselling/nhs-talking-therapies/
Every area has different things on offer

I find this time of year I always get an anxiety flare up as well. My cardiac anxiety and covid fears have been fine for a while but resurfaced in the last month or so. It’s not like I’ve got this cracked so take this with the appropriate pinch of salt!, but I know the more I engage with the checking etc, the worse I will get. I’ve slipped and broken out the o2 sats monitor and the pulse checking was creeping in, luckily I recognised where I was heading and I’m making adjustments to get back on an even keel but it’s made me realise I’m probably always going to be prone to peaks and troughs of health anxiety. It takes so much to break the cycle but even if you just cut down gradually it will really help, I promise. You’ve been medically checked, you know logically you are ok, so you don’t need to touch your breasts. If you find you are wanting to, try to find a distraction. The more engaged you are with other people, work, hobbies etc, the less you’ll have for feeding the anxiety with the checking. If you find yourself being irritated with demands on your time that prevent you doing the checking, try to remind yourself that it’s healthier to engage with the rest of your life as fully as you can. You have to be able to acknowledge that the fear isn’t rational though. If you’re still thinking “what if, maybe I have”, you’ll justify the checking. If you can’t do that, I would think maybe it’s time for medication change or some form of therapy, OCD and health anxiety is usually pretty amenable to CBT type approaches but again you have to want things to change and be willing to be uncomfortable while they do. I hope you’re feeling a bit better soon OP, health anxiety is a complete joy sapping bastard of a condition, isn’t it.

Had my doc appointment yesterday. She said all she feels is normal breast tissue.
I have little ball lumps in my breast that she says is normal. ( they move around) does anyone else have these?
I don’t feel to bad today.. not sure how long I will last though.
I hate feeling like this,

You must seek help for your health anxiety. Nothing will change unless you seek treatment. It is so debilitating and exhausting feeling how you do. Imagine living without that.

I just want to live a normal happy life with my kids.
It feels like it’s ruling my day to day life.

So see your GP and say that. It can be different. It really can.

I used to suffer from it massively.

Now I don't at all.

Nothing particular to add except that I was almost hospitalised with it at some point as the anxiety was so bad, and now it's not something I even think about.

Just sharing that because I want people to know there is a life beyond health anxiety and it really isn't forever.

Wolfiefan
My doctor knows all of this..
it’s very hard when I live in a rural area, we have very limited people to speak to.
That’s why I have reached out to different forums and this was the only one I got a response from.
I thought it might help talking with other people that suffer the same type of issues.

It doesn’t help to seek reassurance. What helps is proper treatment by medical professionals. If you’re on medication that isn’t helping then go back for a review.

Hi, I have suffered from healthy anxiety, it all started when I had my son via emergency c section and I caught sepsis, I developed ptsd and pnd, and from then on iv suffered with health anxiety if I herd about someone who had an illness I would spend hours on Google looking at the symptoms and thinking if I had them, I would body scan daily make appointments all the time for my heart and moles and breasts and so on.
I think one day I just couldn’t take it anymore and broke down at the doctors, they referred me for cbt and put me on setraline! The combination of the 2 really did help, I learned tools and gradually stopped all the googling and body scanning, I learned how to distract myself when these thoughts sometimes pass through my mind, with mindfulness.
I do find myself struggling every now and then with healthy anxiety again, like at the moment as I have an up coming op, and I have all sorts of thoughts running through my head but, I do try to distract myself. You’re not alone! And it is hard and will be hard to overcome but you can do it! I do recommend cbt, you can refer yourself! Always hear if you need to chat!

Elenaspy25
Thankyou so much..
It just gets very hard and tiring. Sometimes I feel like I’m spiraling and I can’t control it.

Ye I get you, I was the same so tired with it all! Have you had cbt or have you been referred?
by speaking here now, you are already distracting yourself, think of a few things you can do every time tou find yourself over thinking or wanting to body check, listening to music, reading, going for a walk, watching something, organising things, anything you think will distract you in that moment, I always found the evenings hard, when I wouldn’t be busy with the kids and iv finished all the tidying and stuff and just sit there and my mind would wonder.

Elenaspy25
At least I know I’m not the only one out there that has this same diagnosis.
Ive been referred and that helps a bit, but it’s hard when you try and explain to someone that doesn’t suffer with it.

It is hard at first speak to someone how your feeling and your symptoms I remember thinking this ain’t going to help me they can’t stop me body scanning or worry about my health, but they change your mind set!
how are you today?

Elenaspy25
Thanks for your reply.
I think I’m ok.
Ive taken some time off work, I just can’t focus my head is all over the place.
I just want to be able to get up in the morning and not have the feeling and anxiety about my health, or the what if’s.