Anxiety is out of control

[Namechan98459857]

Hi all,

Just looking for a hand hold really and some advice. I have quite severe health anxiety and have spiralled badly about multiple things over the years - sinusitis, back pain, smears etc. It is particularly bad in times of stress and I have recently self-referred for some therapy - awaiting assessment. I'm not on meds and I don't really have any tools to help myself, plus I have a toddler to care for and this only adds to the spiralling.

The latest thing I am spiralling about is a mole needing to be checked by the derm, doc thinks it's nothing bad, but my anxiety is catatrophizing it and I can't seem to get a grip on it. Does anyone have this or any techniques they use to calm themselves, as I can't go on doing this.

Thanks so much x

This sounds like me op. I think mine is my ocd, it gives me intrusive thoughts and I obsess until it consumes me. The only thing that helps me is antidepressants. I've tried all the cbt and self help exercises, my brain will not compute it. I just need medication

When did this start? You say it's been a few years - were you an adult (if so was there a particular trigger?) or is this something that began in childhood?

Anxiety is the emotion responsible for bringing our attention to things that are too important to ignore - so for catching planes, prepping for exams and turning off the iron it's very useful (vital, in fact). However anxiety isn't any more knowledgeable than the mind that conjures it up, and can very often be incorrect because it's working on old or misunderstood information.

I think it would be worth giving medication a go.

I was like this and a low dose of sertraline made a real difference for me.

I do think I know where it has come from - my grandmother who was like a mum to me got cancer when I was 5 and I wasn't really protected from seeing her whole decline. She passed when I was around 7. The anxiety didn't really start properly until I was around 19.

Oh really, and how is your anxiety now? Maybe it would be worth a shot.

Miles better! When I started on the sertraline, my anxiety was having a significant impact on my life probably 6 days out of 7. Mine was health anxiety and also generalised anxiety with no discernible trigger - I'd just feel constantly in fight or flight even when sitting on the sofa watching TV. Now I would say I have maybe one day a month where I am anxious enough for it to affect my day. Most importantly for me though, my anxiety NEVER escalates into panic any more. You know when you get a thought in your head and you get more and more anxious and you can feel heat rising up your neck and know you're about to spiral into panic? The sertraline has completely stopped that for me. I don't even have to negotiate with my brain to try and stop myself from panicking - my brain just doesn't respond like that any more.

I've been on sertraline almost 4 years now and plan to continue!

For me the first 3 months of weaning onto the medication was hard, but I've only felt better since then. Some people find it even easier and only have 2-3 weeks of side effects.

Good luck with whatever you decide, I hope you can find some relief. X

Yes, you're probably correct. A quick and easy way to stop yourself spiralling is simply to write down the thoughts that are scaring you. Taking them out of your emotional mind and putting them on paper allows your logical mind to look at them and realise that they are unrealistic - you then screw up the paper and throw it (and the thought) away.

If you need help try this thought record;

www.getselfhelp.co.uk/docs/ThoughtRecordSheet7.pdf

Everyone’s different, but I can’t eat sugar, drink alcohol and have to eat low carb just to keep anxiety/ depression at a not all consuming level. Have you tried looking at your diet? Also if you’re sleep deprived will definitely make it worse. Which is probably not much help to hear when you have a toddler!

I’m a GP and see people with awful health anxiety quite often these days, I think it’s become much more common since the pandemic, perhaps understandably really.

I think the best thing you can do is to get some counselling specifically around the health anxiety which you’ve already put in motion and that’s great. It’s brilliant that you have some insight into it, as it’s so much harder to deal with otherwise.

Other than that the most important thing is to STAY AWAY FROM GOOGLE! Which I’m sure you know. Nobody ever goes on the internet to post the story of how they were worried about a mole and their GP wasn’t worried but referred them anyway and it was all fine. But those stories happen often.

Some people find it a helpful technique to have a “worry half hour” where they set a specific time to allow themselves to worry as much as they like about an issue every day but only within that specific timeframe then they have to go do something else or at least think about something else.

Some people do also benefit from SSRI type antidepressants especially if they also have some generalised anxiety or depression symptoms, or if the health anxiety is part of obsessive thoughts as in a form of OCD. But for most people with pure health anxiety, medication doesn’t help.

I did have one patient who got amazing benefit from seeing a hypnotist in the end (not on the NHS and I believe not a lot of evidence for this but whatever works!)

That’s amazing, I’ll definitely look into it. Glad that it’s worked so well for you. X

Thats really interesting. Do you find when you have more carbs that your anxiety is worse? I did try keto once but the cravings were so bad I stopped.

And yes the sleep thing has definitely had an effect, he still wakes up about twice a night and is very very active.

Thanks so much for your reply, really helpful. I can imagine you see a lot of this. I do feel sorry for my GP!

Yes I’m hoping the counselling will help and I have banned myself from Google already! It’s the worst.

I love that idea about the worry half hour. Will try that. And good to know about the hypnotist, glad it worked for them.