If you have health anxiety how do you snap yourself out the cycle?

[ThatNattyPlayer]

Just that really
i get stuck in cycles of obsessing over certain illnesses if i have any symptoms
(im also a terrible googler!)
usually anything I type in symptom wise comes back with worst case scenario then I obsess that’s what’s wrong and I lose all control over my emotions
if you have health anxiety but you are controlling it, any tips on how to snap out of it?

I am in the same boat and know exactly how u feel. I have had some bad news and I keep castrophising and a terrible Googler too and thinking the worse as well! Sorry I can't give any advice except I'm in the same boat and I'd love some too!

Sorry to hear you are having a hard time, I hope positive things come your way
i I know there probably isn’t a magic way of solving health anxiety, would be nice though!

Resisting the urge to Google, put your phone down/away/switch it off and go take part in real life that's happening now, not what might happen, what you might have. That's what I do.

visit the GP, or whoever they offer if I can
remind myself, i had this before and it went away

fill my life with other thoughts and worries.

Don’t have much advice but I can relate to what you are saying OP. I have suffered with health anxiety off and on for many years. I’m currently in a bit of a cycle myself.

I tend to shut down and stop doing things which is bad because I will sit and focus on my symptoms, which makes them worse. I become hyper aware of every little pain and sensation, thinking it must be something really bad when in fact it’s probably just normal aches and twinges. And I can jump from one thing to another so the thing I was obsessed with previously, doesn’t bother me as I’m worrying about this new thing.
Distraction is good but as soon as I’m alone again I start wallowing.

I avoid googling and symptom checking. Try and distract myself with other things, but if I have had a symptom that I have been worried about for 3 weeks I make a gp appointment. I try and remind myself of the 100 other times I thought something was seriously wrong and it was nothing.

I try and imagine life like a journey, some people we walk with for ages, some just for a little while but we enjoy them all whilst we are with them.

Therapy. It's the only thing which helps me break the cycle and restore my rational thinking. Just started another round and I can feel it doing me good already. An expensive (and temporary) solution though.

CBT. It can be useful to get professional help but you can teach yourself. Really helps you to reframe in a logical and simple way.

Cognitive behavioural therapy helped me. It’s not 100% and I still have wobbles but it definitely stoped me spiralling.

Unfortunately I didn’t find CBT worked for me.

I had terrible health anxiety in the past . Then I was indeed diagnosed with a rare head tumour that caused deafness on one side. After that I felt that the worst had already happened to me and nothing scared me anymore . My health anxiety is now completely gone.

CBT didn’t work for me, tried a few times now, everything they showed me went out the window as soon as I started spiralling.
i would try it again but can’t afford it right now

What were your symptoms because I have a CT booked because i have deafness if my left ear. So worried

I developed health related OCD as a medication side effect; it's slowly fading now I've changed medication but what helped me in the depths of it:

• Identifying and naming the thought. I'd literally think "ok, that's an OCD thought". Then I was thinking about it being OCD/anxiety rather than a real concern.
• Not reassuring myself or seeking reassurance - this is really hard but it makes sense because reassurance feeds the thoughts by making you feel like they were rational in the first place. Instead it would be like "ok, this is an OCD thought. It's there, I can't do anything about it, but I don't have to pay it any attention".
• these first two steps made it easier to distract myself so I didn't need to carry out the compulsions to "save myself"; if I had named the thought and was now picturing it sat harmlessly in a little corner of my brain, it suddenly didn't feel necessary to do anything to change it.

Hi op. I’d see your doctor again, I think the correct term is illness anxiety disorder, sometimes called hypochondria, and it’s very difficult to treat.
often anti anxiety medications, with anti depressants, ans phsycotherapy and cbt as a combined approach can help.

id not chose to love my life like this, I would see a gp again and see if you can get treatment,

i dont think you can snap yourself out.
but i am sure you can concentrate on other things

I’ve had this off and on for most of my adult life so probably 40+ years. I suffer from anxiety in general as well as this, although I do have long spells when I am ok.
As a previous poster mentioned, I also think too much about my symptoms and think I actually make them worse. The mind is a powerful thing. CBT and antidepressants did nothing for me unfortunately so I just try and deal with it myself.

It’s great if you can distract yourself but I find it difficult. Just have to ride it out.

No answers just solidarity. You are not alone.

If you can trace your health anxiety back to an event, experience or illness, you may find EMDR more useful than CBT.

On my worst days I acknowledge today it's bad so don't push yourself girl. Of course it's often unavoidable when you've got a stressful day ahead. Give yourself some slack and maybe a diary of how you're feeling. This helps when you look back and realise there were positive days and you will feel like that again.

GP and medication as well, nothing to be ashamed taking something that can help yoir MH. Xx

I am going to see my GP again Tuesday, my previous doctor wasn’t very helpful at all and seemed like he just wanted to rush me onto tablets and get me out.

How did you get on with GP?

He just suggested a higher dose of medication and CBT again
unfortunately I was due to see a different doctor but she wasn’t available so I had the same doctor as last time who didn’t give a shit and tried to get me in and out in 3 minutes