Have I really got health anxiety or do I just overreact?

[CountrySnail]

I would like some perspective please.

Yes I suffer from anxiety and get anxious about stuff but it has been suggested to me that I have health anxiety. I don’t worry about every little ache and pain. Things come and go and I don’t immediately go off on one and diagnose myself with a deadly illness if I experience various symptoms. But if something lingers, eg currently suffering for many weeks from indigestion/heartburn etc (I’ve got meds for that) , I start becoming obsessed with it and think about it 24/7, which makes me feel worse. I am not imagining the symptoms though. They are real.

I admit that I have anxiety and now and again I latch onto something and worry constantly. But it’s always over a situation that’s happening and when the situation resolves, then the anxiety clears.

Do I have health anxiety or maybe just generalised anxiety which applies to all aspects of life, including health?

I don’t take antidepressants. I have been on them in the past but they didn’t make much difference tbh. Tried telephone CBT but that didn’t help much either. I need to sort myself out but don’t know where to start.

Thank you for reading.

I am exactly the same but I’m not sure how you would define it. Probably more in the realm of generalised anxiety.

I can go along quite nicely for months on end, calm and just getting on with things and then suddenly something will happen and it will knock me sideways. It doesn’t have to be illness but just something that happens in life (can’t cope with my kids troubles especially) but I will overthink and drive myself crazy with the what ifs. Maybe it’s a control thing and the things we worry about are out of our control.

I have been to gp in the past but all they can really offer is meds or a referral to talk therapy which in my area is pretty poor. The last time I was on meds, there was a h

It is an anxiety issue of some sort for sure.

I start becoming obsessed with it and think about it 24/7, which makes me feel worse

We are not anxious about ‘the thing’, we’re anxious about our ability to cope with ‘the thing’. How we judge our ability to cope will depend at least partially on how big we perceive the problem to be.

In the same way, a speck of dust can start to look like a monster through the lens of a microscope if we magnify it to a large enough degree, so our worries, concerns or anxieties can start to look life-threatening if we spend too much time focusing on them.

However, if we back away from a problem, and allow ourselves to stop thinking about it for a while, it’s surprising how quickly we can realise what we thought was a monster was just a speck of dust.

(As an aside I get heartburn occasionally, but can make it vanish by simply asking my subconscious if it's serving any purpose. It's a handy trick!).

Likely generalised anxiety with some health anxiety traits.
Your symptoms are real, but anxiety is making you focus on them more.

Whatever it is I need some help. I really don’t want to take antidepressants but I think I might have to. I can’t live like this anymore.

I see you’ve had telephone cbt in the past OP. Maybe you would benefit from face to face sessions or group therapy?
Is that something that is available on the nhs in your area? You might have to pay someone privately if not.

👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻

This!

I’m the same as you, OP. I have ADHD and I hyper focus on stuff with a ridiculous ease. I have to really catch myself on the spiral and re-direct my focus to something I find grounding. Using my hands, usually; cooking, baking, gardening. It’s no use reading or watching TV when I’m down a hyper focus rabbit hole, I need to do something that gets me physically out of my head.

Yes I’ve had telephone cbt years ago but didn’t really get much from it. However, I waited so long for it that by the time it came along I was feeling ok so didn’t engage with it, thought I didn’t need it, which clearly wasn’t true. And half the time was spent doing the questionnaire each time about how I was feeling. I think I probably need face to face and will have to fund it myself somehow.

I’ve been trying to up my exercise and get out for walks each day but it’s not helping. I just ruminate as I go around.

Have you tried looking for glimmers on your walk?

Also, I saw this on FB recently, posted by the hypnotherapist Kevin Wolchansky;

For a change in pace, routine and patterns to your manner of thinking, I share the delightful gem. Thoughts are neither truth or facts, they are concepts and ideas that your brain offers in that particular moment or situation.

For those individuals who believe they have more than their share of " stinkin thinking" types of thoughts, I have fantastic news, which ironically by its nature will not stay in the forefront of your mind!

A large part of most people remembering the hard times, or the traumatic situations as memories, is largely in part for our survival. If something was pleasant and joyful, it posed no threat to our longevity, no risk of mortality associated, with the events. So no alarms or cautionary reaction were activated in the grey matter, so less of an imprint recorded.

The 4 bell alarm events of our lives, well they have a full blast of hormones and chemistry activated, to etch onto the recall boards, so we can learn analyze and not repeat, would be my guess.

So the great news about how your thoughts work, intrusive, negative and demeaning, as they may be, is they are changeable in content and presentation.

I’m not sure I know what glimmers are tbh.

Are they glimmers of hope or nice things that you see and notice as you walk around ?

Maybe. The only problem is that the way I am at the moment I might see some nice daffodils for example when I’m out and I think “yes they look nice but I’m still worried about my indigestion”. I can’t switch off. Is the fact that I’m even noticing them a good thing?