For those in their 50s, how do you stop worrying about your health?

[ssd]

I mean, how do you stop worrying about every little ache and pain being something terrifying?

All i hear is people my age being diagnosed with health issues none of us want.

I try to keep healthy, dont smoke or drink, need to loose weight though.

Nothing worrying in family history or mine really.

But i worry about my health getting worse an awful lot. And i see it happening to friends and colleagues all around me, as well as the endless news stories about celebrities with cancer, strokes or dying.

I want to live my life accepting the inevitable but not worrying about it constantly.

Please dont tell me worrying helps nothing, trust me i know this but it doesn't stop me.

Please tell me your secret if you aren't like me.

I’m the same OP have always suffered from health anxiety on and off for most my life, CBT didn’t help much unfortunately. I blame my dad because when I was little if I didn’t eat my vegetables or bit my nails or something that wasn’t “good for me” he would tell me I would die of cancer, he used to show me pictures from National Geographic of children with missing limbs etc and say that would happen to me, it terrified me as a little girl and it has stayed with me throughout my life, as an adult I realised the pictures were children with leprosy and not cancer.

Anyway I’ve had it under control for a good few years but since menopause it’s ramped up again and 2 close friends have this year both been diagnosed with terminal cancer despite recent screenings. I try and occupy my mind with other things and just try and distract myself when dark thoughts enter my head by putting a cosy comedy on the tv or cat videos on YouTube! It’s a horrible thing to have so you have my sympathies.

This happened to my dad. He was very healthy and dropped dead in his late 50s. Doesn’t take a genius to work out where my health anxiety comes from!

I had cancer in my 30s, now I'm just grateful for each day and don't dwell on what might happen. I know the immense stress I went through whrn I had cancer. I don't want to feel that stress again unless I actually have something to worry about!

I'm 57 and what terrifies me is ending up like my parents.Mum had severe stroke age 77, it left her paralysed, unable to speak or swallow.She was in a nursing home for the next 4 years, kept alive artificially. A living death which was horrendous to witness. My dad had dementia for years and went blind. I would much rather have a quick death at an earlier age than go through that.

I’m super fit, slim, don’t drink alcohol or smoke, eat healthily, didn’t take HRT. I got breast cancer twice. And worse, the mammograms on the screening service didn’t detect the cancers and gave me an all-clear, and doctors didn’t believe me when I said something wasn’t right. Mammograms have only 11% chance of detecting some breast cancers, even really large cancers with many tumours, like mine, if you have denser breasts. They don’t tell you that with all the screening info letters. I feel conned and let down by the whole service. Yeah, now I have health anxiety. I didn’t before.

I worry all the time. Whenever something is not right with me I think it's cancer. And I know the older you get the higher your chances are of getting it and i'm in my 50s now. I don't know how to stop worrying, I try and sometimes for a week or two it works but then I will read about someone dying of cancer or something on me will hurt or not feel right and i'm suddenly making appointments so i can see the doc. I wish I could stop worrying about it, as it consumes a lot of my time and energy.

I'm 50 soon and I'm hoping my health anxiety will be less now we have access to more screening etc. I've had breast cancer scares through my 40s, life threatening health issues in my 30s. Have friends who have had cancer at all ages of life. So I'm determined to be as healthy and as fit as possible but to enjoy life now. I know it's hard to not worry about health believe me I'm on anti anxiety meds and have been for years since my brother died but I try to accept that if the worse happened there is treatment available (well hopefully the NHS being what it is) x

Avoiding screening is not a form of health anxiety, because I'm genuinely not that fussed. Even if diagnosed with something, that doesn't mean I would accept treatment, so the screening itself would just be a waste of everyone's time. There was a fabulous article in The Times this week about an American doctor who has decided to refuse any/all life-prolonging treatment after the age of 75 - so sensible.
Just because medical science means we can treat things, doesn't always mean that we should - it's just personal choice. And being in my 50s, I know that I've pretty much had my time anyway, so I'll pretty much relax and just accept whatever comes along.

In general, I’m just not a worrier and this is just one more thing I don’t worry about. Sorry if that sounds unhelpful or smug. It’s not a conscious decision not to worry, I just never really have been a worrier. I’m 55 by the way. I’d prefer not to start worrying now!

I’m 51 and I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease six years ago, so I live for each day and don’t think too far ahead. It’s a bit shit but I’m just getting on with everything while I can.

Years ago my dad told me a story of his youth. He said when he was in his 20's he was always going to the doctors with one thing or another - yet there was never anything wrong with him.

In the end, the doctor got annoyed with him and told him he needed to settle down, get married and have kids because then he wouldn't have time to worry and obsess about his own health. So that is what he ended up doing, and he said the doctor was right.

I guess the point I am trying to make it perhaps you have too much time on your hands. When you have a full, which keeps you busy, you just don't have the time to dwell on things that may or may not happen in the future.

I never ever think about it.

Why do you worry so much do you think ? Are you a bit of a hypocondriac?

I worry too op.

I could have written your post OP and agree that far too much time is wasted worrying about our health and that it becomes all consuming. I wish I could have married a doctor because my pains feel real every day and I need constant reassurance. I tried CBT without success. It really is a horrible anxiety.

Having lost my dad to cancer, within 3 days of official diagnosis, lost my mother to mnd and my sister in law to bowel cancer, I find that dying doesn't scare me, even though I have a child. My mh is shit, I am probably going to get another blood clot.
I figure I'm going to to die whatever I do so I live each day as it comes.

I'm 48. Citalopram worked for me. It's no way to live

It is interesting that many of us who KNOW we have less time left than most, for whom the crap has already hit the fan, have less health anxiety.

Maybe because life IS too short to waste time on the things we cannot change.

I don’t worry about it either. I come from
a line of women who lived into their nineties. No hereditary illnesses. I don’t smoke or drink alcohol. Mildly overweight. There’s not too much to be concerned about.

Exactly, I used to stress about the smallest things but I’ve got a different perspective now.

I don’t really worry but my health at 55 is very different to my health at 49.

In my 50s I’ve had chemo, developed a kidney issue and high blood pressure. Had a suspected heart attack a few months ago which wasn’t. Had to give up playing tennis due to my Achilles.

I live the same lifestyle that I’ve always done. Work, gym, walking, no junk food or alcohol. Never smoked.

Staying healthy for some of us seems to get harder.

I'm quite stoical about it, whatever will be will be. I'm not being flippant but why worry about something that's inevitable - death, or highly likely - an ageing illness.

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway was a bit of a game changing read for me in my youth. Don't let your anxieties rob you of a happy life.

For a start ....and apologies if you do, but avoid anything you read in the Daily Mail....it is hot bed of health anxiety provocation. Nastily woven in between all the other rubbish. I say this being a practice nurse...so many patients confide in me about some gnawing fear to do their health ...because they read about some vague symptom in the DM....latest of which stated that elevated Blood Sugar will be a sure indication of Pancreatic cancer....so irresponsible. I get your Anxiety completely, but honestly, just do the best you can with lifestyle habits and just do not read alarmist nonsense.

I agree @AnOldCynic. When I was rushed to A&E the other month I just thought, well actually, I’d rather go out with a pop if I’m going to go.

Also agree with @Claricethecat45, I never google - I take the view that that’s what the doctors are for.

I never worried about my health until I had to see doctor about blood in my urine when pregnant. They investigated me for kidney tumour. Then few years later I was anaemic and the doctor put me on the 2 week pathway for investigations into bowel cancer. Then few years later went to doctor about heavy periods, ultrasound revealed large ovarian cyst, again they investigated and removed it in case it was cancerous. So for me it's felt like 10 years of doctors being very vigilant which although I'm grateful for has made me more stressed about my health than I would have been. It's very hard to switch off from that feeling of high alert now.. so OP you have my sympathy!!

I’m 59. I don’t really think about it. Venlafaxine helps!

DH is 63. He obsesses about it all the time.