Very health anxious dd

[Silvercandlesticks]

My dd (19) has been feeling very poorly for the last 6 weeks. She has awful stomach pains everyday and they have largely stopped her loving life to the full. We have tried cutting certain food out but nothing seems to help despite her having eaten primarily meals of chicken and rice most days. She has been to the doctors several times (seen different ones each time) and has done pretty much every test they can think of (some more than once). All tests have come back “normal” or “ satisfactory”. She has always been very anxious about her health and has been convinced for a long time that she is going to have a heart attack - there is no family history of heart attacks, particularly in anyone young. She has always eaten healthily (home cooked meals everyday, healthy snacking etc). She is not overweight at all.

This week she had an ultrasound scan. The scan did not find anything out of the ordinary other than there is a lot of gas in her abdomen.

However, within these results is the following sentence:

“The right ovary is bulky measuring 43x24x22mm with a volume of 11.9mls however current guidance is that PCO should not be diagnosed until 8
years post menarche.”

Dd is now very worried she has got cancer and they aren’t going to test and diagnose it in time. She thinks she will end up with cancer.

Does anyone have any knowledge of why they do not test (probably because chances of it being cancer are so small?) and what I can say to dd to put her mind at rest? She has always been very health anxious.

Lot of gas in her abdomen - she is anxious and swallowing air. She then ends up with a load of air in her gut which causes her stomach pains.

She needs help with her anxiety.

https://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/what-is-aerophagia

She sounds like she has health anxiety- which is the new term for hypochondria.

www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/illness-anxiety-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20373782

The anxiety this causes can lead to gut problems. The symptoms are very real but they have root in anxiety. She’s may get a diagnosis of functional dypepsia

https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/the-gut-brain-connection

You need to reassure her that she’s ok and this is the way anxiety is showing itself through her body. She needs to take steps to manage the health anxiety which will in turn help the stomach problems (which is a real symptom)

It’s a vicious cycle that feeds one another- so you have to step in an help the anxiety first

There’s probably underlying stress in her life/trauma she has experienced which is usually a triggger for health anxiety and then the gut problems

@AnnaMagnani Thanks for your post. I’ve never heard of aerophagia. She doesn’t have a burping problem or wind, but perhaps this is something we could look into. Yes she has had some therapy last year but I don’t think it did much good. I’m told cbt is good for this type of anxiety but the waiting list is so long. I’m hoping she will have better access to something like that when she goes to uni next year.

@Plumpribbon thank you for your post, yes it is a bit of a vicious cycle. I do try to reassure her but she latches onto anything which makes it very hard.

Try to reassure her that PCO is not cancer and many women have it - if she actually has that. It tends to cause bad period pain and heavy periods. It sounds like she is either swallowing a lot of air if hyperventilating or eating a diet that produces a lot of gas. Maybe she could keep a diary of her pain, periods and food and you could look at it together and take results to the GP?

Sometimes antidepressants can help- it’s to do with the brain signals to the gut. I think SSRIs are usually used. That may be the next step that help d both the anxiety and the physical symptom's that she’s experiencing.
its hard because the symptoms are real but when people say it’s anxiety that’s causing it- people believe that they are making it up. Especially when tests come back negative.
but the brain/gut connection is so powerful, we are only just beginning to understand how it works.
it’s hard, I’ve known someone to have been in this cycle for a year now. It’s been very hard to get them believe that they don’t have an underlying condition and to get the to take the anti depressants. But CBT/ medication has helped. This persons cycle was triggered a lot of big life events happening at once but they are finally seeing improvement. Good luck

@MotherJessAndKittens thank you for your reply. Yes perhaps this is the cause of it. I’ll suggest this to her tomorrow It’s strange that none of the doctors have suggested this.

@Plumpribbon I had thought anti depressants would be a last resort. But perhaps it’s worth looking into. I don’t think there is a quick fix. I hope the person you know continues to improve.