How do I get through health anxiety

[Pen89ox]

Hello, I was wondering whether anyone had any positive stories to advise. I have had various forms of anxiety for as long as I can remember, I have had CBT in the past and by the time I had my baby 2 years ago I felt like I was mentally the best I had been in years, and despite thinking I would suffer with some sort of postpartum depression or anxiety I never did, I was a normal mum with a normal brain and it was amazing.

Following my little boy joining nursery 18 months ago he got the usual nursery onslaught of germs, this led to a lot of Googling on my part as he had never been properly ill really prior to nursery and at that point doctors were still keeping high temp kids away. It was a really stressful time which seemed to induce health anxiety - I think the Googling meant I just saw how many awful things could happen. I then had quite a severe reaction to the Covid jabs last year which has made my anxiety both about myself and my toddler.

I’m now at the stage where I feel my body actually feels physical pain due to my psychological state, when I’m kept busy and distracted I’m fine 99% of the time but when I’m alone etc I can actually feel pain which gets worse when I’m stressed. I’ve banned myself from Google which works to an extent but I’ll be scrolling through Instagram or Tiktok and an awful story will just appear from nowhere of a really awful illness someone has and I just can’t move past it and constantly just can’t comprehend how these people get through each day.

I had a traumatic childhood at times, one of my parents died in my teens of a terminal illness that had been ignored by doctors for years. Although I feel this isn’t directly related to how I feel now, I presume subconsciously it is somehow.

I just need to know how people live with the constant chance of something awful happening, and if anyone has suffered with health anxiety before and feels better, how did you do it?

Hello! I just wanted to say you’re not alone. I’ve been through really bad health anxiety. At one point not a single second of the day went past when I was t thinking about something being wrong with me, and I’m not even exaggerating, literally every single second. It got so bad I must have been to the doctor or had some kind of scan or checkup nearly once a week at one point.

the more distracted I am the better. I have a very busy job (teacher) which really occupies my mind and until I got completely better I used to really struggle as soon as it got to the school holidays. I did cbt and it really helped me. I’m so sorry to hear about your parent Have you had counselling for this as like you say it could be linked?

Hi. I also wanted to say your not alone. I really struggling with health anxiety and GAD and like you I have gone through numerous forms of anxiety. I am doing CBT and one thing I have learnt is people like us that struggle with anxiety and health anxiety look for certainty (e.g. going to the doctors non stop to seek reassurance, attending A&e and googling) and that’s where the main problem is nothing is certain so we need to train our sub conscious mind to accept nothing is certain but understand we need to be more trusting and accepting in that the physical symptoms we are experiencing are caused by our anxiety.

this video is very good.