Anxiety threads.

[Hermittrismegistus]

Can we please have a health anxiety topic?
I'm sick of chat, AIBU and other boards being taken up by stupid 'Omg there was a speck of dirt in my cup. I've washed, bleached and boiled it on the hob. AIBU to think of might die? I'm crying and shaking', type of posts.

Failing that, can you at least move them to the mental health board?

People would still post on AIBU for the attention. I agree it's annoying.

There is a mental health topic. People don't use it. HQ will not move topics out of AIBU and into the appropriate place. We (some of us) have been asking ever since AIBU was born.

Hi there @Hermittrismegistus. We weren't aware of there being a large amount of these sorts of threads, but please do report them so we can have a look - it could just be that they aren't getting reported regularly so we're not aware of them. We don't always move threads unless the OP is asking, in which case we usually would, but if we think a thread would sit better elsewhere, we will. It may well be the case that if someone is in obvious distress and in need of support, a thread may be better in Mental Health than AIBU but we'd take each thread on a case-by-case basis.

With regards to a Health Anxiety topic, that might be a little niche and we'd hope anyone with that issue would find plenty of support in Mental Health or elsewhere, but if there were lots of support for a topic like that we'd definitely consider it.

There are a lot of posts. Unfortunately they are often commented on by people who have no experience of health anxiety. They end up fuelling the anxiety. But the internet is not a good place for people with health anxiety to be searching.

There do seem to be more of these. I don't think we need a new topic, though, since there is already a mental health topic. People often don't post these sorts of threads in the mental health topic, because by the very nature of their problem they are looking for info about physical health issues, and sidelining the mental health aspect.

I think it is a bit heartless to object to this on the grounds that it is tedious for other posters to see such threads (scroll on by!). But if it is potentially damaging for the people with health anxiety to get lots of uninformed, anxiety reinforcing answers to their alleged physical problems/risks, then I can see that might be grounds for moving them, on a case-by-case basis.

(If there was a 'health anxiety' topic for these sorts of threads it would risk the formation of a group of anxious posters acting out and mutually reinforcing their anxiety by obsessively chewing over groundless concerns.)