Fear of going to bathroom

I am 47 and have severe health anxiety since last 15 years and was diagnosed mitral valve prolapse with trivial regurgitation before 6 years. All this year my fear was related to heart disease, heart attack, stroke arrhythmia, MS etc. but one week before blood came from my urine and got scared and went to urologist who did ultrasound for KUB and found there was no stone & told me it might be minor infection. The Dr. gave me antiobiotic & told to complete the course. But, suddenly Since one week I got FEAR of Cancer, which started with this infection as i had heard any blood coming is not a good sign & aslo all of a sudden I remember one of my aunt who died of cancer before 20 years, she was having blood in the stool. My mind just remember that event & I started to look at my stool everytime & fearing that there is blood in stool or my stool is black & I will get or have some sort of stomach related cancer. I am afraid to go the bathroom for my poo, even small belching, bloating, gas makes me afraid. How to fight this fear. Plz help me I am dying of obsessing this stomach cancer fear. I know that, this is irrational fear and I know other than cancer, blood can come by ulcer, anal fissure, inflammation of the colon etc.My anxiety is very severe and I am unable to relax or sleep. I am taking cipralex(escitalopram) 10 mg including .25mg rivotril 2 times since one week and also taking bisoprolol (beta blocker) 5mg for my blood pressure. Due to anxiety & fear, now my bowel movement also increased with hard stool and sometimes i feel stomach pain. Anti anxiety medicine are also not helping me to control this fear. Sometimes I am thinking this medicine is only for controlling the bodily sensation due to anxiety & it will not help the symptoms of stomach cancer, what should i do to remove intrusive & catastrophic thought, which brings more flight & fight response. Sometimes i behave like i have cancer, sometimes i fear i will catch & sometimes i want to prevent, its very confusing. I am avoiding to eat much food also. Please some one help me i will be grateful to him. Also five years back i was having H.Pylori bacteria, when i went to check with the cardiologist. He gave me three weeks antibiotic treatment & after stool test, the H.Pylori bacteria was negative. I read that H.Pylori bacteria also can cause Stomach cancer. Also, i just entered the word to know about Acid reflux/Gerd, the search engine gave answer, Gerd or Acid reflux can cause cancer. Which made me more fearful & obsessed. All this nonsense things are coming on the net which we are unbalbe to judge by our mind & get trapped in anxiety vicious cycle & create more stomach problems. Even minor things in my stomach is making me more obsessed & fearful. If anyone is getting gerd or have Acid reflux will he get cancer. All the symptoms of Acid reflux, indigestion or anxiety make me afraid of cancer. How to challenge this negative or catastrophic thought with solid positive answer. So, many populations in this world are having mild or choronic gerd/acid reflux problems & they are living with the symptoms & by taking omeperazole.

I have GAD, HA (health anxiety), OCD and panic disorder. When I first started having blood and mucus in my bowel movements, I freaked. Its obviously not normal so its ok to be scared. BUT I went over the top as well. Right away, I was convinced it was colon cancer. I went to the dr and she ordered my colonoscopy and put me on klonopin to help me get through. Turns out it wasn't colon cancer. JUST ONE teeny little polyp which they removed, some hemorrhoids and colitis. Im being treated now with canasa and I feel a lot better emotionally. I had that same fear of going to the bathroom which of coarse, you have to go, so that fear made me more uncomfortable. I literally felt 10000% better about everything right after my colonoscopy and the dr said no cancer. My suggestion would be to get the dr to treat your anxiety with something stronger. Are you on an SSRI?? They work wonders for depression as well as anxiety. Figure out where the blood is coming from. It could be a situation like mine where its something a lot more simple than your anxious mind is letting you believe right now.

Flipundy1, interestingly, a friend of mine is an orthopaedic surgeon and was promoted to director of a hospital a few years ago. Soon after he begun his new job, which you can imagine was extremely stressful, he started to develop blood and mucus in his bowel movements. Because he worked in a hospital he knew who was the best consultant to see and he promptly had all the usual tests performed to check for all the usual conditions. Everything was inconclusive, and the consultant recommended no treatment. After some time had gone by, he decided to move on from his job as director and not long after he did, the blood and mucus cleared up. So it's very interesting to me to hear you say you have issues with stress and anxiety and you also have symptoms similar to his. I am a huge believer in stress impacting the body physically (not that I think this is a really terrible thing or something that anyone can be blamed for), so for me it would be reasonable to think that this might be just one of the ways that it does. I had two years of panic attacks and anxiety and I believe that's why my symptoms developed. I'm in the same situation as my doctor friend where I have no diagnosis, so to read you saying something similar interests me greatly! I see you list colitis but do you have a diagnosis of UC or crohns? Or is it another type colitis? I know there are very many.

DBwithUC, your advice to stay off of forums and message boards is very very wise indeed. A lot of people think that community is good but I think with this kind of condition it can be more detrimental, so I agree with you fully.