Health Anxiety Part 1

I will get health anxiety ever time I see my Pdoc as  I know she wants me to be the "yes Doctor" patient and I cannot do that.

I practically fly out of the clinic door when we are through with our 20 minute session but I will keep going as I know I need help and sometimes she is right  ROFLMBO.  Please don't tell her I said that.

Giggles,

Kitt

I also have health anxiety, primarily because when I get anxious my blood pressure shoots sky high, yet when relaxed it's fine. Because of this I worry whenever I get anxious that I am going to have a stroke or a heart attack, I especially worry as I have a baby girl and I don't want to leave her. I will read into various aches and pains that it could be my kidneys packing up, my heart packing up, etc, etc but when I was in hospital after having my little girl 10 months ago they did a multitude of tests on me and everything was all good aside from the high blood pressure readings, after a while I did manage to become more relaxed there and finally got perfectly healthy readings and the medical staff believed me about my anxiety. I tend to get get mostly heart palpitations with my anxiety and of course the more I feel it the more worked up I get, it of a vicious cycle!! When I'm not anxious I don't even really notice any pains in my body or my heart rate.

I am trying not to google about health anymore as my hubby tells me off as it makes my anxiety increase ;-)

I am trying to overcome this fear, if anyone has any suggestions that may have helped please post, would be most appreciated!!!

Cheers,

Karen

jazzy29 said...
Hi all, I have health anxiety in a big way too. I have not seen anyone with the same as me but i will share anyway in. I have had a long standing fear with my private parts, obsessing that there is something wrong terribly wrong with it, so have to keep checking it. I also have the same thing with my mouth on occassions, i worry that my teeth might fall out or my gums will suddenly recede really badly!!! They are my main 2 at the mo bit i also worry about certain foods being cooked properly incase i get food poisoning.
I have the most random and irrational thougths about things sometimes it is unreal and would be to worried to share them incase they are worse than anyone elses. I try to remind myself that where would all the great movies and books come from if we didnt have imagination!! then i dont feel so bad.

Its so ggod to be able to share on here, it has helped me sooooo much
Thankyou x

jazzy, kind of odd but i have dreams my teeth fall out. idk why but i have had them for years. not all the time but ocasionaly.

Hey Percycat :)

Glad to hear you are doing better. I have the same issues and I know it gets tiring. Try looking and the CBT thread. There are some posts on there with more coping skills. I know I like to keep my arsenal loaded with tons of stuff to conquer my anxiety and panic :) lol. . . The A/P Military Manuevers :)

Take it easy!

I suffered from some dissociative disorder, called depersonalization, absoulte horror that was. Now i have health anxiety over alot of things to do with feeling spacey or if im not clear headed i hate that, thinking what if it suddenly happens again but then i have to try very hard to turn those thoughts around and remeber that i got better because of the steps i took. But then i read something on meditation that said if u do this relaxing exercise u will go out of body. How i wish i never read that book! constant obsessed panic state 24/7 i never wanted to relax, i culdnt coz my chest would just tighten up, relaxing became a no zone, then it went irrational that i cant experciance feelings of any any joy etc coz it will happen, of course it bloody doesnt!! but anyway its been 6months im better but still have panic attacks over it, and its hard bcoz when u have other anxiety issues at least u can go and relax or do some breathing exercises but how could i when that was part of the problem! i was too frightened to talk to anyone, and didnt want to take the risk as im a single mum and feel very pressured to stay ok. so to me that was too risky. Truly the worst obsession i reckon ill ever have. Absolute shocker. Im still having problmes with it, could anyone set me straight please. i kept this lil obsession to myself and still do bcoz i know how stupid this is and that noone without anxiety would understand. i need constant reasuurance 24/7 to overcome my obsession, i need somone to shake my head and tell me its ok! but i dont have that. i have started to see my therapist again :) i feel like i need to somehow release this obsessive thought when im having a panic attack over it but dont know what i should do!!!

Learn the difference between Scary/Warpy Thoughts and Postive/Rational Self Talk :) Thanks Kitt!

Kitt, good idea of now posting how we are dealing with our health anxiety and getting past it.  I can say it's CBT for me.  Each and every time a symptom pops up (like my heart pounding fast and hard as it has been for weeks now) I tell myself yes, I am having this symptom and it is my anxiety and nothing more serious as I know in my head I have had all the tests done and nothing found so I know now that it is my anxiety and I just have to keep repeating to myself that I am okay and I can deal with this symptom and go on with my day and just ignore it.  It's very hard at times to do but it does work.  I don't let this symptom stop me in my tracks any longer.  I know what is causing it and I know I'm not going to die from it.  I know this because if it were something more serious and when I exert myself it would get worse or something would change but it stays the same and when I am active and busy and not just sitting and focusing on it, I don't even notice it.  I have also gotten out my books again that my therapist recommended last year and have been reading them again.  Refresher course can't hurt.

racer, many people have no insurance right now.  I get anxious about that very thing so perhaps we should have a thread about the economy and how we are all coping.

I had to get new glasses and it cost $665.00 out of my pocket, no insurance that cover glasses.  I also was told that I am showing signs of the beginning of catarcts.....no problems for 5 or so years but with age does come problems that were not there years ago.

Thank you for your input.

Hugs

Kitt

......."Those scary warpy Thoughts "
you will find up top in yellow sticky with "WENS" name at end with all the links to relaxation CBT ect ect ........

Hi again Twisted. I also know that feeling very well. Running a farm with allergies and asthma gives me some major sinus headaches (like my barn right now with no fresh air:) and worry me sometimes. With the pain being amplified by the anxiety I think it is enough to scare most people. At least you realized exactly what you were feeling and was able to calm yourself down with positive self-talk :) Not everyone is so lucky when that scared so congrats!

Hope your cold gets better. . . Drink lots of fluids :)

For a long time I just lived with my health anxiety. My ways of dealing with it, lots of googling unfortunately. I'd have myself quite worked up in all the worse case senarios! Then I'd finally break down and go to the doctor. But rather tell them about the anxiety I'd just make sure what I was worried about wasn't true. Then I'd most of the time be able to let it go, until the next "symptom" popped up. This last time I wasn't able to let it go though, two eye and one doctor appointments later. I still felt something was terribly wrong, and doing way too much reading online still.

It's had for me because I do have real health problems, telling the difference between them and my anxiety is something I'm going to have to have to work on for probably a long time!

How do I deal with it now? Not only do I have the antidepressant and anti-anxiety meds, I also have to work on this myself. No more googling, period. I don't care what it is, I've banned myself. I will only try to diagnose myself, and I know it. I also have to change the way I think about things. Not everything is worse case senario, and that's what I need to start believing. I also agree with keeping busy, finding something you like to do. I'm going to start looking for a hobby. Perhaps painting? Or knitting even. Something to keep myself busy besides GOOGLING!! LOL Anyway it's a start, I know it's going to be a long road. You don't have this since a child and expect for it to go away quickly!

Oh yeah those shows can be bad too!

I've only been on the antidepressant for almost two weeks now. It's like night and day really. I'm no where near 100%, but I'm finding things more managable. Less panicky, and sleeping better finally. I haven't gone CBT route yet, but will if I feel this isn't enough. I'm guessing I will need to!