Tips for dealing with hypochondriasis?

Hey everybody,

I need some tips for dealing with my never ending fear that I have some serious illness. I was calm all day, then I scratched under my arm, and have now convinced myself that deep down I feel something and that I have some type of cancer. Even though I just went to the Doctor last week to get checked for breast cancer. I'm also 23.

I can't deal with this. I keep reading online about CBT. Does anyone have any pointers from CBT that could help me out?

Thanks so much guys.
KK

Hi KK, yes definitely look into doing CBT!!! It rescued me from my health anxiety. I too spent many days freaking out about the most unlikely worst case disease senarios. This is a miserable way to live, but so treatable!

One quick exercise that I can recommend is making a probability list. Take a piece of paper, and make two columns. In one column list the reasons that your worry is unlikely to be true, in the other, list the reasons why you think it may be true.

Example: I am worried that I have breast cancer

Reasons that it's unlikely to be true:
I am young and not statistically at risk
I just had this checked out recently by my doctor
I have no real symptoms
I have health anxiety, which makes me fearful of these things

Reasons why I think it may be true:
Because I am scared that it is.

As you can see the first column far outweighs the second, not only in number of facts, but in logic. It's hard to argue with that!:)

Print this out, and keep it somewhere you can see this when the fear tries to creep it. I hope this helps.

Take care, and post anytime!
Scaredy Cat