Health Anxiety or something more?

Hello all, thank you for taking the time to look at my situation and help me with any advice/input you may have.

I am a 24 year old who has suffered greatly from hypochondria/health anxiety my entire life. Even when I was little, I would constantly ask my parents if I got a splinter stuck in my finger or if I was bleeding. This all stems from a fear of dying;I am aware I have this fear and what it can do to me.

Currently, I believe I am suffering from colon cancer. I have had CONSTANT nausea (that gets worse after exercise such as playing a game of soccer) but can also "improve" back to a baseline level, loss of appetite, both diarrhea and constipation daily, and alot of burping/flatulence/indigestion. This has lasted for about the last five months and has not objectively improved or gotten worse.

I have had blood work done that came back clear, an endoscopy that revealed nothing of significance, a CT scan of my abdominal region which also had nothing of significance to show, and a take home stool kit that did not show hidden blood in my stool. The doctor believes it to be IBS, but I disagree as I have no abdominal pain and I have heard that for it to be IBS, abdominal pain must be present.


Last year i suffered through a terrible ALS scare, thinking I was inflicted with the terrible neurological disease. I suffered from intense twitching all of my body, and a bunch of other bodily symptoms that were ultimately chalked up to anxiety.

I am on lexapro (10MG) to try and treat my anxiety, but my symptoms have not improved which results in a viscous cycle of me believing that my symptoms are indeed not anxiety related. I am at a lost of what to do as i've tried probiotics, changing up my diet, and anti-anxiety medicine to no avail. If anyone can give me advice or support, that would be much appreciated. Thank you for reading

Scaredy Cat,

Thank you for the welcome!

Over the past couple of years, I have indeed tried therapy and talking with psychologists in an effort to combat the anxiety. I never ended up sticking with it as I felt the "tell me about your day?/ What problems do you have going on at home?/ How did that make you feel?" questions they ask me does not help me at all. I already know what my fear is- it isn't a mystery that would eventually be found by delving deep into my mind. I am afraid of dying and always have been, simple as that.

It is figuring out how to combat that fear and the physical manifestations that come with it. That is my problem and I am not sure anyone else except myself can do that for me. But I need reassurance that all these physical "symptoms" i feel are only from anxiety.