Health Anxiety - Lung Cancer and more

I've been having severe health anxiety for the last three months and despite three trips to the doctor in that time span I'm still having fears about different things even though I know some of the symptoms could be attributed to one of the other things I have (anxiety, underactive thyroid, high blood pressure, recurring ear infections for nearly two years).

My first fear is/was a brain tumor after I started getting these sharp pains in different parts of my head that only lasted a split second. Over time they started becoming actual headaches lasting more than a secon d sometimes for several minutes to hours. Sometimes the pain is dull and sometimes it's a sharp pain. Over the last week or two I've been having less headaches and my doctor said it was probably anxiety. I really do believe my doctor but some of these headaches feel so concerning because some of them are triggered by me moving my head (one happened earlier when I bent over). Interestingly, when I was moving last month and constantly lifting heavy items (something I hadn't done before) up a flight of stairs I wasn't getting any headaches. They still happen but much less. One day last week I didn't have any headaches that day and I didn't even take any aspirin to try and prevent them.

The other fear I've had since yesterday is lung cancer. Despite knowing what damage googling symptoms has done to me in the last two months I looked up reasons for chronic cough and got lung cancer. What scares me the most is that most of the symptoms match. I have a chronic cough, I occasionally have shortness of breath (has happened multiple times yesterday and today), I have occasional chest pain (doesn't last very long though and hasn't happened in several weeks), I have occasional pain in my throat that sometimes goes all the way to my jaw, I heard myself wheezing on Saturday (only happened once, hasn't happened since), the last two doctors appointments I went to I lost weight (10 lbs between October and November and 1 lb between November and December) despite actually having an increased appetite and I have been having headaches. One comfort I have is that in October I had chest x-rays and the doctor didn't mention seeing anything odd and she didn't mention hearing anything when she used the stethoscope.

The other thing scaring me is that I noticed when I looked in the mirror this morning that there was a dark spot in the sclera of one of my eyes and what looked like a dark squiggly line in the other. I'm only 20 years old could this many things really be wrong with me?

Post Edited (sjm0502) : 12/25/2013 8:20:25 AM (GMT-7)

sjm,

It’s tough to be productive in your daily life when anxiety and worry are dominating your thoughts. But what can you do? If you’re like many chronic worriers, your anxious thoughts feel uncontrollable. You’ve tried lots of things, from distracting yourself, reasoning with your worries, and trying to think positive, but nothing seems to work.

Your worries seem to be center in concerns about your health.

If you have never tried mindfulness medication you may want to try it. Using mindfulness meditation to stay focused on the present is a simple concept, but it takes practice to reap the benefits. At first, you’ll probably find that your mind keeps wandering back to your worries. Try not to get frustrated. Each time you draw your focus back to the present, you’re reinforcing a new mental habit that will help you break free of the negative worry cycle.

Link to help you get started with mindfulness meditation:

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/06/03/new-to-mindfulness-how-to-get-started/#.Urr-gZ3naAI

Hi sjm and welcome,

I am sorry to hear that you are currently stuggling with such worries. It can be a never ending cycle of anxiety and symptoms...causing us to become frightened, confused and exhausted.

Here is a link to the Resources here. This will go along with what Kitt has recommended to you...as it is full of other self-help ideas to help you to lower your anxiety levels.

https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=9&m=104206

As our anxiety levels drop...so does our focus on our worries, such as health issues.

There are even recommendations in that link for two books specifically on health anxiety. These could really help.

As far as the spot in your eye...if you have not seen your doctor or opthamoligist lately, then go ahead and be seen to be of the safe side.

However, it is most certainly something benign and easily explained!

Keep talking with us. Support is key. :)

Scaredy Cat