Lonely in health anxiety:)

[Yana 0]

Hello! I suffer from health anxiety for years now. In the past year I had worries about my lungs, heart, ovarian cancer and others. Now is a strange mole that I am obsessing about...

Everytime it's the same: I worry about a month ot two, always think that this time it is really something dangerous. Although on some level I know it's not this bad feeling stays with me. Then I go to the doctor, calm for 2-3 months until the next "symptom". I have tried psychotherapy, now I will try some more and other practices, I got interested in spiriual stuff, meditation, etc

I would like to write with someone that has or had similar experience beacuse it is hard to talk about that with my family and friends and feel understood.

[Ms.Moon 18]

I think we all go through this with health anxiety.  If it’s not one thing it’s another.  We all come here for community and to find people who are going through similar issues.  I too tried therapy but right now I can’t get to my therapist but I am thinking I might need to see if he is doing phone therapy because I really need to get stuff off my chest.  I tried acupuncture, I use the Pat Longo visualizations and Anxiety Guy to try to get myself together and last year when I was going through a particularly bad spot of anxiety last year I went for Polarity Therapy.  We are all going through a very difficult time now I hope being here can help you through this as well.  

[MARC 431]

I have had health anxiety off and on for many years and try to keep it to myself as many people dont understand and have there own problems to deal with. I have talked about it to my wife and physician but try to limit those talks unless absolutely necessary. 

[Louise 0]

Hi Yana,

I have suffered with Health Anxiety for over 8 years now and I know how lonely it can feel, but you are not alone! 

This is my first time using a forum as  I was always too embarrassed to talk about it but even just looking through some of the topics I can'd believe how similar peoples situations are to mine. 

I have been an anxious person all my life but it got much worse when I went to college. I tried drugs and that made things 10 times worse for me. So much so that I was having 2-3 panic attacks a day. It was exhausting

I don't have panic attacks as much anymore but have constant anxiety about my health. I have convinced myself that I had ALS, brain tumours, breast cancer, leukemia, heart failure ....I could go on. My doctor will re-assure me of one thing and ill find something else to obsess over. It's hard on my husband as he wants to help but doesn't really understand  why I think this way. He is a great support but its hard to explain to someone who has never suffered from something like this how much the symptoms feel real. 

Another big thing for me is a constant fear of choking/my throat closing up. I convince myself that I am allergic to foods and panic anytime I try something new. I always get scared about my food being contaminated with chemicals and poisoning me. I hate eating anything fatty/chewy as I have a huge fear of choking on the food and not being able to breathe.

It is a daily struggle but I try to do yoga and breathing exercises to calm me down. Sometimes it's not enough so its nice to get on a forum and chat to people who have the same issues. 

[Yana 0]

Thank you for the answers!

I am often thinking about what is the deep reason for this, the core issue. May be for everyone is different but it might have smth in common. Like what does this fear of being sick hide, for what is it a coping mechanism and what benefits it serves. I am trying to go deep and dive into the fears but it is not always rewarding, sometimes it feel like just pain and going crazy. I believe that all the other stuff like meditation, affirmations, pills, etc. are great but as a supporting therapy.

What is your experience with that? have you reached some insights?

[Ms.Moon 18]

14 hours ago, Yana said:

Thank you for the answers!

I am often thinking about what is the deep reason for this, the core issue. May be for everyone is different but it might have smth in common. Like what does this fear of being sick hide, for what is it a coping mechanism and what benefits it serves. I am trying to go deep and dive into the fears but it is not always rewarding, sometimes it feel like just pain and going crazy. I believe that all the other stuff like meditation, affirmations, pills, etc. are great but as a supporting therapy.

What is your experience with that? have you reached some insights?

I was a sickly kid.  I had asthma as a child and went to the hospital several times because of it back then.  My actual health anxiety issues began eight years ago after a friend of my sister’s died after falling asleep at the wheel of his car and she fell into a terrible depression that took her a long time to recover from.  I tried to be a good sister and be there for her but she went very deep inside herself.  Then when spring came around I was very sick with my allergies I kept getting sinus infections and my doctor put me on Singulair.  I had a terrible reaction to that medication one of the very last side effects of Singulair is anxiety.  I had to shut myself away in a train bathroom to keep from having a screaming fit of panic on the Long Island Railroad because my anxiety was so bad.  I am scared of heights and  I was on the train that was on an elevated line more than ground level and I was freaking out on the train.  I  struggled with health anxiety since then.  I started acupuncture and it helped for a bit but since then my health anxiety has been going and coming.  

[affirmlive 0]

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[Bobnnat 496]

Hi Yana,

I briefly was under the care of a psychiatrist and I mentioned that very thing; can we do psychotherapy to get to the root of my HA? He asked me why? He said let's assume we have a breakthrough and now you know why you are the way you are. What good will it do?  

I believe him. What contributed to my problems likely stemmed from things in childhood which is long ago and cast in stone in my brain.

Bob