Health Anxiety (Hypochondria), stress etc
Hey, Sorry if this thread goes out of the topic of phobias.
I'm sean. i've been experiencing sorts of health anxiety or hypochondria, quite a bit of stress too the past few months where i think i'm going to get lung cancer or some serious illness.
Why i think this is because i've been googling too much which i know truly is my worst enemy. I don't bother my doctor with this kind of thing at all because i know why i'd visit and i'd know what he'd say, "health anxiety". If i get a cough, wheezing, pain in abdomen anything like that i'll amplify the thought of what is causing it at all times, it is pretty awful. I usually don't encounter a cough or wheezing but i do struggle with chest and abdominal pain which is caused from my chronic gastritis and costochondritis. Just because i know why i feel that way doesn't comfort me in any sense, i can't stop my train of thought which leaves me with horrible anxiety and the feeling of inevitable doom.
i usually work in college through my breaks and programme, i have awful posture / rhomboid pains (Sometimes) because of my posture, sitting at a computer looking closely at the screen all day. I believe my gastritis is coming from my stress, i've been dealing with severe family problems for nearly over a year now, which has been causing me stress. also college is causing me stress.
Can anyone offer any sort of recommendations in what i should do? i've tried such things as "for every negative thought think a positive one" which actually works quite well. can anyone help me with maybe some advice on dealing with stress or even hypochondria?
Thanks - Sean
Hi, my name is Juli and I have suffered from health anxiety for as long as I can remember. However, recently it has gotten so bad I can hardly leave my house because I always have a sick to my stomach feeling that something is wrong with me. I
Hi Julie. That can't be easy for you, and must also be quite time consuming too.
I dont know if you wuill find this useful but its a question I have used before and the answer has been quite revealing and insightful.
Whilst you are concerning yourself with these 'health' issues, what is it you are not thinking about?
Anyway hope that helps, and look forward to hearing from you.
paul
I have also been struggling lately with health anxiety. I think it has been brought on my other stresses going on in im life and i have focused those feelings on myself and the feeling that something is wrong with me. I try to force myself to think whether these thoughts are logical or not and sometimes that helps. I have moments when i feel back to normal and then it just hits me again when i feel a headache or sick to the stomach. This anxiety is probably they scariest thing i've ever experienced. I'm going to keep working on getting through these dark times but i cannot just surrender to the fear. I'm working on it.
Am definitely a hypochondriac . It started when I was in middle school I would watch mistry diagnoses on TLC and I remember I would get scared or have thoughts of having a disease. Whenever I would feel something I would start to panic or have anxiety. It went away for a year or 2 but in high school it came back and I had a phone so I knew I can Google stuff . I would constantly be googling things making myself feel bad, however I did have alot of distractions in high school so its not as bad as it is now . NOW that am an adult, a mom with a job and responsibilities it's finally catches up and made my life hell every day . I been to the ER TWICE, but told I was ok and was given anxiety pills . I was ok after that visit but then i googled something that described all these symptoms i was feeling and it put me back in that hole and now it's hard to get out . My anxiety has gotten so bad that it's hard to go to public places now. I start running out of breath and get scared that am going to have a panic attack. I gotten like 5 bad panic attacks and the rest each day are like a battle. I've gotten them at work, while driving, at a grocery store , and at home when am by myself. I have a doc appointment real soon and am really looking forward to it.
@ANXDEE
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I suffer from health anxiety for as long as i remember, going back and forth to different doctor to check my symptoms. They always said that i'm okay and it's all just in my head. Until 2 months ago, i got appointment with rheumatologist and got diagnozed with (what might be) autoimmune disease and need medication for atleast 6 month. Some part of me glad that there's finally something to call all of my symptoms but i'm also afraid of dying.
And even with all of that i'm still checking to different doctor to convince myself that i don't have other illness, almost every single week. Still got anxiety and panic attack too.
There's still a lot of things to work on, but i'm sure everything will work out in the end (or i hope so)
I have had undiagnosed health issues for awhile and it is very hard. This whole thing has changed my quality of life for the worst. Im always worried one day I just won