Health anxiety and constantly need reassurance

[Ace6913]

Hi there,

Im not new to health anxiety I suffered horribly about 4 years ago when I found lumps in my neck wich triggered anxiety and panic attacks at the time I was absolutely convinced I had cancer of course I googled and I had all the symptoms of the illness it just snow balled onto constant visits to the Drs and emergency because I felt no one was listening to me. It was just the one last dr I saw made me realise I had anxiety and everything I was feeling was anxiety itself not some life threatening illness . In time I moved on and accepted I had to make the change and I did . Now 4 yrs on I'm suffering again and once again found a hard small lump on my wrist whilst I was washing my hands straight away before I could take my next breath I fell straight into panic mode and then onto anxiety I was proactive straight away went to the Drs got X-ray done everything came back clear but alls I've been left with is fear that they missed something or the X-ray just won't show what it really is meaning I think it's cancer I can't believe I'm putting myself through this again 😔 I feel extremely disappointed in myself

[Mandyb]

Thanks Ace,

Good for you for being proactive. I'll keep an eye out for your future posts.

You Are Not Alone

Mandy

[Broncies_18]

I'm going through the exact same thing when I got my blood pressure checked and me being 18 and having a reading of 160 freaked the hell out of me. Thanks to Dr Google and various articles, i'm scared that I have an undiagnosed heart condition and it could kill me any second and it plays on my mind all the time and don't know how to get rid of it, hopefully seeing the doctor will help me out. I have also had bumps as well and convinced myself it was cancer but lo and behold nothing happened to me and I'm talking the last 3-4 years.

[Ace6913]

Hi broncies18 thanks for posting its always good to know where not alone in this . Just be honest with your dr about what your feeling physically and that these issues are playing on your mind my biggest problem is always trying to take control of my health issues so I'll go and get every test done I can possibly get and it only makes me feel better for a second then I'm back to rumornising in my head all the ways the dr has misdiagnosed me . I currently going through knowing I have a cysts on my wrist but of course I've catastrphised my situation and I have cancer and will be dead by the week it is absolutely ridiculous what I tell myself and I know that but still I'll put myself through so much fear and stress then I feel the guilt about the ones who are really dealing with illnesses just know your not alone in how you feel just have some trust in your doctor and work as a team to get through what your feeling always here if you need a vent 😄

[Snowflakesfalling]

Hi all. I know this thread is a few months old and it's so sad that you are all going through this - I hope you feel better by now!

I have always been anxious about my health, but the past 8-9 months have been a disaster! I have had a few health issues (some anxiety related, some not), been at the doctor's nearly every two weeks. I'm convinced I have some type of cancer that's going to kill me any minute now. As soon as one has been eliminated, I have a new symptom that I think is another type of cancer. My partner is getting frustrated as he doesn't really understand anxiety. He tries and has been amazing, but I can see he's frustrated. Last night I noticed one of my pupils is bigger than the other, so naturally I jumped on Google and of course I have a brain tumor. I have been exhausted and don't want to go to work. I'm tired of seeing the doctor all the time and afraid they soon won't take me seriously. How do you function like this? I am finding I'm barely functioning, my mind just won't stop thinking about everything that might be wrong with me and there have been a couple of people at work recently that have had to deal with cancer either themselves or someone from their family and that's just making me panic even more seeing it happen so close. I'm currently in therapy and my GP did prescribe medication, however I don't really want to take it.

I'm not really sure what else I could do. This has been the worst year of my life and it should be the best - I'm getting married in a couple of months and I'm scared the only thing I will remember is how horrible I've been feeling this whole time. How do you survive periods like this?

[CMF]

Hi,

yes good Ol Google. I've been there done that too. A few months ago I was convinced I was going to lose my teeth.

a suggestion made to me was that when I went to my health professional to get the assurance in writing so that when I felt the panic rise I could read it to be reassured.

hope you feel better soon.

cmf

[Ace6913]

Hi snowflakes Thanks for sharing your story 😄 it's extremely hard to put your feelings out there but I'm so happy you did because you are not alone. My background or story is basically I have health anxiety and my core fear is cancer and the what ifs? . Life has been very scary this year for me as you I constantly think I have cancer because deep down I feel something is just not right. My anxiety started about 5 yrs ago when I found a lump in my neck I had myself so convinced it was cancer I was having panic attacks at the time I couldn't make sense what was happening to me I went on some medication and that was that I was fixed well what I thought. Now 5 yrs later I'm dealing with anxiety all over again I'm pretty sure I've given myself every type of cancer in the last couple of months you could imagine 😁. But in saying all that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel I've been in cognitive therapy the last couple of months and it has been amazing for me I've taken my googling skills to educating myself about health anxiety ? The more you understand what is happening to you , you will see a huge improvement in the way we use our rational thinking my suggestion is to find a doctor you trust so you can work both with therapy and gp about what your core fears are hopefully your therapist at the moment is giving you steps on how to break the worry rules this has helped me massively and how to use our rational thinking also stop the dreaded overthinking. Now how do I function well it's hard some days and I still have times where I look in the mirror and go what is that mole or freckle oh no I have cancer I think it will always stay with me but you learn how to reduce the worry of it and self talk positively we are always so harsh to ourselves once I started saying nice positive things to myself it improved the way I challenge those intrusive thoughts. I am here if you need any advice or just to vent but please remember you will be through this because I am and we all will 😄

[Mummybee]

Reading all these is like looking into a mirror.

We are not alone

Mummybee

[DN129]

I think one of the best ways to seperate genuine issue from anxiety is how much better the reassurance makes to you. If you go in 'feeling' an issue, the doctor says its nothing, then for a day you feel significantly improved then its probably anxiety.

[Bookgirl]

I never knew my condition had a name until now. It makes me feel better to know i am not the only one out there with this annoying condition. Wish i could shake it off but for now i will just take i day by day.

[Leets]

Wow!!! Thank you Ace6913 for this post this is where I'm at to I'm always thinking there is something wrong with me physically that's so rare there is no cure for and I'm to scared to ask my GP for tests as they might say it's not needed because it's my anxiety!!! My anxiety is now at the stage where I am creating a problem that's not there I physically feel fine but I just struggle with that feeling in my stomach, the weight in my chest and my mind😔