Health anxiety... help?

[markrob80]

Hi guys,

Long time reader, first time poster.

I was "diagnosed" (such a weird word) with GAD and health anxiety 2 weeks ago. Long story short, in November a friend committed suicide, then over the following 2 months, 2 people I knew passed away and another was diagnosed with cancer. To say that scared the hell out of me is an understatement.

I've been to my GP (and 2 others) and all 3 say it's anxiety. I've had chest x-ray. Fine. Lung function tests. Fine. I started doing CBT with a psychologist this week. I regularly experience physical symptoms. It started as short, sharp chest pains back in November. Then in December (when I had my chest x-ray) they magically went away.

Then I started to get shortness of breath. Then the feeling like there was a lump in my throat. Then that went away. Then the shortness of breath came back. And recently it's a "queazy" stomach feeling throughout the day, mixed in with some shallow breathing.

My problem is that I'm not very good at focusing on anything BUT my body. I regularly scan. Like every 5 minutes. That leads to adrenaline and a worsening of physical sensations. And the loop repeats.

I have medication but try not to take them. Running, weights and drinking (anything that distracts me) work to take my mind off things, but it's hard. I'm hopeful CBT will work.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has/had physical anxiety symptoms and any advice on how to overcome them or train your brain to focus on the positives and not constantly be inward focused and scanning your body for sensations (which, of course, produces sensations and then amplifies them thanks to added adrenaline, etc).

Thanks for reading...

[Hope_for_the_best]

Welcome to the forum, markrob80! I am sorry to hear about your losses. It must be very hard for you. I too have lost two close family members over the past 1.5 year. It is not unusual to be super alert to health, or have some health anxiety, after losing someone important to you. Although I am not a doctor, I don't quite agree with you having GAD, as you need to be anxious without apparent reasons for 6 months. Anyway, you have done a great job by reaching out to your GP and psychologist. It does take time to recover from grief. My psychologist told me that I would need to take all the time needed, as there is simply no quick fix for grief.

One trick that may work is to tell yourself to be more anxious (you read that right!). Very often, you fear that your anxious sensations to be something very wrong, so you end up making yourself more anxious. When you intentionally push yourself to be more anxious, you somehow get things the other way round. I tried that and it worked quite well for me.