Health anxiety - how to deal with the fear

[Rigour]

Hi BB,

I've recently started having significant anxiety around my health. Nothing specific, but the minute i notice something out of order be i have a panic response, be it tight chest, heart racing, or most recent and really stupid to say out loud but "my right arm feels funny".

I have had 2 sessions with a psychologist and she helped me identify the symptoms of a panic attack as my belief of what they were was much more dramatic than the reality. Unfortunately her solution was just that you have to let it happen and try not to be afraid. She explained the symptoms as a biological response to perceived fear, and most of them caused by poor breathing. While this was helpful i was not really gelling on a person to person level with her, so I have had my first session with someone else recommended by a colleague who I managed to connect with and can hopefully see me long term (she has to check her availability). She was the first person to draw a possible connection between my health anxiety and deeper underlying issues which I believe to be true - it's no coincidence this all started after a very lonely Christmas amongst all my very happy and successful family.

One thing I know - there is no quick fix for this, it's going to take time, effort and commitment on my part. I want to get better, and I will not give up. But there are times, like what happened last night and this morning with my stupid arm thing, where I just get so afraid. Rationally i know the symptoms I am noticing are not serious, they are amplified because I am hyper aware and then hyper focused, and ultimately also just trigger my anxiety symptoms. My rational brain tries so hard to tell me this, but sometimes deep down I just cannot shake the terrible fear. Not of dying, or pain, or anything real, I think it's just the fear that I am out of control, and don't know what is happening.

This turned a bit rambling, but I was wondering if anyone here has had similar experiences with health anxiety. Was there any trick, or mental game, or just anything you found success with in the moment to help shake that fear and get your rational mind to win through? Other than crying in a corner for 20 minutes which I am super good at but probably not the best for my day to day work life 🙂

[Meg_611]

Hi Rigour,

I have been dealing with physical anxiety symptoms for awhile now.
I’ve had so many tests and scans as I couldn’t believe that anxiety could cause such strong physical symptoms consistently- I still don’t believe it 100%. But for the fast few weeks I have been undertaking a weekly meditation class which also involves a 30min session at home everyday. I don’t know how it works. But it has been making a huge difference!! I calms the nervous system .

you could download smiling mind or headspace apps - they have short 10 mins sessions which you can do daily - give it a go! 🙂

[therising]

Hi Rigour

I know this is not everyone's cup of tea but I'll give you a somewhat different angle when it comes to dealing with the sensitivity of the body:

Whilst in medicine the energy systems of the body are specifically named, such as with the nervous system, circulatory system, lymphatic system and so on and the chemical energies that interact with these systems (including the chemistry in the brain) are also named, I have found great benefit in simplifying. Personally, my life changed dramatically through researching Prana. As I say, not everyone's cup of tea.

Pranic techniques for dealing with 'rising energy' like that experienced in anxiety, can be very different from techniques taught in modern medicine. The understanding is that energy takes a particular natural path. What we feel is the natural path being taken. Example: A feeling may start in the gut, move up to the solar plexus region, move up to the heart area, then up to the throat until it reaches the head. It is weird to think we can be sensitive enough to actually feel this path being taken. It is about learning how to understand the courses of natural energy, how to manipulate our energy and how to produce the kind that best serves us. Example: We can be facing a moment of great challenge where we want to stand up for our self and we suddenly begin feeling that course I mentioned begin to start up (beginning with the gut and ending in the head). For one person this course will be labelled 'anxiety', for another this course will be labelled as 'a rise to courage'. If it's recognised as a rise to courage, once it hits the throat area, BAMM, we express exactly what we wanted to say (we didn't end up quietly beating our self up in our head for not having said it).

Prana's definitely worth a look at if you're after a different angle in self understanding. Some of it might not resonate with you but some of it might, all depends on what aspect of it you're looking at.

'...you have to let it happen and try not to be afraid' is an unusual piece of advice, for sure. Understanding how we tick doesn't only involve finding ways to calm our self down, it also gives us the ability to be in control of our excitement (and how much of it we want to experience).

By the way, try raising your arms up to the sides in line with your heart and stretch them back as far as you can. Stretch hands and fingers totally too, 'til you eventually feel a buzzing in them. Good form of stress release.

🙂

[Mendel]

Hi Rigour,

I completely understand what you're going through and I went through something very similar.
As soon as I had a symptom, I latched onto anything that could explain it outside of my anxiety. The most frustrating thing is that anxious response we have to symptoms thinking it is much more sinister.

I went and got so many tests done : ct scan, ecg, blood tests etc.

Even though it helped me realise what I was going through is my anxiety, it is hard to switch off during those moments when those symptoms are really pronounced. I still have those moments here and there, but the greatest thing I found was coming onto these forums and realising how common those symptoms are and that it is completely normal.

My GP is very welcoming and is always there if I really need some reassurance, but use these forums as a way to remind yourself that your fear of something more sinister is common and we are here for you too.

Mendel

[Possm]

Im feeling much the same, I have Health Anxiety (labeled under Generalised Anxiety Disorder). Ive been having it most nights and everytime my heartburn/indigestion kicks in its a heart attack.

I see my dr in 2 weeks (they are away and I trust them), holding out until then is driving me crazy. Im opting to be medicated as its making it hard to function.

[TheBigBlue]

Hi Rigour,

i had a similar experience last year.

I suddenly started feeling nauseas all the time, sometimes would vomit & just completely lost my appetite. I had so many tests with the doctor, changed my medication brand, changed dose, had scans on my abdomen, tested for things like celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, additssons disease, had an endoscopy & even a gastric emptying test.

Everything came back clear. But I knew something was wrong because I constantly felt sick & since this began last April up until today I have lost 24kg with no explanation. I’m not trying to lose weight, not dieting (although my loss of appetite is surely a reason) but not a single thing wrong was found.

i have previously been diagnosed with anxiety & depression so then I started to wonder if the illness was all in my head & maybe the anxiety was causing these symptoms. So I got a referral to a psychologist in my search for answers.

The psychologist was great & again while we could find no reasons for my symptoms she really helped with a lot of my social anxiety issues.

i do actually have a chronic illness which does cause me a LOT of stress on a daily basis, but I’m now seeing a psychologist who specialises in this condition & wow, the more I talk to her, the more I discover how much my anxiety is linked back to this specific illness.

Weirdly, the nausea & vomiting has now stopped, but I still have very little appetite & the weight is still dropping off. My GP & specialist are both concerned about this but nothing can be found. I have even gone to a dietician to check my diet was ok.

So I have no answers in relation to my health/symptoms but like you I think getting into the right headspace plays a big part.

if you ever start to worry about stuff, just post in here as someone will always be around to listen.

i hope tomorrow is a better day, take care

[Rigour]

Hi Meg_611

I've actually started trying to meditate on yours and other recommendations. Initially just on my own but then as you say with an app (called serenity) that does guided sessions. I need to be better about doing it every day, I actually need to repeat the last one where they start introducing howto quiet the mind as I fell asleep :D.

It's definitely helping, but i do still need to find a way to carry the peace of mind forward out of meditation sessions in to the day.

[Rigour]

Hi Mendel,

Very much so, at the moment I'm so focused on on my wrist as it has started acting up do to overuse from poor computer use. I try to tell myself it just needs rest, and that anything sinister would have shown up in both hands not just one. But then of course you start getting the weak knees, and feel like you cant walk, and so things morph in to MND or some other terrible problem.

The one things that is helping a bit is trying to rationalize the anxiety down to a scientific space. I read a lot about the bodily functions that go off in relation to anxiety and fear which are all part of the sympathetic nervous system. But your body has another system that's meant to balance it, called the parasympathetic system, and in people who are prone to anxiety it is generally under developed. But there are things you can do to force it to turn on. So while everyone recommending just take deep breaths before never helped, knowing that biologically what this does to your lungs and how that turns on systems to fight the panic response has helped me buy in.

You're right about coming here and hearing other stories, it does help to know we aren't alone, or imagining it, and that anxiety can really cause all these problems. It can be so hard to push the physical stuff aside because the treatment for our condition being a mental one takes a long time, but finding strength in others is a big help.

[Rigour]

Hi TheBigBlue,

That's terrible, unexplained weight loss is so scary. Especially because your body has to then adapt to it's new lower energy stores and that makes you feel even more weak than before. I've dropped about 6kg through all this mess and it's really thrown me for a loop so i can't imagine what you're going through.

But I'm glad to see that you're having success with the psychology. It's really great to know that there are people out there winning the fight as it gives me hope that I can too 🙂