Health anxiety

[Adeo90]

I am currently on a girls weekend and my anxiety has been really bad today.

My psychiatrist recently diagnosed me with health anxiety. I can't sleep ATM because I'm too worried about my heart rate. In my eyes it's too low. Hovering around 50 bpm on my fitbit. I have an app as well that I use to check and it's around 54 bpm. I'm too scared to sleep because I'm worried that it will go even lower if I sleep, or even stop even with my anxiety it's that low. I have no one to speak to either as I feel like the girls I am with won't understand. I don't know how to stop worrying!

[Summer Rose]

Hi Adeo90

Welcome to the bb forums. I'm sorry that your anxiety is getting in the way of your fun weekend away. It's a horrible feeling to be so worried, especially when you just want to relax.

I'm not a doctor but I know from experience with my own health that everybody's resting heart rate is different. Mine sits at 45. I'm not a star athlete or particularly fit or young but this is normal for me.

I think it might help you to speak with your GP and gather some facts around heart rates. It's a lot easier to deal with the worries if you have facts. I always look for "evidence" to combat irrational worries. If your GP is even slightly concerned about you, he/she will take appropriate action to safeguard your health.

It's a shame you don't feel you can open up to your friends. Perhaps you can slip away from the group and practise some mindfulness or deep breathing and try to get on top of the worries. Or, if you feel more comfortable being with your friends, throw yourself into whatever activity is on offer and distract yourself. If you really can't cope, it's okay to go home--where hopefully you will have someone to speak openly with who understands you and your illness.

Do what works best for you. Remember that you are trying your best with a really sneaky and persistent illness and be kind to yourself. Keep working at it. Life will get better.

[Emily_Anderson]

Hello Adeo90,

I also have health anxiety although I haven't been diagnosed. I've often been convinced that I have illnesses that I should be doing something about, and if I ignore them, then they may get 'too far gone' and I'll feel 'if only I had done something sooner, then I could have avoided a bigger problem'. But then I realised that by trying to stay 'on top of things,' health wise I've actually causing another problem for myself... extra anxiety.

Something happened 2 nights ago that was different.... I woke up at 3:30am worrying about a bite on my skin that I'm sure was becoming infected. This is normal, what was unusual was that I took more notice of my thought patterns...

I noticed that the thought was jumping from one anxious thought to the next and then I realised that these thoughts weren't actually about the possible infection or illness ... they were an illness... they were anxiety.

and the anxiety is the something I should be looking after for myself. I realised that it was the most important thing to take care of at 3:30am - not running around my house looking for antiseptic cream for an infection that could wait till morning.

When I realised that it was my mental health that needed my attention, as opposed to the new illness, I was able to get some perspective and prioritise calming myself down and get back to sleep.

Just wanted to share it, this was my first reply post 🙂

hope you've ended up having a fun girls weekend.

[Adeo90]

I've been having it again these last couple of days, but this time I think my resting heart rate is too high. Around 85bpm and above. I've seen my doctor but I forgot to mention it because it was only early on. I don't know if I should go again. I feel like maybe going to hospital to get it properly checked out. I had surgery almost 4 weeks ago so I don't know if it's from that either? And I've had anemia so maybe it's that? These thoughts are making me think I'm going to have a heart attack any minute!

i know what you mean. I feel like when I'm googling my symptoms I'm in a trance, a part of me knows it's wrong and just feeding into my anxiety but I can't stop - it's such an out of body experience. And I get myself so worked up that it's hard for meditation or calming exercises to work.

[Summer Rose]

Hi Adeo90

Sorry to hear those worrisome thoughts are back. I think Emily recently learned something that can help you, too. Emily says, "When I realised that it was my mental health that needed my attention, as opposed to the new illness, I was able to get some perspective and prioritise calming myself down and get back to sleep." I'm not a doctor but I think it might pay to focus on the anxiety at this point in time.

I don't have a lot of experience in this area but I wanted to post for two reasons. First, I care and I want you to know that you're not forgotten. Second, by me posting, your post will go to the top of the list and I'm hoping it may catch the attention of others with more experience in this area.

Kind thoughts to you

[Yoshi22]

Hi Adeo90,

I know EXACTLY how you feel! I have not been diagnosed with health anxiety but I am pretty sure I suffer from it. I am always worried about my health, it differs from day to day what I am concerned about and the amount of time I spend thinking about it. I know I should talk to a psychologist about it (I've only seen a psychologist once and did not really bring up my health concerns as at that point I thought I was just over-reacting and didn't really know health anxiety was a thing).

I too have a really low resting heart rate (low 50s during the day and sometimes when I'm asleep it's in the 40s). I have talked to my GP about it and she is not concerned at all as I have no other symptoms and this is just my normal. But even though I've been told this by a doctor I still feel really anxious about it and worried I will have a heart attack, die, etc.

I am just wondering how you are going recently and if you / anyone else has any tips on managing health anxiety? It doesn't overtake my life every day, but certainly some days I find it really difficult to cope and feel like I'm loosing control (even thought the rational side of my brain keeps trying to reassure me that it is my anxiety taking over!)