Health Anxiety

[Overwhelmed-Girl]

Hello,

I am a we year old with sever anxiety, and newly diagnosed adhd and autism. 

I've been handling things pretty well recently up until about 3 days ago when I had a series of visits to the ER due to some NON life threatening issues, which in turn left me having constant panic attacks for e days straight. It affects me and my body tremendously, makes everything worse and also makes my partner stress out too because I am in a constant state of being overwhelmed. I always get worried when I feel something that is new or unusual in my body, and it gets worse when someone gives me a reason to worry...but I always over do it. I guess I'm a hypochondriac but I just can't keep doing this. I am seeing a psychologist but have been unable to see a psychiatrist for medication yet so maybe that will help? I don't know what to do anymore.

[therising]

Hi Overwhelmed-Girl

The ability to feel what's going on in your own body is an incredible ability to have, unless you don't know exactly what you're feeling. Then it can definitely become incredibly stressful. Another stressful factor can involve the ability to feel what your mind is leading your body to do. For example, while I can't always feel the impact of my thoughts, I can definitely feel when my thinking is becoming hyperactive. The speed of my thinking is something I can feel through my nervous system, my heart rate, my lungs (feels suffocating) etc. So, anxiety can sometimes come down to managing the speed at which I think or mentally process things.

Typically, I'm not fully conscious of what my body's doing throughout the day. I don't focus on my heart beating or how many times my lungs expand and contract or how my cells are vibrating etc. Once something gets my full attention, then I can feel it. In a grounding meditation each morning I can feel my hands and feet buzzing. Can also feel the pressure in my head change when I begin meditation through deep breathing. Can feel my nervous system screaming at me 'That's way too much coffee for you sister!'. Can feel, in my chest, when someone says something to me that's undeniably heartbreaking. If you're someone who's highly conscious of feeling so much, the question becomes 'If I hold the ability to feel so much, what exactly am I feeling at any given time?'.

While people love to label someone as a 'hypochondriac', why not identify them instead as someone who has the ability to feel even the slightest of changes in their body. Being able to feel the slightest of changes while seriously wondering about those changes, is typically what leads people to ask someone who knows about the physical body (a GP). You could say a 'hypochondriac' is someone who feels the compulsion to learn about/better understand what they're feeling, from an expert. There are a lot of different ways to come to better understand how we're feeling in a lot of cases, without seeking the advice of a GP. Works out to be a lot less expensive too 🙂