Health Anxiety - recovery IS possible/talking therapy query!

[snowflake293]

Hi everyone

I have been posting here on and off since December last year when my HA was at its worse. At my worse I was spending every waking hour either searching my body for signs of cancer/serious illness, analysing every body sensation and going to the doctors for reassurance about 3 times a week.

I honestly felt trapped and truly believed I was dying. I can totally, 100% sympathise with everyone who posts here. For me, health anxiety feels like someone choking you, or holding you down. Until about three months ago, I did not believe I would ever be free of this debilitating obsession.

However (and I still have blips, not out of the woods yet!) for the first time probably in years, I truly believe I DONT have cancer. It is such a liberating and freeing feeling and I wanted to post this cause when I was at rock bottom I would read others posts on here about getting better and think it would never happen to me. I want to reassure anyone suffering that you can get through it!

Best thing I did was to listen carefully to the doctor about medication. I am taking Sertraline and it has helped me so much. For me, it feels like it takes the edge off and even though the worry is still there, it doesn't seem to bother me like it did if that makes sense?

I was having CBT and thought I had been referred for 'high intensity' CBT, but when I went to my appointment last week they said they decided CBT wasn't working for me and are trying me one something else but they didn't explain what it was other than it would involve talking about my past and relationships etc... anyone know what this is?

My moods are still a bit up and down at times and I am skin picking really badly - but to go from truly believing I was going to die to actually feeling 'safe' is so good.

Anyway, just wanted to let people know that recovery is possible. You won't feel like this forever.

Love Snowflake x

[MyNameIsTerry]

Its good to hear you are seeing some progress.

That form of therapy may be Psychodynamic Therapy or if you are with an IAPT service it would be their newly developed DIT which is a shortened version of it. If you Google DIT it will come up and you can read about Psychodynamic Therapy on NHS Choices in their psychotherapy section or anywhere really as it's a mainstream form of therapy.

[snowflake293]

Its good to hear you are seeing some progress.

That form of therapy may be Psychodynamic Therapy or if you are with an IAPT service it would be their newly developed DIT which is a shortened version of it. If you Google DIT it will come up and you can read about Psychodynamic Therapy on NHS Choices in their psychotherapy section or anywhere really as it's a mainstream form of therapy.

Thanks. Yes I think that is what it might be too. It was bloody tough cause it made me realise just how much sh*t has gone on, especially in past relationships/negative experiences etc... can't say I am looking forward to the next session. Kind of feels like opening up old wounds but if they think it will help I am willing to try. I was surprised when she said it wasn't going to be CBT but to be fair I have had enough CBT now to write a book about it...

[MyNameIsTerry]

I think it's more about exploring how you feel about these events and changing your views to more balanced & positive ones so that they stop impacting on you now and in the future.

It's worth a go if they think it would be more helpful to you. Good luck with it. It's a safe environment and they are experienced in dealing with allsorts of traumatic experiences so I'm sure they will be able to guide you through it safely.