when and why did you develop health anxiety

[Thelegend27]

I find it interesting how there's so many ways to develop or trigger health anxiety, for me it started around 7 years ago when I developed heart palpitations, the skipped beats, flutters, pounding heart beats, and Google sent me down the path of anxiety, in the past 7 years I have not lived a day without anxiety, sometimes I feel like my youth has been stolen by a mental illness.

So what started you down the endless path of health anxiety and how long have you been experiencing this?

[Melonpony]

Developed 2 years ago. Had chest pains that turned out to be tight pectoral muscles. But it triggered the health anxiety. My parents getting I'll added to it. Now it's a vicious cycle I am stuck in. Anxiety causing physical symptoms causing anxiety etc etc

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

---------- Post added at 18:46 ---------- Previous post was at 18:44 ----------

How am I experiencing It?
Constantly monitoring my body for symptoms and assuming they all point to something fatal, basically.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[KK77]

I developed HA when I started reading all the HA posts on here

[CHELLEB1017]

During my last pregnancy a large jaw cyst was found and I needed a biposy luckily it cam back benign but that on top of my Grandmother and Great Aunt passing away of cancer all within that time frame set my anxiety off the charts! Only anxious when it comes to health! Literally was living a worry free life before this! I have so many more good days than bad but the bad ones when something flares up can linger until I get checked by a doctor!

[darkside4k]

I read an article that a simple itch can be cancer. It was like something snapped in my brain and I've never been the same since. That was about 4 or 5 years ago.

[nhelen79]

i developed this after i had my daughter. I think that the fear of not being there while she grow up hit it for me.

[Hahneclipse73]

Mine started maybe a month and a half ago. We had a young cat have a heart attack in front of us before Christmas...my father had a overdose type thing with a pill he was taking and I came home to him all messed up.. I heard about a kid who died in my area of a rare head injury, etc. I was fine about my own health but constantly on edge about everyone elses 24/7. Lots of stress too... One day I was cleaning my car when it felt like someone started squeezing my heart for several seconds (apparently a first time panic attack/ ecoptic beat), got dizzy, rapid heart rate, shaking, nervousness, etc. It went down hill from there..... now I am not only worried about everyones health but also scared crazy about my own..

[eshu55]

From when I was a child, and was sent to boarding school (aged 9) and horribly bullied. Also, my mother has HA, and we were living in remote African bush, with real threats to us, including a civil war, dangerous wild animals, no electricity so potential exposure to food/water borne contamination and various animal borne diseases including rabid animals etc. My earliest health fears were around tetanus and rabies, and now are mostly around various types of cancer (my mother's HA is similar)...though all my family, i.e grandparents etc, have died of cardio-vascular disease, so go figure.... All my mother's family are anxious, so I figure it is epi/genetic and situational (learned from mother and aunts). Now it mostly manifests when someone I know is diagnosed with some dread disease (which is increasingly common as one gets older of course)

[M00nlight]

When I lost my dad to melanoma 3 1/2 years ago watching the medical field fail him i lost my faith in Drs.. every thing became worse when I became a phlembotomist and dealing with sick people everyday especially pal care

[annie2008]

Mine started after I lost Dad to (C) don't even like saying it or seeing that word. Anything I have wrong (or think I have wrong) then it's C that pops into my head. :(