question to ha sufferers

[bronte]

how much has us health anxiety sufferers let it effect our lives and to what degree. What as it stopped you doing how much as affected your relationship with your families. Do you feel your not taken seriously about anything anymore. Do you sometimes feel lonely in a room full of people .Do you look at other people and think why cant i be normal like them .

[purplehippo]

HA effects my life totally.
I cant watch tv shows used to be just medical ones,but i now avoid the news and soaps too. I cant read newspapers or magazines .
everywhere you turn it seems there are gloomy health articles or stories ,just saw a cancer reserch advert and feeling a bit paniced now:(
i feel it effects my relationships as i cry all the time and panic,it must be so hard for my hubby, also like whenever anything is in the news like a while ago it was red meat causes cancer. i wont let the kids eat bacon or ham much now ,or much tuna,or stand near microwaves.
if we go to a hospital or gp i make everyone take their shoes and clothes off and wash them before coming indoors and ill shower everyone.
im having a bad day today,id had a few good days but ive seen several cancer stories/adverts today and with my sore throat today im struggling to keep rational today,and thinking ill be like this forver!
i know ive had bad patches before and got through so just hope that i can be helped again ,arnt i a barrel of laughs today!

[bronte]

im just the same and the adverts on television effect me quiet a lot it seems every where you look there is cancer research or awareness adverts or posters which makes it very difficult for us ha sufferes especialy us with cancer phobias put our worries to the back of our minds for any length of time so we actually never get a break

[purplehippo]

i know and the adverts have youngsters on them too dont they ,totally freaks me out for me and my family! i might start donating to them,trouble is ill get literature sent to me which will bring me out in cold sweats ill put lol but quite honestly today im struggling to laugh about it,hope tommorow is better:) talking certainly helps doesnt it to others who are the samexxx

[bronte]

yes it does help to talk i donate to cancer research through my bank and i feel like im helping abit i lost both my mum and dad with cancer my dad was 54 my mum 68 and my anxiety has got worse since mum died 3 years ago my husband doesnt have much patience with me now with my anxieties x

[purplehippo]

my hubby is the same bronte ,trouble is he is a bit of a worry gut himself ,not as much as me and he doesnt obsess like i do but he doesnt give me the reassurance i crave and will often tell me how so and so from works great aunties wife has cancer on a daily basis,not somthing we need to hear is it we find these stories ourselves without others reminding us!
my nan died of lung cancer just last week and its since her diagnosis that my paranoia has resurfaced itself after being in control of it for 4 years .
my other nan currently has heart issues but for some reason these dont put the fear of god into me like cancer ,i think for me dying of a heart attack although awful it would be quick,id not know about it ect. but its the long windedness of cancer illness and the anticipation of when the end would be ect. that is the worst part(gosh arnt i jolly today!)

[Jamesk]

Huge, incalculable effect. Makes me frightened to do stuff, including exercise, which in turn makes me less fit and more worried about getting ill. Leads to a tendancy to self-medicate with booze which makes me feel rough and depressed. Stops me doing stuff I enjoy, which gioves me time to sit and brood. I cannot over emphasise how much it affects me.

[purplehippo]

the aches i get after excercise put me off doing it James as i will then obsess over my aches so i can sympathise with you there.
im too much of a wuss to drink alcohol though id get liver failure after sniffing a bottle of wine HA is no fun is it xxx

[bronte]

i dont really worry about my heart even though i have high blood pressure and cholesterol and i have family members die of heart attack like you i would rather die of a heart attack my dad died of lung cancer my mums primary cancer was never found she died of the secondarys and jamesk i also drink to much because of my anxities and that bothers me x

[justina]

my hubby is the same bronte ,trouble is he is a bit of a worry gut himself ,not as much as me and he doesnt obsess like i do but he doesnt give me the reassurance i crave and will often tell me how so and so from works great aunties wife has cancer on a daily basis,not somthing we need to hear is it we find these stories ourselves without others reminding us!
my nan died of lung cancer just last week and its since her diagnosis that my paranoia has resurfaced itself after being in control of it for 4 years .
my other nan currently has heart issues but for some reason these dont put the fear of god into me like cancer ,i think for me dying of a heart attack although awful it would be quick,id not know about it ect. but its the long windedness of cancer illness and the anticipation of when the end would be ect. that is the worst part(gosh arnt i jolly today!)

Oh I could have written all of that:wacko:

[anx mum]

how much has us health anxiety sufferers let it effect our lives and to what degree. What as it stopped you doing how much as affected your relationship with your families. Do you feel your not taken seriously about anything anymore. Do you sometimes feel lonely in a room full of people .Do you look at other people and think why cant i be normal like them .

HA has a huge affect on my life it totelly takes over and no family dont take me seriously. It has stopped me going out to a certain degree. I do wish HA would dissappear but with me it keeps returning out of the blue and lasting upto three months

[ectopicsufferer]

for me it affects everything in my life, sometimes it like life itself comes to a standstill when im going through heart palps ... it stops me going out ... the palps stop me exercising and im obese i need to exercise ... it just ruins my life and i hate it.

[crissy]

If I had a wish it would not to be a millionaire have all life's luxuries, but to get up and think of nothing else other than what I should do today, not having an overwhelming feeling of something is going to happen to me, I am a mess please help me.
do some washing, plant some flowers, enjoy my children and husband. NO I am not allowed I have to wallow in this anxiety exhausted and just want it to go away.
Love you all
Crissy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[miss polly]

If I had a wish it would not to be a millionaire have all life's luxuries, but to get up and think of nothing else other than what I should do today, not having an overwhelming feeling of something is going to happen to me, I am a mess please help me.
do some washing, plant some flowers, enjoy my children and husband. NO I am not allowed I have to wallow in this anxiety exhausted and just want it to go away.
Love you all
Crissy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Totally with you on this Crissy! My one wish (apart from good health for myself and my loved ones till we we're all at least 100!) wouldn't be for money but freedom from HA. I hate it with a passion. It's ruining my life. I feel like there's always this spectre of ill health and death hovering over my head. It's there from morning till night every day and has been for as long as I can remember. So sad ~ I've wasted 25 years being terrified of illness (usually some form of cancer) and I'm still here. Will I spend the next 25 years doing the same thing? (not that I'll be here that long I'm sure) The slightest twinge, spot, dry throat, sore ear, bruise, oh the list is endless, is immediately interpreted as some sort of cancer. One after the other after the other. You would have thought after 25 years I'd have run out of steam, but no in fact it's worse now than it ever was. When you're young you can reassure yourself that it's statistically very unlikely it's cancer, but at the grand age of 50 let's face it it's highly probable it is! When will they hurry up and find an overall cure for out of control cells???? If they did is my personality such that I'd move onto some other fear? If they could find a section of the brain that produces these thoughts I'd willingly endure an operation despite my fear of them and get it zapped out ~ a lobotomy!!!

[bronte]

to crissy and miss polly i can relate to everything your saying and feel it has and still does effect my life everyday and i look to the future and i think is this it for the rest of my life its such a sad thought x

[Beyonderz]

I used to pester people with my worries a lot when I was younger, but lately I think I manage to debunk my unreasonable HA worries a bit more with logical explanations. If I don't have a good explanation for my worries, I try to contact a doctor for their opinion.

What helped me a little with logical explanations? Well, some good dialogue with doctors (about symptoms and all) and especially the psychiatrist I visited for a long while when I had Panic Disorder also.
He always advised me to focus my mind on something else during panic moments - if possible, force myself to do so - then see if the pain or "symptoms" I am experiencing are going away or being persistent. Of course, I noticed they were disappearing when I focused on something else almost all the time, that was the greatest sign for me that they weren't serious.

I still experience HA from time to time, but it's like a period for me, then everything gets back to normal for a while. Because I am a controlling type of person and want to control the flow of my life, in every ways. Unfortunately diseases are those one can not control 100%.

My mom and dad usually make fun of me, but if my worries sounds like a possible serious issue, they advise me to go visit a doctor. They never say "oh come on, it's probably nothing!" when there is something that is really suspected.

It's hard to live with, that's for sure. But one can control it. We shouldn't let it turn our lives in to hell. In that case, contacting a professional for support is a good idea. It helps a lot.

[bronte]

for some ha sufferers they dont trust there gp oppinion so that makes it very difficult because ive been there myself and because of this have been through some very invasive test that i proberly didnt need when do we put our foot down and think no the gp says i am fine so that is the end of it x

[kingkong]

Affects me big time.
I have also become more superstitious because of HA.
I avoid TV programs based on hospitals, sickness etc.
I also avoid reading news articles on health.
The mind is a strange thing- it sees what it wants to see.
Today, I was out shopping, and saw a seashell with a beautiful pattern of a star sign, which is also a disease, and freaked out.
When in the uni, we had a prof, who always looked gloomy. he used to ask us- how are you guys happy? how do you laugh?
We used to think- what a strange man he is.
now I know what he might have felt like.