View Full Version : Another newbie :) need alot of help :(
Well hello everybody and il thank you all now for taking the time to read this and possibly understand all the rubbish im going through at the moment!
Well im hannah, im 25 from the UK, iv been suffering with health anxiety for about 4 years now, and tbh i think iv got to a point where i don't think i can actually take much more :(.
I constantly think i dieing, 24/7 and its ruining my life completely.
i have 3 beautiful amazing children and the worst fear of all is the thought of me dieing and them being left without a mummy!
Im absolutely petrified about illness things, i constantly think i either have cancer, brain tumor, blood clots or something wrong with my heart, (heart problems run on my dads side of the family)
iv been to the drs so many times im now begging to think they hate seeing the sight of me down there so now i don't really have anywhere to turn!
iv done group sessions and i also used paroxatine (sp) for awhile but had to stop due to becoming pregnant, but looking back to it all, nothing really helped, and as you can read, im still suffering really bad.
this is really affecting my life. i constantly look for lumps bumps and god knows what else, and dont tend to stop until i find something and worry myself to death and dont sleep etc.
please any help would be greatly received and sorry for the essay!
Hannah x
nomorepanic
19-03-12, 11:04
Hi hannahd9
We just wanted to welcome you aboard to NMP. We hope you enjoy your stay here and get all the support and advice you need.
Please take some time to read the website articles on the left as well for loads of advice and tips.
hi
i dont suffer health anx... but you are 25, and its VERY unlikely you have cancer, tumors etc...you say youve been to doc, so i assume youve had some tests in the past? you need to start living your life, with your lovely children (you dont want them to pick up on health anx for when theyre older)...
Telling yourself your dying, will bring on all sorts of conflict in your body...if we continously tell ourself we are ill, we will start feeling all the symptons of the illness we imagine....
Try telling yourself you are WELL, you feel great, your healthy....just for one day try telling yourself those things all day long in your head...its got be be worth a go!!
As you know telling yourself your ill makes you ill....so tell yourself your fine and well, and see how that feels! xxx
Thankyou stormsky :) i just keep digging myself into this big black hole and finding it very hard to climb back out of it!
positive thinking is the way forward i think!
i have a nasty habbit of talking to dr google about my symptoms and 9/10 of the time all i see is CANCER CANCER CANCER!! i need to stop that aswell lol!
Starting from now, my life is good, i feel well, im not ill and im perfectly fine :).will see how it works out, thanks again xxx
It wont be easy, but def DO IT, tell yourself all day you are healthy, well, happy..... your subconcious will try and fight the positive thoughts (as its not used to them!)...youll say something positive, and then think, yer right who are you kidding...BUT dont be put off with any negative thoughts that kick in, keep repeating, you are well, healthy and happy.... it does work!! i do this all the time... and in the end the positives become automatic, youll find yourself saying them without trying..
A big, warm :welcome: to NMP Hannah!
Pip
tastigger29
20-03-12, 02:20
I know exaactly where you are coming from. From when I wake in the morn I "try" to find things wrong with me. Whats that pain in chest=heart attack tiny pain in head=brain tumour so on and so forth. I spend the day worrying about what will happen to my little girls as I expect to die every day. This has led me to abuse alcohol which in turn makes you wake with feelings of dying. Unless I am fully valiumed out I find every day a struggle. YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
Hi Hannah, I just wanted to tell you that you are not alone. I've spent the past 16 years like this, on and off, and I'm 45 now! Its since I've had the kids. I can go a few weeks, or months, even recently a couple of years, then something happens, and boom! off I go again. I've got two young teenagers, and just keep thinking, 'if I can just keep alive long enough to see them grow up'. I've had some serious, genuine, physical health problems, which hasn't helped, but I live in fear of dying, or perhaps I'm just afraid of living! Anyway, have you tried Cognitive behavioural therapy? Its hard going, but it does help, it got me off, and kept me off, anti depressants for 7 years! I'm currently having a nasty blip, and on beta blockers for night time panic attacks. My husband had a heart attack out of the blue 4 months ago, and its just hit me really hard, just as everyone else is getting over it! Please take all the help and support you can get. Your kids need you, but just as importantly, you deserve a happy and healthy and enjoyable life too! xxxx
Hello Hannah. Thankfully i don't have to much HA symptoms. But i totally agree with the above comments. You really do need to realize there's probably 99.99% nothing wrong with you physically and your mind is giving you the pains that you're body is imagining are there. Try get yourself more positive thoughts and like someone said above your children will pick up on it. So i know it must be hard to do but try atleast be positive and don't speak about it around the kids. Good luck
Darren :)
Hi Hannah, I'm 41 and have anxiety and the first symptom I get is usually a health anxiety, I try to rationalise it but end up having tests and investigations done and it's nothing. I'm going through a tough patch again at the mo and am back on meds which help immensely. Anyway what I wanted to say was that I think my health anxieties are a symptom of my underlying general anxiety rearing it's ugly head again, my health worries are due to me not being 100%. I understand that your health worries are more constant but maybe trying a different med might help to break the habit. I hate meds as do most people and get lots of side effects to start but they work for me. Good luck, you are not alone, this site is great, with lots of lovely people X:hugs:
livethelife
21-03-12, 13:59
Hi Hannah:
I am 47 and could just say "ditto" to all of the above comments. I have kept a journal since 1996 of all of my symptoms and in there I wrote alot about my kids being young and worrying that i wouldn't see them grow up. well, I am still here and even though I am going thru a bad bout again, I take heart in knowing that i felt this way before and that I survived it. Now my kids are 13,16 and 19. In 1996 I had a 3 yr old and a baby and no third child yet.
So hang in there, if you need meds then definitely go on them. They got me thru some tough spots - times when I didn't think they would work and could not imagine that what I had was due to anxiety - but in the end the meds worked and i felt normal again. Paxil was the drug that worked for me and I have taken it off and on over the years. I have been off it for about 5 years and hope to stay that way but I am in a bad spot now and feeling like i may have to take that pink pill again.
All the best to you - try to enjoy your kids and as another person posted tell yourself that you are healthy - I plan to do the same today.
H.
Hanna, When I first posted at no more panic in '08 I said the exact thing, that I didn't think I could take it anymore. I'm still here, lol, now in 2012 and I'm doing a lot better. Anxiety is a bumpy road and it is never easy, but don't lose faith in yourself and your ability to get better.
Hope this forum helps :)
Monika
Hi i'm new to this site too. I too constantly worry about heart problems, only last night my heart starting racing out of the blue whilst driving home from work and i convinced myself that i have AF. I've had about 5 ecg's bloods and everything comes back normal and Drs say it anxiety. I'm still convinced that they have missed something. I also suffer with daily headpressure, tight chest & back and feel drunk.
Hannah im also 25 with a young toddler and you sound exactly like me. Im going through hell at the moment with my HA and some swollen lymphnodes-enough said!!!!
Its strange how when i read your post i can see how you have the same fears as me, but i can also see that realistically this is very unlikleyand unrealistic. But when i do this myself i cannot rationalise it? I too go to the doctors and im sure they are sick of me and i got so paranoid they would put everything down to stress that i switched surgeries. I now feel better tht my physical symptoms are being actually listened to, but i still get the same result- Anxiety. In the last week ive gone from LYMPHOMA, TO BRAIN TUMOUR TO CERVICAL CANCER WHICH HAS SPREAD TO MY OVERIES AND NECK. i THEN THOUGHT I HAD MS. The people on here are soo helpful and im determined to have a good day today with my daughteIm sick of crying and ruining my life, i hope you too can find the strengh to beat this.
I was told in December i was not dying and im still here and my only symptoms are anxiety symptoms. Im sure id be really unwell by now, as would you. xxx
Hello hannahd9,
Welcome !
Try to relax, you will not have cancer, it is all a creation of your mind. The mind when it joins forces with an anxiety problem can play amazing tricks on reality and you are the victim of it just now.
All GP surgeries now have access to counselling facilities so make another appointment with your doctor and explain the pain and stress that this anxiety is causing you and ask for some counselling for it.
There are alternative therapies but maybe this is not the moment for those. I feel you have a problem which needs addressing by your doctor quickly so please make an appointment now and discuss your anxiety.
In the background to this you have our complete support and know that you can come in here anytime and be among friends and people who understand you.
You know deep down in your heart that you will not die since your problem is imaginary and so you will not leave those beautiful children without a mother so put aside those thoughts and know that this is only temporary, it will pass and you will be fine again.
Love and kindness
TheDaffodil
23-03-12, 01:40
Hannah,
You're not alone! I also suffer from health anxiety, and I think the worst part about it is my awareness of it, and my conscious awareness that I'm bugging friends, family, co-workers, and my doctors with my constant paranoia. It's something I'm currently working on. I also have panic disorder and I just started taking medication which is really helping but so far has done nothing for my health anxiety.
I'm assuming you do what I do. You feel a weird symptom, and all of a sudden you start thinking of all the possibilities of what it could be. Then you go on google (THE ENEMY!) and the first site that pops up when you type in your symptoms is cancer. (I thought I had non-hodgkins lymphoma last week)
It's silly. I know it's silly but I can't stop, because the second i get into that mind set I think "This time is different! This time i'm really dying!"
You just have to talk yourself down, that's what I do. Because you are not dying! You're a healthy, beautiful mother and the only thing you can do is live in the moment. If you're constantly worrying about dying, then what is the point of living (I tell myself this all the time). I also have a go to person: my father. He's a nurse. I call him when i'm paranoid, and he assures me that i'm not dying and helps me evaluate my symptoms and I calm down. It's important to have the go to person!
Please talk to me whenever you're having anxiety, cause I know what you're going through! You're not alone girl : )
xvolatileheart
25-03-12, 21:49
Hi i'm new to this site too. I too constantly worry about heart problems, only last night my heart starting racing out of the blue whilst driving home from work and i convinced myself that i have AF. I've had about 5 ecg's bloods and everything comes back normal and Drs say it anxiety. I'm still convinced that they have missed something. I also suffer with daily headpressure, tight chest & back and feel drunk.
This sounds exactly like me. Heart symptoms, tight-chested and feeling like I can't breathe properly, and feeling drunk (that's the best way to describe it!) Awful feeling and I'm really struggling with it. I feel like I could deal with this all if I KNEW it was panic, but I can't deal with thinking I'm dying all the time.
Hopefully we can all stick together and help each other get through this rough time!
mollymalloy
26-03-12, 14:32
Hi Hannah, I have had the same problems as you and had to stop myself from googeling everything and even could not watch any program on TV that had to do with any medical conditions, I still suffer a bit of that but not nearly as much as I did when my anxiety was at its worsed. I looked out for any itch or pain in my body and was sure that the doctors had overlooked some serious illness that I might have. I have four kids so I know how you feel when you say you worry about dying and leaving them. I have come so far from where I was (without medication) It helped that I could talk to my husband about it, even though he was not always understanding. He has come to terms with my condition. I did get a clean bill of health for the GP about 2 years ago but it has taken me a long time to get somewhat back to "normal" I just want you to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel you might not see it just yet. Stay encouraged, think possitive and find something you enjoy doing to help occupy your thoughts and really just enjoy your kids.
mollymalloy
So, a little over 1 year on, how's everybody on this thread feeling now?
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.