Diagnosed with health anxiety

[Paul7]

Can anyone help !! I have always constantly worried about everything in general as long as I can remember being now at the age 36. I have suffered with anxiety since 1998 on and off but am currently going through a severe spell since suffering a prolapsed disk in my back 8 weeks ago. Since then I have constantly been checking the web for worst case problems with disk and was convinced I would be paralysed or develop caudina aquina which is extremely rare and ruled out by a consultant. This is now kicked of my anxiety to the extreme including panic attacks paranioa brought back my old symptoms of anxiety like fear of going mad , fear of slipping into depression and now because I have become paranoid I fear I am paranoid schizophrenic. Since having an iPhone I am constantly searching the web for symptoms of this and matching them with mine and believing them or trying to convince myself I will develop them. I have had a session of CBT and they have told me I have health anxiety but still convinced there wrong and it's schizophrenia !! Still can't reassure myself after 14 years of anxiety and will snap eventually :weep:

[Pipkin]

Hi Paul,

I wish there was an easy answer but of course there isn't. I suffer from GAD and understand how 2 sides of your mind battle between the rational and the irrational. Real health problems also trigger more anxiety, as they have with you. Given that you've had anxiety for so long, it's worth looking back and seeing if any of your health fears have actually happened. Try to reassure yourself and not to dwell on what are very unlikely outcomes.

I look back and see all the time I have wasted worrying about things which now seem inconsequential. I feel I've missed out on so many things because of anxiety and I hate to see other people doing the same.

Take comfort from the medical opinions you've had and try to distract yourself. Don't let your anxiety hold you back from doing the things you want to (or used to want).

Take care

Pip

[Mr Brownstone]

Given that you've had anxiety for so long, it's worth looking back and seeing if any of your health fears have actually happened.




This. Also, when you're looking up things you think you might have, always try to remember that for every 1 person who has it there are probably hundreds of thousands who dont, so your chances are slim to none.

[Paul7]

Thanks a lot for the advice its invaluble at the moment just wish I could reassure myself !! That seems to be the problem constantly looking for answers !!

[candy_floss]

I've had this horrible condition since I was 13. Luckily, there has been times where I've been able to surpress it but my most recent bout of HA has been going on for months and shows no signs of stopping :weep:. Like you, this was triggered by a diagnosis of a real medical problem. That particular medical problem has been sorted now but my mind just leaps on to other problems that I may now develop...

I'm due to start CBT and have been prescribed citolapram which has helped a bit. Are you on any medication? The tablets aren't an instant fix and I had to try a few before I found the type that worked for me but they do take the edge of it a bit.
As for CBT, I've heard it works for some people and not others. Give it a fair try and if it still doesn't work then there might be different types of counselling you can try.
I was doing a lot of self checking and googling symptoms but have made a conscious effort to cut down on this. When you Google something, you have to remember that Google does not see the individual person, just the medical symptom. By that I mean it doesn't know your age, medical background, previous test results etc. My doctor asked me last week if I really thought she would keep sending me away if she thought I have lymphoma (Google said I do...:blush:). She said she'd felt countless sinister lymph nodes in her time whereas I had felt none and neither had Dr Google so who was in the best position to judge? I felt better after that though it's certainly not easy to learn to trust your doctors!

There are times when I feel like I will never be happy or feel 'normal' again but then I remember that I have managed to get control of my HA before and lead a normal life. So please take heart from the fact that this condition IS controllable, even though we will probably be living with it for the rest of our live's now.