Dealing with health anxiety

[dr]

How does people find the best way to deal with health anxiety, my issues are very focused around cancer, i never used to care about health and dying as i thought we all have to go someday, but my mum died (hospital fault ) aged 46 and since that i have had serious problems with health, i used to think i had HIV and cancer and used to get checked for stds all the time, but now i am settled down i dont feel i worry about hiv, i am more obsessed with having cancer, I am worried at the moment i have breast or cervical cancer, i try to be rational but it can pop into my head out of nowhere and puts a dampner on my mood and then i worry and go and check myself, i do have lumpiness in my boobs at the moment and i am really scared, my doctor checked and told me its just fibrous tissue, but i am worried its more :( as he always tries to make me not worry so i feel he doesnt really check properly as he knows its anxiety, argh its hard, help lol

[countrygirl]

Sad to say but if someone is on this forum they have not cured their health anxiety!

I have suffered with it since I was a child due to trauma with death at that age and am now 51. With age and experience I have found that therapy whilst no cure did make me understand the whys and wherefores of ha so def ask for therapy.

I also have found that it is best to stick to a Dr who knows about your ha and is sympathetic to you and also I find that when I go to the Dr I do always confess to what I fear so for example with your lumpy breasts I would say I am worried this is breast cancer what could put my mind at rest. The Dr could explain why he thinks it unecessary for you to have any further tests or Dr could say well this simple test ???? will help show you are okay. this happened to me a year ago when I was worried about pancreatic cancer, the Dr said he would do a liver function and pancreas blood test and if they were both fine then I could stop worrying. He would not have suggested this to someone who just described their symptoms but not said what they were worrying about as they symptoms were not indicatvie os pancreas to a Dr just to me:blush:

[dr]

i am going to the hospital thursday to the breast clinic to get my lumps checked and i am really scared they are going to tell me something bad :( i am going on holiday tuesday abroad, and i wont even pack because i worry if i hear something bad i wont be able to face going abroad, i couldnt pretend to enjoy myself, i really hope hospital say all is fine :(

[Jules147]

The best way to deal with it is to accept the diagnosis of the doctor and stop craving for certainty. The more you seek absolute proof that you don't have your current feared illness the more doubt will linger in your mind. Even if you have all the tests under the Sun there will still be doubt because you are still buying into the notion of illness to be ruled out. Once one particular disease has been eliminated, if you don't still question the results you will begin to focus on another illness.

My fear for ages last year was a brain tumour. I had a headache. I described my headache to the senior GP at my local practice ho is a bit of a legend. Instead of telling me what I didn't have, because that always elicit the response from the anxiety sufferer, "how do you know without sending me for a scan?" He told me that the cause was tension. He asked how I was sleeping and prescribed Zopiclone for a few days to restore my sleep rhythm. He also put me on Citalopram, telling me what it would do and what it wouldn't do. I took the Zopiclone, got my sleep pattern back and left the Citalopram untouched. A few days later I flew to the South of France to visit a friend and for a spot of convalescence, warm sunshine and a Mediterranean diet of incredibly fresh produce.

My first CBT session was a few days after I came back.

What my GP told me lowered my anxiety by a few notches, the holiday a few more, apart from the journey and the CBT finished the job.

Instead of thinking about an illness you would like to rule out, consider a positive diagnosis of a curable disease instead. It is called health anxiety. That is your diagnosis if you have been to the doctor and he is satisfied that you don't have your feared illness.

Ruling out/elimination doesn't treat your illness. Therapy does and perhaps medication along the way.

---------- Post added at 11:46 ---------- Previous post was at 11:38 ----------

Poking and prodding causes swelling btw. Checking behaviours as Dr David Veale calls them involves a lot of poking and prodding where lumps are concerned. The resultant self-inflicted inflammation of tissues feels like a lump.

[dr]

your definately right, its really crap going through this and i am not as bad as i used to be before medication, i am generally fine till those cancer adverts come on tv then i think its a sign lol and as soon as i have something eg lump or pain somewhere i panic that its cancer, i never used to be like it, it only come about after close family deaths, :(