The Problem of Health Anxiety.

[footballking]

Here i sit on my bedroom floor, never having possibility imagined that it would come to this. The pain is never ending and logic seems to ween itself from my brain every time I try and cure what it is that is causing me these symptoms. Test after test, Scan after scan. Nobody is perfect so when you get numerous of tests, there is no doubt that your bloods are not going to be perfect or something small but not worthy of mentioning is going to be found which will keep you dwelling into the next issue.

The problem is that now we comprehend our mortality, where as before you would jump into a fight, not thinking about death, because why would you? it's just a fight? Although you could die just as easy from a fight.

The problem continues into doctors not being good at all, I always had a view that doctors (GP's) were these god-like people, let's just say that they appear to be, but then they start talking and they become like a citizen that I see everyday crossing the street, their diagnoses is merely a guess, maybe a better guess than you and I, but still a guess. Go into 5 different doctors office with the same symptoms and see what they say. Trust me i've tried. They all have different ideas of what something is?

So now you are thinking what is the point right? When GP's diagnose you, it is usually to late, the strongest will always survive ( this meaning the richest). This turns all of us to money hungry people.

I don't know if many of you have noticed but if you actually do have a problem, you will usually be sent to one specialist. Now if you are somehow wrong about your symptoms and the specialist tells you, you are okay and you start developing other symptoms then you are given an anti depressant?

So why don't most rich people have health anxiety? This is an easy answer, here's the problem with health care, they make you wait 2-3 months to see a specialist, usually because the doctor doesn't see you as an urgent case and in those 3 months you have wrecked your mind with worry and guilt and death and lack of sleep, lack of food, so when the day does finally come that you see your magical specialist and he says you're fine, and your symptoms continue and develop and lack of sleep lack of food, and then that creates you to see other specialists and other specialists until bam you have health anxiety, you can't leave your house you've lost weight.

The rich person however, gets to see the specialist right away, usually the same week, and then his worries go and he gets the required tests done and he is immediately happy again, relief. Health anxiety doesn't develop for that guy, because he made the appointment and had the required tests done immediately. There are exceptions to every rule, but this is the gist of it.

And yes I am afraid to say I have developed bad health anxiety.

Here i sit, my windpipe seems to be constricted, don't know if it is really, but it's been like this for the past week and I haven't died yet. Only time will tell.
Too much stress too many specialists. It's all a joke.

[Scottie32]

A very true post....exactly how it works for me. When your are younger you feel bullet proof, as you get older and so say wiser you realise that you are not bullet proof at all !!!
I suffer terribly with health anxiety and it seems to only be getting worse with age.
Hope your feeling better soon.

[Gotagetthroughthis]

So Footballking if you were rich you wouldn't have health anxiety? No you probably still would.

I get what your saying about having to wait for tests will add to your worries and the anxiety builds and builds, which definitely can add to our troubles. But most people wouldn't worry they would just get on with there normal life's and not let it effect them, yes they would have that niggling worry in the back of there mind but it wouldn't consume them like it does with us.

Having tests and getting reassurance can definitely help to relieve anxiety and your right if the rich want to pay for them, they will have that reassurance a lot quicker, but that doesn't tackle the health anxiety issue. Even with the fast reassurance most people will just find another problem or the same health worry builds back up again over the next few months.

Why do people have anxiety, because of the way they think, not because they don't get to see a doctor or specialist quickly.

Money can help but I don't think it has that much of a bearing on it, unless of course you are homeless with no money to eat and cant get to a doctor.

And who ever said most rich people don't have health anxiety?

[JaneC]

I agree Gotagetthrough, one of the basic problems with health anxiety seems to be that no many how clear tests they have, some people just can't accept the results.

[footballking]

So Footballking if you were rich you wouldn't have health anxiety? No you probably still would.

I get what your saying about having to wait for tests will add to your worries and the anxiety builds and builds, which definitely can add to our troubles. But most people wouldn't worry they would just get on with there normal life's and not let it effect them, yes they would have that niggling worry in the back of there mind but it wouldn't consume them like it does with us.

Having tests and getting reassurance can definitely help to relieve anxiety and your right if the rich want to pay for them, they will have that reassurance a lot quicker, but that doesn't tackle the health anxiety issue. Even with the fast reassurance most people will just find another problem or the same health worry builds back up again over the next few months.

Why do people have anxiety, because of the way they think, not because they don't get to see a doctor or specialist quickly.

Money can help but I don't think it has that much of a bearing on it, unless of course you are homeless with no money to eat and cant get to a doctor.

And who ever said most rich people don't have health anxiety?

I can only speak for myself when I say this, but I would not be in the situation I am in now had I known there was a local private hospital with cardiologists that could be seen immediately for a fee of only £150. I had chest pains, and was made to wait 3 months for an appointment from NHS. Was not told that I was able to go private. This made me think I died nearly every night for 90 days of chest pains. I even tried to go on holiday whilst waiting for my appointment and took an early flight back because of chest pains, and I had to get out of the situation.

If you cut health anxiety straight away you can be treated in my mind. i can only speak for myself. The longer it goes on the worse you get. Then you might need medication.

I haven't done studies into this, but I can only propose the hypothesis that you are more likely to get better quicker with immediate CBT if you are rich. The NHS make you wait 3 months, maybe longer. Which makes the situation worse.

To each to his own. Not everyone is the same, I just believe this would help quite a few people. It would have prevented me from fully realising my mortality.

[Eek]

Well I'm not rich, but I was seen straight away when my HA first started and it made no difference to me.

[cattia]

The trouble with HA is that it tends to jump around from one problem to the next. You could see a cardiologist one well and feel reassured for a bit, but then tje thoughts of what if they missed something, what if they did they wrong test, what if it isn't my heart, it's actually something in my brain, etc etc will creep in. You will need to see more and more specialists and that will just fuel your anxiety. I think treating the anxiety is the only way to deal with it. I do think money might help a bit with that though as you can afford regular therapy. If I had the cash I would have psychotherapy I think.

[skippy66]

It's nothing to do with being rich. I've been fortunate in that I have a successful business (I worked bloody hard for it mind). Many of my friends joke that I'm the 'rich' one and always asking me (jokingly) to get the drinks in etc. I'm pretty sure that I'm the only one who had severe health anxiety.

My problem was that once I had done the hard work in setting my business up, it kind of ran itself for several years, giving me an excess of free time while the money still rolled in. But I wasted that free time - I started using the time to Google symptoms I was getting, instead of keeping busy with other things. I fell into a vicious cycle of severe health anxiety and had numerous tests, some private, some on the NHS.

I've been free of it for over 2 years now because I managed to change my attitude towards both health and life as a whole. It wasn't easy but I'm proud of myself that I did it.

As it happens my business took a hit in the last couple of years and I'm now working pretty hard on it every weekday. In my spare time I'm writing a book on how I beat my health anxiety. I'm doing this to keep busy, and mentally I've never felt healthier since I was a teenager. I will never let myself fall back into that pattern of inactivity and focusing on symptoms because it's a slippery slope and it's not easy to recover from.

So nothing to do with wealth - health anxiety is due to in part genetics, in part your upbringing, and your lifestyle. The good news is that it can be cured, without meds or CBT.

[tommy1982]

Medication can make health anxiety disappear over night, are you on meds? Effexor or lexapro comes to mind

---------- Post added at 13:54 ---------- Previous post was at 13:50 ----------

You are right by the way Take a person off the street , and he is examined from head to toe you could find 3 underlying conditions which would'nt effect that person throughout his life.

[oldtime]

Here goes then I'm the well off person with health anxiety. I have the highest level of medical insurance and have seen the top specialists within a weeks of seeing my gp. I've had countless tests and procedures in the past 8 years.

It does not HELP

Health anxiety is fuelled by tests and visits to hospital / specialists. I learnt this from my Psychologist, it is so important to stop seeking tests and explanations for the way that you feel. My life was so retched I actually wanted to die, so there was no point having tests to see if I was seriously ill. Tests re-inforce the ideas in your head that there is something wrong with you. The specialists the nurses all paying you attention make you feel that you are in need of care. They are increasing the wiring in your brain that triggers health anxiety.

Stop seeking reassurance from the doctor or tests. Do not visit the doctor, if you feel you need to visit a doctor, wait for two weeks before considering making that appointment.

Now try to engage your brain with normal activities, very hard to do when you are in such an anxious state, try sudoku puzzles, crosswords etc they require you to focus your brain on something well defined. Try to read a book, start with shorter easy reads as it can be difficult to focus on complex plots at first. Take up a relaxation course, eg. Yoga, Tai Chi, Pilates. Don't expect to feel any better for some time, you will slowly recover over a long period of time and will regress from time to time.

I have now been on the whole cured for 2 years, but still have short episodes of regression lasting from a few days to a few weeks. It is a long process you may need to help of a psychologist and you may need medication to get through. Full recovery is possible.

[swgrl09]

I will say that I do not know what the health insurance or health care system is like where you are from. I have an insurance plan currently that allows me to go when I need to and get treated without a GP referral. I can choose a counselor or therapist and if they accept it, I can go. I am one of the lucky ones as not many insurance plans in the USA are good. My dad gets it through his work.

Anyway that being said, I still battled health anxiety for years. I tried to treat it right away, went to therapy for years and it wasn't until I found a combination of the right therapist FOR ME (that I think is the most important thing) and a medication that I found my way out.

My HA spiraled out of control after my mom died to an unexpected type of rare cancer in a months time after diagnosis. I was confronted with death, like you said, and aware of my mortality.

I think what I am trying to say is that everybody's battle with this, coming to acceptance, etc is different and requires different treatment. As you pointed out, the health care system does not make it easy. I did try to treat it right away and it still took a while, as I needed to grow and come to terms with death and still am doing so.

I don't know if that made any sense. In any case, I hope you find what you need to find some peace with this. It is a struggle that we all can empathize with :hugs:

[sparkle_1979]

I have to disagree with that my ha is nothing to do with tests and how quick I'd get one

[Primula]

I'm in the fortunate position of being able to pay for my healthcare, and be seen as soon as possible, but I can tell you it makes not an iota of difference to my HA. Rich or poor, HA is an illness, in fact being able to pay for quick referrals can make things worse, as you never give yourself the chance to tolerate uncertainty, which really is the root of HA, not whether you can be seen by specialist quickly to allay your fears.

Being able to afford to be seen quickly makes you more likely to seek reassurance, which gives immediate relief, but then the old doubts creep in, and you want more of that reassurance. So rich or poor, all us HA sufferers are in the same trap. The key is to accept uncertainty and to stop asking for reassurance, and stop asking Dr Google for a diagnoses.

Now I will go and try to take my own advice. xxx

[footballking]

I am 20 years old by the way in University Studying Law. It's a bit hard for me to pay for health care whilst completing a degree. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

In relation to the wealth aspect of the discussion. I can see what everyone is trying to say, I could have wrote that there are many different aspects to what contributes to health anxiety. But I guess I just wrote why my health anxiety is the way it is.

We all have a certain predisposition to the likelihood of having a certain disease, because of our parents i.e genetics, or because of the way we are, what we eat, what we drink, whether we smoke, and how much we let stress get to us. For example I have a lot of moles, some big, some small. Melanoma is a real thing, but just because statistics say that people with moles get it, does not mean I am going to be that person. Now that aspect gets us stressed out. My health anxiety was very real i.e a real problem, and I know some of you will say so is mine, so is mine. But you could visibly see my problem. Someone couldn't think that i'm making it up, because they could visibly see I had moles.

You have to remember that just because dumbass human beings try and make statistics and analysis about every single thing in this world, does not mean that it will be you. I can say this for absolute certainty. Death has a weird way of coming to you, so get your tests done and try and forget about it. The saying is, giving all hope, led me to freedom.

News is our worst enemy and so is this website. Now let me just get this out there, whilst you are having health anxiety this website is a god send, you can communicate with people who understand what you are going through, however once you get on your road to recovery, for me anyway; it is best to limit your time on this website, so that you can forget about all these different symptoms people are going through and all these different diseases. If you have health anxiety you blow things way out of proportion and just as google, you will get different ideas here, all the time. I hope that does not get me kicked from this website haha :)

One more important example. Back in the day 100-200 years ago, before television and large cities and towns. The time of John D Rockefeller. People only knew each other within their community, so they did not have this full blown health craze that goes on every single day in the media, social networks. They lived in their communities, If something happened further than a certain distance, nobody would ever hear about it. Everything has an exception but you get the gist. The health media craze is not good for some people, including me.

Uncertainty as someone said is our worst enemy, we can't accept that when we walk out the door tomorrow we can have a stroke/heart attack. Sorry if this played on peoples emotions and anxiety but it's purely logical.

Losing all hope is freedom.

[Primula]

Hi Footballking, hate to hear someone clearly suffering like you are. If you have had lots of tests and scans done, and nothing major has been found. It may help if you start to accept your health anxiety is making you think the worst.

You are very young and it's not very likely you have anything wrong. Not impossible but unlikely. Have you explained to your doc how you are feeling? There are a lot of good books out there about HA, which have really helped me. I'm going to give you a few titles I have found very good, "It's not all in your head" by Amundsen and Taylor, and "The Worry Cure" by Robert Leahy, which has very good chapter on HA, and living with uncertainty.

Also a good website is http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au, look for the Health Anxiety work book
If you cant afford to buy the books you will be able to order them from library. Hope this helps a bit.

[swgrl09]

Your post reminds me a lot of what I went through when confronted with death for real. I read a book called Staring at the Sun by Yalom, a very famous psychiatrist. It is about death anxiety and the terror of death and how to live in spite of that. It was helpful to me.

I will say that the book comes from the view that there is no afterlife, that what we have is right here and now and to enjoy life in spite of and because of that. So if that doesn't mesh with you, it may not be the book for you.

It helped me because I truly could not live with the fact that everybody I know will die or I will die first. The lack of control was terrifying. You can do everything right and still get hit by a bus. Losing my mom really opened up a terror of that and it manifested itself in health anxiety.

[footballking]

Hi Footballking, hate to hear someone clearly suffering like you are. If you have had lots of tests and scans done, and nothing major has been found. It may help if you start to accept your health anxiety is making you think the worst.

You are very young and it's not very likely you have anything wrong. Not impossible but unlikely. Have you explained to your doc how you are feeling? There are a lot of good books out there about HA, which have really helped me. I'm going to give you a few titles I have found very good, "It's not all in your head" by Amundsen and Taylor, and "The Worry Cure" by Robert Leahy, which has very good chapter on HA, and living with uncertainty.

Also a good website is http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au, look for the Health Anxiety work book
If you cant afford to buy the books you will be able to order them from library. Hope this helps a bit.


Thank you for the recommendations, I am on a waiting list for CBT, I will check those books out now on amazon and hopefully order it. How are you doing with your anxiety? is your anxiety cured?

Thanks.