Seeking reassurance from doctors...do you?

[karlyo]

"Why don't you go see the doctor to reassure you?"

I have been given the above advice several times on this website, and back when my HA started I took it to heart - I was always at the GP getting things checked out.

These days, things are a bit different. After doing some more investigating I came to understand that reassurance seeking is all part of HA. So just as googling and self checking are reassurance seeking behaviours, so is getting reassurance from a doctor. So I have tried not to do this. And it is hard :(

But I feel that if I keep going I am just perpetuating the cycle of damaging behaviour.

Are there any others with HA out there who no longer seek reassurance from doctors and try to cope alone. If so, what techniques do you use?

And to those who do regularly seek reassurance from their doctor, do you believe that it is beneficial? If so, is it a short or a long term benefit for you?

[Speranza]

I laugh at myself. And if it's a symptom I've worried about before, I rationalise: "It's not got any worse, hasn't developed into anything, it is probably nothing."

[joelhall]

It can be beneficial for some. For others, they will notice a new 'symptom', or remember one they forgot to mention and it becomes a vicious cycle of trips to the doctor for short-term relief. Like any reassurance, if it is only short-term then you need to find other ways of dealing with the problems.

[GoogleNoMore]

Sometimes it seems very obvious to me that my HA is a result of something I have read, heard, or watched on TV. On those occasions, I choose not to go to the doctor, and instead I write out my thoughts. I write what I am feeling, how long I have been feeling it, and what circumstances may have brought it on. By doing this, I am (hopefully) showing my mind the link it made between the outside event and the feeling I have. But if I find the feelings exist after 2 weeks, I go to my doctor.

When a random symptom crops up, seemingly not related to the outside world, I still try to hold off seeing the doctor (unless it's something that obviously needs attending to). At this point I try to give myself 5 days: if I have felt it for 5 consecutive days, then I will see about it. Especially if it does not seem to get better with distraction.

I also lately have been doing the rationalizing as Speranza suggests: "Have I had this before? Is it better or worse? What was it then? Is it possible that's what it is now?"

Like you, I worried that continually going to the doctor would turn into a "google replacement", if you know what I mean. So what works for me: CBT, writing things out (I tend to ramble!), mindful breathing, and trying new things to keep my stress level manageable (like massage, lavender oil, and Qi Gong.) I find this forum helps a lot, to calm me, to get outside advice, and to help me figure out if I am indeed in distress or if I am just listening too hard to my body. I am getting better at determining that. I am learning that my HA is often a direct result of stress in my life - that was a huge eye-opener for me. Once I learned that, and learned to take better control of my reaction to those stresses, I started noticing that my stretches between HA attacks are longer and longer.

hope this helps!