What is the 'normal' for health anxiety?

[Anxiety Jim]

I've been thinking over the last few days whether I have 'normal' health anxiety. A lot of people that post on these forums seem to be repeatedly panicked over the same few symptoms for long periods. I however, jump from one serious illness to another very rapidly. I was wondering if this is 'normal' and whether many others do the same?

For example, last night I was worried about having a heart attack, this morning I was worried about MS / brain tumour, then around lunch time I thought I had kidney failure, and tonight I'm sure I've got either lymphoma, or male breast cancer...

Each fear I have is just as intense as all of the others, it's exhausting jumping from one to the other constantly. And being tired all the time is contributing to my various tumour / cancer fears.

I just thought it would be interesting to see if there's a 'normal' type of health anxiety, or if it's all random.

[nomorepanic]

Hi Jim

We have many people that move from one thing to another like you. That is the nature of HA

[Andy699]

Don't worry, I'm exactly the same. One time I went from testicular cancer, to lymphoma, to MS all within the space of an hour! I think a lot of people with HA do this

[Speranza]

I came to this site with a very specific issue around work. I have learned reading the forums that for my whole life I've accepted as normal, issues which other people have been medicated for. This is kind of reassuring. I am intrigued to know how far down my anxiety will go now I'm on SSRIs.

I've worried about MANY MANY illnesses over the years, I have just always somehow coped. It's good to see how many other people are like me.

[mummyanxious]

A few years bank when my HA was at its height I was the same as you. One day to the next it was every little twinge or ache I had. These days it's just me heart as I've come a long way since then.

[Anxiety Jim]

Perhaps just being anxious about one thing is a sign that you're on the road to recovery then?

Do you people that jump from one thing to another see your Dr often? Whenever I see my GP I tell her my symptoms / fears, and usually end up reassured, only a few hours later I will be thinking that I was never worried about the things I mentioned to her, and instead feel angry at myself for not mentioning some of my other fears, the one's that are 'serious'.

It's nice to know that I'm not alone in jumping from one thing to another. As I type this my mind has now jumped to DVT in my left leg, and all I'm doing when I'm trying to get to sleep is imagining a bit of the clot breaking off and lodging itself in my heart.

I've noticed a pattern to my fears, during the day I tend to worry about long term illnesses like cancer, and during the night I worry about things that could bring about sudden death (heart attack, stroke, aneurysm etc). I wonder if this is something that's common with health anxiety, or maybe it's just me being afraid to sleep...?

[meche]

I was the same Jim. I think in the space of a few days I had MS, a brain tumour, Parkinson's, then on top of all that I had a stroke! That sounds crazy when I read it back but that is the joy of HA. If you think about it logically (not easy) the odds of any one of those things happening is slim but to suffer from all of them at the same time isn't possible. So ask yourself which one have I got? I bet you couldn't decide. You can't have one symptom of MS and another symptom of cancer..... but that is how our HA mind works. I clawed myself out of that vicious circle because I just got so exhausted with it all. Plus - a year later none of my 'symptoms' have got worse. It can & will get better for you Jim. Big hugs. xx

[unsure_about_this]

Hi

We don't have any family history of cancer in the family.

I am just like you jumping from one thing to another. I have felt and fear every cancer going. I have even had ultrasounds, CT scan and the camera job up my backside, because I feared I had bowel cancer because of my abdominal pain (including other cancers) but nothing was found to worry about, the doctors even thought it could have been a NF lump causing the problem. Even with a blood test which came back fine. I have a hard time trusting doctors.

In June one of the GP suggested I needed CBT because of my fear of cancer so much, I went in with a huge list of cancers I was worried about.

I have been to the doctors lots and lots of times over the last two years, much to the embarrassment of my parents.

I do feel there is something wrong with my body all the time, checking every bone.

I am always checking myself every few minutes, lots of self examinations. I am trying to reduced this to a more sensible number of times per month.

at the moment I have a leukemia, lymphoma etc and also a testicular cancer fear. I am also back on the brain tumour phobia. yes I have also worried about organ failure, and heart problems etc

---------- Post added at 13:53 ---------- Previous post was at 10:29 ----------

Added I have also worried about prostate cancer quite lot

[NotGood]

I'm the same.

I'm very lucky in that I'm young-ish and generally very healthy, and most of the time I don't have any symptoms and issues.
For me, no symptoms = no worries/HA.

However, this means that, whenever I do have a symptom, I read way too much into it. I've accepted that this is part of my character, and that my mind does this is all cases; I pre-plan everything which is good for most things in life as it means I'm ususally prepared for everything. The downside is that my mind races ahead and reached a bad diagnosis way ahead of what the symptoms/timescales would support.

At the time (every time), the symptoms are very real, and in fairness to myself, they normally match up to those listed on the NHS websites that 'require further investigation'. It's only retrospectively looking back that I realise the frequency of me having the symptoms of 'life thretening conditions' is above the norm.

The thing is, each time I'm convinced that this time its serious.

[backfromthebrink]

I don't jump about quite that fast (within a day), I tend to stick with one concern for weeks, then find another. But I often don't totally lose the first one, so it comes back to concern me again at some later occasion and I just cycle around the same things.

Anxiety Jim, I'm wondering if the reason your fear of sudden death happens at night is because that's when you're most likely to be alone and help seems further away. I get anxious about holidays and travel for that reason - my own GP seems inaccessible and any help I need seems inaccessible too.

[rb1978]

With me it depends. These days I tend to focus on one symptom at a time until I either go running to the doctor and getting them to say it's not cancer after all or until I say to a friend "oh god this is cancer" and they talk some sense into me.

I have done the jumping from one thing to another thing in the past though, and still do it from time to time.

I also tend to find that if I have a long-term thing, like a mole or a niggling pain, I go to the doc, they tell me it is OK. I then forget it and worry about the next thing. Then months later for no reason I can suddenly start fixating on the mole or the pain and thinking what if that doctor months ago was an idiot who didn't know what they were talking about.

I guess its the nature of anxiety.

[Liziik]

Anxiety jim you sound just like me! I visit the doctor for one thing leave reassured then think I should have mentioned this or that! For instance I went to the doctor the other day for a sore throat I was worried about I was reassured then thought oh why didn't I mention my mole now I worry about that. It's the cycle of my ha it always needs something to latch onto, kind of like its alive and needs feeding! I'm trying to learn to starve it! :) xx