constant checking

[bronte]

hi ive noticed that when im worried about a disease i check and check my body for symptoms of the disease until i actually find something that might not even be a symptom but worry it could be i find that health anxiety sufferers look for symptoms when in reality if you have a dreaded disease you wouldnt have to constantly look for symptoms would we i check my breast constantly breast cancer being my fear at the moment and i know every little nodule in my lumpy breast absolutly nothing i havent felt before but no thats not good enough so i started to roll the skin of my breast areola and of course i find i can feel the odd tiny grainy specks between my fingers when rolling the tissue so worry stations again even though this is not the way they tell you to check your breast and i know what im feeling is not the actual breast tissue its the layer of fat that cover the breast and i know this i still worry i just want to think rational for a change i havent had sex for months with my partener because of the fear of bleeding after because if we do i check for any different coloured discharge i might lose that i might see as blood i really cant stand this anymore its driving me insane

[spacebunnyx]

Hi Bronte, this is something I found helpful with checking.

Create a table with the days of the week along the top. Then down the side have the following headings:

Anxiety 0-10

Number of times checking

Number of times searching on google

Number of times asking for reassurance


I found that if I kept a record of when I was checking/seeking reassurance etc I found that the more I checked the more anxious I became. The simple act of doing this chart really helped me.

Space xxx

[bronte]

thankyou spacebunnyx i know your right because ive done it before i find that when im rational im not worried at all by my recent symptom because i know they are nothing to worry about but its when im feeling anxious to start with eg too much time on my hands /period due /going on holiday thats when i start analysing and checking and to top it all ive made the skin on my breast sore and painful from rolling my skin between my fingers bloody hell x

[bronte]

anyone else check until you find something to worry about x

[sarahsarah]

Yes, me all the time. I check my breasts frequently and like most normal breasts, they're bumpy and lumpy and even though there's nothing different from before, I still get fixated on a particular area and keep feeling it. At the moment I am also checking my neck for swollen lymph nodes as one of my pretty constant health fears is lymphoma, mainly because of the lack of symptoms. To be honest, I don't know if what I am feeling are lymph nodes or bone or muscle or anything else that's there, I am not sure I would know a lymph node if it were swollen, but I still keep checking!

I know I feel 100 per cent better about everything when I am not checking yet still I do it. I accept it as part of my health anxiety and know that it will pass soon, I just have to wait for that to happen. Xx