Health Anxiety - My Story

[Andos]

Ok so I'm new here and looking to share my thoughts with like minded people. I'm a 25 year old healthy, active lad who is getting older and the truth of the matter is we are all getting older and as we do inevitably niggles prevail.

I have definitely got health anxiety and I will summarise my thoughts below and how I've started to deal with them.

Glands swelling... Cancer in the throat/neck
Lymph nodes swelling... cancer in the throat/neck
Pain (Not even pain)... Discomfort in ribs... Spleen/Liver cancer
Back pain... Somethings wrong with my kidneys
Weakness/Pins and Needles in leg... Must be trapped nerve due to cancer somewhere.
Testicle discomfort.. Can't have kids, probably cancer etc
Bowel bloating, pain etc.

At some point I have had one of these issues.
The thing is... Do I ever get it all at once? Hmm, no. I'm worrying or zoning in on one and thus forget about the others. So why, when I worry about one, do I forget about the others? Distraction. And zoning into one thing makes that little anxiety feel 100x worse! (I have now realised this..)

Looking into the bowel issues and bloating/discomfort etc following this.. I decided to take action instead of just worrying and let it escalate. I have taken colon cleanse tablets and stopped eating bread. Hey presto... Feel 100% healthier, in time bloating has completely gone and I feel clearer and cleansed. I recommend any persons to try a diet without bread (and bungy food) alongside colon cleanse tablets (you can buy them in holland and barrett).

I am on the way to dealing with the issues now, finally years later and it involves realising we're getting older and you're not going to feel 100% all of the time. Accept that, deal with what you can. Go to the gym, exercise, eat healthy and that will lead you on the right path to start.

Then actually try and realise your thought process. I noticed when uni or finances stressed me out.. I started to think negatively about things like health anxieties and everything in my mind swelled and exaggerated.

Little things like me writing this, I have completely forgot all anxieties and feel fine... I am distracted.

Also, do not read the Daily Mail, random, but I find their negative health stories do no help whatsoever!

We'll all be okay in the end!

P.S I know the above is me just rambling on but it might make sense to someone. :doh:

[rockydog]

Hey hope you are ok, you are very young at 25, but you mention it a couple of times so age may be playing on your mind too. I know exactly what you mean about zoning in on one area and then forgetting the others, I use to do that until one particularly bad week I had "had" about 4 serious life threatening conditions and I decided enough was enough that was impossible.
It is very hard to believe you are ok when you are so convinced that you have one or the other. My advice received was to give every symptom at least two weeks before thinking it was serious and to write down all the possibilities of what it could be, starting from the most minor to the most serious. Then look at your list and think about how many more people would have the minor things than the serious ones. I also used to think about someone I knew who was very sensible, and maybe medically trained, and think about telling them my " diagnosis" and imagine their response, most times I then felt a bit silly thinking it myself.

I had to accept I had a health anxiety and when the symptoms arose think ok I am scared, but this isn't real this is my health anxiety scaring me. It isn't easy but I wish I had gone for help at 25 and not wasted so many years and experiences torturing myself with what if ? Because I started at a young age absolutely convinced I had a brain tumour and ms and suffered for years in fear.
As it happens 20 years on I still haven't had one of my serious imagined illnesses. I still have the odd scare but they are more short lived and more thought through.
I also did get them at times of stress and if something serious happened in another area of my life they died down while I dealt with that lol
It is all just your imagination and it is tricking you. P.S obviously if I had thought I was having a heart attack I wouldn't have waited 2 weeks ;)

[skippy66]

You're halfway to recovery, congratulations.