Right you lot - read this

[skippy66]

Please understand that I have been in your current situation. I have had severe health anxiety and I know EXACTLY how it makes you feel. You feel like you are dying, doctors can't help you, you know more than the doctors, you can't get enough tests, the tests may be wrong, your symptoms are definitely something serious, you're constantly on this site and others looking for reassurance. You're basically posting your symptoms and hoping that loads of people come back with 'I have exactly the same thing', somehow the fact that others also suffer from what you have makes you feel slightly better.

Let me quote one of my posts from a few years ago to let you know how bad I was:


Convinced I'm about to die

Been for a long sauna at my local health club, when I say long only 10 mins at a time but about 4 times. The 4th time I got a real chest tightness which spread to my left arm, so I came out, showered and left.

The pain subsided, but just now it came back nearly as strong, and I'm scared. Not least because I just googled chest pain sauna and it gave me intricate examples of similar symptoms in other people using saunas who had heart attacks up to a few days after the event.

Don't know what to do.


http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=68502


Here are my symptoms:

Right eye has felt weird for 4 days, tired like I've pulled a muscle around the eyelid or something. It feels droopy but it isn't.

Yesterday it started to cry a bit of it's own accord. Just the right eye.

Today i've still got the discomfort, but another strange symptom too - my right ear feels strange, as if there's blood rushing to it. Not constant, but this combined with the eye symptoms is convincing me I have some kind of brain tumour or stroke impending.

Someone please put my mind at rest

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=67308



As you can see I was in a bad place. I was Googling health stuff on a daily basis, many times per day, wasting hours of my life. It took me far too long to realise that I was wasting my precious life by doing this.

Reading some of your posts, I can see that some of you have not yet realised that you too are wasting your lives by obsessing over your symptoms. You are scared of them and that's totally understandable, but what you need to realise is that LOOKING FOR REASSURANCE KEEPS YOU TRAPPED IN THE VICIOUS CYCLE. Reassurance does not cure health anxiety. Acceptance does.

Anyone who has read Claire Weekes knows how important acceptance of symptoms is in curing panic attacks. It's exactly the same for health anxiety. Only by facing the symptoms and saying 'to hell with them' will you start to beat this. Your health anxiety is feeding off your fear of the 'what if...', and you need to stop this right now.

Here's a very basic plan for you:

- Eat better
- Wean yourself off Google
- Re-establish trust in your doctor
- Get out of your house/off the sofa
- Start an exercise regime
- Find distractions in your life
- Accept your symptoms, accept that the human body is not perfect
- Understand that life is short and you have a choice - wallow in self-pity or get out there and live life to the full with whatever hand you've been dealt.


The last one is the most important. Now make sure you watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSayMXTaQY8


I now expect to see a flood of POSITIVE responses :)

[*Fallen Angel*]

Excellent post. I read it nodding along to everything you were saying. Yet when I got to the end I started the whole "what if" scenarios in my head. HA seems to breed on what ifs and the unknown. As you rightly say, acceptance is the key. Like abseiling and stepping over the edge. You've got to trust that step and know you won't fall. Sadly I'm not at that stage yet and maybe never will. My HA kicked off with a health event that went from everyone telling me it would be ok including Drs to it being not ok at all. The feeling of fear in those circumstances has never left me. But maybe it's because I've not wanted it to? Hmm.. definite food for thought.

[Fishmanpa]

Excellent post!

I came here to learn about HA and boy have I learned a lot! Even so, with the understanding I now possess, I still find it mind boggling.

I can only relate in that I suffered from some minor depression after my heart attack and surgery in '07. I knew something was wrong. The things I liked to do like hiking, fishing, camping etc., I lost interest in. I sat in the house, blinds and curtains drawn on my days off and did nothing. I also suffered a couple of panic attacks when I thought I was having another heart attack. I even had one back in February of this year before my surgery for cancer. The difference between what I experienced and what many here experience was that I recognized what it was. I sought medical assistance from a precautionary standpoint. In fact, back in Feb., I said to the nurse at the ER that I was having an anxiety attack and I was here just to be sure because of my history. It turned out to be what I thought it was.

So, I'm not afflicted as many here are but I have experienced episodes in my life as I believe we all have.

Acceptance and action are the answers. Acceptance is the big one. Realizing you do have an illness. HA/anxiety IS an illness! It's just not a deadly physical one. It's in the "action" taken where the difference lies. Some need more action than others.

Skippy's post is inspirational and proof that you can grab this beast by the horns and take your life back. What do you want to do?

Positive thoughts and prayers

[Brunette]

Couldn't agree more Skippy.

I had panic attacks, not HA, but, as you say the key to both is acceptance, it's the only way to get your rational thoughts back in control of your irrational ones.

Ultimately you can choose not to play the game anxiety tries to lead you into.

[saab]

I am a huge fan of Claire Weekes. I think her methods were years ahead of their time. In a way her teachings are cognitive therapy before anyone had heard of it. There is also an element of Buddhist like thinking in her work - the idea that you need to accept things just as they are right now, without seeking to change them.

The Mindful Way through Depression is a good book that encompasses the Buddhist teaching on acceptance and comes with a great cd on relaxation/meditation.

Anybody with anxiety should get Claire Weekes 'Self Help For Your Nerves' - best book ever.

[Eyji1]

Great post man. At a certain point not long ago something in my mind just clicked... I looked back upon the past months and years of my life and all I could think was "What have I been doing with all my time???" I mean... Looking back I know that when I'm having a panic attack it always seems to be the worst. But dying? I don't think so.

Someone once said that if you worry so much about "trivial" things you've got way, way to much time on your hands. And I tend to agree.

I truly wish all the people here snap out of it so to say and I only want to help those who need help because I know how they are feeling. This is a tough thing, anxiety. But when you TRULY accept that you have a sickness of the mind. That the way you think defines how you feel. You will soon realize that all that you are stems from your mind. The very person you are is molded by the words that pass through your consciousness. And it's up to you what sort of person you wish to be.

It's your choice. Really.

[Fishmanpa]

But when you TRULY accept that you have a sickness of the mind. That the way you think defines how you feel. You will soon realize that all that you are stems from your mind. The very person you are is molded by the words that pass through your consciousness. And it's up to you what sort of person you wish to be.

It's your choice. Really.

You absolutely get it! Great post! There's no doubt you will overcome any and all obstacles and live a productive and happy life!

Positive thoughts and prayers

[skippy66]

I'm glad to see that a few of you on here are clearly very very close to beating your health anxiety. Once I had a proper understanding of the condition I was more than halfway there.

[Brunette]

I'm fine. I only pop back to chivvy everyone else along Skippy :)

I'm lucky in being very rational - I'll catastrophise with the best of them for about 10 minutes and then something just kicks in and tells me that the worst case scenario is probably the least likely.