skippy66
05-09-13, 11:15
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 :)
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 :)