HealthAnxiety12
18-02-14, 07:25
When I feel hopeless and despairing and think that I have a terrible health condition and that I'm going to suffer for the rest of my life, I'm going to look back on this thread.
Reasons why my symptoms are being caused by health anxiety:
- I went from relatively mild symptoms to excruciating symptoms hours after I received bad news and experienced an extreme jolt of panic.
- I had stress incontinence twice not long after reading about MS causing urinary incontinence and never had it again after I stopped worrying about MS. This could be a coincidence, but I also developed eye and visual symptoms right after I became convinced that I had Graves' disease. (This might just be that my eyes are dry because of the cold weather, anxiety and dust in my house. The eye doctor said that none of my symptoms were serious and that my eyes are healthy.)
- I felt almost entirely back to normal for two days in a row when I was feeling relaxed and distracted and spending time with my sister.
- I have classic "symptom shifting" -- sometimes my hand might feel numb for most of the day, sometimes my legs will feel prickly, sometimes my muscles will ache all day, sometimes the skin on the bottom of my feet will feel slightly sensitive to touch, sometimes I'll have a hot flash, sometimes I'll twitch like crazy, sometimes my ears will flush, sometimes I'll feel like there's a lump in my throat (I had this right after reading about thyroid issues!), etc. None of my symptoms are constant except for that annoying glare/reflection in my vision (and it's barely noticeable in certain lighting), but that should lessen significantly when I get new glasses.
- I've had a clinical psychologist and an emergency room doctor both attribute all of my symptoms to anxiety. I'm sure that I would have other doctors say the same thing if I went to more of them. Other people on this forum and other health anxiety forums who have all or most of my symptoms have also had doctors tell them that they're all caused by anxiety, too. I've had numerous tests done and nothing has been shown to be wrong.
- I've been somatising to a lesser extent all of my life. I've had appetite loss, chest pain, chattering teeth, stomach pain, etc. all caused by anxiety in the past. There was a period of time where I could barely even eat anything without vomiting because of my anxiety, and I had a lot of stomach aches as a kid because of school-related stress. My symptoms are much more chronic and horrible now, but in all honesty this isn't exactly a new thing. Anxiety has been a huge part of my life.
Things that have helped me:
- Exercise. Exercise every single day even if you don't feel like it. I noticed that the numbness in my hand that I've been experiencing for most of the day lessened significantly while I was exercising. The pain that comes with exercising is good pain; it means that you're getting healthier and stronger.
- Chamomile tea and vitamin supplements (but don't take too many supplements because that could potentially affect your body in a negative way and some supplements can even worsen anxiety)
- Distraction. This is extremely difficult for me because I'm unusually sensitive to pain and have a hard time not focusing on discomfort whenever I experience it, but I'm working on it and it genuinely does help.
- Eating healthy foods and eating enough every day
- Reading posts by people who have recovered. (Unfortunately most people tend to leave the forum and not come back when they feel better. I didn't come here at all on the two days where I was feeling mostly symptom-free and happy.)
I'd love to see other people make posts like this. I feel like it can help all of us in addition to the numerous people who lurk here.
Reasons why my symptoms are being caused by health anxiety:
- I went from relatively mild symptoms to excruciating symptoms hours after I received bad news and experienced an extreme jolt of panic.
- I had stress incontinence twice not long after reading about MS causing urinary incontinence and never had it again after I stopped worrying about MS. This could be a coincidence, but I also developed eye and visual symptoms right after I became convinced that I had Graves' disease. (This might just be that my eyes are dry because of the cold weather, anxiety and dust in my house. The eye doctor said that none of my symptoms were serious and that my eyes are healthy.)
- I felt almost entirely back to normal for two days in a row when I was feeling relaxed and distracted and spending time with my sister.
- I have classic "symptom shifting" -- sometimes my hand might feel numb for most of the day, sometimes my legs will feel prickly, sometimes my muscles will ache all day, sometimes the skin on the bottom of my feet will feel slightly sensitive to touch, sometimes I'll have a hot flash, sometimes I'll twitch like crazy, sometimes my ears will flush, sometimes I'll feel like there's a lump in my throat (I had this right after reading about thyroid issues!), etc. None of my symptoms are constant except for that annoying glare/reflection in my vision (and it's barely noticeable in certain lighting), but that should lessen significantly when I get new glasses.
- I've had a clinical psychologist and an emergency room doctor both attribute all of my symptoms to anxiety. I'm sure that I would have other doctors say the same thing if I went to more of them. Other people on this forum and other health anxiety forums who have all or most of my symptoms have also had doctors tell them that they're all caused by anxiety, too. I've had numerous tests done and nothing has been shown to be wrong.
- I've been somatising to a lesser extent all of my life. I've had appetite loss, chest pain, chattering teeth, stomach pain, etc. all caused by anxiety in the past. There was a period of time where I could barely even eat anything without vomiting because of my anxiety, and I had a lot of stomach aches as a kid because of school-related stress. My symptoms are much more chronic and horrible now, but in all honesty this isn't exactly a new thing. Anxiety has been a huge part of my life.
Things that have helped me:
- Exercise. Exercise every single day even if you don't feel like it. I noticed that the numbness in my hand that I've been experiencing for most of the day lessened significantly while I was exercising. The pain that comes with exercising is good pain; it means that you're getting healthier and stronger.
- Chamomile tea and vitamin supplements (but don't take too many supplements because that could potentially affect your body in a negative way and some supplements can even worsen anxiety)
- Distraction. This is extremely difficult for me because I'm unusually sensitive to pain and have a hard time not focusing on discomfort whenever I experience it, but I'm working on it and it genuinely does help.
- Eating healthy foods and eating enough every day
- Reading posts by people who have recovered. (Unfortunately most people tend to leave the forum and not come back when they feel better. I didn't come here at all on the two days where I was feeling mostly symptom-free and happy.)
I'd love to see other people make posts like this. I feel like it can help all of us in addition to the numerous people who lurk here.