What caused u to have Health Anxiety

[Havefaithx]

Hi Guys,

As the title says i'm interested to no what caused ur Health Anxiety and if in the months/years it has got better/worse or up and down, I no this will be hard for some people but I also think if you talk about things even just writing them down can help, overcome some anxieties i'll start.......

3 yrs ago I fell pregnant, I already have a son, anyway I was on the way to pick him up from Pre-school, when i doubled over in pain, I had to carry on as i didn't want to be late for him, i got home and went straight to the bathroom, i was bleeding, called my mum and we went to the dr's. I was seen by a dr who told me i am miscarrying and told to go home and wait, my mum said to her could it be an ectopic pregnancy as she was in a lot of pain but i was told no way as i was to early into the pregnancy (5 weeks) and it tends to be around 7-8. I went home and ended up collapsing that night at home thankfully my partner was home from work and called an ambulance, i was rushed to hospital, and was sent straight into theatre where they discovered I had been bleeding internally from a ruptured Fallopian tube due to an ectopic pregnancy, i had to have a blood transfusion and lost my Fallopian tube. I was discharged from hospital 4 days later and just as i was about to walk out i had my first Panic attack and that is when my HA started, i went into hospital never worrying about my health etc and came out a nervous wreck.
I have defiantly got better, i am on no meds now but still have bad days, I am due to start my 2nd round of CBT in April, we can beat this it just takes time, patience and you have to learn to trust yourself. xx

[kurtis1990]

The death of my dad when i was 17 started my HA. he died a work related accident but autopsy showed he had heart problems. which led me to belive i was next to go. My HA is horrible. i can go years without having a episode and then Wham one strikes without warning

[Havefaithx]

i'm sorry, that must have been horrible, to lose ur dad at such a young age, thanks for ur reply, there always seems to be a trigger with HA and i wonder if we overcome that intial fear/tragedy, that maybe we could eventually overcome HA

[realworrier]

I think I have always had it to some extent. I remember as a child looking at the light to see if my eyes hurt after I had a bad headache, thinking I had meningitis. Its just got worse as I have got older. My Gran had it and my Dad (although he doesn't like to admit it) but its been a long while since I was like the way I am at the moment, there has been a lot of stress over the past month or so and I think that has triggered it all again.

[NotCool]

Looking my past in hindsight, I figure that I've had it most of the time, but not severe- more like a worry here and there. I guess it started strongly forming more a couple of years ago when I thought I had hernia...then testicular cancer...then skin cancer. Slowly, it started getting kind of weird, and I've started to notice symptoms and sensations of my body a lot more over the next years. It really really flared up and developed into a full blown HA (with panic attacks) with all the nasty physical symptoms with it around 7 months ago, when I thought there was something wrong with my lungs. Then testicular cancer again. Heart problems. Brain tumor.

And here I am today.

[RoseEve]

Mine started after smoking marijuana. I had a major panic attack I didn't understand what was happening. I thought I was going insane. I had lots of depersonalization and couldn't feel normal. I started researching all sorts of mental illnesses convincing myself I had them all. After a while when I realized I wasn't losing my mind I began to worry about my body failing me. So then the cycle of HA began. It waxes and wanes. I think this time I have a pretty good handle on it though. It's been almost 3 years since this began.

[mbarger33]

The death or grandfather whom I always saw as an immortal figure in my life, followed by 6 year old cat being diagnosed with lymphoma made me realize that nobody lives forever and life is short. And I'm always scared to die.. so in comes the health anxiety. ... :weep:

[Paradise24]

Like most here, I think I've always had it to some degree. Where it really got out of hand was about a month ago when the doctor told me I had slightly high blood pressure. I went home, found dr google, and it was all downhill from there. Now I think about lung cancer (Because I smoked for a few years), heart problems, and death in general. I really hope to defeat this thing quickly, as it's taking a toll on me.

[RoseEve]

I really don't think I would have gotten HA without Dr. Google.

[Catherine S]

Apparently I was always a sensitive soul as a child and always worried about stuff. My home life wasn't brilliant and I was often left in charge of my little brother during school holidays while my parents went to work, but in the earlier years, at 8 yrs old I was kinda young to have all that responsiblity, so I worried alot because my mother would always find something i did wrong while she was out of the house. So I guess my anxiety was inevitible in a way...predictable even! Some things you never let go of but you learn...through the support of people on here...that there is a way to live life even if it includes anxiety. I still look out for my baby brother, even though he is now in his 50's :)

[Round in circles]

For me it was when I realised I wasn't invincible (the way kids think they are) and realised death was coming no matter what I do.

[unsure_about_this]

Something very basic which increased my health anxiety, my Dad because he reached 60 in 2012 he was required to do a poop bowel screening for bowel cancer, he test came back fine. I have thought I may have had bowel cancer because I had abdominal pain etc. all my scans have come back fine.
Each awareness brings a new worry I have worried about pretty much every cancer, more self checking.
I do have a condition called NF which I was force to sort of look up by one of the advisors at said training provider for job club, as I did not trust which site this person would use Wikipedia one site she checked for the other condition I have dyspraxia.

I am forever checking myself (been told off by GP yesterday whoops) I been worried about my teeth since 2005, even though I go to the dentist regularly. my health anxiety increases with me reading daily mail, googling symptoms and cancer websites, probably three no nos.

[scrumking]

This is an easy one for me it all started in January of last year my grandmother died unexpectedly of a brain anuerysm, in May we lost my vibrant father in law and role model after a 7 month battle with cancer, in july my mother in law was diagnosed with breast cancer and in september the woman who was like a second mom to me died of a heart attack in her sleep and here i am

[HalfJack]

Getting bullied badly at school when I was a teen started it, then I was attacked about 5 times in the street plus a few minor instances of assault made it worse in my adolescence.
It got MUCH worse after I developed a chest condition in 2012 which no one knows the cause of, has no treatment and for some people it lasts a week, others 30 years.
The Dr couldn't help me much and I lost my place at uni because it made me so ill. My entire life briefly fell apart because of the condition - which I currently appear to have recovered from but it could come back at any time - and I ended up becoming obsessed with my health and terrorfied of it coming back.

I only learned recently that the more I obsess over it the worse I get, and I've been much better since I stopped feeding it :)

[Vigilante]

To be honest not entirely sure why or what started me off but it wasn't until my first year at college aged about 16-17. I was actually doing great in my course work but remember being overcome by stomach pain and decided to start prodding at myself only to think I had some cancerous tumor....

My mum kind of thinks it was due to going to an ex girlfriends funeral, a girl I grew up with who lived opposite across the street. Oddly I seemed to have further cases of HA after other funerals. even been to one before I started feeling bad this time around and another one during it.

[GingerFish]

Probably because from a young age I read medical journals and recognised that I suffered from a lot of symptoms in the books. Its funny because the one time I was seriously ill (pneumonia with 6 cracked ribs from excessive coughing) I was totally chilled and wasn't panicky at all. Where as now if I have a cough, I think I have cancer or something.