My time to go.

[roxy90]

Health anxiety has absolutely crippled me, to what feels like the point of no return. I know I could not have managed the last year without this site and the wonderful people on it.

Unfortunately I rely on the reassurance too much and feel that this is the time to go.

I've improved so much in the last year, with special thanks to fishmanpa, Kate, CPE and many others. But now I need to do this on my own.

Thankyou everyone and good luck x

[bulan]

Glad you feel empowered enough to make this decision, roxy. It's inspiring to see someone move on like this. :)

I know what you mean about depending on the reassurance we get here. I find these forums as enabling of my anxiety as I find them liberating from it. I hope I can move on one day too.

All the best to you!

[NotCool]

This might sound selfish of me, but my experience is, that taking a visit to the Health Anxiety board every now and then puts things in perspective, and it can be overall a helpful tool in rationalizing what you are feeling.

Look at it this way - there are SO MANY people suffering from obviously extremely irrational health fears on these boards (including me), so many posts asking for reassurance. When I look at them, I think to myself:"This really isn't productive, on the contrary. Am I really like that?"

Ofcourse I know that these people really do feel the fear, otherwise they wouldn't be hypochondriacs, but as I said, it helps trying to observe this disorder from distance, putting the real issues into a system, and notice the patterns, which are almost identical in every case.

[blueangel]

Agree with this absolutely NotCool - it's certainly very useful for me to be able to pop in here to take the long view. It helps me to reinforce the stuff I know I have to do in my head.

[clarisse]

Wise decision. I don,t think certain types of HA sufferers do themselves any favours being on sites like this.
Good luck .Im sure you new baby will keep you busy.:D

[roxy90]

Thank you guys.

Clarisse, I agree certain types of suffers don't do themselves any favours (myself included). But people who are just rude and put down people who are genuinely worried don't do themselves any favours by being on here either.

Good day :D

[cpe1978]

Hi Roxy,

For what it is worth I think you are making a brave and sensible decision. This place became a crutch for me when I was most anxious. Almost like a substitute for google. Poor analogy but I felt like a heroin user moving onto methadone. I reached a point, like I think you may have where I realised that the ultimate answer lay with me, and that no matter of talking about it was going to help.

I know you will be fine as you have been much better in the past so you know you can get there again and push on through to new heights. Always know though that if you need support, people on here are here for you. Equally if you prefer to stay off the forums please feel free to PM if you need to chat or vent.

Good luck and make sure you pop back and tell us how great you are doing :)

[roxy90]

Thank you CPE, it does mean alot. I've had so much help over the past year on here but you along with a few others have significantly helped me and I genuinely appreciate that more than I can tell you. You have made such a transformation yourself, which should inspire others to do the same.

A year ago I was at a new low, I've never felt the way I did then. I improved so much with everybody's help and support on here but now I feel I am sliding back to the old me, which is somewhere I do NOT want to go.

I just cannot seem to help myself from using this as a tool for reassurance, except I know that reassurance seeking behaviour only helps in the short term, it ends once a new symptom occurs and the cycle starts again.

I totally agree with your analogy with the heroin and the methadone. It's moving on from asking Google to asking here , both with the same results. This site is amazing for support but the temptation to just ask one more thing is overwhelming. I know I need to take a step away if I want to get anywhere.

It's just the forums I'm stepping away from posting on. I will still lurk and see how people are getting on, and hopefully have a positive story to tell in a few months! :)