Having constant panic attacks over "imaginary" appendicitis

[CodyyGagaa]

Hi there!
So I do have health anxiety and I'd had it before because I was diagnosed with GERD (Gastro-esophageal Reflux Disease) and kept thinking I was having a heart attack.
Now, I have a constant fear that I am going to have an appendicitis. The pain feels so real, and it seems like no one believes me when I say the pain is actually there.

I get a pinching sensation in my lower right abdomen. I have had this sensation in my lower left before, and sometimes I have it in conjunction with the lower right, but the pain is usually on the lower right side. It's like pinching... however, the pain sometimes feels just plain sensitive - like not pain at all - just an awareness that that part of my body exists. I get the pain under my fat belly, sometimes on top. Sometimes I feel it on my side, where it feels like my body has been over stretched.
I wonder if the pain is triggered by the food that I eat, but I'm unsure.

I've done the appendicitis tests and I've posted before and everyone seems to think it's not appendicitis (I'm only posting again so I can be more detailed and just be sure.) When I press on my stomach (at the time of the pain) the pain does not rebound. When I jump, I do not get the pain. when I stand on my tippy toes, I do not get the pain.

Today, the pain has come on and I've felt the need to burp continuously... which I feel might be a part of my GERD, unless it's gas releasing from my lower tummy.

The pain seems to go away when I think about other things too. Like, if I play a video game, the pain seems to go away, but the awareness is there. The pain mostly comes on when I am home alone, when I feel alone, or when it is time to go to sleep.

I am afraid to eat, because I feel as though eating could cause my appendix to explode and kill me. The thing is I have a dinner date tonight as part of a school celebration (I just graduated high school) and we're eating at a Chinese restaurant and I'm afraid the fried food will cause pain and I'll pass out in front of all my friends and it'll be embarrassing.

The pain does come and go though and seems worse when I am in a panic.

I had these pains previously about a month ago, but was able to rule out appendicitis. However, on Thursday, right before the 4th of July, and I freaked right out. The pains were there the night before, on Wednesday as well. It is currently Tuesday, the 8th. I am still nervous. Can appendicitis pains last this long?

I can walk, I can go upstairs and do normal activities. I'm just nervous because I don't want it to rupture.

Does it sound like I have an appendicitis to you?
I am really scared.
If not, what could it be?

---------- Post added at 14:18 ---------- Previous post was at 14:16 ----------

Please don't tell me it's not just to calm me down.
Only tell me it's not if you think it's not.

[Catherine S]

Sorry to hear about your health anxiety, but if you had an appendix that was about to rupture you wouldn't be physically able to go out to dinner that's for sure...you'd be on your bed writhing in pain, sweating and vomitting. That's from personal experience and that wasn't even at the rupture stage...it didn't get to the point where it was going to burst, the pain was bad enough before that for the surgeons to remove it. So what you describe doesn't sound like appendicitis, it sounds more like gas connected the your GERD, and fried food will affect that of course, but not your appendix, which sounds to me as if its there somewhere just minding its own business :)

ISB x

[CodyyGagaa]

awhhh thank you for that! That makes me feel a bit better!
Awh. My appendix is minding it's own business.
How cute. :D

[Kathy griffin]

Hello there, it sounds like your having a horrid time of it :(


My friends mum had appendicitis last year and she literally couldn't stand, I can assure you you wouldn't be even contemplating food, nor would it carry on for so long :)

I'd say it sounds like another symptom related to anxiety and worrying about it has aggravated and made it worse which sucks :(

[yenool]

I was going to say.... if it is appendicitis you wouldn't be well enough to write a post on an internet forum that is for sure!

Could it be muscular, like a pulled abdominal muscle...? Anxiety will make you tense up and be more prone to getting strains and sprains in my experience.