View Full Version : Anyone managed to get rid of their Health Anxiety?
I"d love to get rid of mine, I'm giving myself a month to get better.
Stop fearing every little bug.
Try keep my house tidy, mind tidy.
Get motivated.
Actually do something with my life, maybe make friends, heck maybe meet a man.
Anyway ...... I have Lexapro given to me by Dr ... I don't want to take it so trying anything else i can.
Anyone got some tips...
Not :
Eat healthy
Exercise ... blah blah all those things the Dr tells you - trust me I know.
--- All those things i know, I need something else... something .... that no one has thought of but works... something to stop the internal dialogue.
haha..... please.........
I hate to bust your bubble but there are reasons that that things like exercise, eating healthy, therapy, meds etc. are recommended and prescribed. It's because they work.
The same goes for physical illnesses. When I was diagnosed with cancer, there were many posts on the cancer boards about this or that miracle cure or treatment. I looked into them and realized quickly how futile they were and were born of desperation. Thing is, if they really worked, then we wouldn't need the traditional methods.
Again, the same goes for treating mental illness. Everyone is different in how they respond but the traditional methods offer you the best chance at recovery and healing. To put a limit of a month to get better is frankly setting yourself up for failure. Just like recovering from a physical illness, it takes time and there will be setbacks. In my recovery from cancer, I often take one step forward, two steps back. As time goes on I gain a step here and there and eventually I will be making steady progress.
Taking meds is by no means a cure but it can be a means to an end. I took Zoloft for depression for six months. I didn't care for the way it made me feel and I had side effects but it did help me get over the hump and that along with therapy and learning coping techniques help me recover. I'm now dealing with some "scanxiety" and I have meds I can take as well as tools from CBT that help me deal with and cope with the stress.
I'm not an HA sufferer so I can't speak from that aspect but I can speak from a logical and practical aspect. Stick with proven methods. Having resolve in getting better is a first step. Now, equip yourself in a way that sets you up for success and don't limit your chances by refusing to follow the proven and practical advice of medical and mental professionals.
Positive thoughts
I understand where you are coming from.
Of course, your logic is right.
I hope you're recovery from Cancer is a fast one.
It sounds like you have a level head on you and I hate to say it but I think that's what a lot of us with HA don't have .... that logical level head, which I"d love.
I understand that a month might be doomed for failure, but I've had this for 15 years. I'm 38.
I need to put a time limit on myself, I"m exercising, eating well, for the most part on top of it, It's just the physiological symptoms that I hate.
If i didn't get those - I"d be fine, or 'better.'
I disappoint myself - and I don't want to disappoint my daughter.
So I"m approaching this in a quick fast, hopeful way - doomed for failure, possibly but I'm not giving up - I"ve got a month! ;)
I've had anxiety since last September first few months I believed there was something physically wrong with me that the docter was missing sonething but then after a while you realise it is just anxiety and it can't hurt you. After you realise that your health aniety goes away it gets much easier but you have to really believe it's just aniety
15 years is a long time to be suffering. Please reconsider your time frame.
For example: When someone is overweight and diet, one of the biggest reasons they fail is because the expect results too fast. It probably took them years to get where they are now. It takes time to get back to where they were years ago. Realistically as long as it took to get there if done the right way.
While I'm rooting for your success, it's not practical to think you can undo 15 years in one month even if you were taking the meds and seeking professional help.
Positive thoughts
I know, I just figured if I gave myself a short space of time before having to take meds, it might 'wake' me up.
x
It takes a lot of hard work to overcome anxiety - the longer you have been suffering the more work you need to put in to get better. In terms of recovery, the most supported method in terms of effectiveness is currently CBT. I'm currently training in clinical psychology, so I am required to know what is most effective without bias. CBT is the first-line treamtment for anxiety because it works. If you want to recover from this quickly - CBT is probably going to be a good option. You said you want to stop the internal diaglogue - that's what CBT works to do. CBT is based on restructuring your internal dialogue and automatic thoughts, that's why it works so well for anxiety. You can actually do CBT online, and it is proven to be effective - but you have to stick to the schedule and do the work yourself. Even in a face-to-face therapy session CBT will only be effective if you have determination and put in the hard yards.
If nothing else works for you perhaps you could reconsider the medication front. I know you don't want to take it, and many people have the same thoughts. However, in some cases medication can be just as effective, if not more-so, than psychological therapies. If a client doesn't respond to psychological therapies, medication can be prescribed as it helps stop that internal dialogue that plagues so many anxiety sufferers. I've seen medication work for people who haven't responded to anything else. It doesn't work for everyone - but for those it does work for, it really works.
It's up to you in the end what you choose to do. I hope you find your recovery soon. People can and do recover from anxiety. There's no quick fix, but recovery is always possible.
I started CBT a few weeks ago but before I started that I realised that by challenging the irrational thought process I made myself feel better and although it doesn't remove the thoughts it helps me to cope by thinking positively by not presuming the worst and directly challenging those thoughts, such as for several months I've had a chronic cough I saw the GP and was told it was a post nasal drop but sometimes a stray irrational though will say 'what if its lung cancer?' But I challenge these thoughts by saying to myself its not lung cancer as I haven't coughed up blood, not lost weight, don't have chest pains and I'm a healthy 17 year old boy and I don't smoke as well as the fact that symptoms I have are indicative of a chronic post nasal drip, the result; I feel better! I don't know if this will work for others but my therapist told me its a good coping technique.
Since you've been suffering for 15 years, I would also suggest you reevaluate your time frame. Maybe you can instead give yourself a month to try one method and see where you are before and after that time (keeping a journal is helpful). If you're not at all improved, try something else.
I know HA is very terrible and frustrating. I had it for a good two years before I got over my hump. I still get it sometimes, but it's not nearly as bad as it used to be, for which I am very grateful.
I found keeping a journal to be incredibly helpful. I "recycled" a lot of my problems/symptoms and would feel like I had felt that way before but couldn't quite remember it - so I kept a journal so I could remember exactly how I had felt. It also helped me because I was able to read about the issue, and then read a few entries later how I had gotten past it. It was like documented proof that my illnesses (at least the physical ones) were in my head and that I could get past them.
Another thing that helped, and this may or may not be sound advice, was a healthy dose of denial. I told myself that it was all in my head, and I wasn't going to give in. Whenever I had a new twitch or body pain, I ignored it. It wasn't easy at first - subconsciously it was a problem - but eventually I was able to just push it out of my mind via distractions and stubbornness.
Finally, I think I just got tired, which I'm sure is where you're at now. With all of my "illnesses" I would eventually reach a point where I was tired of suffering those symptoms, which would then help me get past them. Well, eventually I was tired of suffering any and all symptoms and freaking out about them. So I was in turn able to calmly read/keep my journal and push intrusive thoughts out of my head because I was just fed up with thinking them and feeling that way.
I still have anxiety and I still have moments where I get upset about my perceived health, but I definitely have a much easier time approaching those thoughts with a more level head than in the past. I can now appreciate that I might be overreacting and not dwell on them too much. 99% of the time, the symptoms just go away. The other 1% I do see a doctor, but it is always for something easily explainable, like food poisoning or a stomach bug. And while I still do suffer from anxiety and have hard days, I do feel a lot better health-wise than I did when I had awful HA.
However - anxiety is different for everyone, and the way to approach it and get past it is different too. My methods may not work for you; others may be more effective. Exercise and eating well are always good things to practice, so I would start there. You may find you need the medication for awhile just to get to a place you want to be, or that some sort of therapy is helpful. Don't expect too much from yourself right away, and don't be too hard on yourself either - you've had this thought pattern for a very long time and it's not something that will change overnight.
I do wish you luck - I believe you can get past this, and think of how accomplished you'll be when you do!
I had HA and well I guess I still have it in some ways but I don't consider myself as a sufferer anymore. I freak out like once a year at most and occasionally have the little voice saying "...the test could be wrong" or "You probably have cancer..." but it doesn't freak me out much, I'm just like "hey it's you... go away I'm busy." lol.
The first part of my recovery began when I FREAKED OUT after chipping a tooth, but just before the panic attack got really bad I gained control, and calmed down. Once I realised I could do that that was half the battle over for me. Both in relation to my HA and general anxiety, I don't know if that's a common thing or if it would apply to you but that's me.
After that I stopped googling completely.
If I didn't trust my Dr (who is very good) I'd know I was being unreasonable, that didn't stop me feeling scared but I stopped believing in what made me scared. Which ultimately helped me over come it because that took a lot of it's weight away.
I focussed my time on trying to manage the anxiety, like GAD if I felt myself freaking out I'd rationalise my thought process to calm down. Half the time my HA was me freaking myself out by fixating on things too long and getting carried away with worries and thoughts I shouldn't have let myself dwell on.
If I freaked out I'd do things to relax (even if it took me days) and then I'd find other things to do - anything that stopped me from obsessing over my health, and I rationalised my irrational thoughts and I asked my boyfriend to help me with that which helped a HUGE amount. x
Hi Halfjack, wow I wish I could stop thinking of how horrid I feel inside.I know it woukd make the world of difference for me.I am a stronger person but the past few months too many things have come my way and I think where I went wrong was not dealing with one thing fully before the next thing hit me.I am referring to sad things to do with my family.Then I guess the icing on the cake for me was having to sell a very special car I had done in memory of my dad.I had this car for many years and a bill came up that had to be paid asap and with nowhere too turn I sold it.The day it was being taken by the new owner I felt really strange inside like a big hole.I cried on and off for days,took down all the famous pics and put them in my closet.Then the stupid HA kicked in.I was not eating right as most know when you are upset its hard to eat right,then you all know the road well every where inside just feels like hell.I also have a special needs daughter that was over dosed not once but twice for being treated for something she does not have,but thank god that is fixed but too watch her suffer in fear of it happening again is a daily worry for me.The nightmares at night I do not remember but waking up so scared and sick to my stomache the terrified to go back to sleep is something I would love to beat as some nights of good sleep would truly help.I am not on meds as I have seen what they have done to my daughter.
I look up to you people on here as I see how a lot of you have been on a very long hard road.I hope for all of you it one day disapears and you are all so very happy.Thanks for reading!
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.