How did your Health Anxiety start?

[skippy66]

Tell me how your Health Anxiety started. Was it one particular event, or do you think you have always had it?

[J4the96]

It's difficult to pinpoint for me. I had about 3 months of dizziness - which stopped after i stopped using an E-Cig. I then had a sinus infection and was referred to ENT and had to have a MRI scan. That was the first medical test I had in my life and ever since then I have been convinced there is something up with me.

[unsure_about_this]

Google, my Dad doing his bowel screening (poop test) in 2012. I had a number of scans because I thought I had bowel cancer and a number of others. a number of trips to the gp because of fear i had testicular cancer

My Dad lost his Dad in 1998 due to a heart attack (he was in hospital at the time) my Dad mum was badly ill Christmas 1998 as well and she could have died had we not taken action when we did, she was in poor health up to her death in August 2000.

I have been frighten of my health about one thing or another since I was about 11 but as I have gotten older it has got worst, been okay the last few weeks.

I have had CBT which ended earlier this year. Will my health anxiety go away, not, will i believe my GPs after all the tests have come back fine. I supposed yes,

[KeeKee]

Mine all started from a simple Panic Attack :-(
Had I not had that attack I probably would never have found this site. (Which isn't a bad thing, I just wish I never had the need for it).

[Mondie]

My Dad's cancer was misdiagnosed as hay fever for 6 months by his GP and he consequentially died. Ever since I have difficulty believing doctors when they tell me I'm fine.

[wnsos]

I had a strange stomach twitch that coincided with a lot of things going on in my life and a previous misdiagnosis that sort of made it hard for me to trust doctors. Sadly the damage was already done before I'd realised my previous ailment had affected me as much as it had mentally.

[.Poppy.]

I had a swollen lymph node that I was convinced was cancer for a long time, but I was too scared to see the doctor about it.

One morning, I woke up and I just felt doomed. I was lethargic the entire day and got sick several times, convinced I was about to die.

After that, it went from one thing to another for about three years. It was awful.

Finally, I got over it, for the most part. I had another scare with it a couple of years ago but I FINALLY went to the doctor to see about the (still swollen) lymph node. He said it was fine, did a test to be sure, which came back fine. I occasionally have blips with it, but no longer have HA to a massive degree, just GAD, which has it's own challenges.

[chickpea]

I think mine started after several events that came in fairly quick succession.
Firstly, I was attacked at knifepoint at night. It completely traumatised me, but due to various reasons, I never got the support I needed afterwards - even my GP told me to put it down to bad luck and move on - and I began to think that if something so extreme could happen to me, ANYTHING could.

6 months later, my dad got ill. He'd suffered severe mental health issues previously, including health anxiety, so it was pretty much dismissed as more of the same. Eventually, he had to be blue lighted to hospital and spent 6 months in ICU, suffering from severe acute pancreatitis until his machines were e eventually switched off.

I thought I was ok until about 9 months later. I started to feel panic when a passenger in cars. It wasn't nice, but it was bearable. Then, I was followed whilst walking home alone one night and it terrified me - the next day, I started to suffer from bowel problems.
Eventually,I was passing blood, having 20 bowel movements a day, lost half a stone in a single weekend and severely fatigued. I went to the GP and was told it was severe IBS caused by anxiety and put on Citalopram.
Due to the side effects of the meds (extreme for me) and still being very ill but being told I wasn't (blood tests came back ok), I had a breakdown.
6 months later, I was finally diagnosed with Crohn's disease.

For 2 years after diagnosis, I was so relieved to finally know what was wrong with me, I was actually on a bit of a high.

I had been pretty ok until a year ago, when a friend who had previously overcome breast cancer was told it had come back in her liver and bones and was untreatable. She died 3 weeks ago, at 38, leaving behind her 10 and 7 year old daughters.
Since then, I have gone into a tailspin over health.

[Serenity1990]

I'd had five very difficult years with stress like nobody should every have to experience. I came out of them and life was on the up, and I suddenly started to pay attention to symptoms I'd probably had for years. I googled, the symptoms got worse, to the extent that one day I was rushed to hospital in an ambulance with a suspected stroke when one side of my body went completely limp.

I hadn't had a stroke, I hadn't had a TIA. The doctors said it was probably anxiety, but they wanted to do a MRI to rule out a brain tumour. That was negative. Then I spent months trying to figure out an explanation for my continuing symptoms using google. Google fuelled the anxiety, anxiety caused the symptoms, the symptoms created more googling.