skippy66
07-10-14, 15:11
I think it was Dale Carnegie who said this (or quoted this in one of his books):
"Those who do not know how to fight worry, die young"
What does this mean from a Health Anxiety perspective? Well, if you look at the quote in it's basic sense, it is saying that people who can not manage their stress get ill and die younger than people who manage their stress better.
This quote may fill you with more worry initially, as you think 'Oh my God, I can't stop worrying about my health, therefore I'm going to die young!"
...But then you have a bit of a 'Eureka' moment, where you suddenly realise that you can do something about this. You know that people can recover from crippling anxiety - I am a case in point, but many others have also come out the other side. Look at Jesus Navas, the agoraphobic footballer who could barely leave his own house but now plays in front of thousands of people in a foreign country. There are countless more examples and it should ram home the message that YOU CAN GET BETTER, and WILL if you have the correct mindset.
Believe me I know how difficult this is - health anxiety is a bit of a paradox because you feel like you wouldn't worry IF you didn't get worrying symptoms, and you continue to get the symptoms. To beat health anxiety you need to remove the focus on actually reducing the symptoms, and place HUGE focus on your reaction to those symptoms. Like the guy who has no arms or legs on Youtube - watch his videos, his positivity is infectious. He knows his affliction and gets on with his life. As soon as you learn to get on with your life despite your symptoms, you will probably see those symptoms reduce. I say probably as I don't want you to hang your hat on this - beating health anxiety is about changing your attitude to the symptoms, not trying to eliminate them. Trying to get rid of your symptoms sends you down the Dr Google route, which only leads to more worry and more symptoms.
Getting back to the quote, dying young is sadly not the worst thing about this. A life spent worrying is not a life at all. Even if you live to be 100, if you've spent most of it in the grip of health anxiety you've not really lived. I know exactly what living with HA feels like, it's like you're sinking in quicksand and your body sends out constant signals of your perceived imminent death. It stops you doing normal stuff. It made me agoraphobic - I talk about this in my book - I couldn't even go to the supermarket without having a panic attack. It's not a life you want, one with HA. But you CAN and WILL get out of it, and get back to normal.
CBT sessions teach the same as I do - it's not complicated or ground-breaking. It's a combination of learning to accept your symptoms for what they are, distracting yourself from obsessing over your body and stopping the constant search for reassurance. Once you have mastered these, you will have your old life back, you'll brush off symptoms with a 'so what' attitude, "go on then chest pain, kill me, see if I care".
When you get to this stage it's a truly liberating experience, and you'll desperately want to help others out of it, which is what I am doing right now.
I won't say 'good luck' as you don't need it. You will get better, that is all you need to know.
Thanks for reading...
"Those who do not know how to fight worry, die young"
What does this mean from a Health Anxiety perspective? Well, if you look at the quote in it's basic sense, it is saying that people who can not manage their stress get ill and die younger than people who manage their stress better.
This quote may fill you with more worry initially, as you think 'Oh my God, I can't stop worrying about my health, therefore I'm going to die young!"
...But then you have a bit of a 'Eureka' moment, where you suddenly realise that you can do something about this. You know that people can recover from crippling anxiety - I am a case in point, but many others have also come out the other side. Look at Jesus Navas, the agoraphobic footballer who could barely leave his own house but now plays in front of thousands of people in a foreign country. There are countless more examples and it should ram home the message that YOU CAN GET BETTER, and WILL if you have the correct mindset.
Believe me I know how difficult this is - health anxiety is a bit of a paradox because you feel like you wouldn't worry IF you didn't get worrying symptoms, and you continue to get the symptoms. To beat health anxiety you need to remove the focus on actually reducing the symptoms, and place HUGE focus on your reaction to those symptoms. Like the guy who has no arms or legs on Youtube - watch his videos, his positivity is infectious. He knows his affliction and gets on with his life. As soon as you learn to get on with your life despite your symptoms, you will probably see those symptoms reduce. I say probably as I don't want you to hang your hat on this - beating health anxiety is about changing your attitude to the symptoms, not trying to eliminate them. Trying to get rid of your symptoms sends you down the Dr Google route, which only leads to more worry and more symptoms.
Getting back to the quote, dying young is sadly not the worst thing about this. A life spent worrying is not a life at all. Even if you live to be 100, if you've spent most of it in the grip of health anxiety you've not really lived. I know exactly what living with HA feels like, it's like you're sinking in quicksand and your body sends out constant signals of your perceived imminent death. It stops you doing normal stuff. It made me agoraphobic - I talk about this in my book - I couldn't even go to the supermarket without having a panic attack. It's not a life you want, one with HA. But you CAN and WILL get out of it, and get back to normal.
CBT sessions teach the same as I do - it's not complicated or ground-breaking. It's a combination of learning to accept your symptoms for what they are, distracting yourself from obsessing over your body and stopping the constant search for reassurance. Once you have mastered these, you will have your old life back, you'll brush off symptoms with a 'so what' attitude, "go on then chest pain, kill me, see if I care".
When you get to this stage it's a truly liberating experience, and you'll desperately want to help others out of it, which is what I am doing right now.
I won't say 'good luck' as you don't need it. You will get better, that is all you need to know.
Thanks for reading...