Decided to set myself a target date.....

[Mrschurchill]

Had enough of this constant battle with my body and my mind so decided if I can get to March 14th 2015 (my 27th birthday) and still be relatively well in myself then I need to kick HA's ass!!!

Not googling symptoms anymore but have been googling health anxiety as hypocondria and it's helped me so much already.

Boob pain is still there and scary but i need to get my life back! I need to start enjoying life and enjoying wedding planning and my beautiful daughter Iona.

Any help or tips would be appreciated!

Let's so this!! X

[lior]

You go girl!!

I heard yesterday that much health anxiety is down to misinterpreting normal body functions. Skipping a heart beat is totally normal and it will not lead to a heart attack. But because we treat it like it might do, it reinforces the belief that taking deep breaths etc makes any difference.

Boob pain is also totally normal! I have boob pain every so often and I'm not dead yet. It's related to complicated hormones x

[hanshan]

I would have to say that the golden age of health anxiety is late teens to early thirties.

After sixty, the doctors are much more concerned than you are.

[Mrschurchill]

Reading up on HA and hypocondria makes every bit of sense. Why can't I trust it? X

---------- Post added at 13:58 ---------- Previous post was at 12:20 ----------

http://gracegems.org/Arthur/hypochondriac.htm

This made every single bit of sense to me!! I feel like I could have written it myself!

[lior]

I would have to say that the golden age of health anxiety is late teens to early thirties.

After sixty, the doctors are much more concerned than you are.

Hahaha

[Mindknot]

I think the more you read, the more you'll trust it - there's way more useful information out there if you start your google search with "anxiety" or health anxiety :D Everyone has a few blips, but there's light at the end of the tunnel - read the sticky post at the top of this board "get a plan, and get on it" or something, I read it yesterday and it's just great :)

Other bits I found, that have helped me:

https://www.anxietyuk.org.uk/about-anxiety/anxiety-disorder-and-stress/health-anxiety

https://www.anxietyuk.org.uk/get-help/about-anxiety

Good luck! :hugs:

[wnsos]

Good to hear this! Why wait til march? Start now with us and we can all help each other! I'm still suffering symptoms as I think we all are and fears, everything, but it's so good that you're identifying it as HA because so many people seem to say they do but don't start themselves off on the road to recovery. You are and it's awesome!

There's a Buddhist saying I like, something along the lines of "the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is now." (Could be quoting wrong, of course.)

Definitely as suggested read the Get a plan sticky and feel free to join us over in the getting there slowly thread.

Ps I had boob pain last weekend too. About a day after thinking I was lucky to not be worrying about those as well. Oh mind, you kill me.

Xxx

Also editing to add, we don't trust it even if we're sure that's what it is because we like to think we're in control and there'll be something we can do to fix it, which is why we google so much to try and self diagnose.

"Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most." - great prophet Ozzy Osbourne :D

[.Poppy.]

What helped me to beat HA is that whenever I felt a symptom, I'd tell myself "nope, not today!" and ignore it completely.

Sometimes I still get short of breath (panic) or twitchy or I feel pain, but I refuse to succumb to it and it lasts minutes instead of days or weeks.

I think I eventually had enough "cycles" (one symptom would disappear for another to take its place) that I realized if these were real symptoms, they'd stick around, not disappear once I got bored of them - and that's just how it felt, it was like I was bored of "having MS" so I'd replace it with something else. This made me feel like I could give less power to the symptoms and move past HA entirely. And it worked!

Best of luck to you! :)

[Mrschurchill]

Thanks all so much! Don't really know what I'd do without this forum! X

[Mrschurchill]

Believe it or my birthday is this Saturday! My fears since posting this have sky rocketed and I can't honestly believe I'm nearly here at this day and not overcome my HA. I'm annoyed at myself!

[MyNameIsTerry]

Don't be hard on yourself, its not a failure, its just a lesson learnt. Plus there have been positives such as not Googling anymore. Googling to understand the disorder and recovery steps is fine and if anything, isn't that another step forward because you will need to be able to Google symptoms later on when you exposure yourself to beat it?

Personally, I think setting a date can be setting up for failure. I think its right to plan, but I think recovery is a very big step. I learnt in CBT that big steps were offputting as they invite further anxiety about achieving it. So, I was taught to use 'micro goals' just like you would in ERP. Set smaller, more achievable goals that keep you moving towards your ultimate goal. So, perhaps you could set a new date but make it a tentative one, something that is a 'review date' so doesn't have to a full recovery date. Setting it as a review date might take some of the pressure off and if you don't recovery by then, perhaps you won't feel as negative about it because it was never really for that?

Set small goals instead eg stop Googling, researching your anxiety disorder(s) (remember that if you have co morbid forms, one can be stopping the other from improving and multiple forms are going to be harder to resolve because they seap into each other), exposure triggers, etc.

I remember reading one of the early chapters in Professor Mark Williams book where he explained that if you define a problem in this manner eg end goal is full recovery, then it just sets off the DOING mode in the brain (the problem solving part) and it plans from A to B because it just sees it as a straight line to get from & to. However, this just makes it analyse every tiny detail and possible risk so it brings more anxiety. He says that we need to engage BEING mode instead as it is far more powerful and keeps us in the moment so that we don't bring a load of pressure on ourselves as we work against current goals only and leave the rest until its time to do it. Obviously, some element of DOING mode is involved in order to make some plans but thats where you leave it because your can make your first step as a plan and stay in the moment with it and not let DOING mode run away with itself because you say to yourself "I will form a plan to recover" and you make it reasonable and step away from it.

Have a great birthday on Saturday!!!

[Mrschurchill]

Pah - now 31 and a half.... I wish I could tell 27 year old me not to waste those years worrying... and in 10 years time I will tell 31 year old me! :doh: