Health anxiety...

[Light_Bringer777]

Hi everyone, I'm glad I've found this place!

I''m a man in my late twenties, been sick for over 3 years with some very rough patches, and I recently started to notice a very bad behavior found its way into my mind.

Belching, nausea, weight loss, crushing fatigue... Doctors didn't know what was wrong with me and didn't seem to care much, and months of research, trial and yes, google allowed me to find "real" physical causes to my biggest problems (hypothyroidism and can't digest grains for some reason). I "self-diagnosed", argued with my doctors, and in the end I was right. For better or for worst.

However useful this was, the habit of investigating every little symptom I had slowly made me hypochondriac. I'm just starting to notice the behavior, and even though there is a very slight chance that any symptom could be a more serious disease, at this point the fear of being sick and dying has become worst than the symptoms I'm having.

I find it a bit humiliating to admit and don't quite know yet how to deal with all this, for example not being 100% sure if a symptom sprouts from anxiety or not, if I'm blowing it out of proportion or not, but I know for sure that I don't want to keep walking down this path. Last night I almost couldn't sleep because I couldn't shake the thought that my recent face flushing was perhaps that "dangerous thing I just found out about on wikipedia"... :scared15:

So right now my first steps are to stop googling everything, take things as they come and start reading on the subject to build myself some tools!

[ohwell123]

hi is your belching a nervous habit do you gulp then burp it up if you feel a twinge? tk care kris

[Light_Bringer777]

hi is your belching a nervous habit do you gulp then burp it up if you feel a twinge? tk care kris

Hi!

No, my belching is strongly linked to the amount of grains/flour I eat, and since going paleo it has gotten ~90% better.

There is however a remaining ~10% that seems to flare up when I'm tired, when I catch a cold or things like that. Haven't made a link to anxiety but the realization is still very new to me so I'll see if I discover a pattern there.

[ohwell123]

hello mate its probably become a self conscious habit trouble is like I found out it brings with it a whole host of more symptoms esp in the chest area etc trapped wind heart burn and then a case of GERD its almost like your self harming yourself unintentionally ive pretty much stopped doing it now and everythings got better regular belching traps more air you see in your gut so food going down etc takes more time

[RachyPop19]

Welcome, I hope this website helps you and your health anxieties as much as its helped mine. (googling was my biggest fault!)

[Light_Bringer777]

Thanks! And yeah, I often turn to google to make me feel better ("It's probably nothing, let's confirm...") and pretty much always end up worse than I was to begin with :wacko: