Mind games? How do you differentiate?

[RyanM1994]

Morning,

Not having a great time at the moment, trying my hardest not to have time off work and give in.

The problem is I don't know how to tell whether this is Anxiety or whether something is wrong.

Basically, if you look at my older posts, I have been scared of a DVT in my leg.
I went to the doctors twice about this, and both times they examined my leg and told me it's nothing to worry about.

I accepted this.

On Friday I woke up with pain in my ribs and chest area (mainly left side, but have been getting right side pain also).
I went to my walk in clinic (took time off work to do so) and got told my muscle on my left side is inflamed, and said nothing about my right side.

All over the weekend a Pulmonary Embolism has been on my mind and the pains have been getting worse.

This morning I have woken up with muscle pain in my left arm (top, hurts when I move my arm) and muscle pain around the armpit and chest area. Below this there is still the same pain in the ribs (that occasionally hurts when breathing in)

Also, my right side is hurting slightly when I breathe today. But I also have heartburn

Swear this is a giant mind game.. Any thoughts? Please don't panic me further.

[Skkyee]

I cant comment on your symptoms exactly, but ican tell you that I am in a similar place! Im in the cycle of convincing myself bout a whole different illness but i too am getting pain in my upper left arm and shoulder, shaky hands and im convinced my arm is getting weaker. My rational mind is so so so fed up with it all. But I too have the same problem... how do we KNOW its just anxiety.

Well i dont know how we KNOW its just anxiety.... but u know what?.... it just is.

As i type that my mind says.... but it might not be tho.... but i know it is!

Our brains are such powerful things, and mental illness is so hard to overcome.

I have in the past had the tight chest, traveling chest pain, tachycardia, heartburn, lung pain. It amounted to nothing.

I dont see my doctor when i have these fears... because unlike everyone else here, im too scared to go! I just darent go, im terrified of tests and of waiting for results.

I just wait for my symptoms to pass... and they do.

I dunno if any of that helps, but its just how i feel :-) I hope u feel better soon...... and i hope i do too!

Donna xx

[marie398]

I think all of us hypochondriacs struggle with this. We don't know what is or isn't real and then we panic and jump the worst case scenario.

All I can say is I've had ur exact symptoms on two occasions and jumped to the same conclusions. Leg pain, got a Doppler. No blood clot. Then I got chest pain and shortnesss of breath and assumed I was a goner.
You're right, it is a mind game. Whenever We have a fear, anxiety worsens it by giving us a new symptom.
Eg every time I'm worried about a cancer, I'll have one symptom of the many and then I'll read up on it, then a few seconds later I'll develop a new symptom and freak even more!
A lot of the pain is psychosomatic.