Don't trust professional opinion

[JS1997]

Hey everyone,

I'm 17 years old and I pretty much diagnosed myself with health anxiety. I've been to the doctors about it and all she did was say I should get counselling but I can't right now.

Basically my problem is, I noticed a small hard lump on the roof of my mouth on November 2nd, I tried not to worry myself as people were telling me it may just be from where some food has scratched it. Well after three weeks it had still not gone and that's when the panic started kicking in properly. Luckily I had a dentist appointment around the same time I was really getting anxious. I asked the dentist to check it out and she said she couldn't see anything so it was nothing to worry about. I had to go back a week later for a filling and as it was still there I was still very anxious about it, I was hoping to get a second opinion from a different dentist but I had the same lady again. So after I asked her to check again and she said the same thing. I asked her if it could be cancer and she said she would be able to tell if it was. It is now 3am December 8th and I am sat up on my own feeling too anxious about this to sleep. I have had this lump for over two months now and the problem is I just don't trust this dentists opinion! I know this may sound rude but she looks very young, mid twenties or so and in my head I'm just thinking she doesn't have enough experience to know what it is. Has anyone else had a problem like this? I really don't know what to do because every single day, multiple times a day I touch it with my tongue and my head fills with horrible thoughts, my heart races and I get very hot. I try to distract myself to calm myself down but an hour or so later I'll just touch it again and it's just been that same cycle for a long time now. Any help, support or words of wisdom would be very much appreciated.

[btrace]

That's the thing about health anxiety.... it doesn't matter how many times you're told you're healthy, reassurance only lasts for abit and it's just you have to trust your dentist! Is there someone else you can go to for a second opinion? And stay away from google, it's not your friend! I basically diagnosed myself with lymphoma when my nodes started to swell up and saw about 3 different doctors and after many blood tests it took me awhile to accept I'm healthy.Stay positive!

[Jenwales]

Let me tell you my experience will health anxiety:

I was taking tablets and over one Christmas period I was sure that I had deep vein thrombosis. My hands and feet felt weak and I was sure that they were numb. I went to the hospital because I got myself to worked up about it. They didn't know what was wrong and then I went to see my gp. She told me it was anxiety causing pins and needles in my hands and feet. Basically my anxiety had convinced me that I had DVT and I kept feeling pains and numbess constantly until my gp said I was fine.

When I first had panic attacks I didn't know what was wrong and the constant worry probably gave me health anxiety, you worry what's wrong with you and that you might die of what ever it is.

Basically to explain what I'm trying to say is that your mind will exaggerate your symptoms and make you think you have something wrong. E.g. if you read anxiety symptoms you may get them.
And it seems to me like you are worried about this lump and you don't know how to let it go-the worry.
There are other things that can cause a lump in your mouth so keep telling yourself that. I know it's hard to reassure yourself and that these thoughts keep coming back, one website I was on said every time to have these thoughts to say STOP.
But I'm stuck with them myself so I don't feel qualified to help. All I can say is I know how the mind can get stuck on something which may not even be serious.

I diagnosed myself with anxiety too and I know that can make you lose faith in doctors.

[Ande]

It's absolutely normal, tiny little hard lumps on the roof of the mouth are called torus, plural=tori, the roof of the mouth is just bone and these are tiny little bony lumps you can feel with your tongue, they are very normal and most people have them, i have suffered from health anxiety for years and have worried about the same thing, don't worry yourself over this mate, i have let it bother me for weeks on end and now with hindsight, i can tell you that if you ignore it, nothing will happen, at-all.:)