Anxiety moving from one thing to another

[Rhiannon.]

I've always been an anxious person, especially about my health. At ten I was so worried I'd find blood in my stools I didn't poo for a week!

At sixteen I developed OCD and the health anxiety eased greatly being replaced by rituals and crippling unease.

This year (eight years later) I was able to overcome my OCD (for the most part). But in November I had a panic attack after a while of feeling a cloud of worry but no cause for a few weeks.

Now the health anxiety has come back with a vengence. I didn't get to sleep last night until 4am since I was so worried, shaking and running back and fourth to the loo. I still can't shake it today! I know I am worrying over nothing but I can't seem to get a grip!

Why have I gone from health anxiety, to OCD, to curing it to back to health anxiety?

[courierdude]

health anxiety can come and go, im sure depending on many variables.

running back and forth to the toilets sounds like one of many things i have done during panic attacks. not really knowing what to do with myself and my body not really knowing what it wants to do either.

what is worrying you specifically or do you have a whole list of issues?

[Rhiannon.]

It's a range of things. Really only need one thought to set me off, sometimes for days. Before Christmas it was that my heart was failing, moving on to worrying about having an allergic reaction to something I ate after my mouth felt odd after eating it, then Christmas eve it was that I was going to have an epileptic fit afyer having a torch accidentally shine in my eyes (I don't have epilepsy), late last night another thought came to me but I'd prefer not to say what since it's ridiculous in the first place but it eased slightly this afternoon when I got a package from China I wasn't expecting for a while (my kitten's Christmas present). Wasn't expecting it to come directly from China so that freaked me out

[saab]

Like many things, such as smoking, drinking, or comfort eating, people find that a bit of stress in one area can trigger a return to bad habits. Ocd and anxiety are habits in that they are patterns of thought and behaviour that we get stuck in. They are hard habits to break and even though they can be overcome, it's easy to slip back into them.

I can fall back into being anxious if I am tired or stressed. My anxiety is centred on my palpitations so anything like gas or indigestion can set me off. I feel anxious right now because I spent the afternoon with a friend who is having a tough time - worrying about her has triggered my health anxiety even though they are (logically) totally unrelated.

So.... relax and don't fight the anxiety. Know that it will subside on it's own if you let it. These feelings will pass because they are only that, thoughts and feelings, and have no reality....you could be thinking of unicorns and dragons. They are thoughts and aren't real.

[courierdude]

trying very hard not to laugh as ive had all those-including the lethal virus escaping from my packages from china! hahah!
still think about xmas lights having the potential to put me into a fit! hasnt happened and i dont worry about it-just something negative to ponder upon : /

just recently thinking a lot that it is the difference from one feeling to another, one sensation or aspect of something to another, that when we notice a change in circumstances, temperature, heart rate or even how clear or blocked our noses are, that we throw ourselves into a panic attack.

someone on another thread even admitted to having a panic because she had noticed that she was actually feeling ok!

learn to accept that things are not in an exact constant for all of the time?

[Rhiannon.]

Thank you so much for your reply.

I have had some 'real' stresses in my life the second half of this year (real as in they not worries from my own head).
First was my boyfriend and I bought our first house together then two months later my aunt died from pneumonia worstened by undiagnosed heart, liver and kidney failure, the outbreak in west africa too has worried me, and now my boyfriend has gone to the US to spend Christmas with his family. He left on the 18th and won't be back until the new year. He has a really stressful job too and is frequently really frustrated with it which makes me worry about him when he is down. This year was particularly bad when his friend lost her job due to not having a uni degree... despite having the job for years previously.

[courierdude]

sorry to hear about your aunt, you were close im guessing?

i wouldnt give a second thought to ebola and i wouldnt trust the main stream media reporting of it either. ebola has been around since 1970s and hasnt had the news coverage it is getting up until now. it is just the latest boogeyman they scare you with to get you to take a vaccine from a company that is owned by a friend of mr cameron...

you can trust me on that one-it isnt happening. what is happening is that lots of troops in west africa are making a point of securing african assets at gun point and forcing gold miners back into their lives of slave labour. not that you'll hear about it on the bbc.

did you catch swine flu? bird flu? ..and youre not going to catch the next world government creation either so dont waste a second of your time with that one.

you should put yourself out of this position of taking everyone elses concerns on board too, your boyfriends friends problems??!! not really something you should use to contribute to your pile of burden is it?

your partner will be back soon then, try imagine how good that will feel and let it carry you towards the day when you are back together!

[Rhiannon.]

I think my worries about that is what helped me kick my OCD. But I got over that too after getting facts about it. It's almost like my body *needs* to worry about something.

My bf is actually really bad at telling me about problems at work. He doesn't want to worry me so he tries to keep it to himself or play it down. I know when he is down though and it makes me sad that I can't do anything to cheer him up.

Really looking forward to him coming home and I think that is also causing a lot of my worrying. It's happened before when he's gone to do work abroad. This is the first year he's not been in Turkey for a month or in different countries for a week throughout the year so I think I've gotten too used to him always being here