learning to reassure yourself

[herbie73]

How do you learn to reassure yourself, were do youstart,? Xx

[James1983]

For me with my Health Anxiety/panic disorder i've gone from what i called the 'ambulance' stage when any strange feeling ended up in heart palps and dialing 999 or walking into A&E, to sort of coping 'badly' i might add. its strange most of the time you sort of cope. i try to concentrate on the fact that i have been here so many times before and that it will pass is what i do to try and reassure myself.

[snowflake293]

For me a big turning point was learning to trust the doctor.

For example, I had a dry crusty mole just before Christmas that I totally freaked out over. I saw the doctor and she said it was fine and not to worry - and I walked away feeling loads better :) Normally I would still be freaking out over it and want to see another Dr but what helps me is knowing for a FACT that if a Dr has ANY DOUBTS at all they will get a second opinion because they can't risk taking any chances.

Don't get me wrong, somewhere in the back of my mind the bad, scary thoughts are there and I have about 3 or 4 health worries at the moment, but luckily they are all kept under control and my HA isn't too bad. Trying to only see a Dr when I feel I really 'need' to. It is so hard when you are suffering with HA. Going onto medication has really helped me and CBT too xxx

[Fishmanpa]

I do understand the mindset when you have a niggle and panic to a degree. While I don't suffer from HA, I do have some GAD (what I call "scanxiety") when it comes to my health due to real health issues.

What I do is take a "give it another week" attitude. The last couple of months I've had some extreme left flank pain. We're talking make you catch your breath cramp up can't move pain. Mostly it was in the morning upon waking. Common sense dictates muscular and the fact that OTC rubs, massage, heat and pain meds helped. But in the back of my mind I'm wondering if it's kidney related or perhaps my cancer came back (many times H&N SCC can come back in the kidneys, liver or lungs).

Over the last few days, the pain has finally begun to ease and I'm better. Sinister physical illnesses don't come and go so all is well. It doesn't mean you shouldn't see a doctor if you're really hurting but it does mean you shouldn't automatically assume the worse or panic.

Another key and probably one of the most difficult to do is staying away from Dr. Google. As Snowflake said, learning to trust tests and your doctor is vital. They have the training as opposed to a search engine that learns where you go and remembers where you've been. If you've been searching cancer and look up back pain, you'll find links to back pain and cancer I assure you! ;)

Positive thoughts

[graeme joy]

i always feel my heart is heating iregular

[Yogi]

I'm trying really hard to give things time too.. Like FishmanPa says. If I think I've got a virus (which is often because the symptoms of my panic attacks mirror those of a sickness bug) I wait and see if it gets better or worse over a couple of hours.
If it's something more, like an unexplained pain I'll give it a few days and see what happens. I'm slowly starting to realise most things are actually my anxiety instead of things physically wrong with me.

Still struggling with noticing every little niggle but hoping I can condition myself to ignore things for a while eventually!

Hope that helps.. It's just my plan and very early days on it x

[saab]

My health issue is palpitations. For something like this, that has been definitely diagnosed, Google can help because the advice on palpitations is generally very reassuring. Another thing that helps is a CBT exercise whereby I write down my fears and then write a rational response. Eg:

Think my heart issue is serious - seen several doctors, all say it isn't. All web advice says not to worry.

Feel really panicky - I've felt like this hundreds of times, it always passes.

What if the doctors have missed something? - they might have, but it's very, very unlikely. I havexseen a few and they all say the same.

.... and so on til I've covered all my worries.

Another way of looking at it is thinking, 'Would I bet my house that I was really ill?". Of course not, and this reminds me that I know I am not really ill, my nerves are just bluffing me into panicking that I am.

[snowflake293]

Another thing that helps is a CBT exercise whereby I write down my fears and then write a rational response.

I have been doing this too following CBT sessions and it is so helpful. It really helps me to rationalise my worries if I see them written down on paper. The process of actually writing it down seems to help too.

I am much better at trusting doctors now and I am going to try giving symptoms a week before going to the doctors.

My big fear at the moment is bladder/vaginal cancer following a bladder infection that's left me with some lingering symptoms. The RATIONAL thing for me to think is it is just lingering symptoms, but the ANXIOUS thing for to think is I have cancer! It just makes more sense and its far more likely for it to be the rational reason if you know what I mean.

Learning to trust you GP is a huge step in recovering from health anxiety. Good luck xx

[cpe1978]

One thing I found particularly useful was actually not to reassure myself at all. Reassurance is just feeding the anxiety whether it comes from you or someone else. I used to practice just sitting with my anxious thoughts and over time that got easier, I responded less and so on.

[snowflake293]

One thing I found particularly useful was actually not to reassure myself at all. Reassurance is just feeding the anxiety whether it comes from you or someone else. I used to practice just sitting with my anxious thoughts and over time that got easier, I responded less and so on.

This is a big thing for me, one of the things I'm trying to stop doing now (as well as stopping Googling) is asking my fella if something is 'normal' or not. He will always reassure me yes, but if I keep asking him I know I am just feeding my anxiety. I am trying 'delay tactics' now so if I have the urge to ask him I will try and wait a bit before I actually do ask him. I have told him as well NOT to reassure me but if I am all worked up and upset he just wants me to feel better so its a tough one really for him.

I agree, sitting with anxious thoughts gets easier over time - its really difficult when you first try this technique but it is something I've been working on in my CBT sessions and it does get easier :)