Ha taking over my life! Headaxhess!!!

[yummymommy]

so im new to this forum, when looking through some of the topics, i feel like i myself am writing them, i cant believe how many ppl suffer just like me.

just to introduce myself, im 26 year old female with severe hypochondria! just to name a few, i've had numerous breast ultrasound and biopsies, colonoscopies, xrays.....etc.

so now its my headaches. they started few weeks ago, i would get headache every day for a while, not to severe, but i definitely felt them often. (every day was different place, back of head, center of head..) for 3 whole weeks they disappeared without a trace. now, its 3 weeks later and i'm having headache, or its a pressure on the center of my head (ontop of scalp) i feel like something is pressing down. naturally , i keep on googling to find some reassurance, but it just triggers my symptoms even worse, every second of the day, my thoughts are preoccupied, am i feeling a headache, or am i just imagining,

i saw my gp few weeks ago, he didnt think it was anything, but now my headaches are somewhat back...

i need reassurance, can you please help, could it be that my headaches are coming from anxiety and the constant fear of them?

[flipsake]

Hi yummymommy

You are right, one of the best things about this forum is that we can read other peoples stories and see how similar they are to our own situation. I am just like you going round a constant series of suspected illnesses, often the only thing that ends one is the emergence of a new worry that stops me from thinking so much about the previous issue.

The first step is always to see your GP to rule out anything, for me and many of us this step is not an easy one. You seem to be tackling GP visits ok so take that as positive number one. From my own story I can see several things for you to think about, not judging you at all as I am just as bad if not worse.

1) Trust your doc. They do know what they are doing. HA can trigger all sorts of symptoms and also has a habit of moving on to a new one just as you have got a grip on the one you are focused on at the moment. There is a really good set of info in the articles section about all the symptoms that are anxiety related, this may help.
2) Catastrophising. My wife has headaches all the time and has done all of her life. For her as non-HA sufferer, they are just that, a headache. For me they are rare and hence when they do happen must be something and usually must be something serious. You've seen the doc so you must now try to understand that they are just headaches and are extremely common. This is the challenge for us HA sufferers, to do it you may find a therapist helps but there are lots of techniques you can use. I try to 'reason' the situation. Does my symptom tend to worsen in line with my anxiety ? Is it really something that warrants a level of worry (generally if you've seen the doc about it the answer should be no).
3) Dr google. I suggest you never ever google symptoms. Theres a lot of threads on here about it. Theres one I find helpful about symptoms you worried about that turned out to be funnily wrong. You'll find it if you look at my posts. If you find you cant stop yourself and have started typing in your symptom, put the word 'anxiety' after it. You'll probably end up back here. If you're still worried, see the Gp again, as you cant get medical advice on here, none of us are doctors.

Looking at your list of tests you've had quite a few ! Could you begin to use this as your evidence bank ? Rather than looking for reassurance about something, look back over all the worries that proved to be nothing, then use this to help rationalise your new worry. Reassurance seeking is ok in the short term to reduce your immediate stress level, ultimately though it does not solve the HA problem, what you (we) need is a better coping strategy to stop the worry building in the first place.

I notice you ask yourself if this is an imagined headache. This is another flag to me, if its so mild that you have to double check it is even there, that tells you something. I can definitely confirm that anxiety can cause you to project a feeling into your body, often convincing you it is real, also the secondary effects of the anxiety produce symptoms which end up worse than the trigger. This is why so may of the issues on here are about a short list of common things, i.e. heart as your adrenalin causes the pounding heart and then the after affects of the stress leave your fatigued.

Are you excercising ?

[yummymommy]

thank you so much flipsake!

you do bring out great points, i must say, but just to answer you, my headaches are sometimes so mild that i have think twice if they are there, but sometimes, they are not so mild at all, they really are there! as in now, i feel this pain ontop of my head, a pressure like feeling.....
i'm wondering, why is it that every single time i have headache, it takes a while till it goes away completely. once its gone, it doesnt come back thank g-d, but it can take 4 weeks for it to go away completely, y is that???? could that be due to anxiety?

also, being that i think so much about my headaches, and am aware of every sensation, and change in my head, could that be causing my headaches????

[popejoan]

Hello yummymommy,

Welcome to the forum, you will find help and support here. I have severe health anxiety as well but surprisingly I never worry about headaches.

Everybody has them and it is a very common symptom of anxiety. 2 years ago I was going trough a devastating break up and I had the worst headaches ever. I didn't care as I didn't have health anxiety then but they disappeared slowly as I started feeling better about the break up. Depression also causes it and as people with health anxiety we are more prone to depression.

[judipat]

Hello Yummymommy
Just thought I'd throw my two pennies in!
I've suffered with healthanxiety/panic/depression for over 30 years now. When it first started in my 20's, I was hospitalised for over 4 weeks. I've had some good years in between, but sometimes it rears its ugly head again - I guess I understand it more now and can control it to some extent.
Anyway, I have suffered headaches/migraines all that time - from mild, to excrutiating. About 6 years ago, just before I finished work (was in quite a state!) I had the most awful pains in my head - I had an attack at the doctors - he was so worried (I could'nt talk, speak or move) he rushed made to hospital where they thought I was heamoraging. I was projectile vommitting everywhere! They did every test known to man. To cut a long story short, I was having "crash migraines" I now have to carry special tablets everywhere I go - not nice!.
If you are having to feeling theres something pressing down on your head, or, your head feels like its in a vice - they are typical anxiety heads. Pain on one side of your head is a migraine. Then there are cluster headaches - very painful.
My advice would be, get to know your headches, dont let them scare you, and take painkillers. Also, make sure you drink a lot of water as dehydradation will give you a bad headache.
Hope this helps a bit - take care x

[xilvey]

anxiety over health anxiety in its self can cause you to tense to give you tension headaches! Ive been through it and convinced my self ive been having strokes, seizures and brain tumors but what everyone else is saying are right, always trust your gp! Make sure you keep yourself hydrated and eat well to avoid further headaches hopefully it'll relief tour anxiousness :)

[yummymommy]

thank you everyone, i sure hope you are all right, that its my anxiety doing all these headaches to me..

i keep on needing reassurance from everyone, once everyone calms me, somehow the headaches usually disappear. hope now they will disappear as well!