Why is reassurance always so short lived?

[DaisyP]

So some people here may know i saw a neuro on Wednesday for my odd symptoms, long story short i have to have an MRI - not because she is worried because her words were 'i am not looking for anything other than a brain i promise, i just want to put your mind at ease'

BUT as i sit here with tingling, numbness, weird burning tongue, i just cannot believe that that's just what it is at all.

I feel awful again. My MRI won't be for a few weeks, then my appt is in April, so it's a long time to wait for the 'all clear' but the HA part of me just keeps thinking she will sit me down and say 'I'm sorry but we have found a lesion and we think you have MS'

Argh. I hate HA. I feel so sad :(

[twtm2002]

daisy - i feel your pain. I have a long lasting phobia of having caught hiv in the most non-risky of ways. My current panic is that i had a massage and got blood somehow into my system from the thai masseuse. Total BS but such is the power of the mind. All i can recommend is what my doctor said which is to a)distract as much possible and b)keep remembering it's not you that's causing this fear…it is your mind and your irrational side. Once you label it as an enemy and something that you can see you begin to realize you can push it away…it's not me it's my ocd…that's my chant and it works (for a bit…!)

[cpe1978]

I think the reason is because reassurance is a critical part of the health anxiety cycle. You only have to look on this forum to see that (and other HA forums). You would be about the millionth person on here to have had tests, clinical opinion and still had an uneasy feeling that something isn't quite right.

The chances of a series of doctors and tests being wrong is absolutely tiny. All the while, the chances that these things are caused by the stress that anxiety is putting on your brain seems to increase all the time. After all, every sensation we experience originates in the brain. You are overloading it with anxious thoughts etc. it is only reasonable that it fights back occasionally.

Seems to me like you have reached the point where you have absolutely nothing to lose by tackling your anxiety head on and aggressively. Who knows the symptoms might just recede eventually as a result :)

[DaisyP]

Thanks for your words guys. Really helpful.

The mind is so powerful. I guess it's because my symptoms at so strong that it worries me. Maybe I should try mind over matter? Was just In bath with glass of wine, talking to the hubby and as a result didn't have any symptoms at all!! I'm out of bath, thinking about it and yes you guessed it...weird symptoms!!

I think I just need to get the mri sorted and out the way now x