Hello!

[Thorgi]

Hello,

I am a 32 year old female that has suffered from general anxiety and more specifically severe health anxiety for quite some time--as long as I can remember. My health anxiety has been spinning out of control lately where I feel that I am ALWAYS searching and worrying about what might be wrong with me, so much so that I can have mild panic attacks and crying fits daily/weekly because I've convinced myself I have some life threatening disease. As soon as I get over one health fear, I find another thing to obsess over and I am worrying my life away instead of being present for all of the wonderful people in my life. I happened upon this site during one of my obsessive health google searches, that inevitably tells me I have cancer, and was so relieved to find a respite online to turn to when my health searches take over my brain. My husband is incredibly supportive and does his best to work through my fears with me but I can not expect him to be my therapist and doctor and husband all rolled in to one. I constantly ask him to rationalize my fears or to feel the latest lump or bump I found. It has become exhausting to all of us.

I have recently sought out help from a therapist for the first time as I felt that I could no longer put myself or my husband and young son through the stress of this condition anymore. I have only seen my therapist twice so far and so can not really comment on any results yet. I am not currently taking any medications and although I am open to medications we have been considering trying to expand our family again in the near future and I feel strongly about finding alternative ways to deal with this in the meantime. I keep up on my multivitamins and also take additional vitamin D and a B-complex.

Openly talking about this is very new to me but I look forward to meeting this new community and I'm feeling proud for taking another step towards better self-care. :D

[venusbluejeans]

Hiya Thorgi and welcome to NMP :welcome:

Why not take a look at our articles on our home page, they contain a wealth of information and are a great starting place for your time on the forum.

I hope you find the as site helpful and informative as I have and that you get the help and support you need here and hope that you meet a few friends along the way :yesyes:

[Steve163]

Hi Thorgi,

sorry to hear that you are going through so much suffering at the moment. As I am not qualified and it is against the rules of the forum to offer advice I will offer a suggestion instead.
I found it interesting when you said '' instead of being present for all of the wonderful people in my life''.

I underlined 'present' as I have had anxiety and panic attacks for a long time and have learnt to listen to my inner voice and inner world. I am getting more and more convinced that as most humans find it difficult staying in the present moment and not rehearsing the future or going over the past, I believe many people with these issues are expert at projection both forward and back and Catastrophizing thinking.

I am currently looking into mindfulness and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a way forward...it is no quick fix, but I think if we can gain more peace within our mind and accept it as it is, the battle becomes easier.

''One cannot fight themselves and win.''

Peace.

Steve.