Challenge - Stop checking symptoms

[Hypo84]

I am going to copy this from previous topic and update it here regularly to try to complete this challenge and see if it will help or not.

As of yesterday I decided to stop completely checking for my symptoms and looking if they are really present (most important part of challenge) and I decided not to Google anything, I can only post on anxiety type of forums. Challenge will last 30 days and then I will reevaluate if I want to continue with it or not.

My current symptoms are sudden sweating under armpits and traces of fresh blood in stool.
So, since I would always check my armpits in mirror, touching them to see how much they sweat, checking is it asymmetric and for blood I would constantly check toilet paper multiple times, inspect it etc I stopped doing that yesterday completely. I can feel that I am sweating i.e. but I don't go to mirror to raise my arm and see just how much it is, or I don't touch it to see which side is more wet. I do feel urge to do it, but when I do smth else I forget about it for a while, then I remember, but I consciously remind myself of challenge and I don't do that.

Day 1 went really well. It could just be placebo, but I hope it is not and that it will prove to be very helpful.

Day 2 - It was really hard today. I guess it depends a lot on current mood. If I feel better and my anxiety is lower I can stop myself pretty easily from checking, but today, I was feeling worse and since I am afraid also that I have rapid weight loss I wanted to measure myself today(I did it 2 days ago last time). I started convincing myself that I will only do it once more, and that it won't repeat, and in the end, fortunately I didn't measure myself. I will in 5 days though, since measuring once a week is not that bad, but I do not want to measure 3x a day since it's crazy.

As I said, really tough day, hopefully things will become easier.

[damianjmcgrath]

This is what I'm doing too. Today is my first day. I get chest pains, of various types. Either pinching pains, muscle aches, heaviness and tightness etc. I've had it for months and been checked out so it must be fine. I need to ignore it. My plan is to not use any home machines, like blood pressure, not Google, and actually not mention it to anyone because talking about how I feel puts my focus on it.

Today is hard already. The pains make me worry and stress instantly, and then I'm in a bad reflective mood and always checking internally for how it feels. I'm struggling to ignore.

However I have forced myself to come out into a social situation today which normally makes me feel worse. I've been out now for 2 hours and the ignoring is going well so far. Feel bad but not as bad as normal.

By the way, on your progress, well done! Pretty big step. Don't beat yourself up over checking - if it's less than usual, or you feel guilty, then that's progress in the right direction!

[Hypo84]

Day 3 I really screwed up this day. My girlfriend came to my place and wanted to measure herself and I unconsciously measured myself after her even though my goal was to stop measuring. Then, self checking just transferred to other areas. It took me a while to stop this pattern, but I finally did so it's better than before, but I am a bit disappointed that my first failure was only 3 days into beginning of challenge.

[Anacbn]

Hi Hippo 84
Just food for thought... sometimes when you say you won't do it again, you end up failing. It's easier to set a time limit that you feel comfortable with, as I will check my armpits once every 6 hours, and in that way you will be successful. Regulate the time limit, for more or less, as you go succeeding or failing, but please do not give up! We can do it!!
Good luck!

[Hypo84]

Day 4

Today was pretty good day and I managed not to check anything, didn't even feel the need to. I actually feel very good, but I am expecting that some new symptom will appear soon as old ones keep losing power. I hope that since I know that it is probably going to happen I am not going to pay much attention to that new symptom...but we'll see.

@Anacbn

Thank you for your advice and encouragement. As for checking every x hours, I am more of all or nothing kind of person and that is working for me quite well in other areas of my life. We'll see if it's going to work for this or not. I actually lowered checking of symptoms quite a bit in last couple of days.

[Hypo84]

Day 5

Didn't check anything so that's good, BUT another symptom appeared...of course it would...entire day I m feeling pain behind right ear...It doesn't worry me at the moment, no idea what it could be really, but I knew smth will come up when I calm down...it always does.

[Beth28]

Have no expectations of a symptom and you might not have any. You are doing well. If a symptom does arise think of it as your mind saying appreciate this part of your body. So if your ear hurts think of it that you have wonderful shaped ears. Head hurts you have lovely hair. Stomach hurts I have a great six pack (even if you don't). The idea is to think of the body part in a positive rather than the symptom.

All the best

[Hypo84]

Day 6

Totally failed day. :( I measured myself numerous times since I believe I am losing weight rapidly.

Not sure what to think...These days I have more than 4 bowel moments per day (all in the morning usually). I guess it's because of anxiety, and I will keep losing weight if these frequent bowel movements don't stop. But then again, in the back of my mind is that big C which is terrifying.

[Leslie735]

How did you do over the weekend?

[Hypo84]

Weekend was great since I went to therapist and I always feel great after talk. I am trying very hard now not to pay attention to symptoms and to focus on things around me and not be in my head all the time.

[Pootle77]

Following this with interest!!

[Leslie735]

Glad you had a good weekend! Keep it up! :)

[Hypo84]

I will...checking my armpits, how much more I sweat under right armpit is the most difficult thing to do, since I actually feel that armpit is all sweaty and other one not so much...

On the other hand, not measuring weight is much easier.

We'll see how it goes...

[Hypo84]

Thanks guys for support.

I was checking armpits again...it's the hardest thing to control. I feel my right armpit sweating more, then I check if it is sweating more, then I see it does, then I check again later...

It's so damn annoying that this thing frightens me so much and makes me so irrational when I am the most rational guy I know when it comes to other things in life.