Health Anxiety Tips

[fallingstar]

Please - does anybody have any tips they can share on how they handle or deal with health anxiety.

My health anxiety is usually present but varies in intensity over time or depending on my stress levels etc.

It's easier said than done to convince yourself that you're okay and just worrying about nothing, I know, I've tried. It's just getting me down lately. I used to handle this so well - not so much lately - it's making me feel like I'm a bit weak honestly. I thought I was supposed to be stronger than this after all of these years and me always being okay in the end.

Just don't understand sometimes how the health anxiety can override our logic! It absolutely baffles me.

[GoWhiteSox]

many forms of anxiety are due to feeling a lack of control in your life..as hard as we may try none of us can really control when/if we will get a serious illness.. One day something will kill each and every one of us that is guaranteed..a good thing to do is to take inventory of the things you can control in your life and begin working to make them the way you want them to be..your control over your health is unfortunately limited to eating right and exercising, anything above and beyond that you really cant control so you have to make peace with that

[spacebunnyx]

Hi,

The best thing for me is exercise. If I can run 5km then I'm not going to die anytime soon! I find it reassuring, distracting and makes me feel more positive and strong generally.

Seeing friends and splashing out on a nice outfit or massage also helps. Also, helping others, listening to friends problems gives some perspective.

Also, and this is possibly a bit controversial, but coming on here and reading the posts make me realise that HA is an illness in itself.

[Yorkshire born]

I found that the advice on the depression forum (VBJ's sticky) also helped with my health anexiety. At first i thought i could just think my way out of my anexiety but i've come to realise that if you don't make changes to your life you can't expect to change the way you feel. As the sbove post said health anexiety is fear of what we can't control, we can't change that but we can change other parts of our lives which will help with our anexiety. I've come along way in the last six months following the advice on that sticky, i hope it can help you too : )

[Alexalex]

The only thing that helps me is exercise and I'm definitely not an exercise person haha. But I have bought a treadmill a few weeks ago and used it quite a lot and it really made a difference. In fact, my symptoms disappeared for a week or so because I was so focused on getting in shape. I have got new symptoms now but exercise definitely gets my mind off them

[Mon_Ammi]

many forms of anxiety are due to feeling a lack of control in your life..as hard as we may try none of us can really control when/if we will get a serious illness.. One day something will kill each and every one of us that is guaranteed..a good thing to do is to take inventory of the things you can control in your life and begin working to make them the way you want them to be..your control over your health is unfortunately limited to eating right and exercising, anything above and beyond that you really cant control so you have to make peace with that

Hi GoWhiteSox,

Funny you should say that about the lack of control...when I sat down last week and took the time to think about where my GAD/HA is coming from, I realised a lot of it stemmed from not being in control. I'm a self-confessed control freak, and not being in control of these GAD/HA symptoms and through processes is killing me. But I guess realising that the problem lies with the lack of control is the first step to dealing with it. I love that you suggest one can take back control by just controlling different aspects of your life, like your health or diet - this is going to help me for a long time to come. That is a great way of thinking about control. :hugs:

[Alice1]

It sounds ridiculous and cliche (and I don't do it often) but I have found writing down exactly how I am feeling and then writing answers to the questions I ask myself really helps. It distracts me and calms my mind.
Try 'Why am I anxious and what am I anxious about?' Then take a look at your answer and pick out something from it. Ask 'Why am I worried about symptom X', 'What do I think will happen with symptom X.', 'Why do I think this is not a benign symptom' and keep looking at your answers and asking questions about whatever stands out to you then answer it. You could also go down the 'why am I worried symptom X will give me X disease or kill me.', 'why am I worried about death', 'why am I worried about cancer etc', 'why do I think these things will be unpleasant. The possibilities are endless and it really helps I've found to relax and organise my mind as writing slows the thoughts Down. I've found it helps to write the question as well, and after a few questions start to ask things like 'what can I do to help make myself feel better', 'why do I want this anxiety to stop', 'what have I found that helps me and why does it help me'.

It also helps me with other things too. If I am worried about my weight to the point where I am frustrated at myself fir caring too much, or about my grades or about society or absolutely anything, even after a few questions and answers I begin to think more clearly. The trick is to be as probing and honest as possible. Don't try to hide things from yourself as your the only one that will read it anyway.

I hope this helps!