Not sure if i have health anxiety

[helenclaire]

I am not sure if I suffer from health anxiety.
Most people with health anxiety seem to spend a lot of time going backwards and forwards to the doctors and having a variety of tests but for me although I worry about my health I cannot bring myself to go.
The thought of even sitting in the waiting room is too much to bear.
And the thought of going through tests or my worse fear of having to go to hospital absolutely feels me with dread.
I am going through a particularly anxious phase at the moment which is causing me all sorts of symptoms, dizziness being the one that's really bothering me but am petrified to see the doctor incase its something serious.
I know its silly and I will continue to worry about it but how do you get past the fear to go?.
I have been agoraphobic in the past and I am still limited to where I can go, anywhere I feel trapped is a big no go area, so appointments for me are impossible.

[MyNameIsTerry]

The thing about HA is that it's an umbrella term for anything health related. This isn't any diagnosis and because of this, it spans more than one form of anxiety disorder i.e. GAD, OCD and Somatoform Disorders (of which there are several different types). Because of this, people may suffer to different degrees and with different underlying patterns of behaviour.

For me, the stereotypical HA person is anyone in the Somatoform Disorders group. These are the people who chase tests and then can't actually believe the tests so any reassurance is short lived. It's important to note that Somatoform Disorders have different criteria e.g. one form states the sufferer must be naming a serious disease or disorder whereas another form states the sufferer is more concerned with the symptoms themselves and their resolution, although both of these forms share similiarities with reassurance seeking and disbelief of medical professionals.

Thats for countries using the WHO manual anyway, countries using the US manual have different classifications and even the criterias are quite different so someone in the UK could be Somatoform yet someone in the US could be OCD. So, it can feel a bit confusing on an international website since how doctors view conditions may differ to what we know on here.

It's always possible to be someone with GAD who just worries in general hence worries about the state of their health or the symptoms yet doesn't believe it is something more sinister. I worry about some of mine, but I know it's just anxiety or a side effect of meds or just a minor issue with health that needs sorting e.g. my jaw pain that was due to Bruxism which I did some Googling about to get help and saw my dentist about it. Someone with the stereotypical HA condition seen on here wouldn't want to Google as they would be zooming in on the rare and the serious.

I can identify with the waiting rooms and the tests. I can do it now but early on when I was really bad I found it hard. When I went to see my GP when I relapsed I was shaking all the way there even thought I knew he was there to help me. Sitting in the waiting rooms meant I was tense, struggling with my breathing and felt the urge to escape. Then I broke a wisdom tooth which got infected and I had to get through 3 dentist visits. I ended up cancelling on the first appointment (the 3rd visit) for the extraction and lived with the pain because I hadn't slept all night and felt extremely anxious. I was quite surprised how I managed to get through the extraction using distraction techniques without a major panic and the need to escape.

I think the first thing to remember is that you don't know whether you will need more than to just see your GP. You may not need tests and even if you do, what if it's just a blood test and not a load of back & forth to hospitals which your mind is probably worrying about right now (catastrophizing)? I think you have to avoid looking at it as a whole and break it down into stages with the first being the GP visit and go from there.

It's not silly at all, it's just how these disorders affect many of us. My mum has regular blood pressure checks and feels tense in the surgery even though she has no anxiety disorder. The practice sister said it was very common. So, it's not just us, but we get it more intense and out of context.

Is it possible that you could work towards it by just sitting outside the surgery and then eventually going in and even sitting there? I don't mean in one go, but over a series of visits to try to get you closer & closer to it.

[helenclaire]

That makes a lot of sense, I was diagnosed with GAD several years ago so I am always worrying about something and feeling tense, but lately I am worrying about particular symptoms and not knowing if it is anxiety causing it or something else.
I know the only way to find out is by visiting the doctor but I have put it off for 4 years now and just can't bring myself to make an appointment let alone actually get there, and I know if I do make an appointment I will end up cancelling so I will still be stuck worrying.
I am hoping that it will get better but at the moment I just don't know:shrug:

[MyNameIsTerry]

Many surgeries seem to be offering telephone appointments thesedays. Does yours? They must do something for agoraphobics, like maybe home visits? My surgery is quite traditional and they only do home visits for those who can't get to the surgery. They don't do telephone appointments, trying to speak to a GP there means you go through a level of security (receptionists) that would impress MI5! :D

[AnxietySufferer]

This is literally me...

I have convinced myself of so many different symptoms over the pas couple of years that I have got to the point where going to the doctors makes me so nervous, I get panic attacks just sitting in the waiting room. Last time I went I just burst into tears and was like I know its all anxiety.

Things that i worry about doctors wise;

1) they will confirm my worst fear or serious illness.
2) I am too embarrassed to be told its all in my head AGAIN and that i need to go back to therapy.

I guess i HAVENT found a doctor that I have really connected with as such.

Still forums like this are really useful to help calm down anxiety and help decide whether a doctors appointment is needed.

Hope you feel better soon :).

[lofwyr]

I put it off and put it off. And put it off.

All the time I worry I am putting it off too long, and that the waiting will actually kill me. Then I get so worried I go, and get blown off by the doctor, or find out it is something ridiculously common, and go home.

It feels a bit like playing Russian Roulette. You spin the cylinder and pull the trigger each time you go to the doctor. Sooner or later, I will wait too long for something I should have seen him for, or go in and be told it is something terrible.

The truth is, eventually, even if we are 120 years old, something bad WILL happen to us. I think people with HA just seem to think it could be any second now. Healthier people (mentally speaking) are able to not worry about the thing they are not yet experiencing. No symptoms, nothing to worry about.

I wish I could be like that....

[paranoid-viking]

One thing thoug; we all get older. And sooner or later most of us(hopefully hypocondriacs as we are)will reach the age when death is common. That is something I am thinking about now; I am thinking about a popular net doctor service here in Norway I have been googling in my paranoia and once I saw a queation asked by an ole lady in her 80s, an age where death is common. At this time in life I want to live but I am scare to death about ending up in an eralu grave. But will my health anxiety keep pestering e forever; until I am about the age when people normally dies? Are people pushing 100 hypocondriacs fearing deaht or are they calm in coonsidering the fact that people are dying at that age? My biggest fear is not the big unknown but the pain and suffering those close to me will sufffer; and I have both my parensgs alive and well and no one wants to pass away before their parents. I know that at one point in life I will die; that is the reality for 100% of us;n there are no exeptions. But I wonder if those of us with HA and hypocondria die to the fact that we ARE ageing and that at one point in the future all of us will die; different causes; but none of us will survive.
My point? That I can get rid of all my health worries before I get old(which I hope happens)and not becomoojng a permanent hypocondriac for decadea and until the age hwn pople normally dies anyway. All of us will die one day(there is no escape); but at least I hope to be an old man.
Most people in this country are atheist but I want to believe it is something more.