Health anxiety turning into OCD

[TheHusband]

Has anyone suffering from health anxiety noticed obsessive-compulsive tendancies too? Such as the need to repeatedly check things, or perform rituals?

My wife recently said she felt her anxiety levels were under some form of control these days, after several years on tablets from the doctor. It is still a daily struggle, but the anxiety is not wild and out of control. However, the next sentence was not so good: "I feel that 'it' is being suppressed by the medication, but not gone, and I feel 'it' is going to burst out of me in a new way, instead."

She noticed a sudden increase in wanting to do certain actions over and over, like checking if windows were shut. Now she did this sort of repeated checking a lot, for several months about 20 years ago, so it seems she already had these tendencies inside her, but they have increased significantly, suddenly.

When her health anxiety was at its height 6 years ago, there were many rituals that had to be observed. For example, cleaning the teeth in a certain way would ensure the safety of a family member in another town. Books describe this as "magic thinker" behaviour and it is not uncommon with anxiety.

Has anyone else felt that a suppressed anxiety will burst out of their brain in a new way, rather like OCD or related disorders?

I want to be really careful about asking these questions. I think Citaopram is absolutely the best thing for my wife, and it has made her anxiety bearable instead of ruining her every waking moment. I would suggest that everybody gives medication a serious thought; do not dismiss it just because of one side-effect.

[CoraB]

Hi there, firstly your wife is so lucky you care about her enough to ask these questions she is lucky to have someone looking out for her. I have OCD and for many yearsny checking and safety behaviours were my predominant worry. I have said to my husband for years, "oh you wait till it gets really bad again" and I've had several times where I thought it was coming back. Then a couple of years ago I started with health anxiety and this has continued since.

In many ways the two are inter-related and similar. For example with my health anxiety I do repeatedly check (for symptoms) and also I crave reassurance. I can see where your wife is coming from when she says it might burst free I feel like it is a real battle to keep me in control rather than the anxiety.

In short I definitely feel that having OCD meant I was more likely to get bad health anxiety. I learnt to watch for my OCD thoughts and magic thinking but the health anxiety crept up
On me and it was getting a grip before I realised. I would think this could happen the other way around too.

[Fishmanpa]

In general and in my experience, I believe that mental illnesses can manifest themselves and for lack of a better word, "mutate". Being that OCD is a component of HA, it wouldn't be unusual for those tendencies to escalate in an individual. Those with anxiety can develop depression and the opposite is true as well.

I suffered from some depression but it never went beyond that. My ex suffered from depression that manifested itself into hoarding. It's totally an individual experience and can affect everyone differently IMO.

If you're noticing these trends in your wife. I understand your concerns. You're obviously diligent as well as caring, and quite aware of her behaviors, so just keep an eye on things and if you notice anything that is a red flag (or even a yellow flag), it would be advisable to seek some medical/psychological attention.

Positive thoughts

[lindadiana]

I always have to use ten pieces of toilet paper,to keep my relatives safe,even though three have died I still do it,its not uncommen at all,it is ocd,but not harming anyone really

[MyNameIsTerry]

As FMP says, OCD is one of the disorders that HA can be seen in. You have to remember that there is no such disorder as HA, you won't find it in either of the 2 major diagnostic manuals, the WHO ICD (currently ICD-10) that we use in the UK or the US DSM (currently DSM-V). There are differences between those manuals too and I can tell you from reading the criterias that a different disorder could be diagnosed for the same person if they used both manuals.

HA is just a common term used to make thijngs sounds easier, it's not a medical term. From reading through the anxiety disorders in the ICD-10, HA spans GAD, OCD and the Somatoform Disorders group. The DSM has a different set of names, an OCD spectrum disorder group, etc.

So, are you sure your wife didn't already have OCD? If not, the Somatoform Disorders group contain obsessive-compulsion cycles anyway so there are some similiarities between them and OCD. GAD is a bit different.

Magical Thinking is one subtype of OCD that I have. Something I have found with OCD is that it can get quite muddled so that subtypes combine e.g. I would have Magical Thinking tied in with intrusive thoughts which resulted in a compulsion to touch or check, plus repeat, plus symmetrical thinking, plus Magical Thinking again.

Another thing I've not only found but observed in other OCD sufferers on here is that some people have a very intense individual subtype and others have multiple subtypes and some without the intense individual subtype tend to experience new ones popping up. I've also observed several HA people who post on here who started to experience intrusive thoughts which caused them more distress than their HA (their words) and OCD can be like this when you move into the more harm-based/sexual themes. Once you get your head around it being OCD, it helps, I've been there myself and I can agree with them.

[Emilym80]

I've just been diagnosed with OCD, having been diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder about two years ago.

Somatic obsessions and health fears/obsessions in general are a big part of my OCD, but I didn't realise I had it because I hadn't noticed how they differ from my other worries that don't take on an obsessive nature; once I started to take note, however, it became very obvious, which led to my diagnosis.

That said, a counsellor I saw said high periods of stress could cause behaviour typical of other disorders to emerge without necessarily indicating that disorder (you could become quite paranoid without being schizophrenic). Still, I'd probably recommend that she see someone and get tested for OCD if she hasn't already because the more accurate a picture you have of the particular illnesses that are bothering you, the more effectively you can combat them.

All the best.

[MyNameIsTerry]

(you could become quite paranoid without being schizophrenic).

Absolutely Emily. Paranoia can often be seen with anxiety and from my own experiences with it I found it was only when I was more severe, which makes sense.

[TheHusband]

Terry: Yes, my wife did display something akin to OCD briefly in her 20s, so the tendency was already there, way before the (medically low) levels of anxiety present since childhood burst into full-blown health anxiety in her late 30s.

Emilym80: Yes, it was a period of very high stress which tipped her over the edge and start the anxiety which interfered with a normal life. The stress caused a migraine which included visual disturbances and a temporary loss of speech. She thought she was dying in front of her 4-yr old twins, and this seemed to be the point from which all worries were amplified a million times, focussing on her health.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Has she been under more stress? Quite a few of us OCDers have talked about how overall anxiety levels increasing spike our OCD. I know if my GAD goes up, so does the OCD but not the other way around.

I've seen this on people on the HA board too, life stressed push their HA concerns up into a much higher intensity.

If so, work on reducing these stresses and anxiety levels and you will find her OCD declines with it.

Do you think perhaps she always had OCD and that it was just health related that was the main focus so the rest wasn't really understood enough to consider it part of the condition?

[Libra]

I also found that OCD.s developed some time into my HA. I never suffered with OCD previously and neither did I have HA..I found that as the OCD,s manifested that the level of HA went down considerably..I am in process of gently breaking away from them. I can find no connection with why my HA started up other than.. 15 years ago my GP suggested FBC and that, it appears was the trigger because 10 years later when he suggested FBC again... off the HA went again.. I had been free of it for 8 years previously.. Again it took about 2 years to rid myself of it.