Yet another hypochondirac/overwhelming fear of Lung cancer

[Marta1992]

Hello all. I am new to this site, and have found may way here as a last resort. I had a mini breakdown today due to my overwhelming fear of having lung cancer. I am 23 years old (soon to be 24). I smoked regularly since I was 18 (up to 10 cigarrettes/day). I recently quit and in the last few months have only smoked sporadically during social occasions.

My problem is this: over the last few years (2-3) I have been OBSESSING over my health. It has gotten to the point that it is unbearable, I have breakdowns and am unable to go to work or participate in life. I started off being convinced that I have a brain tumor. The symptoms were REAL. I went to emergency, had 2 CAT scans and low and behold nothing has found. I got over the fear.

I then moved on to having a debilitating fear of pulmonary embolisms. I stopped at my GP regularly with chest pains, leg pains fearing DVT. I went to emergency. After blood work and chest x-ray, nothing was found. I got over the fear.

Now, for the last week I have been experiencing shortness of breath. My chest feels tight and I feel as if I constantly have to take a deep breath. At times no matter how deeply I breathe it does not feel satisfying. I have to yawn to feel relief. Typical anxiety - I know. However upon brushing my teeth I noticed blood in the sink. Twice it was only slightly pink, and the third time there was a substantial amt of blood. I was in a panic. I went to go see my GP who seemed uninterested, listened to my lungs and said they were clear. Gave me antibiotics. But until this day (7th day of onset of symptoms) I feel the same. Short of breath, chest pain when breathing deeply, and recently I have started feeling pain underneath my left rib cage. I am experiencing head aches and have convinced myself that the cancer has spread to my brain.

I am at my wits end. I am in a constant state of panic. I started smoking again as the stress of this feeling is too much to bear. I feel sick, I have no appetite (another symptom which concludes my diagnoses).

On the on hand I realize that it is all in my head. But a small part of me thinks- what if it is not this time?

Please someone help me cope as I feel as I am going crazy and can't keep on like this much longer. I need help, but I don't know where or how to get it.

--Marta

[anxious1]

Ok let me tell you speaking from experience. (18 years of being an anxiety sufferer) what you are going through is Health Anxiety. You are not a hypochondriac you have a genuine Panic Disorder. And what you are feeling. Symptoms. Thoughts etc are all part of that. I know it really is difficult to deal with i too have comstant thoughts of "fatal" illnesses one day i have pulmonary embolisms. The next Parkinsons. Then a stroke. So its quite normal what you are going through as this kind of anxiety Manifests into all sorts of Symptoms. My advice to you is try to breath, relax. And tell yourself over and over again its anxiety it will pass. The symptoms will pass. The thoughts will pass.

[hyg]

Hi- didn't want to read and run as I know how crap health anxiety feels.
I think you know it's anxiety symptoms your experiencing. I've had .most of these symptoms at some point and wasted mine and the doctors time on numerous occasions !
Your still young and have a life to live. think to yourself would I really have all this at my age - that's what I used to do-talk myself out of it. Well I'm 49 now so am still here.
Are you taking medication for your anxiety ? This helped me a lot and my health fears slowly decreased.
Doctors are trained to spot red flag signs of illness so believe them- hard I know !
The breathing thing is awful try deep breathing thru it. I used to feel suffocated at times I think the body senses panic and tries to slow everything down.
Maybe some talking therapy would help you.
Hope this helps. You have this site and other people's experiences will help you to see your not alone x:bighug1:

[LuSmith]

Hey.. I didn't want to read and run as I know how debilitating health anxiety and anxiety in general can be.

I also get the symptoms you described and I also panic a lot about various symptoms ALL over my body. I get the breathing/yawning/deep breath issue thing too, quite often. The way I try to calm myself down is by either distracting myself with something I really enjoy doing, meditating and listening calmly to some really relaxing sounds while laying down and concentrating on taking some deep calming breaths, or just drinking chamomile tea which relaxes me. Having a nap sometimes helps too as I get to the point where if it goes on too long I get a headache and chest pain. I'm sure the chest pain you mentioned is likely from overuse of your chest muscles when breathing so deeply.

I don't think the blood you mentioned when brushing your teeth is related to the breathing and stuff if that helps :) It's likely you may just have a slight inflammation in the mouth/gums. That can be easily fixed by the dentist (though I know I wouldn't want to go to the dentist either as they scare me beyond belief!)

I hope you start feeling better soon, if you need to talk just PM, and take it easy!