Ongoing panic of one thing

[shirlp]

I read up on here that ppl tend to be anxious about lots of different illnesses, whereas I only get anxious about one. Now I'm worrying if it is all down to anxiety or if there really is something medically wrong with my head...

[MyNameIsTerry]

Well whatever you read is factually incorrect. HA isn't a medically diagnosable form of anxiety, it's an umbrella term people use that is not seen in either of the two major diagnostic manuals, the WHO ICD (currently ICD-10) and the US DSM (current DSM-V).

I know less about the DSM and would have to check on some of their definitions but I do understand the WHO ICD-10 as I've read a fair bit of it to understand mental health issues which are far more complex than I thought, which helps me on here as who knows what people may be suffering from.

Within the Somatoform Disorders group, the most likely disorders to fall under HA (but so can GAD and OCD) there are several types of them. There is one that covers multiple (and ever expanding) forms of physical illness but there is another one that limits the progressive physical illnesses to no more than 2 (although they may have secondary disorders they can think of that are not as important to them as these 1-2 primary ones).

So, straight away that disproves what may have been read. Was it the HA article on the main NMP website? If so, there are some things in there I've seen that I now know don't match to what WHO state.

So, the HA board is a mixture of GAD, OCD and Somatoform Disorders - if your country uses the WHO guide (the UK does). But there are different factors in the US guide which can mean someone falls into a different category and they don't have the Somatoform Disorders group, they have one called Illness Anxiety Disorder instead. Illness Anxiety Disorder is in their OCD Spectrum Disorders group but the WHO guide doesn't have this spectrum.

Complicated eh?

[LilGsMama]

My HA is limited to one area at the moment. The last time I had a big HA stressy it was 2 or 3 different things, all following on. This time it's ENT related which has made it harder for me to deal with. Xx

[shirlp]

Mine is my head.. Only my head.. It doesn't change.. Ppl post they think they have different illnesses or is it the same part of the body just different symptoms ummm..

[Fishmanpa]

There have been and are plenty of members that fixate(d) on a single sinister illness. It's not unusual.

Positive thoughts

[artist12]

Over the course of my HA (about 14 years) I've worried about many different illnesses, but only ever one at a time.

When I get fixated on something (currently my throat/neck) it can last months until I guess I either finally realize it's not serious or the symptoms go away.

I can have a few months of calm and relatively little HA before something will set me off again, and it could be a completely unrelated illness or part of the body.

That's what makes it so scary for me - if I worried about multiple illnesses all at the same time I think it would be easier for me to say, statistically, I can't have all of those at once. But to feel one thing so intensely for months is what drives me mad and makes it harder to get out of the anxious cycle!

[shirlp]

I tell myself its all in my head, all caused by anxiety hoping it would calm it down but it doesn't.. I think maybe its is because the pain moves about perhaps.. I think its confusing me because its not going and giving me something else to b anxious about.. Should I perhaps be thankful of that.. Artist12 that's what I meant about different things, calm yourself on one then something else starts, I was like that a couple of years ago, then my anxiety went til a couple of months ago with this head thing...