Health Anxiety=OCD?

[BrokenAge]

I use to have "health anxiety" a lot. From fears of Cancer, AIDS, Liver diseases to bi polar, Schizophrenia, MPD and etc. Anything I learned about that I thought would be the WORST case scenario. I would dwell on "what if" I devolped any of these. Losing my health mentally and physically terrifies me. I've been diagnosed with GAD and Depression so far, but from speaking with a lot of members from this forum I could have OCD. Now from what I know is there is a link between health anxiety and OCD but I'm really curious to see what other people think because I'm honestly not that informed on the two. My life I was told I was a hypochondriac because my great grandmother was and so is my aunts mother. They both worried about their health exessively, but like I said can someone inform me on both of these disorders?

[countrygirl]

I have been told by a clinical psychotherapist that health anxiety is a form of OCD as we obsess compulsively about our health. Quite alot of people with health anxiety also display other OCD behaviours as well.

Health anxiety can be learnt or it can be caused by trauma in childhood or adulthood ( he said).

Mine was caused by trauma as a 4 year old witnessing severe illness and death and being in close contact with illness for a long time.

[jadedreams]

I tend to agree, had health anxiety for years - this past year lots more OCD type obsessive thoughts. From talking to others and my pysch they definitely seem related.

Countrygirl, I think my health anxiety is related to losing my Mom and a brother when I was relatively young. Trauma can definitely affect you.

[BrokenAge]

I lost my grandmother to cancer and I remember I was obsessed with getting cancer as a little kid but I dont know if there is a connection.

[Buster70]

Hi , I didn't think of my health anxiety as ocd until recently having read about it , seems obvious now constantly checking your body , health , googling , if you checked your front door was locked 100 times a day you would definitely think I'm ocd , mine seems to come from my dad dieing when I was in my twenties it was avoidable and he went in front of me , since then my partner has had serious health problems and we nearly lost my daughter to an overdose she was in intensive care for a week , add this to me choking on some food and stopping breathing and hay presto health ocd , I'm hyper aware of any tiny change in my body and I'm constantly checking and freaking out even as we speak , I'm not sure what the answer or cure is but I'm still looking , take care

[MyNameIsTerry]

Nick,

The first thing to remember is - there is no such thing as HA. Well, in either of the major mental health diagnostic manuals, the US DSM and the WHO ICD, you won't find the term. HA is an umbrella term covering different anxiety disorders, which can have different traits and behaviours.

The second thing to remember is the diagnostic manuals. This is an international forum but countries use different manuals e.g. the US traditionally use the DSM since it's a US manual, currently DSM-V, but the UK use the WHO ICD, currently ICD-10. There are differences in some of the criteria and in some cases the structure of the disorders differ too. In HA, this issue exists.

This is where HA fits under according to what I can see in the ICD-10:

F41 Other anxiety disorders
F41.1 Generalized anxiety disorder
F41.2 Mixed anxiety and depressive disorder
F41.3 Other mixed anxiety disorders
F41.8 Other specified anxiety disorders
F41.9 Anxiety disorder, unspecified

F42 Obsessive - compulsive disorder
F42.0 Predominantly obsessional thoughts or ruminations
F42.1 Predominantly compulsive acts [obsessional rituals]
F42.2 Mixed obsessional thoughts and acts
F42.8 Other obsessive - compulsive disorders
F42.9 Obsessive - compulsive disorder, unspecified

F45 Somatoform disorders
F45.0 Somatization disorder
F45.1 Undifferentiated somatoform disorder
F45.2 Hypochondriacal disorder
F45.3 Somatoform autonomic dysfunction
.30 Heart and cardiovascular system
.31 Upper gastrointestinal tract
.32 Lower gastrointestinal tract
.33 Respiratory system
.34 Genitourinary system
.38 Other organ or system
F45.4 Persistent somatoform pain disorder
F45.8 Other somatoform disorders
F45.9 Somatoform disorder, unspecified

The ones highlighted red are a bit vague, so I'm less sure of them. I've deleted Panic Disorder out.

There are specific differential diagnosis criteria to separate GAD, OCD and Somatoform Disorders apart from each other.

The OCD group and the Somatoform group share obsessive-compulsive traits, the GAD doesn't. The Somatoform Disorders include criteria about naming specific diseases in some cases or concentration on specific systems of the body as well as refusal to accept test results and medical opinions, whereas the OCD group and GAD don't.

Complicated eh?

So, HA obviously exists because it's easy for a person to understand, however from a medical point of view the traits are just not the same.

I will have to check the DSM-V because it's very different to this. They have GAD and OCD but OCD also has an OCD Spectrum Disorders group and they have one known as Illness Anxiety Disorder, which used to be called Hypochondriasis, in that group. The DSM also has something in it about how an existing diagnosis may be kept rather than create comorbid disorders but I'm not very familiar with that.

---------- Post added at 07:02 ---------- Previous post was at 06:58 ----------


I use to have "health anxiety" a lot. From fears of Cancer, AIDS, Liver diseases to bi polar, Schizophrenia, MPD and etc. Anything I learned about that I thought would be the WORST case scenario. I would dwell on "what if" I devolped any of these.

I know from looking at the WHO ICD-10, it's a bit vague on the OCD side when compared to the Somatoform Disorders and so it doesn't explain some of the differences between the two. I have seen elsewhere that this is explained as "the OCD person fears getting it as opposed to presuming they have it".

I've never been fully comfortable with that though as the sources weren't stated. I have noticed some the OCD charities over here cover such as BDD but that's not even considered part of the OCD group, but it is in the US manual, so even the charities seem confused.

[NoPoet]

Terry, how is spouting those facts and going on about diagnostic manuals actually helping anyone?

[MyNameIsTerry]

Terry, how is spouting those facts and going on about diagnostic manuals actually helping anyone?

It's what Nick asked for.

The reason I mention about the difference in manuals is because if you had a look at the criteria's you would see that one person in the US could be diagnosed with something different to someone in the UK with the same symptoms and since Nick is from the US, what his doctors may say to what the majority of ours in the UK would for this very reason.

Nick asked about how HA works with OCD. The above is how it works. From here on if Nick has any questions I'm sure he will say and we can go from there.

Or I could just say that HA is Health Anxiety. How does that help Nick understand whether he has issues with OCD? Nick posts elsewhere about issues more distinct to OCD and now he is asking whether his other health concerns may have been connected and it's very possible they are. So, I don't see the point in ignoring the medical side to stick to a general umbrella term that doesn't answer Nick's question.

Do you see what I mean?

Also, I know Nick from talking to him elsewhere on the forum about his OCD worries so I didn't see the point in writing all of that out again when he already knows it. You will miss it because you probably haven't read the others, and so will other members reading this, but I didn't write this for anyone other than Nick anyway so didn't feel the need to write even more to pad it out just in case.