How do I cope with health anxiety

[ElleNicole]

My name is Danielle and I am 21 years old. I have been suffering from health anxiety since I was 11. I have gone through different periods of being completely fine for a while and then one day the panic will come. I was really bad up until I was 15 years old. At 15 I met my current fiance and since meeting him I have been great, only minor issues and thoughts here and there. Recently my fiance and I suffered a miscarriage 2 months ago. Ever since my miscarriage I have been back to worrying about aches and pains and it is consuming my life. I have recently asked for a referral to a psychologist from my doctor, but i wanted to try one of these sites first before I made that decision. I cannot continue to live my life like this as i have lived it like this before and it is horrible. No one really understands how much worrying and anxiety can affect your life until it has happened to you. I wanted to tell my story to see if anyone can relate to me and help me figure out ways to cope and deal with this. I am a googler! I know that is a horrible thing to do but I cant help it. Every time I have any kind of pain, my mind immediately convinces me that it is cancer. I don't know why I have such a strong fear of it but I do. Currently I have been having pain in my right arm hand neck and shoulder and have convinced myself it is some sort of tumor. I really need to learn ways to cope so I can live my life to the fullest. Sorry for the long thread. Thank you!

[Holds1325]

Hi,

First of, I'm very sorry about your miscarriage, that is a terrible ordeal to go through having been through it myself actually.

Secondly, perhaps this situation caused your anxiety to flare perhaps? Either way it will get better again I promise.

21 years is a very very young age to be worried about any types of cancer. For the most common cancer i think the rate is like 1 out of 300,000 chance or something like that for anyone in their 20s. That is a .0003% chance! Very very low chance. Conversely this means you have a 99.997% chance that you do not have it, neither will get it in the future. I'd take those odds for anything.

As anxiety sufferers we tend to have a heightened sense of awareness which includes a hypersensitivity to our body's various aches and pains all of which are common. Think about this, you have gravity pulling on you daily, you have toxins breathing in and out and your body is a wonderful factory for processing these and removing them but there are side-effects! Hence, muscle soreness, headaches, achy eyes etc.

You have a long life ahead of you I'm sure :) Try to live in the here and now and hey someday you might do something great, you could even do something great today by not allowing your fear to give you a bad day, and we all have that choice.

How about we make that choice? :)

[Nicholebear]

Hi Danielle you sound really similar to me, I'm
23 and I've been through just about it all. I was on birth control that put me into a spiral. I had depression and anxiety. I woke up every morning dreading life. Not wanting to exist, but at the same time I was obsessed with every little health pang I had. Mostly my problems were with my vision. Floaters, flashes, visual snow. It was crippling. I couldn't enjoy anything anymore. I finally decided to go to the doctor and had them switch my birth control pills and now I feel so much better. I still have little fits of anxiety, but it is nothing like it used to be. I have had health anxiety since I was a small child, and still have it to a degree now, but I think I have it now because of my years of abuse from my stepfather, and my mother having breast cancer. But my problems was majorly exacerbated by the hormones

I wonder if how you are feeling is because of you hormonal changes from your pregnancy or miscarage. Are you on birth control currently?

---------- Post added at 12:48 ---------- Previous post was at 12:45 ----------

I will add that during my anxiety, depression phase I felt all kinds of aches and pains, my arms, legs, hands and feet would get tingly. I broke out in these itchy white rings under my skin on my palms and soles of my feet. I was a truly terrible time. My anxiety would cause my symptoms and my symptoms would cause my anxiety! A truly terrible cycle.

[ElleNicole]

Hey guys thank you so much for replying. It is relieveing knowing I am not the only one who is going through such terrible anxiety. I am currently not on any birth control because after my fiance and I get married in September we are going to try for a baby again. The worst part about it is that I know that I have a really low chance of having any kind of serious illness, but my mind will not grasp that concept. I wonder if my anxiety clicked in once the miscarriage because I am worried that if i do have some sort of illness i will miss my chance to be a mommy and now i constantly worry about every ache and pain. Thank you so much for replying to me because I actually feel better writing about it and talking, that is why i was considering a referral for a psychologist. Just talking about it helps. I will choose to worry less and hopefully it helps!
Thank you so much! I really appreciate you for talking to me. No one knows how horrible anxiety is until they witness it, and you guys understand that! :D