Health Anxiety progressing to Hypochondria?!

[Stressed32]

Hi all,
Stessed 32...I joined this forum when I was 32 and I will be 39 in 2 weeks. Sigh! Initially, my anxiety would be very focused on a real symptom. I would find an actual bump, or get some weird illness and think the worse over that. Now though, it seems to have morphed some and I want to know if this is normal?

Now, I feel like I have symptoms that are not there. I swear I see a small bump in my chest, or I think one pupil is bigger than the other and I focus on this for days. It completely stresses me out. I "get over it" and the switch gets turned off and when I can look at it from a logical mind, the bump is gone and the pupils are magically the same size. Is this all part of this horrible monster?Has my health anxiety now become hypochondria?

Thanks for your thoughts. I feel like I am crazy. Currently, there is a bump on my chest under my throat on my chest bone that I can see sometimes when I look in the mirror, I can feel it sometimes when I rub my hand across my chest, and others...NOTHING! :doh:

[JosieLouise]

Health Anxiety and Hypochondria are generally interchangeable terms. I use both to describe my anxiety. However, Hypochondria (medical name Hypochondriasis or Illness Anxiety Disorder) tends to be thought of as a more severe form of Health Anxiety. Misinterpreting 'symptoms' as you describe is very typical of this (and I'm diagnosed with hypochondriasis disorder, so I think I'm a pretty reliable source!).

For example, I used to think I had a lump on my eye socket. It turns out that lump was... just my eye socket. I also lost my ability to tell if a 'lump' I found was bigger or smaller, because I checked it so obsessively. So yes, a more severe form of health anxiety can definitely cause you to become extremely irrational about your body and even cause you to believe you have 'symptoms' which do not actually exist.

Hypochondria is sometimes also related to OCD, in that you can have obsessive thoughts of illness and death, checking behaviours, avoidance behaviours and the like.

Of course the term 'Health Anxiety' can include all of these too, but if I were to be describe someone without the irrational beliefs, interpretations and obsessions, I would use Health Anxiety instead of Hypochondria.

I hope that all makes sense! :yesyes:

[Beckybecks]

I've always thought I was sufferng from Health Anxiety. Now I wonder if it's something more. I find that every little symptom is completely exaggerated in my mind and therefore a pinprick can seem to be a piercing stabbing pain to me and the more I focus on the symptom the worse it becomes. I believe this is the same for most HA sufferers. Surely we all have a phobia about health symptoms and we obsess about illnesses.
Whatever it's called its horrid and never seems to leave because once you've faced one symptom and dealt with it you are immediately faced with another. And let's face it, there are umpteen different illnesses we can suffer from.

[Noivous]

Yeah - I'm with Josielouise on this one. I think they are one and the same.

N.

[Stressed32]

Here lately I have just started hyper focusing on symptoms that are not there..like a bump. Logical me knows that any concerning bump would be obviously present constantly, no matter how I move or when I look. Hypochondriac me...its cancer..aghhhh!

I'm not really very logical these days.

So what's the secret to stop some of the obsessive thinking about a lump, bump, etc. bc I find when I distract my mind, it is better...but it's so hard to constantly be distracted.

[JosieLouise]

My very first therapist got me to gradually cut down the number of times I 'checked' and this really reduced my anxiety. I learned to keep my hands busy (actually learned a bit of sign language - really helped!) and to set myself goals ie. "I will not check for an hour, then I'll check once, then I'll wait another hour."

CBT is really the only thing I found at all helpful in reducing the obsessive thinking. I would write down my worry (I think there's a lump on my leg), what I thought the consequence would be (I have cancer), my anxiety level (10/10), rationalise the thought (I walked into the table the other day, so it's probably just a bruise), rate my anxiety (6/10), then record the outcome (it turned into a bruise and went away a few days later), and rate my anxiety (1/10). Seeing it all written down like that every single time really helps you to identify the errors in thinking patterns.

[Stressed32]

Thanks SO much. Now looking back, I've been "checking" for years! I have had 3 babies in 5 years. Had a home Doppler w each and would listen to their heartbeats many, MANY times a day bc I also lost 3 so checking the heart was a comfort. I think it created a pattern of thinking for me. I am setting a goal now...I will not check for an hour. Thanks so much for that suggestion.

I've considered cbt, but w no insurance, I can't afford the expense right now :-(

[MyNameIsTerry]

Health Anxiety and Hypochondria are generally interchangeable terms. I use both to describe my anxiety. However, Hypochondria (medical name Hypochondriasis or Illness Anxiety Disorder) tends to be thought of as a more severe form of Health Anxiety. Misinterpreting 'symptoms' as you describe is very typical of this (and I'm diagnosed with hypochondriasis disorder, so I think I'm a pretty reliable source!).

For example, I used to think I had a lump on my eye socket. It turns out that lump was... just my eye socket. I also lost my ability to tell if a 'lump' I found was bigger or smaller, because I checked it so obsessively. So yes, a more severe form of health anxiety can definitely cause you to become extremely irrational about your body and even cause you to believe you have 'symptoms' which do not actually exist.

Hypochondria is sometimes also related to OCD, in that you can have obsessive thoughts of illness and death, checking behaviours, avoidance behaviours and the like.

Of course the term 'Health Anxiety' can include all of these too, but if I were to be describe someone without the irrational beliefs, interpretations and obsessions, I would use Health Anxiety instead of Hypochondria.

I hope that all makes sense! :yesyes:

Illness Anxiety Disorder is the name that replaced Hypochondriasis in the move from the DSM-IV to DSM-V. That's the US manual and we don't use that in the UK, we use the WHO derived ICD (currently ICD-10) and it's descriptions are very different.

Health Anxiety isn't a medical term, it's a common term. Because of this, it covers GAD, OCD and the Somatoform Disorders group in the ICD-10. This differs in the DSM because they have different groups of disorders.

OCD is classed as a Neurotic Disorder. So, GAD and the Somatoform Disorders but they are described in sections of their own.

Intrusive thoughts are proven in studies to occur in all people. So, any anxiety disorder can include them but when they become a problem, they may become considered OCD.

It's true that there are similar characteristics to some of them, especially between OCD and the Somatoform Disorders group. Obsessiveness, for instance in SD's that are a clearer trait in OCD. Or unwillingness to believe medical professionals in OCD yet it is a characteristic required in the SD's.

So, HA is more a sufferers term, not a diagnosis in either of the manuals. This means it can get a bit of a free for all on forums like this. I've seen people that are clearly OCD, some that are more fixated on certain symptoms or named diseases making them SD, etc.

If you want to use the DSM version, Illness Anxiety Disorder sits under Somatic Symptom Disorders, which used to be Somatoform Disorder in previous versions. But the US manual has additional criteria involved where they may not make a further diagnosis to a new disorder if the current one is sufficient to categorise it (something along those lines, you would have to read it). The ICD does the same but that manual is perhaps a bit clearer in where to further diagnose (in my opinion).

[Beckybecks]

My very first therapist got me to gradually cut down the number of times I 'checked' and this really reduced my anxiety. I learned to keep my hands busy (actually learned a bit of sign language - really helped!) and to set myself goals ie. "I will not check for an hour, then I'll check once, then I'll wait another hour."

CBT is really the only thing I found at all helpful in reducing the obsessive thinking. I would write down my worry (I think there's a lump on my leg), what I thought the consequence would be (I have cancer), my anxiety level (10/10), rationalise the thought (I walked into the table the other day, so it's probably just a bruise), rate my anxiety (6/10), then record the outcome (it turned into a bruise and went away a few days later), and rate my anxiety (1/10). Seeing it all written down like that every single time really helps you to identify the errors in thinking patterns.

Thank you. This is so helpful. I did CBT and was given a similar exercise to do. The secret is in continuing to practice it. I tend to forget :(.
Thanks for the reminder.

[Stressed32]

Wow ok, so allowing myself to check only one time an hour really worked! In fact, a few hours now go by and I have forgotten to check! Thanks so much for the tip!

I have a question about writing down the symptom..what if it's an imagined symptom..like how would I do such an exercise for a bump on my chest that isn't there, but I'm worried it's there, so I keep checking it?