My anxiety seems to be switching focus

[Hopeyet]

I had something of a triumph recently when I seemed to more or less cure my decade-long health anxiety issues - or at least silence them for the time being.

Touch wood, that's still the case. But I've now become anxious about something else. Again, it's a specific, potentially-serious issue that's out of my control, but it's not my health.

If anything, I'm more anxious about this new 'subject' than I was about my health. It's like the anxiety has come back with renewed strength and has found an easier target.

Has anyone else been through a similar thing? I'm gutted as this could be a recurring concern and the techniques I've used for my health anxiety don't apply quite so directly with this one.

[.Poppy.]

I don't have an answer, but I'm going through the same thing. My anxiety was almost always health related. Now I'm about to graduate and am desperately trying to find a job. It's super stressful and is having the same effect as the HA, but it's different so I don't know how to approach it really, besides which a good element of it (will they call? Did they like me?) is out of my control and that is super frustrating and gets me agitated and even more anxious.

So....fun. I really wish I had some better advice for both of us!

[Kuatir]

Is it really out of your control? Could you take any sort of control and would that control make it easier to deal with?

[Hopeyet]

Is it really out of your control? Could you take any sort of control and would that control make it easier to deal with?

The things I'm worrying about are.

Of course, the way I react to them aren't entirely. One of the things I'm trying to do is assert a bit more control over my mind. It sounds obvious, but just tell myself to think about something else when the anxiety comes in.

Aside from being one of the worst bouts of anxiety I've had it's also really annoying. I turned such a bigger corner with my health anxiety. It's practically gone and I honestly think it might stay that way this time, but I've developed a greater fear of something else. Always staunchly resisted the idea of medication but may actually have to look into it if this continues.

[SLA]

What is this new subject?

You are right, switching your focus to other things will drastically reduce your anxiety.

You become what you focus on.

[beatroon]

Hello there,

I completely identify with what you are feeling. I also struggled with health anxiety only to have the anxiety crop up in a different form once I'd got a handle on the ha.

I have come to realise that my anxiety will switch themes onto an opportune target whenever it pleases. It can feel disheartening, but at least by knowing this you are prepared to accept it for what it is, i.e. anxiety, and not waste ages worrying that something really is wrong.

I even joke with my partner that it's 'jumped, and clue her into whatever it's focusing on right now, so we can have a good laugh about it and put it back into its box.

Hope this helps somewhat, it's a nasty old illness but by knowing more about its operational style we can beat it together!

Beatroon x

[Hopeyet]

What is this new subject?

I'm not sure there's any way to say this without sounding paranoid, but... World War 3. The situation in the world at the moment scares the crap out of me.

I'm probably not alone there, but I've taken it to new extremes of paranoia. I wince every time I hear a plane go over ... which maybe wouldn't be so bad if I didn't live on the flight path to a major airport. That's a lot of wincing every time a 737-load of tourists comes back from Malaga. About four have gone past in the time it takes me to write this!

I also live next to a dual carriageway, which creates all sorts of alarming rumbles that sound vaguely like distant explosions, not to mention emergency sirens at all hours. To any normal person these are the sounds of everyday life, to me it's the beginning of the Apocalypse.

It sounds crazy, but the more I think about it, the more I realise how similar it is to assuming that the innocuous twinge in my side is actually cancer or kidney failure. And I spent the best part of a decade doing that on and off.

[Super_Freaked]

Hi. I hear you the world is concerning and when yo have anxiety loud noises or jolts can get to you, I used to live by a highway with loud speeding cars and they never stopped making my heart race, i did have to move.

Not sure it's world war 3. It's actually quite peaceful in some ways, just think of Europeans bombing each other and all that, we have came far from that, even the Russians and Americans get along. The whole middle east thing is quite tame compared to the world wars, and world war 3 will prob be much different that we think, and your area prob will survive.

I tend to get lots of anxiety about the state of the world so i had to stop reading as much news. Try to do something towards peace locally that you can do.