Health Anxiety and the Holidays

[Brooke4131]

I've spent some time reflecting on my health anxiety recently and I've noticed a trend. Each year around the holidays, my anxiety really tends to flare up. Last year after a particularly nasty bout with the flu, it was colon cancer. A few years prior to that I had walking pneumonia, which of course in my mind would inevitably turn into lung cancer (spoiler alert: it did not). This year, I'm struggling with long term pelvic pain so logically, it must be ovarian cancer. Keep in mind, I'm 30 years old, so this is highly unlikely.

My point through all of this is that the holidays are difficult times filled with stress and can often lead to tough bouts of anxiety. I'm definitely a people pleaser, so I will say yes to every holiday invitation, every request for cookies, and just generally exhaust myself trying to make sure everyone's holiday is perfect. By the time early December rolls around, I'm completely burned out and run down. I leave myself extra vulnerable to those pesky flu bugs and germs that are always lurking around and inevitably get sick. Of course, this warrants a visit to Dr. Google and BAM! here comes the latest round of health anxiety and self diagnoses.

So friends, this holiday season I'm making a resolution to say "no" to some things. Just to try it on for size and see how it fits. I'm hoping my stress level goes down and I can take some time for self care. Perhaps I can nip this round of anxiety in the bud!

[EKB]

I've spent some time reflecting on my health anxiety recently and I've noticed a trend. Each year around the holidays, my anxiety really tends to flare up. Last year after a particularly nasty bout with the flu, it was colon cancer. A few years prior to that I had walking pneumonia, which of course in my mind would inevitably turn into lung cancer (spoiler alert: it did not). This year, I'm struggling with long term pelvic pain so logically, it must be ovarian cancer. Keep in mind, I'm 30 years old, so this is highly unlikely.

My point through all of this is that the holidays are difficult times filled with stress and can often lead to tough bouts of anxiety. I'm definitely a people pleaser, so I will say yes to every holiday invitation, every request for cookies, and just generally exhaust myself trying to make sure everyone's holiday is perfect. By the time early December rolls around, I'm completely burned out and run down. I leave myself extra vulnerable to those pesky flu bugs and germs that are always lurking around and inevitably get sick. Of course, this warrants a visit to Dr. Google and BAM! here comes the latest round of health anxiety and self diagnoses.

So friends, this holiday season I'm making a resolution to say "no" to some things. Just to try it on for size and see how it fits. I'm hoping my stress level goes down and I can take some time for self care. Perhaps I can nip this round of anxiety in the bud!

I think you're bang on with this one! My last bad bout of HA was a few years ago right around this time, and it happened to me again this year.

The social worker I went to see made it really clear that I needed to do some self-care, and to prioritize it (which means saying "no" to some things). So I'm doing yoga and meditation and trying to be really tuned in to how I'm feeling with respect to anxiety (but trying to not be too tuned into the body stuff that makes my HA act up).

Good luck with your self-care regime! I know I have a hard time saying "no" too, but I bet we can do it if we put our minds to it! :biggrin: