still concerned about my lungs

[ell19]

i'm new here so i'm just gonna start with introducing myself. My name's Ella and i'm 19 years old, my life completely changed eight months ago when i had my first panick attack and i have never been the same person. i suffer of health anxiety. this is my biggest fear. a cancer on my lungs. everything started when my upper and mid back was hurting and when i looked on the net i found it could be a cancer. so i was a smoker but, i used to smoke like a packet of 20 in two weeks. somedays I didn't even smoke so it wasn't a serious thing. my back has been hurting for all these eight months. i've been to three doctors. the first one said it was a normal pain on my back. the second one just gave me some pills. and the third one sent me to a physiotherapist which said it was all tension. after a massage I thought i was feeling better but then i had to take a flight and the pain started again even harder. now my mind keeps thinking about that cancer and i can't live a normal life anymore.

[ServerError]

Okay, Ella, so you're only 19. You don't want, or indeed need to, live the rest of your life with an anxiety disorder. You probably feel very alone, as if you're only person who ever went through this, but I can tell you - in the least insulting way possible - that your post reads like an anxiety forum cliché. By that, I mean, it could have been written by almost any of us, and it contains plenty of the classic anxiety themes.

I have a few questions for you. You don't need to answer them here. Just ask them of yourself:

1) Why are you leaning towards believing something you read online over the opinions of three expert medical professionals who've actually seen you and assessed your symptoms?

2) Why are you seeking out internet scare stories in the first place? On some level, do you think Googling is increasing your suffering?

3) Why does it have to be something like lung cancer, which is incredibly rare in 19-year-old women? Why can't it be benign musculoskeletal issues? These are common in people of all ages?

4) On some level, does your past history of smoking play on your mind? In the past, I've had a really poor diet, and sometimes I randomly "feel like" I have diabetes. As I said to my therapist, what I really feel is that I have "no right" not to have diabetes after the way I used to eat. Do you think it's possible that you have diagnosed yourself with lung cancer because you feel it is somehow logical that you would have it after having smoked?

5) Do you believe that, just because you have a thought, it must be true, even if the doctors don't agree? What if you didn't believe that. What if you were able to recognise your brain as an imperfect, flawed organ that goes off on tangents and creates scary "truths" without any evidence? What if you were able to challenge those thoughts?

You're the same as me in that your spiral began with a panic attack. Although that panic attack can seem like the starting point, it rarely is. I can look back now and see that my issues leading up to that panic attack go back years. I suspect you have some issues that predispose you to an anxiety disorder and to anxious thoughts. These issues should be worked on with a therapist if you're not already doing so. Go and see your GP and talk about options for therapy. Because you don't have lung cancer!

[Sphincterclench]

lung cancer at your age given what you have said would be like 1 in 10 million odds.

[ell19]

i've never been this worried about my health than in this week. last week i got a flu, i felt terrible but i thought it's a not ailing thing when you're ill. i healed on thursday, i was feeling better except for my back. i always had a pain in my upper back but this time the pain is on both sides of my mid back. where the lungs are. i got so scared, i had five panic attacks in a day. i went to the doctor, she checked me with the stethoscope and she said everything was fine. she just said it's better if i do some blood test to see the levels of my vitamins.
but i don't feel better. the back is so painful sometimes it also burns and i'm worried. my mind started to think about the lungs cancer again. and i'm so done with this.

[Elen]

merged with your previous thread