Back to the c fear

[paranoid-viking]

For some months I have felt so much better but now I have a localised pain somewhere right under the right rib; when I push it I feel it and it is semi-stabbing, not unbearable pain but I feel it. Like a pulled muscle. And it wont go away. I feel it if I try to run. For a long time now I have not been thinking dreadful and nightmarish thought about cancer but it comes creeping back; especially because I remember one nightmare story out on the net that was what was mistaken as a "pulled muscle" in fasct was....pancreatic cancer. My number one nightmare horror thought. Should i run to the doctor. Does anyone have a similar experience with what feels like a "pulled muscle" on the stomach. And please; I want reasurrance if possible, not any "you are a hypocondriac, stop being a hypocondriad" because that helps nada.

[Gary A]

For some months I have felt so much better but now I have a localised pain somewhere right under the right rib; when I push it I feel it and it is semi-stabbing, not unbearable pain but I feel it. Like a pulled muscle. And it wont go away. I feel it if I try to run. For a long time now I have not been thinking dreadful and nightmarish thought about cancer but it comes creeping back; especially because I remember one nightmare story out on the net that was what was mistaken as a "pulled muscle" in fasct was....pancreatic cancer. My number one nightmare horror thought. Should i run to the doctor. Does anyone have a similar experience with what feels like a "pulled muscle" on the stomach. And please; I want reasurrance if possible, not any "you are a hypocondriac, stop being a hypocondriad" because that helps nada.

Reassurance seeking is only contributing to your health anxiety, though.

If you just want someone to tell you that you're not going to die and that's it's most likely just a pulled muscle, that's great and all, but let's be honest here, it's only going to be a matter of time before you're back worrying about something else.

Reassurance seeking is one way that your anxiety makes you feed it. It keeps the worry at the forefront of your mind and keeps focus on your concern. If you want to momentarily feel better, sure, seek reassurance. If you want to tackle your anxiety then you need to stop feeding it.

Googling illnesses like pancreatic cancer also needs to stop.

[montys]

Your brain is playing up the danger because of how dramatic that anecdote is. This is one of the most common cognitive biases. It's probably a pulled muscle (I had this two a few weeks ago).

Remember the golden rule: if the pain persists for more than a few weeks, check it out. I'm pretty confident it'll be gone by then though :)

[paranoid-viking]

Monty: was that a pulled muscle in the stomach region?

Gary A: I know it is well meaning, with all due respect, but you are not telling me anything I have not heard a million times before from family members with a "you are just a hypocondriac, snap out of it answer" which I repeat is of zero use to me. If anyone have experience with the discomfort I have or could shed some light on it; if it is a common thing with IBS or something, such info is more than welcome, but critisising people for simply having anxiety for dying a horrible death is getting me nowhere. I repeat; I have felt fine for a long time until this lump or whatever came and I have not been googling PC for months, but in my memory from the peiod of aggresive googling this thing comes back to my mind. You may like it or not, but this is how I feel now and I wanted simply to know if anyone has experience or something about it. Advice on snapping out of a very complex and horryfying HA problem is not going to solve anything unless you are a profesional therapist.

[ServerError]

If you're not prepared to listen to people telling you the very nature of your problem, I'm sorry, but you're in real trouble. Being told your problem is hypochondria is the best news you can get. And it is tackling this very issue that will help you actually move forward and live a better life. People don't tell you this to annoy you or because they get a kick out of contradicting you. It's because you need to hear it.

In terms of your discomfort, IBS is the chief candidate. The large intestine (or possibly the small - I can never remember which is which) runs under the bottom of the ribs. It's a common place to feel abdominal discomfort and pain. But I can't tell you for certain what it is. It could just as easily be psychosomatic. I've had plenty of bizarre and really painful sensations that had no obvious cause and appeared to be related to my state of mind.

When people tell you - at least, people on here - that your problem is anxiety and hypochondria, it's not that we expect you to snap out of it. Remember, we're either sufferers or ex-sufferers too, with maybe a small handful of exceptions. We know there's no magic fix for this. But in pointing out to you the nature of your problem, we are helping to move you in the right direction. Or at least trying to. Because healing from an anxiety disorder starts from within. It's on you, and it's up to you, to begin that process.

[Gary A]

Monty: was that a pulled muscle in the stomach region?

Gary A: I know it is well meaning, with all due respect, but you are not telling me anything I have not heard a million times before from family members with a "you are just a hypocondriac, snap out of it answer" which I repeat is of zero use to me. If anyone have experience with the discomfort I have or could shed some light on it; if it is a common thing with IBS or something, such info is more than welcome, but critisising people for simply having anxiety for dying a horrible death is getting me nowhere. I repeat; I have felt fine for a long time until this lump or whatever came and I have not been googling PC for months, but in my memory from the peiod of aggresive googling this thing comes back to my mind. You may like it or not, but this is how I feel now and I wanted simply to know if anyone has experience or something about it. Advice on snapping out of a very complex and horryfying HA problem is not going to solve anything unless you are a profesional therapist.

First off, I nether told you to "snap out of it" or called you a hypochondriac. I gave you some advice on how to stop feeding your anxiety. If you don't want to listen to that, fine, I'll remember your name and make sure I never waste my time responding to you again.

That's not me having a go or anything, but I genuinely only want to give advice to people who want to get to the root of their problem. It seems that you don't.

Good luck anyways.

[Fishmanpa]

Pvike,

Back in October, you were really in a spiral about the "C fear". Obviously, it's back with a vengeance. Also, back in October, you said you were on a waiting list for therapy and you had cut back on your drinking. It's been several months now. I imagine that's come through or very close to happening right? If not, a call to see where things stand would be in order. As has been pointed out, reassurance seeking is like putting a band-aid on an open gash. It might slow down the bleeding but it doesn't stop it. Your reaction to the replies indicates the severity of the problem. It's as if you're defending your anxiety when it's the anxiety that's beating the crap out of you!

You said: "Advice on snapping out of a very complex and horryfying HA problem is not going to solve anything unless you are a profesional therapist."

No one is telling you to "snap out of it". On the contrary, we're pointing out an error in your thought process and you're 100% right... A professional therapist is the best way to learn how to "snap out of it".

Good luck and as always...

Positive thoughts

[paranoid-viking]

Maybe it was a bit clumsy saying "reasurrance" but I wonder if anyone else has this problem; if it is a symptom of something that is not dangerous.
No two sufferers of HA are the same; for some people it is minimal worrying about a feeling, for others it is a nighmtare that tears you apart and socially disabling. And I guess I am in that category. I was pretty much looking for an explanation of the "symptom" but feel I have to resort to defending myself again. I have gone through such disabling fears many times and always got out of it, because I was not mortally ill. How? Because I got better or perhaps somethoing else preocupied my time. But saying that I should just stop worrying has never helped as long as I feel something that fits in with symptoms of non-curable deadly ilnesses. Hearing from others who had similar experiences while it turned out to be someone not deadly and quite harmless have always been a considerable helåp for me and has helped me a lot to get out of the nightmarish spiral. I am really sorry if I have been upsetting people here with my fear that I do not wish upon my worst enemy.
I dont know about other people here, but for me a HA outbreak has almost led me to be relocated to a mental institution because I stop functioning properly in my darkest hour. Last autumn was bad and I fear it is coming back. It is so easy if you are not fearing an uncurable and 97% deadly cancer yourself to ask me to stop worrying. But not when you are trapped in that mental hell yourself.

I know it is hypocondria; no one needs to tell me that. I have heard it a million times and I know it. I am not denying it. But sometimes hypocondriacs gets proven rights in their fears right? I want to get to the root of my problems, but that does not stop me from having dark hours. Now I have a painful "invisible" spot right under the right chest and I pray to God it is not a sign of something dangerous. I am crying and feel I just want to lay down and not wake up to this.

[ServerError]

I would bet that almost all hypochondriacs die of something other than what they worried about. But yeah, they do all die. And every now and then, one might be right - although their doctors will tell them so.

I'm genuinely at a loss. I can't tell what it is you really want. Health anxiety sufferers need to be told their condition is health anxiety, just as cancer patients need to be told they have cancer. If you're aware your problem is hypochondria, that's what you need to treat. What else can we say? Do you want sympathy? Because you'll find it here. But will it help? Do you want reassurance? Well, being told you have health anxiety rather than pancreatic cancer is about as reassuring as it gets.

Ask yourself this, and then tell us - what do you want from the forum?

[paranoid-viking]

First of all, SE; thank you for the info about the small intestine. I will look at that.

Second, for the last time; I hope; I repeat that two HA sufferers are never the same. For some, like me, very profesional treatment is nescesarry, for others doing an hour of yoga or take a walk is enough. I am unfortunately not in the last category.
BUT; for some; and not for everyone, hearing stories from other whose been through the same cycle of fear of dying a horrible death and their experience is qute healing and helpful; and I am in that category; other HA sufferers may be not; but I am and such things does work for me if I hear they had similar experiences and it turned out fine. And I believe in it. I once had a horrible fear of getting rabies so I will always jump to assistance if someone starts a thread fearing they got rabies because I have experience with that cycle of fear.

By the end of the day; we can not agree upon what works or not so we better stick to that. If it was so easy to eliminate my fear by simply saying "you are just a hypocondriac" I would not bother to register here. I may ask anyone on the street sayinmg that to me if that was a cure. It is not. For some reasurrance are a blessing from above; for others it is useless. And what is reasurrance and what is not is different from person to person.
Having said that I think any meta discussion about me instead of adressing what I was concerned about is useless.

[Kuatir]

I feel it if I try to run.

Yeah, pulled muscle. I'm a runner. I know.

Are you seeing a therapist and what are you doing day to day to address your issues?

[Gary A]

First of all, SE; thank you for the info about the small intestine. I will look at that.

Second, for the last time; I hope; I repeat that two HA sufferers are never the same. For some, like me, very profesional treatment is nescesarry, for others doing an hour of yoga or take a walk is enough. I am unfortunately not in the last category.
BUT; for some; and not for everyone, hearing stories from other whose been through the same cycle of fear of dying a horrible death and their experience is qute healing and helpful; and I am in that category; other HA sufferers may be not; but I am and such things does work for me if I hear they had similar experiences and it turned out fine. And I believe in it. I once had a horrible fear of getting rabies so I will always jump to assistance if someone starts a thread fearing they got rabies because I have experience with that cycle of fear.

By the end of the day; we can not agree upon what works or not so we better stick to that. If it was so easy to eliminate my fear by simply saying "you are just a hypocondriac" I would not bother to register here. I may ask anyone on the street sayinmg that to me if that was a cure. It is not. For some reasurrance are a blessing from above; for others it is useless. And what is reasurrance and what is not is different from person to person.
Having said that I think any meta discussion about me instead of adressing what I was concerned about is useless.

Can you stop saying that people are saying you're "just a hypochondriac" please?

All that's being offered here is a bit of advice, but because it's not being delivered in the way that you're demanding you're coming up with all this stuff about what works for others or whatever.

Reassurance doesn't work for you either, and here's why;

You're still here.

Yes, momentarily it feels nice and warm and fuzzy, you get a breather from the nagging doubts. Great.

But then what? Something else comes along. Another worry, more doubts, more anguish. More reassurance needed. Then the cycle starts over. Can't you see that?

The reason people are telling you to stop seeking reassurance is because we want you to tackle your anxiety and get more of a long term result, rather than a quick fix that ultimately only lasts a short period of time.

[paranoid-viking]

I am not demanding anything. But if anyone has experience with this and such cycles of fear it is more than welcome.
If I want to start a thread about long term therapy to deal with my problems I will do that. But that was not the purpose of me starting this thread so I guess it was a waist of time. I am seing a psychologist on Wednsday FYI so I will take this long time plan with the psychologist, thank you. Here I posted for the sole purpose of what could be the cause of the stabbing pain under the ribs, not lomng meta debates about me or my long time recovert; believe me; I will start such a thread if I want to discuss that with people here. Actually this is off topic. Maye I should have posted in the symptom forum instead causes this is just circle argumentation.
You dont believe in my way iof finding reaurrance; great; I respect our differences, so just let us agree to disagree OK. This is going nowhere.
You told me you would not reply any more to what I write but you still do. You are free to do it but it is not going to go anywhere.

[ServerError]

People get frustrated because it's not clear what you want. What are you looking for? What was the purpose of creating the thread?

[paranoid-viking]

People get frustrated because it's not clear what you want. What are you looking for? What was the purpose of creating the thread?

I quote myself: "Does anyone have a similar experience with what feels like a "pulled muscle" on the stomach?" I should have sticked to just focus on that.
Now I think the moderators may just delete the whole thread cause this is going nowhere and ends up in a massive critisism of me for having health anxiety - on a forum for HA sufferers!

I donmt get frustrated if people wonders what a symptom might be. If I dont know I dont reply to that thread and leave those who started the thread respectfully alone without critisising them for being scared. If it sounds familiar I help with what I know. Wish that could apply to everyone.
If you get irritated of what I write I am not forcing you to read it.

[ServerError]

Well the answer to your question in my case would be yes. I do have experience of that.

[Fishmanpa]

Look PVik... I think everyone and their brother has had a pulled or strained stomach muscle and dozens of other muscles as well. It hurts and remains sore. I have to imagine you've had that happen a time or two as well to various parts of your body. And the stomach being a core muscle, is going to take a while to resolve due to the fact you use them for just about every movement of your body.

And you asked outright for reassurance in your OP thus the response that it's not helpful for someone with HA.

Good going with getting help. That's the best thing you can do for yourself.

Good luck and as always...

Positive thoughts

[paranoid-viking]

Well the answer to your question in my case would be yes. I do have experience of that.

Thanx. I hope for Gods sake it is just some small intensine problems. Does it last for long? Is there a way to heal it fast? Massaging it. Any diet?

[Gary A]

I quote myself: "Does anyone have a similar experience with what feels like a "pulled muscle" on the stomach?" I should have sticked to just focus on that.
Now I think the moderators may just delete the whole thread cause this is going nowhere and ends up in a massive critisism of me for having health anxiety - on a forum for HA sufferers!

I donmt get frustrated if people wonders what a symptom might be. If I dont know I dont reply to that thread and leave those who started the thread respectfully alone without critisising them for being scared. If it sounds familiar I help with what I know. Wish that could apply to everyone.
If you get irritated of what I write I am not forcing you to read it.

Who is criticising you? Seriously, there's a massive difference between criticism and simply pointing out what anxiety is making you do. If anything, I'm criticising your anxiety, not you as a person.

My view is simply that offering the advice you seek is playing right into the hands of your anxiety. I've attempted to explain that anxiety feeds on this. It feeds on it because it gives your perceived symptom more attention.

I can't understand why you'd much rather discuss an illness you don't have rather than one that you do. Wouldn't you prefer to stop talking about pancreatic cancer and start talking about anxiety?

As for your question, I'd wager that all of us at some point or another have had some muscular strain in that area. I know I have, several times.

[paranoid-viking]

Look PVik... I think everyone and their brother has had a pulled or strained stomach muscle and dozens of other muscles as well. It hurts and remains sore. I have to imagine you've had that happen a time or two as well to various parts of your body. And the stomach being a core muscle, is going to take a while to resolve due to the fact you use them for just about every movement of your body.

And you asked outright for reassurance in your OP thus the response that it's not helpful for someone with HA.

Good going with getting help. That's the best thing you can do for yourself.

Good luck and as always...

Positive thoughts

Thanks a lot. I actually feel better when reading it. Sorry to everyone if I seem unreasonable but I get very scared something like this comes out of the blue. Especially because of horror stories I read; quite a while ago but is sticking to my mind and which I wished I had never read.

I am open to many discussions about anxiety but this specific thread was not meant as a planner for a long term strategy. I save that for another thread.

[Kathryn313]

Hi. Hope you have had a good day.

I have similar little stabby pains along the bottom of my rib cage/waist line this evening. Its a new feeling and I am not sure what it is. Obviously my head goes off in a slightly panicky direction, so i have come to forums to just simmer down my thinking a bit.

I think if you search the forum you will see quite a lot of people with a similar sensation and all being well in a couple of weeks it will have calmed down.

Keep doing what you have been doing since the end of the autumn and you will come right.

[paranoid-viking]

Thanks to you too, Kathryn. In my paranoid mind I am thinking maybe it is a tumour right under the skin, that it is the feared cancer whose spread to nearby parts. But that is my paranoia I hope. Because a tumour can not be felt on the skin can it?

[Fishmanpa]

I am open to many discussions about anxiety but this specific thread was not meant as a planner for a long term strategy. I save that for another thread.

There's no time like the present! ;) What you're essentially doing here is dwelling on the fear. Comparing war stories, while comforting to a degree just prolongs the fires of your anxiety. There are many here who have been where you're at and have clawed their way out of it. You can garner a lot of good advice. You just have to take it in and act on it. You have to be sick and tired of feeling this way right?

Positive thoughts

[paranoid-viking]

There's no time like the present! ;) What you're essentially doing here is dwelling on the fear. Comparing war stories, while comforting to a degree just prolongs the fires of your anxiety. There are many here who have been where you're at and have clawed their way out of it. You can garner a lot of good advice. You just have to take it in and act on it. You have to be sick and tired of feeling this way right?

Positive thoughts


I have "clawed" my way out of fear circles many times, Fishmanpa, but they often come creeping back, sometimes out of the blue. HA is not something that is constant and permanent for me. It comes out in the open all of a sudden, especially if someone I know has been very ill or/and when the media is going crazy with scaremongering focus on cancer. Articles like "15 signs of cancer you must never overlook" is for me a violent trigger. There was a massive focus on colon cancer in the Norwegian media last summer which I believe started my negative spiral and catastrophic thinking.
By the way, a close firend of my family died a few weeks ago after a very short battle with stomach cancer that had metastisted. That alone was quite sad tragic and quite frightening. All such things are triggers.

[Kathryn313]

Thanks to you too, Kathryn. In my paranoid mind I am thinking maybe it is a tumor right under the skin,that it is the feared cancer whose spread to nearby parts.

Of course you are because that it what we do! I went to my CBT therapist last Friday and it was nice to talk openly to someone and be guided away from internalising everything and overthinking.

What have you been up to these last few months? Done anything nice?

[MyNameIsTerry]

For some months I have felt so much better but now I have a localised pain somewhere right under the right rib; when I push it I feel it and it is semi-stabbing, not unbearable pain but I feel it. Like a pulled muscle. And it wont go away. I feel it if I try to run. For a long time now I have not been thinking dreadful and nightmarish thought about cancer but it comes creeping back; especially because I remember one nightmare story out on the net that was what was mistaken as a "pulled muscle" in fasct was....pancreatic cancer. My number one nightmare horror thought. Should i run to the doctor. Does anyone have a similar experience with what feels like a "pulled muscle" on the stomach. And please; I want reasurrance if possible, not any "you are a hypocondriac, stop being a hypocondriad" because that helps nada.

No one is criticising you, PV. If your first language isn't English maybe it has been misinterpreted? It's easily done when in a panic anyway.

Asking for reassurance can be a trigger to the standard explanations about it.

Add to that you asking if you should run to a doctor about a pain like a pulled muscle that one PC sufferer once reported in the media and we get HA sufferer.

I don't have HA elements to my anxiety. Pulled muscles are common, I wouldn't be considering a doctor without excruciating pain or some other trigger for a non HAer to see a doctor.

Only HA sufferers link a common pain to a rare connection leading to the deadly. Therefore others here will naturally realise you are struggling and haven't reached the point in recovery where you can challenge it on your own.

So, don't think you are being patronised or criticised.

How likely do you think that pain could be the exact scenario in your fear? What about about ll the other symptoms you've had and how they came to nothing? Why would this time be different? Simplistic questions in HA I know but how we are taught in therapy to challenge our thoughts.

I'm really sorry to hear about your family friend dying. I think we spoke about this when you first heard the news and we're struggling over how to support them with your fear? You know your HA will try to link anything it can to reinforce it's need to exist but please try to remain objective about this terrible event so it doesn't add to the skewed thinking.

If you need to talk about it, we are all here for you.

[paranoid-viking]

Thanks, Terry. The pulled muscle is probably just that I hope. But it comes back to my mind that I read - several months ago on one of these "awareness"(scaremonger)webpages one patient story about a pulled muscle that came and went and turned out to be cancer, although that seems to contradict everything I have heard about cancer in the past; symptoms dont come and go like that do they? I tke it with a grain of salt; not that they are lying; but that they bring in irrelevant pain that existed BEFORE the cancer; the interviewer ask if there was any and present it as facts for the purpose of scaremongering. Cause there are lots of holes in the stories presented on the "awareness" sites.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Yep, you know it's a dodgy site. Logically you've got it largely sorted out, it's just that your subconscious is still complying with it's fear associations and popping up those intrusive thoughts. That will stay if you engage with it negatively with a fear response because that's how it's programmes to reinforce the fear cycle.

Engaging in reassurance feeds this because it's a negative. But cutting out all negatives straight away isn't something that is easy to do, if at all. Cutting them down is achievable, replacing them with positive/neutral reactions is achievable. It's not an all our nothing thing though, which is actually just another trap which leads to negative self talk, you change it by keep trying until it becomes intuitive and the intrusive thoughts will fade too.

As far as cancer goes, there are cancers that don't keep getting worse & worse. But these are nothing like PC which is aggressive therefore keeps growing. For example, my dad had a slow growing skin cancer for two years until he saw his GP about it. Another is prostrate cancer which one recent trial meant a group of sufferers were monitored without treatment for ten years to find no further growth, which is aimed at reducing unnecessary invasive treatments. But in these examples we aren't talking about aggressive cancers, or cancers at more aggressive stages therefore you still apply your logical thinking to disseminate between the two.

[paranoid-viking]

Update. It is still there and has been so since Saturday-Sunday and I feel it being worse. The pain under rib. Whatever it is. I hope every morning I wake up that it will be gone but it is still there. I am all in tears and my horryfying fear of it being cancer fleraring up is back. So scared, so scared. I would feel so happy if it disappeared but it is there. Sharp stabbing pain of left side under rib.

I feel nauseous today aswell. Every sign points me towards the very deep end.

[linniek808]

The fear is real. I suffer with it too. Anxiety itself can cause a lot of pains in the abdominal area. I'd be willing to bet that your anxiety is causing some of your symptoms, it becomes like and endless feedback loop. Go easy on yourself. You have HA, a lot of us really struggle with this. Anxiety Centre helped me. They have a lot of good resources there. Good luck.