desertraven
22-03-17, 16:47
Hi there!
I am new here and have been struggling with health anxiety since my early 20's, so about 10+ years now. This health anxiety has come in waves over the years and I will have a good run where I have minimal obsessing about an illness. Recently I have been under a lot of stress and this definitely seems to be a trigger for HA to creep back in my life. I am embarrassed to say that I have visited urgent care or the ER several times in the past 2 months during this recent bad flare of HA.
I have always been super sensitive and aware of my heart beat and that has usually been my first sign that HA is coming back. I am in nursing school so that at first helped me believe it or not because I had a better understanding of the body. Now I am almost done but under incredible stress with working and going to school full time while also having a family. In 2 little months I have convinced myself that I have: a kidney infection, heart attack, stroke, MS, ALS, pulmonary embolism, and an upper GI bleed. Sounds pretty nuts when I type that all out. Sitting here right now feeling perfectly fine today, the logical part of me says "yea if you had all those things you'd be in ICU or dead". SIGH... :doh:
Last weekend I had two panic attacks in one day convinced I could not breathe and thus spent the rest of the day in bed. That saddens me to no end since with work and school I am not home a lot and that day needed to be spent having fun with my family instead. I was convinced that I was headed for a mental breakdown and would be admitted somewhere.
From reading some of these threads, these illness worries seem pretty standard for HA and I am realizing I am not alone. I just don't know why I am like this. What I want to know is, what has worked for some of you to combat this? It is obviously having a negative impact on my life, health, and relationships at this point. The steps I have taken this week is I made an appt with my Dr (they couldn't get me in until next week) to discuss going on a low dose SSRI like prozac. I already have emergency low dose Xanax but don't want to depend on that. Secondly, I have started looking for a therapist to maybe try and get to the root of this.
Has anyone had success with decreasing health anxiety with meds and therapy?
Thank you for listening :)
I am new here and have been struggling with health anxiety since my early 20's, so about 10+ years now. This health anxiety has come in waves over the years and I will have a good run where I have minimal obsessing about an illness. Recently I have been under a lot of stress and this definitely seems to be a trigger for HA to creep back in my life. I am embarrassed to say that I have visited urgent care or the ER several times in the past 2 months during this recent bad flare of HA.
I have always been super sensitive and aware of my heart beat and that has usually been my first sign that HA is coming back. I am in nursing school so that at first helped me believe it or not because I had a better understanding of the body. Now I am almost done but under incredible stress with working and going to school full time while also having a family. In 2 little months I have convinced myself that I have: a kidney infection, heart attack, stroke, MS, ALS, pulmonary embolism, and an upper GI bleed. Sounds pretty nuts when I type that all out. Sitting here right now feeling perfectly fine today, the logical part of me says "yea if you had all those things you'd be in ICU or dead". SIGH... :doh:
Last weekend I had two panic attacks in one day convinced I could not breathe and thus spent the rest of the day in bed. That saddens me to no end since with work and school I am not home a lot and that day needed to be spent having fun with my family instead. I was convinced that I was headed for a mental breakdown and would be admitted somewhere.
From reading some of these threads, these illness worries seem pretty standard for HA and I am realizing I am not alone. I just don't know why I am like this. What I want to know is, what has worked for some of you to combat this? It is obviously having a negative impact on my life, health, and relationships at this point. The steps I have taken this week is I made an appt with my Dr (they couldn't get me in until next week) to discuss going on a low dose SSRI like prozac. I already have emergency low dose Xanax but don't want to depend on that. Secondly, I have started looking for a therapist to maybe try and get to the root of this.
Has anyone had success with decreasing health anxiety with meds and therapy?
Thank you for listening :)