jaynespain3105
11-07-17, 13:46
Hi everyone
I was just wondering if anyone who has a good grip on their Health Anxiety has any tips or advice for how they go about deciding when to see a doctor?
The uncertainty of whether to go to a doctor or not is one of the things that really feeds in to me carrying on with negative patterns of behaviour - Googling, checking, seeking reassurance etc.
If you have a symptom, or something you're concerned about, do you go straight to the doctor and then, hopefully, take their reassurance it is nothing to worry about? At the moment I feel unable to do that as I'd be there every day.
I talked to a therapist about this and she suggested having a time frame in my head for visiting the doctor about something where I am unsure if it is anxiety or a true symptom that warrants concern/check up. Perhaps two weeks? In which time I should use my CBT techniques to ease the 'anxious' part of the problem.
Where I struggle with this is that the bigger part of me is thinking (using my current concern as an example) 'I HAVE A BLEEDING MOLE. EVERYONE IN MEDIA/ONLINE SAY YOU MUST SEE A DOCTOR ASAP WITH THIS SYMPTOM'. Even though I know I scratched and irritated the mole when I got covered in insect bites a few weeks ago. I sort of feel that I am failing to act on a real and imminent danger.
Does anyone relate to this? The inability to separate out what are, at least by your perception, 'red flag' symptoms, from anxiety and know when to focus on treating the anxiety and when you should get to the docs right away?
If I go to the doctor, and they do further tests, my anxiety ramps up 10 notches so that's another fear - that the doctor will say 'actually you were right to worry'. So all in all I pretty much spend every day worrying about whether to book a doctors appointment or not. I hate it.
Any tips for how anyone successfully navigates this would be gratefully received.
I was just wondering if anyone who has a good grip on their Health Anxiety has any tips or advice for how they go about deciding when to see a doctor?
The uncertainty of whether to go to a doctor or not is one of the things that really feeds in to me carrying on with negative patterns of behaviour - Googling, checking, seeking reassurance etc.
If you have a symptom, or something you're concerned about, do you go straight to the doctor and then, hopefully, take their reassurance it is nothing to worry about? At the moment I feel unable to do that as I'd be there every day.
I talked to a therapist about this and she suggested having a time frame in my head for visiting the doctor about something where I am unsure if it is anxiety or a true symptom that warrants concern/check up. Perhaps two weeks? In which time I should use my CBT techniques to ease the 'anxious' part of the problem.
Where I struggle with this is that the bigger part of me is thinking (using my current concern as an example) 'I HAVE A BLEEDING MOLE. EVERYONE IN MEDIA/ONLINE SAY YOU MUST SEE A DOCTOR ASAP WITH THIS SYMPTOM'. Even though I know I scratched and irritated the mole when I got covered in insect bites a few weeks ago. I sort of feel that I am failing to act on a real and imminent danger.
Does anyone relate to this? The inability to separate out what are, at least by your perception, 'red flag' symptoms, from anxiety and know when to focus on treating the anxiety and when you should get to the docs right away?
If I go to the doctor, and they do further tests, my anxiety ramps up 10 notches so that's another fear - that the doctor will say 'actually you were right to worry'. So all in all I pretty much spend every day worrying about whether to book a doctors appointment or not. I hate it.
Any tips for how anyone successfully navigates this would be gratefully received.