Brain tumor fears back again

[crazygal]

I read this morning about John McCain's brain cancer diagnosis. For the past 10 years I've had brain cancer fears. I had been doing OK, but after reading the news again I started freaking out again, googling symptoms.

Do you think its possible to have brain cancer for 10 years and not know?

I haven't had any seizures or anything but I tend to get pressure headaches on the left side of my head. My doctor told me its most likely anxiety as I have no other symptoms. But I always have doubt.

How do you avoid relapse when you hear about someone's illness?

[Crouton]

Hi crazygal,

Sorry to hear that your anxiety is back.
Here's something my GP told me a while ago to help alleviate my brain tumour fears (it's helped me a lot over the years);

Headaches are extremely common, especially ones related to anxiety, stress, caffeine, poor posture, and another 101 causes. The muscles of the head and neck are sensitive and if aggravated can cause pretty yucky tension headaches (which are benign).

People with brain tumours generally have some sort of neurological deficit; seizures, sensation changes (pins and needles that come and go don't count), visual changes. In the absence of these things a tumour is extraordinarily unlikely. Even with these symptoms, there are a whole bunch of other causes other than cancer.

The fact that you've been having these headaches for 10 years makes cancer even less of a possibility, particularly any aggressive cancers.

Google will turn essentially any symptom of anxiety into a symptom of a deadly disease. My humble advice is take a few deep breaths, stay away from google, and acknowledge that this is anxiety that you've beaten before, and you're only worrying about it now because you saw something about it in the news.

If you are really worried and your anxiety is getting you down, check in with your GP again who can get you in touch with some good services for managing anxiety.

Hope that helps! :yesyes: