Can your mind create symptoms?

[Livvy_rice]

Does anyone truly believe that anxiety can create the symptoms you are most afraid of? My anxiety this time around started when i had random memories popping into my head. I googled this and everything I read pointed to temporal lobe epilepsy. (But also read people with severe anxiety have this with no history of epilepsy). I then read that deja vu is also a symptom of this form of epilepsy. - after this i was obsessed with having deja vu i would be terrified waiting for it to happen every single day id wake up waiting for it and go to sleep terrified i was going to have it the next day. I actually then started getting it, it happened slowly a couple of times a day until now it has become my life every single minute of the day i hear or see or think something and i get dejavu. I have now had these mini snippets of dejavu 24/7 for 6-7 weeks every single day. Its the most uncomfortable symptom i have ever had i feel like im not even here most days i get split seconds of it all day every day. Sometimes its a word, or a phrase or sometimes its even my own thoughts in my head. Sometimes it gets so bad it creates an awful panic attack because i can't sense whats real and whats not because all i feel is dejavu and panic. This is the worst i have ever been in my whole entire life with anxiety. I was in A and E (UK) 3 days ago with these symptoms the senior doctor said he was not worried i was having seizures but the only tests he did was an ECG and blood tests and from my excessive googling i know that these tests would definatley not be able to diagnose epilepsy. These symptoms are making me so depressed i just want to go back to being happy but its impossible when i am trapped in this constant deja vu :( Can anyone relate or have any advice for me?

[Fishmanpa]

Can your mind create symptoms?

Yes.

Advice: Download the FREE CBT course in my signature and seek out professional real life help.

Positive thoughts

[debs71]

Yes, definitely. Totally. Absolutely.

I could write a book of all the self-diagnsosed and created illnesses and conditions I have had over the 13 years I have suffered from GAD.

When you are fixated on a condition you believe you have, you then LOOK for those signs and symptoms in yourself. Your anxious mind can convince you that you are feeling them or experiencing them.

It is hard to believe, but true.

Over the years and still periodically, I have had a feeling of numbness in my face and that I am not able to speak properly. I have convinced myself at these times that I have a brain issue/am having or going to have a stroke, but as soon as I distract my mind and deviate my thinking, the symptoms go away.

Deviating you mind away to something else is the BEST WAY and IMO the ONLY WAY to stop this cycle that just keeps spinning with anxiety. Do something creative, watch a movie, play games on your PC/laptop/whatever, go out walking/shops, etc.

The anxious mind just grips on to something and it becomes a snowball effect that just keeps getting bigger. That is the definition of the word 'anxiety'.

Try not to worry, though I know it is easier said than done. x:hugs:

[NervUs]

Yes it can. MIne has done it many times.

A few years, I was being tested for breast cancer. It was like a 5 week process from finding the lump, getting scanned, getting the biopsy booked, to getting my results. During that time, I noticed tons of rib pain (metastatis obvs!!) then also noticed one day, I was listening to a NPR show about Alzheimers and everytime the host said the word disease, I would get a surge of rub pain! Crazy!! I did not have breast cancer or metastasis.

Right now, I am going through a lot of new respiratory issues, that my doc claims in adult onset asthma. My cough was finally subsiding some and my other symptoms were getting a bit better but I developed pleurisy (inflammation of the pleura) about a week ago. Pleurisy causes stabbing pain with deep breath and can be caused by lung cancer (my personal bailiwick and a condition I think I am constantly on the precipice of discovering in my body). Yesterday, I noticed the pain was getting better, but late in the day, I started feeling the pleurisy stab BUT constant. LIke it did not go away for hours, but did not appear with deep breaths.

What I hate about HA is that I have no idea if this pain was real or completely imagined. I did notice I woke up today and the pain was not there but then I would feel it if I started thinking about it. Sucks sucks sucks!!!

[daisyflower]

100%

It's the same as when someone talks about headlice and you feel itchy. I've done it so many times.
I could list so many. I got bad liver function tests once and then developed pain where my liver is. The pain would wake me up, it was really there.

Another time, I was worried about blood clots/bone cancer and had a leg ache for 3 weeks solid. I've now learned that I can actually give myself bad leg ache very quickly by just focusing on my leg.

I was worried about my bladder once and couldn't stop weeing, to the point I started weeing blood.

If I think about coldsores I will give myself one in no time.
Need I go on?

[atl]

A few years ago I was obsessing about STDs. I didn't have any, but I SWORE I felt pain/burning/itching "down there." I went to the bathroom at work multiple times per day to check and see if I was having an outbreak. Always negative. But I was feeling that stuff all the time.

[paranoid-viking]

Yes it does. Because your mind controls your muscles; and stres/anxiety causes your muscles to be tight and then in turn cause pain.

[jessygirl77]

I think that's what I'm going through with my ear ringing . With all the bad stories I have read about ear ringing going away now it's all I hear !!!!! And I'm so worried it will never get better ! I'm worried if I don't worry about it this will be the one thing that stays forever . So silly right !

[thismightbezach]

Absolutely. It’s called Somatic symptom disorder.