Question for people who have convinced themselves that they're terminally ill

[CG5246]

So I have (mostly) convinced myself that I must have lymphoma, leukemia (not as worried about this), or some other type of cancer (but mostly lymphoma), despite the fact that my doctor has told me that he doesn't think it's lymphoma and has reassured me that he would tell me if he thought I had cancer.

Since I've convinced myself that I have lymphoma, I have been noticing how tired I feel and run-down, and weak I suppose. I feel like the more convinced I am that it's cancer, the more I feel like I'm really run down and exhausted/weak, therefore playing into my fears that yes, I really am dying. Is it possible for anxious thoughts to have this much of an impact?!

[axolotl]

Is it possible for anxious thoughts to have this much of an impact?!

Quick answer: Yes.

Long answer: If a doctor says you're fine, you're fine. Stop chasing it. The thing is being tired and "feeling weak" are vague, subjective symptoms. You could feel exactly the same but in a different frame of mind, when your brain hasn't been trained to scan for the things you noticed on a list of bullet points when Googling lymphoma, wouldn't have even noticed.

The physicality of anxiety is very powerful. Think what's going on - our brain gets a danger signal and gets our body ready to fight or run. In preparation for a burst of activity chemicals pump round our bodies, our muscles tense, our senses become keener, our heart beats stronger. But 21st century problems are rarely solved by fighting something or pegging it. So those bodily changes build up without the release they need. And as well as causing all the physical symptoms we erroneously think have to be some deadly disease, it's knackering.

[CG5246]

Quick answer: Yes.

Long answer: If a doctor says you're fine, you're fine. Stop chasing it. The thing is being tired and "feeling weak" are vague, subjective symptoms. You could feel exactly the same but in a different frame of mind, when your brain hasn't been trained to scan for the things you noticed on a list of bullet points when Googling lymphoma, wouldn't have even noticed.

The physicality of anxiety is very powerful. Think what's going on - our brain gets a danger signal and gets our body ready to fight or run. In preparation for a burst of activity chemicals pump round our bodies, our muscles tense, our senses become keener, our heart beats stronger. But 21st century problems are rarely solved by fighting something or pegging it. So those bodily changes build up without the release they need. And as well as causing all the physical symptoms we erroneously think have to be some deadly disease, it's knackering.

Yes, this makes a lot of sense. So in addition to the symptoms anxiety itself can cause, anxiety itself causes us to pay closer attention to things going on in our bodies (in this case: feeling tired/weak). And I am assuming that paying so much attention to this tired/weak feeling is only making it seem like I am more tired/weak than I really am possibly?

[axolotl]

Yes, this makes a lot of sense. So in addition to the symptoms anxiety itself can cause, anxiety itself causes us to pay closer attention to things going on in our bodies (in this case: feeling tired/weak). And I am assuming that paying so much attention to this tired/weak feeling is only making it seem like I am more tired/weak than I really am possibly?

Quite possibly. It may not be caused by anxiety - you may be a bit run down, or you may have a common-or-garden virus or something like that - but you've trained your brain to look for it and examine it and flag it as danger rather than treat it as just one of those things. You'll hyperfocus and make it feel worse or seem more scary. Same works for pains, aches, twitches, random spots and pretty much everything people report on this forum...

If you're in a room with a ticking clock start listening to it. Loud isn't it? And possibly quite annoying? But your brain's filtered it out as something unimportant until you focused on it. Health Anxiety makes you untrain the brain's ability to ignore the normal and benign fluctuations of your body.

[CG5246]

Quite possibly. It may not be caused by anxiety - you may be a bit run down, or you may have a common-or-garden virus or something like that - but you've trained your brain to look for it and examine it and flag it as danger rather than treat it as just one of those things. Same works for pains, aches, twitches, random spots and pretty much everything people report on this forum...

If you're in a room with a ticking clock start listening to it. Loud isn't it? And possibly quite annoying? But your brain's filtered it out as something unimportant until you focused on it. Health Anxiety makes you untrain the brain's ability to ignore the normal and benign fluctuations of your body.

That makes a lot of sense. Although I really believe that the anxiety/nervous energy and me not sleeping very well is definitely causing me to be tired. I only have a slightly sore throat and a mild cough, so I don't think it's causing me to feel run down really or that it's anything serious.