Health anxiety & google

[Superspur83]

Hi guys, im new here, ive been having a read & it looks like a great place to chat & meet people in positions like mine, my health anxiety has become a very serious problem for me in the last month, it all started with lower right sided pain & diarrhea that has gone on for 4/5 weeks, its yellow aswell, ive totally stopped eating & lost over a stone in weight, atleast 8 trips to the dr & 3 to A&E, ive had so many blood tests ive lost count, all come back ok, the dr's keep telling me it will pass, but im convinced i have an awful cancer, pancreatic cancer is my biggest fear & thats what i believe i have, i cant stay off google reading horror stories about that illness, it scares me to the point of tears, i feel totally lost & scared, my marriage is suffering & ive lost my job because of my anxiety issues, im always looking for somebody to fill me with positive news but it only lasts a few hours then im back to being locked in the bedroom in tears again, im a total mess & not sure how much longer i have. It sounds awful but its how i feel, im booked into to see a GI at hospital & have some scans, the wait only adds to the fear. Can health anxiety really cause IBS & gastro problems like i keep being told, im of the thinking that if im having diarrhea for a month then it HAS to be fatal in the end. Sorry for how doom & gloom i am. But its how i feel. Im a 34yr old male from uk. Thanks guys

[NancyW]

i cant stay off google reading horror stories about that illness

REALLY???

Please explain WHY you can't stay off google??

[Superspur83]

I find it hard not to symptom check, i tell myself not to, but i end up doing it. I know its the wrong thing to do & it only makes things worse, maybe its the fear & im hoping to find a positive story, but they're always bad.

[ErinKC]

I'm sorry you're going through this.

Instead of a GI appointment, book a therapy appointment. I saw many doctors and had several tests at the onset of my health anxiety. The only one that actually made me get better was my therapist who got me through the anxiety. I had none of the illnesses I thought I had, only anxiety.

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And, my therapist told me if I feel the compulsion to google something, google articles about anxiety so I can learn about the condition I actually have.

[Superspur83]

Good advice, thank you. I will look into getting therapy.

[ErinKC]

I'll add that I was exactly in your place 4 years ago. It seems hopeless. My anxiety started after I had a baby. I would wake up in the morning and lay in bed and cry for hours. I would make my husband come home from work because I couldn't do anything but stare at my baby and cry about how sad it was that I'd die and not get to be with her. I was certain I had (1) lung cancer, (2) brain tumor, (3) blood clot, (4) ovarian cancer, (5) severe food allergies that would send me into anaphylaxis, (5) lymphoma... I'm sure there were way more that I can't even remember!! I got headaches, diarrhea, twitching, numbness all over my body, dizziness, nausea, pain in my legs, pain in my stomach, pain in my back, bloating, heartburn, sweating, palpitations... you name it!

And, I was fine. I got through the anxiety and the symptoms disappeared, and I got my life back. You can, too!!

[paranoid-viking]

REALLY???

Please explain WHY you can't stay off google??

People with HA very often have OCD aswell. I am not saying however that OP has it. But when one has both HA and OCD at the same time googling worst case scenario in health becomes an obsession.

[ErinKC]

And one more aside: My father in law died of abdominal cancer this winter. There was no sitting around wondering about it. His tests didn't all come back with good news only to find it was actually bad. He got sick, he got tests, he got diagnosed. You can find any number of outlier stories online about cancer or any illness. But, for the vast majority of people, they are diagnosed because they get sick, they go to the doctor, and they get a diagnosis. It didn't take months and months of repeat testing or visits to specialists for him to get his diagnosis. He had one less than 2 weeks.

And, you can definitely have gastro problems for ages with anxiety. It's probably the number one anxiety symptom. Instead of reading about pancreatic cancer, read about that. Here is one list of all the ways anxiety can cause stomach problems:

How Anxiety Creates Digestive Issues

Overwhelmed Nervous System

The changes that affect digestion don't start in your stomach. They actually start in your brain. The human brain has a limited amount of resources. When you experience anxiety, what you're actually experiencing is an activation of the "fight or flight" response, which is designed to make it easier for you to escape danger. The fight or flight response takes up a lot of your brain's resources, so to compensate it slows down parts of your brain that aren't as necessary, such as the muscles involved in digestion. Normally, since the fight or flight response is only supposed to be temporary, you would never notice that your digestion was changed. But because anxiety is a constant, long term, chronic issue, you're left with a digestive tract that is not running correctly. That can cause several different issues, but of course it often leads to constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating, and traditional indigestion.

Neurotransmitter Changes

Similarly, the same neurotransmitters in your brain that are altered and affect your mood, like serotonin, also play a role in sending signals to the gut. While low serotonin can cause anxiety, anxiety can also cause low serotonin, and that means that some of the messengers that are normally travelling into your body are possibly being created at a lower rate, leading to digestion issues.

Adrenaline Release

Another issue relates to adrenaline. During the fight or flight response, your body creates massive amounts of adrenaline to give your body extra energy. In order to create that energy, adrenaline needs to take it from "sugar storage" - places in your body that have sugars that can be turned into a nutrient known as glycogen. While adrenaline does this, your body starts essentially processing nutrients at rates that aren't ideal. It changes how your body processes nutrients as well and could conceivably affect your digestive health.

Bacterial Growth/Immune System

Inside of your intestine are bacteria. These bacteria are both good and bad. Most bacteria are "good bacteria," and they are designed to help you digest food and improve your overall health. But these bacteria need to be in the right balance. Good bacteria are constantly battling against bad bacteria, and in some cases bad bacteria can win. Furthermore, good bacteria is only "good" when it's kept in check by other good bacteria. If something happens to cause any type of bacterial overgrowth, it can hurt the strength of your stomach. For reasons that aren't entirely clear but likely have to do with the way anxiety weakens the immune system, bacterial balance inside of the intestines seems to be affected by stress. Those that experience long term anxiety may have improperly balanced bacteria that is not digesting food correctly and ultimately causing digestion problems.

Sleep Issues

Sometimes the issue isn't quite so complicated. One common problem that makes digestion worse is a lack of sleep. Sleep is an absolutely crucial part of digestion. It ensures that the body is at its peak energy level, so that food passes through at the right pace and your hormones and enzymes are recharged. Anxiety can and does often make it harder to sleep. If you're constantly sleep deprived, then you're creating physical stresses that ultimately contribute to an increase in digestive problems.

Stomach Acids

Anxiety has also been linked to an increase in stomach acids. The effects of this are not entirely clear, but it is likely that the increase in stomach acids creates problems digesting food, and may even affect food once it goes into the intestines as a result of the higher acid content.

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I had a friend with terrible stomach issues for months and months. I kept telling her that she probably had an anxiety disorder (she doesn't have health anxiety, so she was pursuing a diagnosis only to feel physical relief). She exhibited a lot of anxious tendencies and since I have anxiety I could recognize them. She saw a bunch of GI doctors, tried a bunch of things, and what ended up working? Therapy and Zoloft.

[Superspur83]

I just really wish i didnt feel like this, its destroying my life & i feel im pushing my family away, my kids are starting to realise daddy isnt well, wish breaks my heart, i do have OCD aswell & going on google is an obsession in itself, no matter what i tell myself i just cant shale the negative mindset, i hate it so much, i just want my life back, i really dont know how much more i can handle.

[jray23]

Can you try and block Google and other search engines from your phone/computer etc.? It won't solve the problem long term but perhaps it can provide some short term damage control.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

[Superspur83]

I will look into it, i guess i could just remove the google app, but with OCD & HA, i'll still find a way :-(

[NancyW]

I will look into it, i guess i could just remove the google app, but with OCD & HA, i'll still find a way :-(


You "guess" you could? You are not very convincing. Do you want to change or not?

This is something totally in your control that would be a step forward in helping yourself.

[Superspur83]

Yes i do want to change, but OCD is not easy to overcome

[MyNameIsTerry]

People with HA very often has OCD aswell. I am not saying however that OP has it. But when one has both HA and OCD at the same time googling worst case scenario in health becomes an obsession.

If they have OCD, that's what they have. HA then becomes a theme within their OCD.

This is because OCD is an actual medical condition whereas HA isn't. HA is a sufferers term, it's not in diagnostic manuals, which means it ends up overlapping various disorders.

Having a Somatoform Disorder alongside OCD, where the OCD has no HA themes, would be perhaps what you are describing? Somatoform Disorders include a lot of the obsession you may see in OCD but there are differences, which makes them tough to understand.

Places like forums use a lot of non medical terms because they are easier for sufferers to understand. OCD has loads of them e.g. HOCD, SchizOCD, POCD, ROCD, etc but when it comes to doctors they divide it into very few which look at the real behaviour behind the themes (ICD only, The DSM differs a little but still doesn't use these sufferers terms).

So when people on here talk about having HA then getting OCD the question may be whether they already had it or if it's a feature of their Somatoform Disorders? Or maybe they have "OCD tendencies" but not enough to warrant a separate diagnosis? Anxiety intensifies behaviour so much.

---------- Post added at 04:46 ---------- Previous post was at 04:41 ----------


I will look into it, i guess i could just remove the google app, but with OCD & HA, i'll still find a way :-(

Removing an app or blocking is very useful but it can also be avoidance. Rather than avoidance we are told you develop adaptive behaviours that are healthy. So if you remove an app out of fear and fear using it again, that's not adaptive. There needs to come a point where you can face it without the fear and that is going to mean exposure. Otherwise the subconscious continues to give importance to that trigger.

However when things are overwhelming it can be very useful to remove a trigger until you are stronger. But with OCD let's not forget resisting a compulsion is part of exposure therapy and this can result in more anxiety but it should decrease. If it's too strong then gradual removal might work.

[Superspur83]

Thank you terry, this really is a struggle for me, im in a hole that i dont seem to be able to climb out of, OCD does have a massive part to play in this, i dont think i'll ever accept that i dont have PC until ive had every single scan possible done, but even then i'll likely question them. Ive made up my mind that i do have it as i seem to match every symptom, the waiting time for the scan & GI meeting dont help either, i want everything done yesterday.

[paranoid-viking]

You "guess" you could? You are not very convincing. Do you want to change or not?

This is something totally in your control that would be a step forward in helping yourself.

Do you know what OCD is? It is not something that goes away wioth a "snap out of it".

[Superspur83]

I cant just turn my OCD off like that, wish i could

[pulisa]

Are you actually searching for a worst case scenario on Google though? If you googled your symptoms and all that came up were benign conditions would you be satisfied? My guess is No because you have already decided that you have pancreatic cancer/ a terminal illness.

Would you feel mentally able to commit to therapy for your anxiety yet

[Superspur83]

It started by me just searching my symptoms, then i started matching my symptoms with those of cancer, then i started reading cancer forums etc & it really knocked me for six, now im stuck with dark thoughts.

[jray23]

Dr. Google doesn't know shit though. He once told me that hiccups were a sign of cancer. Don't give him any credibility!

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

[pulisa]

It started by me just searching my symptoms, then i started matching my symptoms with those of cancer, then i started reading cancer forums etc & it really knocked me for six, now im stuck with dark thoughts.

You're not "stuck" with dark thoughts though because you can "unstick" yourself by choosing therapy for HA over ruminating and searching for reasons why you have digestive symptoms. It's far from easy but there are ways to help yourself and you have to give them a go?

[Superspur83]

I am signed up for CBT, but the wait time goes on & on