I just feel like nobody understands

[UserName20]

Since I started college in the beginnng of September, on certain days after carrying my bookbag around I would notice an ache in my left shoulder. I didn’t think much of it, and since it mainly seemed to happen after wearing my bookbag I wasn’t too worried. It has been off and on for about a month. Friday I did not have class but I was sitting in my eye dr appointment and was feeling really anxious and then suddenly the ache returned in my left shoulder. It is not when I move at all, just a constant achy feeling. It didn’t go away and on a Saturday I was at a wedding and ended up leabing the reception early because I was s terrified and thinking that I have bone cancer. On Sunday I went and sat in a massage chair at the mall for 15 minutes and ended up feeling a lot better. Yesterday I barely noticed any of the pain at all. Today I woke up and my back felt sore, if I try to give myself a massage or press it hurts in a certain spot. Again, it’s not rewlly from moving, but thee ache in my left shoulder has returned again. My boyfriend thinks I may need to go to a chiropractor. He went to massage a spot on my back ( not even the spot that aches ) and it just hurt and I told him to stop. Nobody in my family is taking this ache seriously. I am 18 so I can legally go to the doctor without parent permission, I’m just so terrified.. I’ve read everything on Google from pinched nerve to cancer.. I can’t eben get my mind to focus on anything besides the ache. Has anyone else experienced anything like this at all? I’m upset that I couldn’t even enjoy the wedding as I should have, my anxious mind just will not shut off

[Desha34]

How do you sleep? I get pains like that and I figured out it’s caused by sleeping on my side.

[Fishmanpa]

Reading your post, it's apparent your anxiety has blinded you to the obvious. The reaction your getting from family is predictable as they see what you cannot.

I think you'd get a much more positive response if you acknowledged your anxiety and asked for professional help. My daughter suffers from anxiety and depression. she came to me at your age, told me what was going on and asked for help. I, along with her mother made sure she got it. Between therapy, meds and time (she's 25 now), she's doing much better. She has her blips now and again but she is much better prepared to handle them.

Talk to your parents, a trusted adult or school counselor and ask for help. There's no reason you should be suffering like this at your age.

Positive thoughts

[axolotl]

Been there and done this. Non anxious people wouldn't even think of bone cancer for a shoulder ache. They'd presume one of the vastly more likely situations - bad posture, sleeping funny on it, trapped nerve, a superficial injury that was so inconsequential they didn't notice it at the time, or just one of those things. They wouldn't go to a doctor panicking, they'd probably go to a physio and ask them to fix it if it was annoying them for any length of time.

And the more you panic and focus on a pain, the more you're training your brain to "keep an eye on it" and see it as a danger signal. Anxiety can cause pain, but even it doesn't it keeps it going.


I’ve read everything on Google from pinched nerve to cancer.

And this is the problem. "Researching" our fears is the worst thing we can do, even though we've all succumbed in the heat of a panic. But all your anxious mind will do is dive in, tossing aside the hundreds of pages you'll read that should reassure you it's nothing to worry about, and find, hidden on page 16 of a Google Search, a scary million to one chance thing that it will find and focus on.

The danger is you'll go the doctor about your shoulder, they won't know the underlying anxiety and they'll just tell you it's nothing to worry about and send you on your way which may or may not reassure you until the next niggle and worry comes along. When you see the doctor, mention the anxiety and catastrophising as this is the real problem here. Good luck.