health anxiety

[luc]

HELLO,

i am new to this site or any site. I suffer from health anxiety and things are pretty bad at present. As a mother of two small children i would really like to sort this out. I am a few years down the line and have tried CBT with a pretty incompetent practitioner;counselling;anti-depressants;self-help. On paper i can see all logic paths and responses but the reality is so different. Wold love to talk to others.

[traciec39]

hey luc

welcome to this site and be reassured you are with friends here. i have health anxiety, ive had it for 14 years since my daughter was born.
Ive had every illness in the book ie cancer, strokes, brain tumours etc.
However as you read in my post ive actually been in hospital with my stomach probs which i feel were caused by my nerves.
Health anxiety is a difficult form of panic as any little symptom triggers mayhem to us. i have spent sooooooo much time over the years worrying and the doctors must be sick of the sight of me ...
Every day brings a different illness, i think we are just so intune to our bodily sensations that we dont even have a chance to stop it, before we know it we are having a "heart attack etc".

Im taking sertaline now after years of trying other anti depressants, they seem really good and im on the lowest dose.

If you fancy a chat plz dont hesitate to contact me

Keep ya chin up hunnie

luv tracie xxx

[luc]

tracie,

thanks for getting back to me . Have you had any treatment? Has anything worked? My ilness is always cancer: cervix, breast, skin. My Knowledge of HA is vast yet my capability to deal with it is limited.

[trac67]

Hi

Welcome to the forum, you will get a lot of good advice here and make some new friends

Take care

Trac xxx

[manmoor]

Hi Luc,

I too suffer health anxiety and have done for 11 years now. My biggest scare is cancer and have diagnosed it in every and I mean every part of my body lol. To me the worst thing about my health anxiety being cancer related is that you can get cancer anywhere on your body and for me it used to be any ache or pain in any area was automatically googled and diagnosed. Thank god with this site and the lovely people here I know now that I am not alone and have got stronger. I now think positive when I get an ache or pain and think differently and I never google anymore although sometimes my strength cannot cope and I do have wee blips but I try and learn from them. You are not alone here and we will all support you. xxx

[spacebunnyx]

i'm EXACTLY the same! every little twitch is something hideous! i've recently had surgery for precancerous cervical cells (still waiting on the results- but surgeon told me it isn't cancer) and i've been TERRIBLE! really bad anxiety - and the stupid thing is is that anxiety and stress in turn has a further negative impact on health arrrggghhh! what a minefield we have to cross!:shrug:

this site is fab!

[neon_skyline]

i had general anxiety which slowly morphed into health anxiety and am now so aware of my body that no matter how small the sensation i convince myself that i'm having a stroke/heart attack or have cancer (specifically a brain tumour).

counselling was useful for my general wellbeing but did not enable me to stop the negative and terrible thoughts. i have recently tried emdr and found it very useful - possibly because i was given lots of useful advice by my therapist and we tried to discover how my horrible thoughts were triggered.

the only medication i have is the occassional zopiclone to help me sleep - but this is only if i am having a particularly bad day. i am determined to try everything before having daily medication, and if the emdr doesn't help in the long run then cbt will be the next step.

i hope you find this forum useful - i know it's stopped me googling every symptom or obsessively going through every symptom on nhs direct.

sally xxx

[anxious]

Hi Luc,

welcome to the site :) I have health anxiety too and have had for many years. I'm just about to start CBT, for the third time:ohmy:

anx xx