Where does HA come from?

[travelgirl77]

I know why I get HA sometimes. I mean if I have a legitimate symptom or what I think is a symptom, that can send me into a spiral. Or, if I read a story about someone with an illness that can send me into a tailspin. Or, like, right now, I have an employee whose partner is living with ALS and that has definitely sent me questioning a disease I never really thought about, but now is part of my HA. But, sometimes, with no reason at all, the thoughts come.

Today I was exercising and thinking, :I feel great" and then suddenly, out of nowhere, I begin thinking about whether my husband, who is in the military, has been exposed to chemicals that can cause cancer, chiefly brain tumors, in my kids. WHY? Why does this happen? I was not watching news, listening to anything, etc. What do you do? Where does it come from? Is it a chemical imbalance?

[AMomentofClarity]

I think a lot of sufferers are just prone to anxiety in general, and health specific stress is their outlet. Just how some people worry about money, or some worry about accidents, or some worry about how many times they flip a light switch, some worry about health.

I think one of the challenges with HA is it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy because anxiety causes so many physical symptoms, it’s easy to read them as a sign of illness and perpetuate the cycle. The more you worry, the more symptoms you get, and the more you continue to spiral.

In other words, at its core I don’t believe health anxiety is any different than any other anxiety. It all stems from the same human instincts (fight or flight, etc) and same parts of the brain, gut, etc. I also don’t believe HA sufferers on the average have a greater fear of illness or death than anyone else....they just worry about it more.

[ErinKC]

I think health anxiety is just one of many manifestations of anxiety. I developed bad postpartum anxiety. I grew up with a mom who has very bad health anxiety, so I assume my health anxiety went there. But, I think all forms of anxiety exhibit invasive thoughts, which is what those thoughts that pop into your head are. But, since for whatever reason (be it a parent with health anxiety, a real disease we've dealt with, the loss of a loved one, etc...) ours are based on health concerns.

And all the things AMomentofClarity says. I had a doctor tell me once that anxiety can be as much or more a physical condition as a psychological one because there are so many physical symptoms associated with it.