Do you get more illnesses?

[DonnaT]

I have just been having a chat with my husband about this. I suffer from very bad health anxiety and I always seem to have some problem or the other, I’m lucky to go a month or two without any medical niggle. My husband who doesn’t suffer from anxiety of any sort and who is the total opposite of me never seems to get any type of illness or problems. I know we think about our health a whole lot more than normal people but do you seem to get more problems then friends and family.??

[Fishmanpa]

Imaginary or real? I would assume, due to what stress does to the body, a person with anxiety would get more real physical ailments.

Positive thoughts

[Maddox]

I have just been having a chat with my husband about this. I suffer from very bad health anxiety and I always seem to have some problem or the other, I’m lucky to go a month or two without any medical niggle. My husband who doesn’t suffer from anxiety of any sort and who is the total opposite of me never seems to get any type of illness or problems. I know we think about our health a whole lot more than normal people but do you seem to get more problems then friends and family.??

Hey, I always think exactly the same! I always seem to have one thing or another where as others don’t. I think like you say we think about our health a lot more and panic about any little symptom where as someone without anxiety properly doesn’t give them a second thought. I think it is normal for someone with health anxiety to be like that and I would imagine most people with it would say the same :)

[BlueIris]

I think hyper-awareness is key here - health anxiety sufferers tend to interpret even small sensations as being a sign of something wrong, when most people would simply shrug them off.

[Midnight-mouse]

I think hyper-awareness is key here - health anxiety sufferers tend to interpret even small sensations as being a sign of something wrong, when most people would simply shrug them off.

I agree with blue, when I was in the height of my health anxiety I would notice every little thing and it would be escalated to a hundred times more serious especially adding in the stress on the body with all that worry.

I haven’t actually been ill up until last month, where I’ve been unlucky enough to get two colds a few weeks apart, for pretty much 5 years! Which strangely enough is the time I’ve been free of health anxiety!

Positive vibes,

Mouse


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[MyNameIsTerry]

The focusing issue is an obvious reason as Iris and Mouse explain but the effects of stress on the immune system make even the non anxious have flu like short periods. I've found working my way back from a breakdown was, and still is, a matter of stages. In some of these I had months of headaches, lots of fatigue and over a couple of years more nerve related issues (sciatica but also myofacial issues, nerve spasms in the neck at one point, etc) which just makes me think about the overload in the CNN and how it manifests outwardly.