The root cause of health anxiety

[mcohen]

I suppose this is really just thinking out loud, but after at least a decade of suffering worsening HA, possibly much longer, I have been wondering about the root cause of HA. Part of me wonders whether the real fear is, not necessarily of being ill, but rather, death. I have for as long as I can remember had a serious fear of death, such that my standard response is to block it out of my mind, as actually thinking about it makes me feel physically sick. I haven't until quite recently drawn the connection between HA and the fear of death.

The vast majority of my HA seems to focus upon cancer specifically. With cancer, I do wonder, is it not necessarily the cancer that I fear, but rather the fact that cancer has the potential to kill.

Has anyone had any such thoughts or reached such conclusions?

[Sparky16]

I think there is more to it than that. After all, driving a car has the potential to kill, but a lot of us don't worry about that. Also, we have folks here who worry about illnesses that arent necessarily fatal, but can be disabling or affect your quality of life substantially. If you've ever had a serious illness, you also know that the treatment can be almost as scary as the illness.

[NotDeadYet]

Mcohen

Great insight. I discovered after some therapy that my HA stemmed from feelings of self worth and shame. Once I started working on those issues, my HA became so much less of a problem.

Best Wishes

[bin tenn]

I think it definitely varies from person to person. For some it may be the idea of pain and suffering, knowing that the inevitable death is coming. For others it may simply be the thought of not being able to live a "normal" life due to a debilitating / life changing illness. And yet for others it could be a manifestation of other issues not related to health (e.g. NotDeadYet's revelation that their HA probably stemmed from struggles with self worth and shame).

However, even when one's health anxiety seems to be rooted in fear of the unknown / death / major life changes, I believe it's still "just another anxiety disorder" and is much deeper still. I guess what I'm saying is I think practically all manifestations of anxiety (health, social, etc) all share the same true root cause(s), but I can't begin to guess what those may be.

I'm not educated in this field, these are just my thoughts based on my own experiences as well as my observations on forums over the years. I could be very wrong, or I could be quite close to the "truth".

[AntsyVee]

Over the years I've seen a lot of health anxiety fit into two patterns: 1) the OCD pattern and 2) the PTSD pattern.

The OCD pattern: After a stressful event or events building up in someone's life, the person starts worrying about things like, Do I have schizophrenia? Does my headache mean I have a brain tumor? I got water up my nose swimming, I might have brain eating amoeba. A dog licked me, might I have rabies? And it goes from one serious illness to the next. Those are the obsessions. The compulsions are constantly seeking reassurance, looking through Dr. Google's pages, getting tests done, or lots of doctor visits. This tends to be a life-long pattern, and as soon as one disease or condition is ruled out, the person moves onto the next one.

The PTSD pattern: After losing a loved one, having a health scare, or a health scare of a loved one, the person becomes afraid of the condition or disease associated with the trauma. Losing a good friend to a heart attack, the person may wonder if every cheeseburger they eat or arm ache they have is a symptom of the health anxiety. It's usually centered and stays on one disease or condition.

And then there are a few people who have OCD who've also had a traumatic health scare, and whew...that's a tough one.

[WiseMonkey]

Over the years I've seen a lot of health anxiety fit into two patterns: 1) the OCD pattern and 2) the PTSD pattern.

The OCD pattern: After a stressful event or events building up in someone's life, the person starts worrying about things like, Do I have schizophrenia? Does my headache mean I have a brain tumor? I got water up my nose swimming, I might have brain eating amoeba. A dog licked me, might I have rabies? And it goes from one serious illness to the next. Those are the obsessions. The compulsions are constantly seeking reassurance, looking through Dr. Google's pages, getting tests done, or lots of doctor visits. This tends to be a life-long pattern, and as soon as one disease or condition is ruled out, the person moves onto the next one.

The PTSD pattern: After losing a loved one, having a health scare, or a health scare of a loved one, the person becomes afraid of the condition or disease associated with the trauma. Losing a good friend to a heart attack, the person may wonder if every cheeseburger they eat or arm ache they have is a symptom of the health anxiety. It's usually centered and stays on one disease or condition.

And then there are a few people who have OCD who've also had a traumatic health scare, and whew...that's a tough one.

I would definitely agree with this pattern esp the PTSD aspect which can have it's roots in one's family of origin (eg. growing up in a dysfunctional family with a personality disordered parents/care-givers). The PSTD causes the child to experience shame and guilt and other insecurities about life. The child is actually born into this situation and becomes conditioned into 'wrong thinking'. It's very difficult to reverse this situation in adulthood...the head says it's illogical, but the emotions cling on to the familiar feelings. I know because this is my story as my mother had NPD (narcissistic personalty disorder). My brother and I are both affected but in different ways. Being the eldest, my mother used me as a confident (to get attention), putting all her fears and judgement onto me. As a growing child I couldn't rationalise her behaviour so it made me frequently sick and I developed HA. I fared better as an adult after putting distance between us and learning about her mental illness. My brother has slight HA but his insecurities are in other areas to mine.

Something else that causes HA is having a chronic illness/condition where you can be unwell for periods of time (I'm thinking autoimmune conditions here).

[pulisa]

For me being a carer for my adult children who both have ASD doesn't help because they rely on me to be well. I do manage to control my HA though...mostly!:D

[br350]

I think fear of death, and most importantly difficulty in accepting uncertainty, is at the root of much of health anxiety.
Those who suffer from it often do not do well with the unknown, uncertainty and letting things 'play out' as they will.
I've had health anxiety for almost 40 years. It's been a real challenge.
Through therapy, reading, journaling, etc I know for myself that the fear of death and illness is directly linked to a difficulty in accepting the uncertainties in life.
Yet oddly, if someone offered to take me parachuting from a plane tomorrow, I would go with no problem!
I have no fear of heights or other risky physical pursuits (hang gliding, jumping off quarry cliffs, etc). But fear of death and illness looms large.
I think the whole idea about what happens after death is terrifying to many who do not have preconceived beliefs about the afterlife.
It's a complicated mix of reasons and, no doubt, personal life history plays largely in this.
My mother died unexpectedly when she was 40 and I was only 20. It shook me to the core and really snapped me out of any thought that mortality is a far off concern.

[mcohen]

It's been very interesting to read all of your responses - thank you all. It certainly seems apparent that there are differing root causes. Very interesting point about not fearing getting into a car every day. I guess that shows that it isn't necessarily a fear of death per se, but rather the possibility of knowing that it is going to happen (if you were to become terminally ill).