View Full Version : Health anxiety symptoms
Hello
My HA is off the scale at the moment and I just wanted to ask if anyone is experiencing similar symptoms. It’s so awful at the moment that I can hardly have a shower and wash myself without thinking I can feel a lump - for example if I wash my arm or neck I’ll think I can feel a lump. I have to use a sponge now so there’s no actual contact between my hand and my body. My mind races from one symptom to another - even bending over I think I can feel a swelling in my stomach just because of the sensation of my fat rolling.
Any small thing sets me off.
Is anyone else like this? I feel so alone and out of control of this horrible condition x
Oh yes Bindie i think i can safely say that all of us on here feel the way that you do.It is indeed very scary at times and as you say symptoms can change in a flash from one thing to another,and the strange thing is we believe them?
Overthinking is the problem and knowing that they are just thoughts and nothing more.
I know that this is a simple way to put things but it is true just believing they are our own thoughts is the hard part.
I have been like this for many years,yet i still panic just like you.Try to accept the thoughts for what they are and you will feel better.
All my best to you.
Gizmo
Hello
My HA is off the scale at the moment and I just wanted to ask if anyone is experiencing similar symptoms. It’s so awful at the moment that I can hardly have a shower and wash myself without thinking I can feel a lump - for example if I wash my arm or neck I’ll think I can feel a lump. I have to use a sponge now so there’s no actual contact between my hand and my body. My mind races from one symptom to another - even bending over I think I can feel a swelling in my stomach just because of the sensation of my fat rolling.
Any small thing sets me off.
Is anyone else like this? I feel so alone and out of control of this horrible condition x
Very very much so. For a long time I had to wear a bikini top in the bath so I wouldn’t feel my breasts. And yes, just putting my hand on my thigh, for example, will often result in me finding a “lump”. And do you get that horrible adrenaliney panicky “this is it” feeling afterwards?
HA totally sucks :scared15:
Thank you both for replying. It’s strangely comforting to know I’m not the only one (not that I would wish this on anyone)! Obviously I’m aware there are health anxiety sufferers out there but I was starting to feel completely mad with this inability to touch my own body for fear of finding something. Can’t even get changed in front of a mirror! Yes Jojo my heart sinks and then I feel pure dread. I have long running worries and then the constant changing little ones that pop up daily.
God how do we change this? I can’t live like this forever.
How long have you suffered with this?. For me it really kicked off when my second child was more over a decade ago. I have periods of “remission” but also terrible spikes (I’m in one now) which are almost unbearable with their feelings of acute dread, panic and sadness.
How long have you suffered with this?. For me it really kicked off when my second child was more over a decade ago. I have periods of “remission” but also terrible spikes (I’m in one now) which are almost unbearable with their feelings of acute dread, panic and sadness.
I think I’ve alway been inclined that way (my mum died very young of cancer) but it really ramped up after my son was born 9 years ago. Like you I’ve had some times when it’s been more manageable but lately (last 2 years) it seems pretty relentless and, like you, I’m in the middle of a particularly nasty one. I’m pretty level headed in every other way and manage to hold down a stressful job (although at the moment my GP wants to sign me off) but this bloody HA just floors me. I’m so angry at the way I am - it impacts on everything and I can’t function. Sometimes I get so frustrated as I’m a lucky person with a good life and I hate myself for letting it ruin it.
Was your son your first child? Mine was my second (of four!) - but oddly it ramped up after him but not my first- a girl. Yes, I think I’ve always been prone to HA too- but I first became really unwell with it in the post natal period after my son.
Please don’t hate yourself. I’m pretty “functioning” in other ways too- but mental health problems can floor anyone. Do you have a support system in the real world? I am very lucky with my family and friends but also I could probably have a limb hanging off and they’d tell me I was imagining it! It must be hard to witness though, for our loved ones, so I get it.
Feel free to PM me if you like? X
Was your son your first child? Mine was my second (of four!) - but oddly it ramped up after him but not my first- a girl. Yes, I think I’ve always been prone to HA too- but I first became really unwell with it in the post natal period after my son.
Please don’t hate yourself. I’m pretty “functioning” in other ways too- but mental health problems can floor anyone. Do you have a support system in the real world? I am very lucky with my family and friends but also I could probably have a limb hanging off and they’d tell me I was imagining it! It must be hard to witness though, for our loved ones, so I get it.
Feel free to PM me if you like? X
Yes lots of lovely friends and family but mine are the same - I could also have a limb hanging off and they would say I was imagining it 😂. Thank you - it’s so nice to chat to someone who gets it
I think I’ve alway been inclined that way (my mum died very young of cancer) but it really ramped up after my son was born 9 years ago. Like you I’ve had some times when it’s been more manageable but lately (last 2 years) it seems pretty relentless and, like you, I’m in the middle of a particularly nasty one. I’m pretty level headed in every other way and manage to hold down a stressful job (although at the moment my GP wants to sign me off) but this bloody HA just floors me. I’m so angry at the way I am - it impacts on everything and I can’t function. Sometimes I get so frustrated as I’m a lucky person with a good life and I hate myself for letting it ruin it.
Your GP really didn't help you by sending you to the breast clinic for a non existent lump...Jojo will get fed up of me saying that I always suggest asking the GP to only refer for tests when there is a clinical need and not for "reassurance" which rarely lasts with HA.
I'm of the age when everything is fasttracked "just in case" so to avoid this unnecessary stress I will only contact a doctor if I have red flag symptoms.
We all have our demons on here, Bindie regardless of how fortunate we are in life. We didn't deliberately choose to be under the mental cosh and we're doing our best to cope x
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