Farrell
17-11-07, 02:16
Hi all, I'm a 27 year old bloke, and I get health anxiety really badly. I've been lurking on this site for a while, but there are just so many posts that could have come straight from my own head that I thought it was about time I joined in.
I suppose I'm fortunate in that a few other members of my family get HA as well, so when it's really getting on top of me I've got someone to call and talk to about my latest worries, but even so it's nice to be among so many people with fellow feeling because I very rarely bring it up elsewhere. Occasionally when the pub conversation gets round to what people are afraid of I'll mention something about being 'a bit of a hypochondriac' and then quickly change the subject, because to be honest I feel guilty about it - I know that there are many, many people who are really ill and who deal with it much more stoically than I deal with my neuroses.
I hate it though, the fact that worries about my health just seem to switch off all the rational areas of my brain and send me into panic mode. Some of the time I can control it, but then every so often I'll notice some lump somewhere on my body that I haven't encountered before, or have a headache that goes on a bit too long, or even just read about the symptoms of something particularly nasty in the paper, and suddenly this horrible feeling of impending doom just rises up and takes over my mind, and then I can't think about ANYTHING ELSE for weeks on end. It's made me nervous just typing that. Hate it.
Anyway. Glad to be here.
I suppose I'm fortunate in that a few other members of my family get HA as well, so when it's really getting on top of me I've got someone to call and talk to about my latest worries, but even so it's nice to be among so many people with fellow feeling because I very rarely bring it up elsewhere. Occasionally when the pub conversation gets round to what people are afraid of I'll mention something about being 'a bit of a hypochondriac' and then quickly change the subject, because to be honest I feel guilty about it - I know that there are many, many people who are really ill and who deal with it much more stoically than I deal with my neuroses.
I hate it though, the fact that worries about my health just seem to switch off all the rational areas of my brain and send me into panic mode. Some of the time I can control it, but then every so often I'll notice some lump somewhere on my body that I haven't encountered before, or have a headache that goes on a bit too long, or even just read about the symptoms of something particularly nasty in the paper, and suddenly this horrible feeling of impending doom just rises up and takes over my mind, and then I can't think about ANYTHING ELSE for weeks on end. It's made me nervous just typing that. Hate it.
Anyway. Glad to be here.