Worrying thoughts

[jay28]

Evening everyone hope you are all well.

Like lots of others on here i am suffering from health anxiety, I am 27 years old and have never really had any health problems. The last three months i have been to the doctors quite alot getting things checked out. Everytime he has checked me out and said everything is ok, which each time reasures me for a while and then i always seem to find something else to worry about.

I went to the opticans last month, had been having visual problems i thought tumor and again was told that everything seemed ok.

Went to the dentist saturday for a check up, main reason for this was because i was worried about mouth cancer, he checked me and said everything was ok apart from a filling i need. Again this put my mind at ease.

Now last night and today i have started worrying about something else, i am thinking that i have a tumor in my neck or voice box, i am obsessing about this today, i did have a viral infection 3 weeks ago(cough, cold, sore throat) still have a bit of a blocked up nose now and notice occasionally if i cough i get a sharp pain behind my ear, cannot feel anything in my throat, but sometimes when i swallow i feel like everything has not gone down and have to swollow again.

I feel like i am going mad, why do i keep finding things wrong with me. I do smoke, which i think is increasing my anxiety because everyone knows the dangers of smoking, but again im only 27 and i know anything like this at my age would be uncommon.

[judipat]

jason

You are suffering very classic anxiety symptoms - have you read the symptoms pages on this site???
I know its difficult, been there, done that, got the teeshirt - but you need to stop looking for a medical answer to all you symptoms - because chances are, there are none.
Instead, you need to concentrate on getting out of the "fear, panic, fear" cycle - try some relaxation techniques.
Most important of all, you need to try and accept the way you are and how your body reacts to stress, tiredness, exhaustion etc.

[Janieb]

Hi Jason,

we are the same age and by the sounds of it following a similar path. I have been back and forth to the doctors regarding pressure in my head and visual problems and it's always put down to anxiety.

Lately I have been through a bout of problems with my left eye which has left me feeling somewhat lost and terribly upset, like you I have thoughts that it's a brain tumour or something more sinister. I went to the opticans on Saturday but he says that everything is ok and used some pretty funky up to date stuff to check my eyes which included photographing my optical nerve oooohhh but you would think all that fancy crap would have made me feel better and it didn't.

I have been relying on this site for support, it's a great help and I have private therapy. I wish it would all go away, but you have to be strong and wow I think this site is a great step. just so you know you are certainly not alone.

[jay28]

Thank you both for your your replies, I am really trying to help myself with my anxiety and i just want to go back to how i used to feel which hopefully one day i will, i know its just going to take time. My doctor has been really good and understanding, i dont want to keep going to see him with everything i think is wrong. Do you think the problem with my swollowing could be anxiety related or am i just blowing it all out of proportion.

[sagey]

Yes the swallowing problem could be anxiety related.I have a problem with this. When we tense up the throat muscles get tense and it can make you feel there is a swallow problem. It's only a feeling, part of the anxiety tension. Relax, drop your shoulders. tell yourself,I'm O.K.and focus on something else. If it persists you could see a doctor and get it checked out.

[Farrell]

I'm right there with you dude. Reason goes right out the window and no amount of reassurance will help when I'm worrying about something.

At the beginning of summer last year, I was wandering around a market when I felt something sharp on my arm as someone brushed past me. Didn't give it a great deal of thought at the time, but later on when I mentioned it to a mate he said jokingly, "hope it wasn't a needle!" and BAM that set me right off.

It didn't matter that there wasn't any kind of mark on my arm at all, didn't matter that I'd been badly sunburned the day before, making even light contact with my arms painful, didn't matter that the idea of someone walking round on a busy summer's day brazenly stabbing random people with needles was utterly ridiculous - no, in my mind I had been infected with HIV and I was going to DIE. Every time I thought about it for months afterwards it brought me out in a cold sweat.

Even other people I know who worry obsessively about their health thought I was going a bit OTT on this one, but I couldn't help it. Just couldn't get it out of my head.

So you're definitely not alone mate. I can quite easily convince myself that I'm desperately ill even when I don't have any particular symptoms at hand... :blink: