Health anxiety cycle breaker

[anxietybegone]

So after nearly a year of having health anxiety , (catalyst for me was having a baby) I am just exhausted by it. I have paid to see private psychologists to try help with it but I have researched it so much I feel they don't tell me anything that I don't know already . However , I read a really good article by a Mr porter that basically said you have to stage your own intervention with health anxiety. In other words,
Just going cold turkey and not running to the doctor for every tiny thing. It was the most difficult thing I've done but slowly I did start to break the cycle and feel better.

However , I got covid last month and that seemed to set me off on the same old cycles again. I worry about lumps , bumps and basically have a massive fear of cancer. I'm not even scared of dying and ironically I have heart problems in the family but the heart doesn't scare me in the slightest or brain tumours either , how weird is that? I just think it is like an ocd type thing that once you enter the cycle 'checking , worrying , running to the doctor , being reassured ... for a short while ... to straight back to checking again' it's super difficult to get out of the cycle once your are in but the stage your own intervention thing if you can bear it does actually work. I'm writing this out as last week I visited a private doctor (literally too embarrassed to go to my own NHS one now ) and she said to me after checking I didn't have , breast cancer , bowel cancer and lung cancer that you 'can't control everything'. As long as you exercise , try eat clean, in her words ,everything else is in the Lord's hands. It's true. And kind of comforting to think like that. Recently though at the weekend I started having intermittent twinges under my left rib , most likely , indigestion but my old friend anxiety is trying to pull me back into that cycle again and im not falling for it. So I'm staging another intervention for myself. No running back to the doctor and just wait and observe. If , in a few weeks, I am still experiencing symptoms I will then consider going back to the doctor but I have to sit with this anxiety or I am straight back into that awful cycle. The hardest thing to do is the thing that ultimately helps you... wish me luck

[NewYorkgirl]

Good luck! I'm currently in the midst of a deep heath anxiety period . Cancer is my biggest fear too and no matter what symptom I ha e I automatically go to that! When I'm rational I can reason with myself but right now I'm struggling so much. I get married in November and I'm convinced I won't make it. I'm exhausted with it all. I'm going to try yoga and see if that occupies my mind and eases my tense body xx

[anxietybegone]

Thank you xx It's really awful isn't it. I'm fed up of it too its depleting my happiness but we can get through this.Exercise is definitely key to keeping your mind healthy. My problem is I have an 11 month old and I have so little time to myself it's definitely making it worse ... even the doc said ... too much time to think is a bad thing , I'm sure you will have an amazing wedding best of luck to you too xx

[ErinKC]

One thing I used to do when my anxiety was really bad about something (and having a baby is what triggered mine, too - what a cruel trick!) was to set a reminder in my phone to check back in a week. If I was still having the same symptom in a week I was allowed to call the doctor. And, inevitable, I was NEVER having the symptom in a week. Setting the reminder allowed me to put the anxiety away - that feeling that if I didn't sit with it something terrible would happen - and then I could get it off my mind and that was usually all I needed for the symptoms to fade.

[NoraB]

However , I got covid last month and that seemed to set me off on the same old cycles again. I worry about lumps , bumps and basically have a massive fear of cancer. I'm not even scared of dying and ironically I have heart problems in the family but the heart doesn't scare me in the slightest or brain tumours either , how weird is that?

Is this your first baby?

Do you mean that you're not scared of becoming ill and dying, or that you're not scared of death?

I lost my fear of death when I was 12 but my HA was back with a vengeance when I became a mother, especially with my youngest who is autistic. The fear was then about becoming ill and not being here for him..


So I'm staging another intervention for myself. No running back to the doctor and just wait and observe. If , in a few weeks, I am still experiencing symptoms I will then consider going back to the doctor but I have to sit with this anxiety or I am straight back into that awful cycle. The hardest thing to do is the thing that ultimately helps you... wish me luck

Waiting & observing is what I do now (and have done for the last few years) because avoidance is as bad as having your own parking space at the doctor's surgery. The important thing is how you deal with your HA thoughts in-between. I do this by challenging them. I don't avoid them or pretend they're not there; I acknowledge them and rationalise them. People with HA do get ill so it's important to do the wait & see, or to be able to act appropriately in terms of urgency. I say this because my brother is the opposite to what I was with HA and he actually ignored a medical emergency until the matter was taken out of his hands..

I'd wish you good luck but it's not luck you need in order to control HA- it's knowledge, awareness, and understanding. Yes, it's a little unusual that certain things don't worry you - with HA it tends to be any disease that has the capability to wipe us out - but I'd be interested to know why cancer in particular? Can you think of any reason why?

[anxietybegone]

Sorry just realised you replied here too, I only have a desktop version so don't get notifications , please don't be offended if I don't reply quickly I just go on this occasionally.

So for me , I think it is almost an ocd type thing.
Heart problems and brain tumours you cannot see , cancer is a big fear as you could feel a lump which might turn into cancer down the line its about being scared of not catching it early. But it's become obsessive and that's not Normal, we all have lumps and bumps and if you look for a lump you're going to find one. I think it's a form of over control if that makes sense. I hate going to the doctors too so it's almost like I'm tormenting myself by looking for things that mean I need to go to the doctor. I don't really understand it but I do know I overthink everything. It's more like ocd type habit for me.

[anxietybegone]

I've read about this Erin , parking your worry for a time. Trouble is I find it so hard to get it out of my mind I really can see why health anxiety is under the OCD umbrella as it really is more like a bad habit than anything else xx do you mind me asking , did you ever take any medication for anxiety or do therapy ? What helped you most. I'm willing to try anything , hypnotherapy , herbal medicines you name it , it is so exhausting anx coupled with bringing up a baby and two teenagers , yes it is a very cruel trick.

[NoraB]

Heart problems and brain tumours you cannot see , cancer is a big fear as you could feel a lump which might turn into cancer down the line its about being scared of not catching it early. But it's become obsessive and that's not Normal, we all have lumps and bumps and if you look for a lump you're going to find one. I think it's a form of over control if that makes sense.

Makes sense to me, yes. I'm still interested to know if anybody close to you had cancer which wasn't caught early? You're scared of having a lump and it turning into cancer etc. Has this happened to anybody close to you?



I hate going to the doctors too so it's almost like I'm tormenting myself by looking for things that mean I need to go to the doctor. I don't really understand it but I do know I overthink everything. It's more like ocd type habit for me.

OCD is awful. It can be so debilitating. I convinced myself once I'd run someone over despite there being nobody there. I couldn't get my brain to accept it. Health anxiety does come under the OCD spectrum of disorders. Have you ever had any therapy for it?

[anxietybegone]

My auntie had bowel cancer that the doctors put down to constipation for 6 weeks. She fortuitously worked in a hospital though with a top bowel cancer surgeon and after getting a scan it showed she was completely blocked up with a tumour. The surgeon actually phoned the doctors and gave them a massive row for missing it. Doc then had to phone her to apologise. The surgeon 2 days later cut the cancer out and she is completely recovered. I guess this has created a fear of doctors getting things wrong possibly explaining my going to several doctors about the same thing. Errors like that are incredibly rare though. I need 100 per cent certainty and one doctor told me I will never get that with health. This is where I think that health anxiety is best friends with ocd , I have had that same ocd fear that I heard a bump driving the car and convinced myself I hit someone , driving all the way back a few times just to check , it's the same needing to be 100 percent sure but the reality is you have accept that you can be ' certain enough 'to live a normal life. Xx I've never had treatment , doc referred me to an online cbt thing but to be honest it was useless

[NoraB]

My auntie had bowel cancer that the doctors put down to constipation for 6 weeks. She fortuitously worked in a hospital though with a top bowel cancer surgeon and after getting a scan it showed she was completely blocked up with a tumour. The surgeon actually phoned the doctors and gave them a massive row for missing it. Doc then had to phone her to apologise. The surgeon 2 days later cut the cancer out and she is completely recovered.

Ok, so this is important. This is the reason you have this cancer fear. It's the reason it's cancer and no other disease. And the most important thing (for you) is that your auntie didn't die.


I guess this has created a fear of doctors getting things wrong possibly explaining my going to several doctors about the same thing. Errors like that are incredibly rare though. I need 100 per cent certainty and one doctor told me I will never get that with health.

The only 100% certainty you will get in life is that you will die one day. No doctor can give you 100% certainty on health so you will have to learn to accept 99.9%. Errors happen because doctors are human beings, not machines - but errors which lead to death are uncommon. Also, I believe that I am responsible for my own health. For years, doctors kept telling me that my issues were anxiety and having lived all my life in a high state of anxiety (and with HA) I knew otherwise. They finally diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia but I had to push to get the referral to Rheumatology because all my GP could see was the anxiety..


This is where I think that health anxiety is best friends with ocd , I have had that same ocd fear that I heard a bump driving the car and convinced myself I hit someone , driving all the way back a few times just to check , it's the same needing to be 100 percent sure but the reality is you have accept that you can be ' certain enough 'to live a normal life. Xx I've never had treatment , doc referred me to an online cbt thing but to be honest it was useless

Health anxiety comes under the umbrella of OCD. It's very common for people who have OCD to have health anxiety. I've never had treatment for my OCD either because I function with it. It takes me 20 minutes to leave the house but I do leave the house and only rarely do I have to make my husband come back because I doubt myself. In terms of my checking it's useful because it counteracts my husband's failure to make basic checks. I have found the hob left on, doors unlocked at night and heaters left on. Also, my ten years as a school caretaker meant that there were no problems with alarms going off and open windows ha ha. That said, I still dream about doing those checks! Occasionally things get out of hand, like when I think I've run someone over. :unsure: Or I start with the contamination issues (only usually happens in pregnancy with me) - but I know what it is and I try to help myself as much as I can. My list of MH issues is so long that if I had therapy for everything, I'd never have any time for anything else. I get therapy when I can't cope but I do cope with my OCD (mainly). My thoughts are normally funky. I don't know anything else? But I do know that they are just thoughts..