rc906
02-06-22, 18:31
Hey everyone,
I hope you are all having happy, anxiety free days. I hope that I'm posting this in the right forum, if not, just let me know and I will happily delete and post elsewhere.
I just wanted to share my experiences with doctor avoidance. I know that there are many of us on here who overuse the doctor and don't believe what they say. I can't speak to your experience because mine has been the opposite. I know there are plenty of us who refuse to see the doctor because we are afraid of what they might tell us.
So, I've been battling health anxiety for over 20 years. I've had years where I had no issues whatsoever and years where I moved from one thing to the next and lived in a constant state of stress and fear. Over the past decade or so, I have avoided the doctors office for various reasons (lack of insurance being one, but in a way, that was just an excuse). In that time period, I have obsessed over things ranging from somewhat plausible (diabetes, infections) to the wildly unlikely (kidney failure, male breast cancer, under-40 prostate cancer, you get the idea) and never having a concrete answer for my issues has turned me into a person who spirals over everything. The fear of not-knowing has led me from a person who catastrophizes on occasion, to an obsessive-compulsive symptom checker to the point that I have physically harmed myself (not in major ways, but I've ripped off skin tags that have led to infections, that kind of thing), all because no matter what I did, no matter how much NMP or reddit reassurance I got, deep down I never ever knew the truth.
In the past month, I finally decided enough was enough and I forced myself to make a doctors appointment for my anxiety and to get a full physical (blood work, urinalysis, doctor finger where the sun don't shine, the whole nine yards). While I was waiting for the appointment, then for the bloodwork, my anxiety went into absolute overdrive. Worst I've ever had it. Went to my doctors appointment and spent the 10-15 minutes in the waiting room feeling like I was about to die then and there. Then, something happened: the doctor looked over everything I've spent years stressing about, and told me I was completely fine. I need to lose weight, but I knew that already.
I can't tell you the feeling I had after leaving the office with a clean of bill health. Never in a million years would I have expected it to turn out this way. The things I was having symptoms about were things that I 100%, without a doubt, knew that I had. In the short time that I've started to get my anxiety under control, my life has changed dramatically. Every symptom I've been struggling with magically disappeared. The brain is SO, SO strong.
I beg of anyone here, if you avoid the doctor, don't. I'm sure the time will come when I have symptoms I struggle with, I'm sure I will have bad days again, but if you are avoiding the doctor, you are making yourself sick. The one thing that you fear is the one thing you are doing. I really wish I would have done this years ago. It's only been a short time, but I'm finally feeling like I'm starting to get my life back, and I desperately want that for all of you. We are all strangers, but I love all of you because I know what you're going through and I know how hard you have to fight.
We don't have to live like this. If the doctor looks at something, and tells you that you're fine, you're fine. Just because the tabloids and clickbait websites want you to think that misdiagnosis is common, it's not. For every misdiagnosis story you hear, there are millions of doctors visits that are 100% correct.
Sorry to be long-winded, but I wanted to share to those of you who avoid the doctor, that going to the doc and getting checked out will help and it will show you that your symptoms aren't what you think they are. I
I hope you are all having happy, anxiety free days. I hope that I'm posting this in the right forum, if not, just let me know and I will happily delete and post elsewhere.
I just wanted to share my experiences with doctor avoidance. I know that there are many of us on here who overuse the doctor and don't believe what they say. I can't speak to your experience because mine has been the opposite. I know there are plenty of us who refuse to see the doctor because we are afraid of what they might tell us.
So, I've been battling health anxiety for over 20 years. I've had years where I had no issues whatsoever and years where I moved from one thing to the next and lived in a constant state of stress and fear. Over the past decade or so, I have avoided the doctors office for various reasons (lack of insurance being one, but in a way, that was just an excuse). In that time period, I have obsessed over things ranging from somewhat plausible (diabetes, infections) to the wildly unlikely (kidney failure, male breast cancer, under-40 prostate cancer, you get the idea) and never having a concrete answer for my issues has turned me into a person who spirals over everything. The fear of not-knowing has led me from a person who catastrophizes on occasion, to an obsessive-compulsive symptom checker to the point that I have physically harmed myself (not in major ways, but I've ripped off skin tags that have led to infections, that kind of thing), all because no matter what I did, no matter how much NMP or reddit reassurance I got, deep down I never ever knew the truth.
In the past month, I finally decided enough was enough and I forced myself to make a doctors appointment for my anxiety and to get a full physical (blood work, urinalysis, doctor finger where the sun don't shine, the whole nine yards). While I was waiting for the appointment, then for the bloodwork, my anxiety went into absolute overdrive. Worst I've ever had it. Went to my doctors appointment and spent the 10-15 minutes in the waiting room feeling like I was about to die then and there. Then, something happened: the doctor looked over everything I've spent years stressing about, and told me I was completely fine. I need to lose weight, but I knew that already.
I can't tell you the feeling I had after leaving the office with a clean of bill health. Never in a million years would I have expected it to turn out this way. The things I was having symptoms about were things that I 100%, without a doubt, knew that I had. In the short time that I've started to get my anxiety under control, my life has changed dramatically. Every symptom I've been struggling with magically disappeared. The brain is SO, SO strong.
I beg of anyone here, if you avoid the doctor, don't. I'm sure the time will come when I have symptoms I struggle with, I'm sure I will have bad days again, but if you are avoiding the doctor, you are making yourself sick. The one thing that you fear is the one thing you are doing. I really wish I would have done this years ago. It's only been a short time, but I'm finally feeling like I'm starting to get my life back, and I desperately want that for all of you. We are all strangers, but I love all of you because I know what you're going through and I know how hard you have to fight.
We don't have to live like this. If the doctor looks at something, and tells you that you're fine, you're fine. Just because the tabloids and clickbait websites want you to think that misdiagnosis is common, it's not. For every misdiagnosis story you hear, there are millions of doctors visits that are 100% correct.
Sorry to be long-winded, but I wanted to share to those of you who avoid the doctor, that going to the doc and getting checked out will help and it will show you that your symptoms aren't what you think they are. I