serith
17-12-22, 17:40
Mindfulness helps so much with managing health anxiety. If you can identify and notice underlying beliefs and thought patterns, you can challenge them and change your perspective, and this can DRAMATICALLY impact the intensity of your anxiety.
TL;DR -- skip to #7, it's by far the best one. :) But check out the other ones too.
Here are some underlying thought patterns and beliefs I have identified in myself that fuel my health anxiety:
1) a lack of trust in my own body - a feeling that something in my body is bound to go wrong, I'm bound to get unlucky and have a bad health problem
here are some ways to challenge this thought process:
~my body is not as fragile as I think it is. My body, and all bodies, are actually VERY resilient. They are incredibly complex, which means that they can have lots of little things "go wrong", but overall, they WANT to stay alive, they WANT to function correctly. The body can overcome MANY small errors and problems and go on functioning well and staying alive.
2) overgeneralizing/ misinterpreting statements of risk - for example, take the statement: "cell phones may cause brain tumors."
You hear this statement "cell phones may cause brain tumors" occasionally in the media and in life. I have researched this topic, and as far as I can tell, here is what it really means (more or less):
"If you use a cell phone pressed to your head for a very long time, every day, for decades, you MAY be ever so slightly more likely to get a brain tumor. Among people with exceedingly heavy cell phone use, who use it pressed to their head, 75 out of 10,000 people would get a brain tumor, as opposed to 50 out of 10,000 people among those who do not use cell phones in such a manner. in other words, there is a 50% increase in your risk."
(Note: this is not an actual statistic - just a general summing up of lots of stuff I was reading)
BUT, the health anxiety brain sees it this way: "I WILL DEFINITELY GET A BRAIN TUMOR IF I GET ANYWHERE NEAR A CELL PHONE. MUST AVOID CELL PHONE. AND MAYBE SCHEDULE A CT SCAN JUST TO BE SURE."
Can you see the how the HA-brain is misinterpreting the truth?
Saying "50% increase risk" sounds really scary, but it actually just means the difference between 50 out of 10,000 people and 75 out of 10,000 people. ... two situations that are really not that different in terms of how you actually evaluate risk in daily life.
3) it's easy to be very afraid of something you can't directly see & don't understand
So for example, if I get a cut on my finger, the bleeding doesn't worry me because I can directly see how much it is bleeding, I know how much bleeding is too much and how much is no problem, I can easily see when it stops and I can easily tell when it is healed. So there is no cause for concern.
Contrast that to what happens if you cut your finger on a rusty nail and you don't have a tetanus shot. Now, you're worried about a little mysterious particle of rust traveling into your bloodstream. You can't see it, so you don't know for sure if it's happening or not. There's no way to know if it's happening until you get lockjaw-- and by then it may be too late. And what would you even do if you got lockjaw?? This situation, of course, it MUCH scarier than just cutting your finger and having it bleed.
Our bodies scare us because so much happens inside, out of sight, (only doctors and tests can see it!) and there's so much about how our bodies work that we don't directly understand.
It's as natural as being afraid of the dark-- and means just as much (in other words, nothing).
Some ways to challenge this anxiety:
~just because we can't see something, and don't totally understand it, doesn't mean that thing is going to kill us. It just means it's "dark". As far as the inside of our bodies are concerned, we're always walking around in the dark hallway at night and hearing creepy sounds. And you know from experience that if you just turn the light on, all fears would instantly vanish. If we could somehow "turn the light on" to the insides of our bodies, and see exactly how everything is working-- despite the occasional creepy pains or feelings-- you wouldn't be afraid.
When you turn the light on, you instantly realize that heavy sound of footsteps behind you is just the radiator creaking, or the pipes in the wall gurgling, and not a monster creeping up on you. Likewise, if you "turned the light on" to your body, you would instantly see that the weird pain in your side is just a normal blip in the functioning of the body, and everything is still working just fine.
The HA is nothing more than the primal, creepy feeling of fear of darkness.
4) But what about when you have REAL symptoms that should be checked out?
First of all, how do you KNOW if a symptom is "real" or just anxiety-fueled?
Ask someone else. Ask someone who you know to be laid back, not prone to anxiety.
If their response is "oh haha, that's fine, don't worry about it"-- then BELIEVE THEM.
If their response is "huh, maybe you should go to the doctor" -- then go ahead and go to the doctor.
Of course just because we have HA doesn't mean that ALL symptoms are imaginary-- of course it's possible that we do have real health problems. And some of us only get HA when we have actual health problems.
So how to manage not-just-anxiety-fueled HA?
~Do what you can, and don't worry beyond that.
When you have a worrisome symptom, just do what you're supposed to do-- make a doctor's appointment.
Believe what the doctor says.
Do what the doctor says. If the doctor says, get this test -- get the test.
If the doctor says, don't bother getting this test -- don't get that test.
Just decide you are going to trust the doctor.
People who go to the doctor and follow the doctor's orders are automatically safer and healthier than those that don't. And you can feel good about that, and know that you've done all you can. If you've gone to the doctor and done what the doctor wants you to do, there's literally nothing else you have to worry about. You haven't been to medical school. You might as well forget about the problem entirely. Just live your life.
5) This one is not so much a thought pattern and as emotional tendency that has effects --
over-focusing on physical symptoms that either increase those particular symptoms, AND/OR cause other symptoms
Do you get a headache whenever someone starts talking about headaches? Try it now-- try to give yourself a headache. I'm doing it, and yes, I just got a headache.
Now try giving yourself a stomachache.
Wait for it... wait for it...
Crazy, right?!
Anxiety and tension cause all sorts of weird things in your body. Things you could never imagine would be related.
Sometimes when I read posts on this website, the thinking is so distorted and the anxiety is so intense, that I would be shocked if the entire body was not in a state of complete freak-out, which would cause a vast array of physical symptoms.
How do address this problem?
Do body meditations.
Sit down somewhere, get comfortable, block out any distractions, and follow your breath for a while. In, out. In, out. Do it as long as you can. Then focus on the energy in your body.
What I mean is, FEEL your actual body. Feel how energy flows through it. Feel any area of tension. Don't TRY to relax-- just let awareness and consciousness flow through your entire body.
See if you can tell the difference between "blocked energy" and "flowing energy."
Breathe into your body, allow the energy to flow freely through your body, rather than tensing up in fear.
If you get the hang of this, it's a really great way to get in touch with your body -- and figure out what's a REAL symptom and what's nothing to worry about.
6) Things you are doing can affect your body and cause "symptoms."
In addition to anxiety, other things can have dramatic and seemingly-unrelated affects all over your body.
Exercise, especially lifting weights or doing work outs that you're not used to doing, can cause random pains all over your body.
Same with missing sleep, or having an argument with someone, or feeling lonely, or changing your diet.
Anything that is throwing you off your center, making your struggle a little bit, can affect how your body feels.
If you practice the above body meditations, you can learn to understand how your body is really feeling, and what may have caused it.
And finally....
THIS IS THE BEST ONE RIGHT HERE! .....
7) HA is fueled by the belief that you CAN achieve a state of complete certainty about your health -- and that you SHOULD achieve complete certainty. If you don't achieve complete certainty, then you're being irresponsible, and it's your fault if you die young.
Is it possible that doctors could make a mistake? Of course, it's possible. Is it possible that you have tiny symptom, like a mild headache, and it's actually an inoperable brain tumor? Of course, it's possible. Is it possible that you'll walk out your front door and a tiger who has escaped from the zoo will pounce on you and simultaneously a bus will veer off the road and hit you and kill you? Of course, it's all technically possible.
Lots of things are TECHNICALLY POSSIBLE, but we just don't worry about them. Because we know it's not worth it.
When you have a lot of HA, you're worried about dying, primarily. But life is not worth living if you're going to worry that every little tiny symptom is a giant inoperable brain tumor.
For life to be worth living, just decide you're going to live on the edge a little.
You're going to live a life with a little uncertainty in it. You're going to do what is responsible for your health (i.e., going to the doctor, doing what the doctor says), but beyond that, you're not going to worry.
IF, by some crazy alignment of the stars, you end up being that person who got a little headache and ignored it, and it ended up being inoperable brain tumor, and you die, then for gods sake, SO BE IT.
Do you understand what I'm staying?
I think to really kick HA's butt, you've got to accept that it is TECHNICALLY POSSIBLE that your worst fears could come true. Anyone's could. We live in a world of uncertainty. We will all die eventually. Anyone could technically be that person with the giant inoperable brain tumor in their 30s. It could happen to anyone.
Given that acceptance, is it worth it to obsess over every little symptom?
Or should you just go ahead and live your life?
Live on the edge a bit. Embrace a little uncertainty. This doesn't mean being irresponsible. If you have a major and persistent and really unusual symptom, get it checked out. That's what it means to be responsible.
But you're NEVER going to reach COMPLETE certainty about anything, and YOU DO NOT HAVE TO. It doesn't even make sense, logically, to be completely certain, ever.
Whether or not you are currently in a state of total well-being and health, OR you are currently having a few symptoms that might be some dreadful disease, -- -- either way, you are rolling the dice. Every day, there is a chance you could die, no matter what.
Just decide that you are NOT going to worry about having a terrible disease, or dying young, until either of these things happens
1) a friend who you know is a laid-back person looks you in the eye and says, in no uncertain terms, "you really should go to the doctor"
AND/OR
2) a doctor looks you in the eye and says "you have a terrible disease and you might die young."
IF NEITHER OF THOSE THINGS HAVE HAPPENED,
you have no reasonable evidence to think you have a terrible disease and you will die young.
Just like you have no reasonable evidence to think the tiger will escape from the zoo and come kill you, so you don't worry about it.
If you DO have a giant inoperable brain tumor, or if you do have ALS or rabies or whatever, eventually you will know for sure. And then you can worry about it. And you won't have to think, oh if only I hadn't ignored that tiny headache, because anyone would have ignored the tiny headache. It's just a headache for god's sake.
One day, we will all get sick of something and die, and SO BE IT. That's just life. There's no reasonable way to keep yourself 100% safe of every problem, so-- beyond what's reasonably responsible-- don't even try.
TL;DR -- skip to #7, it's by far the best one. :) But check out the other ones too.
Here are some underlying thought patterns and beliefs I have identified in myself that fuel my health anxiety:
1) a lack of trust in my own body - a feeling that something in my body is bound to go wrong, I'm bound to get unlucky and have a bad health problem
here are some ways to challenge this thought process:
~my body is not as fragile as I think it is. My body, and all bodies, are actually VERY resilient. They are incredibly complex, which means that they can have lots of little things "go wrong", but overall, they WANT to stay alive, they WANT to function correctly. The body can overcome MANY small errors and problems and go on functioning well and staying alive.
2) overgeneralizing/ misinterpreting statements of risk - for example, take the statement: "cell phones may cause brain tumors."
You hear this statement "cell phones may cause brain tumors" occasionally in the media and in life. I have researched this topic, and as far as I can tell, here is what it really means (more or less):
"If you use a cell phone pressed to your head for a very long time, every day, for decades, you MAY be ever so slightly more likely to get a brain tumor. Among people with exceedingly heavy cell phone use, who use it pressed to their head, 75 out of 10,000 people would get a brain tumor, as opposed to 50 out of 10,000 people among those who do not use cell phones in such a manner. in other words, there is a 50% increase in your risk."
(Note: this is not an actual statistic - just a general summing up of lots of stuff I was reading)
BUT, the health anxiety brain sees it this way: "I WILL DEFINITELY GET A BRAIN TUMOR IF I GET ANYWHERE NEAR A CELL PHONE. MUST AVOID CELL PHONE. AND MAYBE SCHEDULE A CT SCAN JUST TO BE SURE."
Can you see the how the HA-brain is misinterpreting the truth?
Saying "50% increase risk" sounds really scary, but it actually just means the difference between 50 out of 10,000 people and 75 out of 10,000 people. ... two situations that are really not that different in terms of how you actually evaluate risk in daily life.
3) it's easy to be very afraid of something you can't directly see & don't understand
So for example, if I get a cut on my finger, the bleeding doesn't worry me because I can directly see how much it is bleeding, I know how much bleeding is too much and how much is no problem, I can easily see when it stops and I can easily tell when it is healed. So there is no cause for concern.
Contrast that to what happens if you cut your finger on a rusty nail and you don't have a tetanus shot. Now, you're worried about a little mysterious particle of rust traveling into your bloodstream. You can't see it, so you don't know for sure if it's happening or not. There's no way to know if it's happening until you get lockjaw-- and by then it may be too late. And what would you even do if you got lockjaw?? This situation, of course, it MUCH scarier than just cutting your finger and having it bleed.
Our bodies scare us because so much happens inside, out of sight, (only doctors and tests can see it!) and there's so much about how our bodies work that we don't directly understand.
It's as natural as being afraid of the dark-- and means just as much (in other words, nothing).
Some ways to challenge this anxiety:
~just because we can't see something, and don't totally understand it, doesn't mean that thing is going to kill us. It just means it's "dark". As far as the inside of our bodies are concerned, we're always walking around in the dark hallway at night and hearing creepy sounds. And you know from experience that if you just turn the light on, all fears would instantly vanish. If we could somehow "turn the light on" to the insides of our bodies, and see exactly how everything is working-- despite the occasional creepy pains or feelings-- you wouldn't be afraid.
When you turn the light on, you instantly realize that heavy sound of footsteps behind you is just the radiator creaking, or the pipes in the wall gurgling, and not a monster creeping up on you. Likewise, if you "turned the light on" to your body, you would instantly see that the weird pain in your side is just a normal blip in the functioning of the body, and everything is still working just fine.
The HA is nothing more than the primal, creepy feeling of fear of darkness.
4) But what about when you have REAL symptoms that should be checked out?
First of all, how do you KNOW if a symptom is "real" or just anxiety-fueled?
Ask someone else. Ask someone who you know to be laid back, not prone to anxiety.
If their response is "oh haha, that's fine, don't worry about it"-- then BELIEVE THEM.
If their response is "huh, maybe you should go to the doctor" -- then go ahead and go to the doctor.
Of course just because we have HA doesn't mean that ALL symptoms are imaginary-- of course it's possible that we do have real health problems. And some of us only get HA when we have actual health problems.
So how to manage not-just-anxiety-fueled HA?
~Do what you can, and don't worry beyond that.
When you have a worrisome symptom, just do what you're supposed to do-- make a doctor's appointment.
Believe what the doctor says.
Do what the doctor says. If the doctor says, get this test -- get the test.
If the doctor says, don't bother getting this test -- don't get that test.
Just decide you are going to trust the doctor.
People who go to the doctor and follow the doctor's orders are automatically safer and healthier than those that don't. And you can feel good about that, and know that you've done all you can. If you've gone to the doctor and done what the doctor wants you to do, there's literally nothing else you have to worry about. You haven't been to medical school. You might as well forget about the problem entirely. Just live your life.
5) This one is not so much a thought pattern and as emotional tendency that has effects --
over-focusing on physical symptoms that either increase those particular symptoms, AND/OR cause other symptoms
Do you get a headache whenever someone starts talking about headaches? Try it now-- try to give yourself a headache. I'm doing it, and yes, I just got a headache.
Now try giving yourself a stomachache.
Wait for it... wait for it...
Crazy, right?!
Anxiety and tension cause all sorts of weird things in your body. Things you could never imagine would be related.
Sometimes when I read posts on this website, the thinking is so distorted and the anxiety is so intense, that I would be shocked if the entire body was not in a state of complete freak-out, which would cause a vast array of physical symptoms.
How do address this problem?
Do body meditations.
Sit down somewhere, get comfortable, block out any distractions, and follow your breath for a while. In, out. In, out. Do it as long as you can. Then focus on the energy in your body.
What I mean is, FEEL your actual body. Feel how energy flows through it. Feel any area of tension. Don't TRY to relax-- just let awareness and consciousness flow through your entire body.
See if you can tell the difference between "blocked energy" and "flowing energy."
Breathe into your body, allow the energy to flow freely through your body, rather than tensing up in fear.
If you get the hang of this, it's a really great way to get in touch with your body -- and figure out what's a REAL symptom and what's nothing to worry about.
6) Things you are doing can affect your body and cause "symptoms."
In addition to anxiety, other things can have dramatic and seemingly-unrelated affects all over your body.
Exercise, especially lifting weights or doing work outs that you're not used to doing, can cause random pains all over your body.
Same with missing sleep, or having an argument with someone, or feeling lonely, or changing your diet.
Anything that is throwing you off your center, making your struggle a little bit, can affect how your body feels.
If you practice the above body meditations, you can learn to understand how your body is really feeling, and what may have caused it.
And finally....
THIS IS THE BEST ONE RIGHT HERE! .....
7) HA is fueled by the belief that you CAN achieve a state of complete certainty about your health -- and that you SHOULD achieve complete certainty. If you don't achieve complete certainty, then you're being irresponsible, and it's your fault if you die young.
Is it possible that doctors could make a mistake? Of course, it's possible. Is it possible that you have tiny symptom, like a mild headache, and it's actually an inoperable brain tumor? Of course, it's possible. Is it possible that you'll walk out your front door and a tiger who has escaped from the zoo will pounce on you and simultaneously a bus will veer off the road and hit you and kill you? Of course, it's all technically possible.
Lots of things are TECHNICALLY POSSIBLE, but we just don't worry about them. Because we know it's not worth it.
When you have a lot of HA, you're worried about dying, primarily. But life is not worth living if you're going to worry that every little tiny symptom is a giant inoperable brain tumor.
For life to be worth living, just decide you're going to live on the edge a little.
You're going to live a life with a little uncertainty in it. You're going to do what is responsible for your health (i.e., going to the doctor, doing what the doctor says), but beyond that, you're not going to worry.
IF, by some crazy alignment of the stars, you end up being that person who got a little headache and ignored it, and it ended up being inoperable brain tumor, and you die, then for gods sake, SO BE IT.
Do you understand what I'm staying?
I think to really kick HA's butt, you've got to accept that it is TECHNICALLY POSSIBLE that your worst fears could come true. Anyone's could. We live in a world of uncertainty. We will all die eventually. Anyone could technically be that person with the giant inoperable brain tumor in their 30s. It could happen to anyone.
Given that acceptance, is it worth it to obsess over every little symptom?
Or should you just go ahead and live your life?
Live on the edge a bit. Embrace a little uncertainty. This doesn't mean being irresponsible. If you have a major and persistent and really unusual symptom, get it checked out. That's what it means to be responsible.
But you're NEVER going to reach COMPLETE certainty about anything, and YOU DO NOT HAVE TO. It doesn't even make sense, logically, to be completely certain, ever.
Whether or not you are currently in a state of total well-being and health, OR you are currently having a few symptoms that might be some dreadful disease, -- -- either way, you are rolling the dice. Every day, there is a chance you could die, no matter what.
Just decide that you are NOT going to worry about having a terrible disease, or dying young, until either of these things happens
1) a friend who you know is a laid-back person looks you in the eye and says, in no uncertain terms, "you really should go to the doctor"
AND/OR
2) a doctor looks you in the eye and says "you have a terrible disease and you might die young."
IF NEITHER OF THOSE THINGS HAVE HAPPENED,
you have no reasonable evidence to think you have a terrible disease and you will die young.
Just like you have no reasonable evidence to think the tiger will escape from the zoo and come kill you, so you don't worry about it.
If you DO have a giant inoperable brain tumor, or if you do have ALS or rabies or whatever, eventually you will know for sure. And then you can worry about it. And you won't have to think, oh if only I hadn't ignored that tiny headache, because anyone would have ignored the tiny headache. It's just a headache for god's sake.
One day, we will all get sick of something and die, and SO BE IT. That's just life. There's no reasonable way to keep yourself 100% safe of every problem, so-- beyond what's reasonably responsible-- don't even try.