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Longie
18-03-05, 11:03
hI all

does any one believe they can give themselves an illness by the power of their minds.

i have a cancer phobia and at the minute i am worrying that i have breast cancer, i keel checking myself, and my husband told me youll give yourself a lump and then youll be happy

just cant get rid of my thoughts

any ideas

love Longie

bluebottle
18-03-05, 11:35
The mind is an incredible thing but even it can't give a person cancer just by thinking about it. If it could the USA military would have slapped a patent on it.

Don't worry about this, it is an impossibility.

Regards,

Blue
--
"If I never take this leap of faith I'll never know
So I'm learning to fall with no safety net to cushion the blow"

http://spaces.msn.com/members/enigmapark/

Longie
18-03-05, 12:10
hi Lucy
i have seen my gp about this last time about a year agp i think. i have come to terms with alot of my symptons being a result of my anxiety eg lump in thraot shakes fast heart etc, but then my anxiety turns into a cancer focus, have been here before but although i can see the cycle repeating itself cant seem to stop it

i know the trigger this time an article in the daily mail about gps getting a cancer diagnos wrong. i do have a mistrust in doctors because we lost a baby, while i was pregnat, and they told us all was ok but did confirm 2 days later things had gone wrong. they lied to us because the lady doing the scan wasnt allowed to tell us, without a consultant being present, and he had gone home early, so they left us until the monday
sorry to ramble think its my anger coming out
know what you mean about a sore breast mines killing me no pun intended
love Longie

Longie
18-03-05, 12:41
Hi Lucy

know what you mean about medical books,after we lost Lily, i physically carried a heavy medical book with me wherever i went, didnt do much for my back
but during that time i never thought i had emotionail issue, but that is obviously not normal,

maybe i could have a brain transplant

love Jane

FAN
18-03-05, 12:42
hi, im really sure you cant think yourself cancer........but the mind works in strange ways i know i have sometimes thought not sure if i feel sick then think about it......i am sick

its negative thoughts that do it they exaggerate every feeling we have so that we tell ourselves were ill until eventually we believe it

fan x

Longie
18-03-05, 12:44
Lucy

sorry got distracted by my daughter, did want to say sorry about you loss too, dido you have any other healty pregnancies

love Jane

Longie
18-03-05, 13:58
think thats part of my problem we didnt see lily, didnt relise you were allowed and no one offered. all this happened 10 yrs ago so hopefully things have changed, only found out about 5 yrs ago where she was taken for cremation

very sorry if this has upset anyone but when the times right you have to let yiour thoughts out
love Jane

vernon
18-03-05, 14:29
Hi longie. I am very bad with health anxiety but it isn’t focused on one thing it seems to vary. Like early last yeas I had real bad stomach pains the runs sometimes with blood and felt so sick, I also lost weight. My GP sent me for some blood tests and my calcium level was high, I asked what this could be and Doc said it could be bowel cancer and referred me to a gastrologist. (This made me worry and panic like hell for months), anyway the gastrologist ordered my some tests, At this stage it was hell just getting out of the door as my nerves where shattered. It took 10 months and had chest x-rays, barium enema blood tests and a sygmoidoscopy, then went back to see the gastro specialist. I was so relieved he said all that shown was spasms of the colon, which meant IBS I was so happy it wasn’t cancer as my GP said it night be. I even told him my GP said maybe cancer of colon and he said my GP had miscalculated the blood results. So that made me lose confidence in Doctors too. Soon after this my tummy pains and bleeding had gone, he said bleeding was just due to going to toilet too much. IBS and all the tightening of the tummy/colon is due to anxiety tighten all the muscles. I still get lots of health anxieties though every time I get chest pains etc. I think feeling for lumps etc can be very bad for you too because I done it lots and you will always find a small lump somewhere which I have done and found its just a muscle or something that’s supposed to be there but we never noticed it before. Reading up on Internet and books is also bad because soon as I was told my calcium was raised I looked it up and it said it raises when cancer spreads to the bones they leak calcium, that and doc saying she though bowl cancer put me into months of real bad panic, and as always all the worry was unnecessary. I have to have eye surgery next Thursday and that fear is so great too. Its not a big operation its just to remove an obstruction from my left eye, I am registered blind and that eye has no sight now but might have after surgery. I am so afraid I will not turn up for this surgery I have been cancelling it and not turning up for 3 years now. But really want to go to take the weight of my shoulders Thursday. My fear is and I am fully convinced I will die not from the surgery but from the terrific fear I get from going there and having heart attack with fear. Really hope you feel better soon. I have been trying relaxation daily and using affirmations over and over telling myself I AM HEALTHY SRTONG AND HAVE NO FEARS. I think they work a little am just going to keep trying to tell myself I am not ill. Take care. Vernon

Longie
18-03-05, 16:26
good luck vernon, i too use affermatations when i remember but heard in takes along time for them to work, only been doing them for 2 wks, and then not routinely

love Jane

FAN
18-03-05, 16:52
hope you do go through with it vernon this time 3 years is a long time .....time that you could have had with sight if only you went for the surgery im not sure how big the op is but i have eye surgery a few times and they dont even put you out now they can sedate you to relax you but other than that its local aneasthetic your up and about in hours

fan x

vernon
18-03-05, 20:41
same here jane only been doing affermations a few weeks but i done some nice colour ones on pc then laminated them. so i can carry arounf in my pocket lol.

Fan not big surgery at all but they might want to [ut me to sleep coz they said the eye might be too long or something. I dont think its the surgery i am so scared of. I think I will have heart attack with ther fear of going there. last time i cancelled on the day. I couldnt even walk and was shaking all over.

seh1980
18-03-05, 20:57
I don't think that we can give oursleves something like cancer but I do believe that people who worry about things like this are more likely to get them. I am a worrier as well and try so hard not to - it always seems to me that the laid back people never get these things..:D

linjane
19-03-05, 08:29
Hi Longie,

I am sure everyone is right, you can't give yourself an illness, but you have been through so much, it is no wonder you feel how you do. My fear for the last three years has been my ectopic heartbeats, but if I am having good days with them and then get a headache, I worry about that! I also find that looking up the sympton on the net, does not help. I think they make things sound worse than they are and you can think all sorts. I have tried to stop looking up ectopic beats now and just rely on talking to people on here and my counsellor.

I am sorry you didn't get to see Lily. I was lucky, if that is the right word, I got to hold Cory and he had a funeral, but I can't bring myself to go to his grave. I have been about three times, in nearly three years and that makes me feel so guilty, but I always think about him and talk about him. It will be three years on 15th May, when he was born/died so I think I am going to try to go. It might help. You are doing so well, and have given me some really good advice but I think all this just takes time. We are such sensitive people, us anxiety sufferers and we are always more aware of things than the other sorts of people - we are normal they aren't, is how I look at it! - but we just need to learn to put things into perspective. We will get there eventually.

SPACE CADET - I am so pleased that you went on to have your children. I lost my little boy, Cory at five months, but already had a boy and a girl. Cory would have been our third child. I am 38 now and don't think I will have any more although I would love one. I also had two miscarriages, only at six weeks, in between my eldest and youngest, but never gave myself time to grieve at all with them. Your nan's thoughts are probably right, your babies that you lost were probably sent for a reason, I always like to think Cory is with my parents and grandparents in heaven - my mom and dad never got to see either of my children, so Cory was for them.

Hope I have been some help to you.
Take care,
Love,
Linda.x