How did your health anxiety start?

[GirlAfraid23]

Was it an actual trigger or did it just happen?

For me, I believe it was when my brother became very seriously ill. He was 14 at the time and perfectly fit & healthy otherwise, always playing sports and out and about. Then one day he came home and fell unconcious for days. We finally had to call the ambulance and he was taken to great ormond street hospital in a coma. It was a very scary time and I was only around 16 at the time. He was given not much chance to pull through as it was a rare brain infection but in the end he did and he's absolutley fine today.
This was a few years ago but I believe it may have stayed in my subconcious, that people can actually get ill even if they are in good health initially...

However I have always been an anxious person and had OCD type thoughts and all or nothing thoughts, always catasrophising! (sp!)

I hope this post doesnt worry anybody because these things are very rare but I just thought I'd share and see other people's opinions

[Mondie]

i've always been an anxious person but my first panic attack was the day after I wty as told that my Gran had died. My health anxiety really hold of me when my Dad died of cancer and then escalated last year when I had my first operation and was in hospital for a week.

[Stacers1985]

My Panic attacks started when I was 16. I was really dehydrated, to the point where my body was weak and I could barely stand up. I was getting killer headaches, and blurred vision.
My dad ran me to the hospital and they said I had an inner ear infection. They gave me some meds, which of course did absolutely nothing, and the next night ended back in the ER.
They said it was exhaustion this time and sent me home to get some rest, of course I still felt horrible, and by now I was convinced I either had a brain tumor or cancer.
Finally my mom took me to a different hospital and they took my blood pressure sitting down, laying down, and standing up and they discovered I was dehydrated. They gave me three bags of that saline water stuff, and I felt better the next day. But the fear that something was wrong stuck with me and kept getting worse and worse.... Fast Forward to today and I am a mess.

[Captain America]

mine started because i was having all kinds of muscle aches and pains along with digestive issues. they ran a bunch of tests and never found anything. with each negative test my anxiety grew, figuring that if it was something simple then it must be something serious and hard to find. i started dancing with dr. google and then the panic attacks started.

[Shelly80]

mine started because i was having all kinds of muscle aches and pains along with digestive issues. they ran a bunch of tests and never found anything. With each negative test my anxiety grew, figuring that if it was something simple then it must be something serious and hard to find. i started dancing with dr. google and then the panic attacks started.


That is similar to how mine started. I've always been kind of anxious, but I developed a sinus problem last summer that wouldn't go away, strange and painful pressure above my eye and then a bloody nose. They couldn't figure out what it was for months and my anxiety just grew and grew. They treated me with horrible antibiotics that got me sick and I lost a ton of weight. Soon it all boiled into panic attacks and fight or flight symptoms. Since then I've gotten better, but have some difficult times every now and then.

[enigmatique]

I've also always been an anxious person and prone to catastrophising (I call it planning ahead lol) but could always keep it under control until a few months ago. I damaged nerves in my leg which led to a back problem which is still ongoing and painful, then my gran died unexpectedly, and a few other stressful things happened all at once and it all sort of tipped me over the edge. I didn't recognise what was happening for months, but the anxiety was gradually building up and I was starting to get panic attacks and agoraphobia, and then just before Christmas it got a lot worse and here I am today, having acknowledged I have HA and wondering where to go now.

[nickieb]

Woke up one morn feelin weird & ill & bang it spiralled out of control thought i had a brain tumor then that was it!

[sahara]

Mine was triggered when my Mum and dads friend was told she had skin cancer from a mole that was growing. I think I was about 11 or 12. Had it ever since in varying degrees.

I always worry about my moles, but any type of cancer. paricularly Lung cancer as I used to smoke and my Mum died of lung cancer last year and she smoked too.

I have now given up. But I also worry about HIV and hepatitias C!!!!

[sahara]

PS I should mention my Mum and Dads friend is fine - and it was 20 years ago she had it!!!

[GirlAfraid23]

Girlafraid- sounds like u are beginning to heal. I am so happy. How have you been feeling since seeing your therapist? Just FYI: My mom had a really bad car accident a year ago that almost killed her then we moved this summer and everthing about my life changed. I think this is what sparked mine b/c it started with me making hubby call me every AM on his way to work so I know he got there ok. Mom was on her way to work.

I am a little, but it comes and goes...My counseller told me not to google anymore and stop "checking" symptoms out, I.E. stop getting the torchlight out for my mouth...I have stopped and its helped abit.
He also brought me a sheet about AIDs and HIV and a case study of a HA sufferer with HIV fears.
How are you?

[bootsy]

hello,
Mine started when I was in thailand, 8 years ago. I got really ill with a kind of food poisening and have never been the same since. I have every test under the sun and have gone through major worries of HIV, lung problems and everything in between.

Panic attacks only started 3 years ago when I had a terrible chest infection and had 6 weeks off work. I couldnt breath and was diagnosed with asthma. The panic attacks started a month or so after this in a meeting in London.

It took ages until I realised I didnt have HIV but now I know I havent got that but know I have other worries as I have tingling on my left cheek. However i read on here this in anxiety related.
:)

I understand your problems with HIV worries, its the ultimate anxiety disease as the symptoms are everything and nothing.

I had 3 tests! and still didnt beleive it 100% as I always find some kind of 0.0001 chance it being undetectable on the internet. But you really have not got it.

In the end, I asked my then girlfriend to go for a test and explained my worries, to my suprise she was fine and said yes, no problem

She was negative and I saw the results. We have been together for two years. My brain then decided that statistically I couldnt have it!!

shame I had to go to that length but it did eliminate it!

That said, it was getting less and less..... it will go...I promise...but it may then be something else you worry about.....its good you have a counseller, I havent got one.....could do with one actually from time to time

[Lucky07]

Mine started a few years ago when I had an unexpected serious complication of pregnancy/delivery. My child and I nearly died. I never had any anxiety in my life before that happened.

[Emaa]

My stepdad had HA - But he wouldn't admit it.
When I was younger he'd tell me he 'knew' he was going to die, and he used to have loads of medical encyclopedia's (sp?) That he'd look through and freak himself out over.

Once I noticed a bruise on my leg and he told me it could be a blood clot, and I got looking through his encyclopedia's and it all escalated from there.

[claire.xx]

i think mine started after i saw my mum die of a heart attack when i was 20 which was 2 and a half year ago and my main worry is my heart but now any slight worry about anything escalates to a life threatening problem

[kirstymc]

I've suffered from panic attacks since my early teens, mostly at night, revolving around my serious phobia and fixation with death. Every time I laid down to sleep my mind would go into overdrive, and eventually I'd work myself up into a panic attack. I still go through stages, I'll be fine for months, then I'll have one almost every night.

I've always been a massive hypochondriac, but this full blown anxiety has only happened in the last six months or so. Three of my immediate family have contracted cancer in the last two years, my uncle, my dad and my nan. Luckily my dad and my nan only had minor cases and are completely fine now, but my uncle died five weeks ago.

Since the summer I haven't had the best time. So many problems in my life; money, relationships, friends, university. All coupled together and really got me down. To my regret, I took cocaine on New Years Eve (I was in such a state that I just wanted to forget about everything) and two days later, my heart went MENTAL. It was beating so fast I thought it was going to burst out of my chest. It only lasted a few minutes, but I genuinely thought I was dying. And it was all my own fault. Since then, my health anxiety has been in overdrive. EVERYTHING is a sign of terminal illness. One night I stared at my forearms for about an hour, convinced myself that one was bigger than the other, which obviously meant I had a blood clot that was going to kill me.

[Maybe_Baby]

my panic attacks started when i was just 13 years old.
My uncle who i was very close to had just passed away, and i was in his house one night with family sorting through his stuff, when someone jumped out on me in the dark and gave me the shock of my life.. and about an hour later i experienced my first panic attack.
And as for my anxiety, that started about a year and a half ago when i started suffering heart palpitations, but after about 5 month it seemed to calmed down alot, then in june last year i miscarried which made the panic and anxiety come back 100 times worse :(

[gemma85]

mine stared over 5 years ago after my daughter was born i would have panic attacks not as bad as i do now. they did go away when i started college when my daughter was 2. then after i had my son he's 18 months now they come back and they are wore than before. he's have a oparation on tuesday and even tho its small and everything will be ok i'm still so scared.