No Symptoms

[Spiller]

Hi. My main thing that is really bothering me at the moment is i have convinced myself that i have cancer or i am going to have a heart attack even though i have no symptoms at all of ANYTHING.

Does anyone else suffer with this - its doing my head in!

Help!

Sarah xx

[Jan63]

Yes I'm just the same Sarah - every little thing I get lately I'm convinced it's cancer and if I haven't got symptoms then you can be sure they start to appear soon after I have read what they are.:blush: I have a huge phobia of cancer. I have been to the doctors tonight about a white thing at the back of my throat which I convinced myself definitely was cancer. I had to wait 35 minutes over my appointment time which made me more anxious. The doctor had a quick look and I think he said it was a cyst or something but said everything looked okay. He didn't feel my neck or anything which I was surprised about really. He said 90% of the people with mouth and throat cancer are very heavy smokers and drinkers and I don't smoke so I was okay. I could be in the other 10% though couldn't I?:scared15: I have a dentist check up next month so will probably ask him to look with that little cancer torch he has.

I don't seem to get the heart things though - just the cancer.:unsure:

[lauren6]

Sarah, the first step, as with anything else, is recognizing this. Yes...I would say almost everyone here suffers from this. For some reason we have developed a "habit" or need to find something wrong. I have read countless books on this subject, been in therapy (books helped me more than the therapy) and nobody seems to really know why we do this to ourselves and the therapy is targeted more to correcting our erroneous thinking than to analyzing it.

Keep telling yourself that it's the "Sarah head" that's causing this...that your next door neighbor wouldn't think this way (especially when you do get a symptom that other people brush off). And with no symptoms, do you have any idea what brought this on? Or why you have developed this way of thinking?

[bex1970]

I have a terrible fear of cancer too.... every little thing. Had a weird red mark under my finger nail.... thought it was a very rare type of skin cancer... you name it, the smallest thing, my first thought. Cancer. And if I don't have symptoms, as the other post said, I'll eventually find them....

Lauren, what books do you recommend for this? Think it's time I addressed this as it's driving me and my husband insane....!

[lauren6]

Hi Bex, a few books. Gordon Asmundson wrote a book for therapists called Treating Health Anxiety. I would NOT suggest this as the first book to get. He later came out with a book for us, the sufferers called "It's Not All In Your Head". The second book is "Stop Worrying About Your Health" by George Zgourides. I get everything used on Amazon, always in good shape and so much cheaper but you can find it locally if you don't do online buying.

In the second book, he has scripts where the patient and the therapist are talking and I know I see myself in these...and he uses cognitive therapy ("what proof do you have that you have cancer"...answer "none", etc) and helps the patient reframe their thoughts to something more realistic. I take these books out when I am in the middle of yet another scare and they really help me through. Temporarily. I think we have to just keep working on this because people do get cured. It's hard to change a lifetime of this erroneous thinking but I believe we can.

Please let me know if you get the books. I think it's the best investment we can make! Oh...one more book called Worried Sick? The Exaggerated Fear of Physical Illness by Fredric Neuman, M.D. He talks about checking our bodies for things. Page 115 gives the greatest description of the patient waiting for a test result, sitting by the phone, being put on hold...then all of a sudden she gets an answering machine and it's Friday night and now has to wait until Monday! I have been through this and it's the worst!! So he really identifies with us. This is also a good book to get. I have more...but these 3 are the best.

[amandaj]

im same worrying about cancer well any type of health probs really think most of us are like it on here theres always someone about to talk about it to dont suffer in silence

[sahara]

You can be sure if I have nothing to worry about then I will find something.

My smear came back fine so now I am just waiting.................