What brought on your HA?

[Cygfa]

I just want to say hello to all you fellow HA sufferers... I've struggled with HA for most of my life, but was ok-ish most of the time until my mid 20s. Then my Grandma died of pancreatic cancer, my favourite auntie had stage 4 hodgkins lymphoma (she survived!), and to top it all off I had a DVT and pulmonary embolism. All this happened at the same time and triggered my HA big style... I've since convinced myself of all sorts - heart problems, more blood clots, all sorts of cancers, HIV, MS... you name it, I've had it. At the moment I'm convinced I have ovarian cancer, but my GP says I'm fine. I'm also on the waiting list for counselling.

What brought on your HA? Can you pinpoint a trigger or did it just happen on its own accord? Would be interesting to hear people's stories. Sorry if this has been asked before.

xx

[j2]

I have given this question a lot of thought over the years and while I can point to periods of HA before I knew I had HA, I can't pinpoint one trigger that set me off. It just so frustrating that you and I can logically discuss that we know we have HA and yet we are both convinced all the time that we have some horrible disease. This is totally illogical. I run 20 or more miles a week and I am convinced that I have lung cancer. Where does this come from? Anyway, good luck.

J2

[robelros]

i am right there with you j2 - it is amazing that you can be cognitively aware that you have a problem yet still think you're very sick. i really don't have a "trigger" point for my HA - i've always had a worry personality and my mom has ocd and some health anxiety issues, so that might have had something to do with it. but it really started getting back in college or a year out. i'm now 27 and it is as bad as ever. i am starting with a counselor next week. i am hoping it really helps me. as it is now i'm also worried about a cancer in my lung - not really lung cancer though, more like something has gone undetected and spread to my lung. j2, why do you think you have lung cancer, if you don't mind my asking?

[kathy.x]

i do actually know what triggered it, but i don't know why. since i was always a worrier beforehand, but never to the extent it was a "problem". but for some reason i was on holiday and my legs started shaking (since then i've actually found out it was from excessive walking which they wern't used to) and that caused me to have my first panic attack, since i didn't know what it was i thought it was a serious health issue and since then i've suffered from HA and all the lovely symptoms it brings with it. if only i knew what caused me to react so violently to a mere shaky leg...

[kath135]

My H/A started about a 10 months after the first panic attack I had due to a bad experience. I was suffering from bad chest pains and feeling faint all the time I had several test done and spent many months not knowing what was wrong with me, during that time I googled everything, read everything, watched everything and became aware of every slight twinge in my body. When I was diagnoised with chronic stomach acid!!!!! and given medication to help, which it has, it was too late I was too far gone the H/A had me in its grip. The stomach acid is under control but i'm still left battling with the H/A.

[Kraggy]

My Health Anxiety got trigged by Doctor Google, I found a Swollen Lymph Node behind my ear, did not know what it was at the time...My said said a Lymph Node & told me not to worry....I googled and thats when it all began.
The more I learned & read the worse my HA got...Untill I found this site, via google! :P

Apperantly its quite common for people who study Medicine, I guess that because I read & learned so much it got kicked off for me aswell...

From wiki:

Medical students′ disease, also known as hypochondriasis of medical students or medical student syndrome or medical student disorder is a condition frequently reported in medical students, who perceive themselves or others to be experiencing the symptoms of the disease(s) they are studying.

Morale to this story: Dont Google :P

[miss diagnosis]

Mine defo started after my dad died. 8 months before hand my 16 year old neice was killed in a car crash. My dad got sick and died of stomach cancer.
By the time they diagnosed it,it had spread everywhere.Up till then i laughed at hypocondiracs (sorry!)and had had two major surgerys (discectomy and c-section..not at same time)with no problems.

it started with a brain tumor(it was hay fever)then progressed to a two year long obsession with cervical cancer (after reading an article in glamour) turns out was mild case of thrush. Then breast cancer,lymphomia,lukemia, always cancers never anything else.

My GP said its very common for HA to occur after the death of someone close.

[girlrock]

This was a very interesting post. I never thought about it much until my HA kicked off big time this last year. I believe mine started after my grandfather died when I was 12 from esophageal cancer, I'm now 24. I think I kind of always had a quirkiness about health problems though. I remember when I was a child being the opposite, I was deathly afraid of doctors and hospitals. If something went wrong that seemed scary, I wouldn't tell my parents. I cracked my head open in 7th grade and was afraid to tell them! I walked around with a huge gash in my head for a while. I remember another time as a kid when I had a huge swollen lymph gland under my jaw for over a month! I thought it was something terrible, so I was scared to tell. Then after my grandfather died, I became more aware of my body. I found myself WANTING to go the doctor for every little thing. Amazingly, I only made this realization recently. I never dwelled on the fact that my grandfather had cancer, I was just terribly upset that he died, period. But that's the only thing I can pinpoint it to! It would be interesting if more people could post on this. It seems we all had a relative get some sort of illness to trigger our HA, doesn't it?

[Greg1983]

My health anxiety was brought on by a panic attack. Didn't know what it was at first. Thought it was a heart attack (i was 22). Since then i have worried about my health. I did get over it for a bit and stop being so anxious about it. Until i have this abcess/infection in my tooth which i'm convinced is going to lead to something more than what it is.

[Stressed32]

Mine started with guilt. Then my hubby got a staph infection and in walked Dr. Google! It was ALL down hill from there :) I did find this site so that was a blessing but I also do not google anything related to HIV anymore. I only stick to sites that I know are "safe" for my mind and over time...all is good for the most part. I have my days...but I also think the symptoms of anxiety make it all worse too b/c it happens like this...

I think" well why is my stomach hurting...why am I losing weight...why can't I sleep...why am i not hungry...why do my eyes hurt and legs cramp up...oh, are those lymph nodes I feel in my neck after prodding for 20 minutes to find them, why are they raised....why oh why...there HAS to be something wrong and my body is just trying to let me know...it is warning me....I know...let me google it cause Goggle is SO SO smart...oh, look, I find sites that discuss HIV and how it is related to ALL of my symptoms, well yes, that makes sense...I have had unprotected sex ONCE along with all these crazy symptoms....I am now dieing of a disease that is almost impossible to catch and even though I have had a - test and most people have never even had one in their entire lives...having HIV now would be punishment for my mistakes and seems fitting"...that is how it all started with me!

A mind too free with nothing else to worry about combined with a dash of guilt and one heck of an internet connection= HA. I just remind myself that I am NOT the center of the world like my anxiety makes me think I am so in order for me to be "punished" with HIV, 2 other people would need to have it too just for knowing me and they have done nothing wrong....that makes NO sense.

Yea...HA makes ANYTHING possible...we find new strands of diseases that don't exist, we find ways to make the most realiable of test wrong, we find new diseases and tie sympotms to those new diseases and hey, I don't know about you but I even know more than my doctors.... :-) That is my HA and how it runs my life...or tries to.
Good luck!