shifting illness!

[damopanther]

was diagnosed with ocd 7 years ago, started with weird irrational thoughts which caused depression, now i am gripped by a health anxiety, first was hiv for a year and the last 3 years have been heart disease, the irrational thoughts have nearly dissapeared, but there always seems something else which shifts, wandering if anyone else has gone through similar experiences, take care, damo

[Corye20]

I was also diagnosed with OCD about 2 years ago and went through a year and a half obsessed with HIV. Eventually my doctor put me on very high doses of prozac with risperdone and everything settled down for the most part. I still have problems if I get stressed and such, but for the most part I am doing very well. My newest issue though hasn't been so much HIV, but prion diseases (like mad cow disease). I recently got a tattoo of my daughters name to prove to myself I was over my HIV issues, all was fine until I read that prion diseases may be able to be transferred by getting a tattoo since prions are apparently not killed by the sterilization process (how do you kill something that isn't alive). Anyways, long story short I am now waiting to die of mad cow disease and have my brain turn to mush........yup....good times.....good times.

[Lainie]

The 'theme' of my ocd tends to change, but the bottom line is that it is still that nasty ole' ocd! I think it wears many different hats! Sometimes I will be struggling and struggling with something and my therapist will point out to me that, yet again, it's my ocd. I think I start with something that makes me anxious, my ocd kicks in, and eventually I get depressed about the whole lack of control that I feel.

[Marginalia]

Really interesting to hear this being called OCD, as it sounds just like standard anxiety. I've never been diagnosed with OCD but the whole shifting of focus thing is very familiar to me. When I have health anxiety it shifts from one thing to another as soon as I manage to deal with my anxieties about one thing, it comes up with something else which raises my levels of anxiety because it is new.

I'm curious what characteristics got you diagnosed with OCD not GAD?

(Partly because I just started reading this forum out of interest due to a friend and keep seeing overlaps)

[Schnooter]

was diagnosed with ocd 7 years ago, started with weird irrational thoughts which caused depression, now i am gripped by a health anxiety, first was hiv for a year and the last 3 years have been heart disease, the irrational thoughts have nearly dissapeared, but there always seems something else which shifts, wandering if anyone else has gone through similar experiences, take care, damo




I am CONSTANTLY worried about one aspect of my health or another. Just as one fixation lessens...it seems that another is 'sent' to scare me to death. At the moment, mine is stomach cancer but earlier this year it was throat cancer and at christmas time I had what I thought was an auditory tumour......diagnosed as tinnitus. I am on Prozac but don't feel much different. All I do know is that I am fed up with being SO concerned all the time. It's down-right exhausting.
P.S........I was convinced I had AIDS some years ago. That lasted for months and months.

[tiredOfOcd]

my health obsessions:

crippling ankle injury
crippling knee injury
HIV
oral thrush
kaposi's sarcoma
testicular cancer
lung cancer
lymphoma
laryngeal cancer
skin cancer

health obsessions concerning my wife:

skin cancer
cervical cancer
thyroid cancer

health obsessions concerning my son:

spinal cancer

I'm waiting to start having health obsessions concerning our dog and cats. If I develop health obsessions about our fish I'm not sure what I'll do ;-)

[charlotte83]

Its actually quite common for ocd or anxiety to take on different forms over time. I think that when you get stressed and your general anxiety levels rise then it can latch on to one particular thing. However, if you manage to overcome that or it just goes away on its own but your anxiety levels are still high enough, then a new obsession or fear develops. I've had so many different fears over the years, some things have gone away on their own and some I have overcome but something new always seems to come along. Ironically, if I go through a fairly good phase then I can think something anxious but it doesn't seem to get much of a response and other times the slightest thing sends me into a wild panic.