View Full Version : How To Stop the Poking and Prodding
How do you just stop the incessant poking and prodding we do. The body is filled with all sorts of little tendons, nodes and such and I have become obsessed with every little thing I feel.
It never makes me feel better just leaves me sore and with more panic. But I don't know how to stop.
Me either - every time I find a bump "cancer" is the first thought. And you know what is funny, my husband has a ton of bumps all over him and he could care less. Why us, why do we have to be the ones to worry?
You know it was so nice in a weird way to hear others do this to. I have been checked by my doctor twice and he said everything is fine. But then I go poking and prodding around. He told me you are pushing too hard, sometimes to the point of bruising and you are feeling tendons, nodules, etc. Normal parts of your body that have always been like that but you never were doing this stuff before.
Same thing with my husband and my brother. They have lumps and bumps and could care less.
I just wish I could convince my mind it is the health anxiety instead of focusing always on the little pink elephant in the room. Its exhausting.
The only way to stop the prodding and poking is to treat it like an addiction, which only serves to feed the anxiety. Somehow we always think that one more prod or poke will give us some sort of reassurance, but as you say it only makes things worse.
I have managed to break the cylce by only allowing myself a certain checking time. For me it works by only allowing myself to check first thing in the morning, and then last thing at night - it is tough - and there are times when i have been tortured by the need to check. It is a case of finding distraction and being extremely disciplined. Just like trying to kick any other habit.
I am lucky to have a husband who will check for me, if need be, once in morning and once before bed, which helps enormously because it takes a lot of the pressure off. My main problem is breast cancer phobia, and i actually find it impossible to check my breasts; the only way I am able to cope is to ask my husband to check once a month; he has been doing this for years, so totally knows my breasts and I can trust him completely.
So true. I really have realized that it is an addiction for me. Its this constant need for reassurance that only results in more panic. And then for me it results in more soreness and more to worry about. My body won't feel better until I stop bruising it.
I have the same breast cancer phobia. So now only my doctor and my husband do the checking.
I think from now on I will take that approach for all. If I want to poke or prod let my husband do it for me so the sensible perspective is there.
Hello Missboo :)
I have this problem to! my otherhalf also has bumps in the same places as me and doesnt worry about them.
I have been for a assessment today for CBT and the lady gave me a very helpful leaflet about health anxiety, and people like us who are constantly probing and checking for lumps and bumps etc.
It was very interesting and had tests on people that found the less they probed the less anxious they felt which i also find is true! might be worth going into a local mental health centre and picking up one of these leaflets :)
I started my CBT therapy yesterday with my assessment. My next appt is next week, I will have to ask her about this information. Thanks!!
Good Luck with your CBT :) i start mine in October, the leaflet was really handy and apparantly lumps and bumps seem to be people with HA main concern, i thought it was only me who checked there body like a maniac like this, was nice to read it in print :)
Just a edit to say that i find the less i probe the easier it becomes, try tomorow morning say to your self " i will not probe" and the day after it will be so much easier, i sometimes go for my neck and stop myself because we both no one probe turns into 2 and then 3 then 100 x
I know. The days I have kept the probing to a minimum I have much less anxiety. So I know part of the key to getting the anxiety down is to dealing with this addiction to poking and proding.
looking4answers
02-09-09, 02:12
I don't think i could handle that. Rignt now my wrist are bruised from taking my pulse . I couldn't even imagine doing what you are talking about . It wouldn't be good.
The only thing that stopped my self checking was CBT. It stopped it almost immediately because i understood the implications of reinforcing my anxiety by continuing to do so. I still do it occassionally.... and weeeee... my anxiety goes off the scale again. Prodding is BAAAAD!
I suffer from prodding myself too much too recently i got obsessed with glands/lymph nodes started when i saw a lump under my arm which turned out to be excess fat after putting allot of weight on then i moved up to my neck and then i started prodding at the creases of my legs looking for lumps and bumps to which i found some if i pressed in, i kept pressing them for over a week and eventually the bumps became tender worrying i almost took myself to the doctor until i asked my girlfriend if i could feel if she had the same kinda lumps to which she did which put my mind at ease. I woke up today and have not pressed them much at all maybe once and thats it and they are not so sore today. So i guess the more you poke and prod the more you feel and eventually they will become tender/sore.
I dont know about anyone else but i seem to go through phases of prodding where ill do it for a couple of weeks then get bored and stop then start again maybe a month or two down the line.
I drive my family and partner up the wall I know i struggle with HA but for them it must be even worse I feel so guilty sometimes
This poking/prodding is causing me so much suffering. As I posted a million times, my main health worry has been an abdominal lump for the past year and a half. There is this big lump, which appears on my lower right side when I lie down (it's visible) but it somehow "moves" inside deep my abdomen as I move and then it's no longer visible. Therefore no doctors have properly seen or felt it yet and this has been driving me insane.
I was convinced it was a bowel tumour, but I had a colonoscopy this summer and it was clear (phew). I had three ultrasounds over the past 15 months and they were all clear too, as were the two blood tests.
However, since there is a visible, large lump I just cannot leave it alone. I check it all the time when I lie down, in the morning, in the evening and I always manage to convince myself that it is growing and that my stomach seems more and more uneven. I suffer from constant breathlessness, which fitted the bowel cancer scenario but as I was told I definitely have no bowel cancer, I have to put this symptom down to anxiety.
I wish my fear was a headache or stomach ache or something else, as this prodding thing makes me crazy and I don't know how to get this stupid lump diagnosed so I can forget about it. :weep: I always make myself sore through prodding.
Stressed32
07-09-09, 16:59
I looked in my throat with a flashlight daily...sometimes up to 10 times a day for months! Then it was my nodes...I would feel them every few mintues...like they would change that fast! Then I noticed that on weekends that hubby and I were away, I would go the whole weekend without feeling or looking at my throat because we were too busy or around family and I did not want them to see me doing it. That meant I could control it....So I threw my flashlight away and vowed to keep my mind busy! I have not looked in my throat or felt nodes in over a month...and I won't go there ever ever ever again!! I found myself even doing it at work and while I was driving! I have no idea what I was even looking for...HIV I guess since that seems to be the diease that scares me to death even though I have had a - test. I think this checking and rechecking is OCD. Thinking back I have always been one to obsess over something in my life. When I was in college it was finishing college...now I'm done and it is like I need something so I chose my health. I think it is getting better but I still have my moments. I had a sore spot on my tongue a few weeks back and I would look at that like 50 times a day. Sore in my nose.....checked it reg. to see if it was still there...no doubt made that worse by feeling it so much! I really think the trick is to keep your mind busy! I also think that coming here sometimes makes it worse for me. I read things others say and start checking for that too.....so I now limit my time on this site instead of obsessing here and coming here 20 times a day. I allow myself 1 hour in the evening and no more getting on from work!
I hope I have helped you. Good luck.
I find coming here makes me feel better iv def stopped prodding as much since i realised so many other people do it out of anxiety although i must admit i still prod at my groin glands but only because that area feels tight but I dont do any exercise at all im house bound pretty much so probably why. Anyone else made themselfs a bit sore from prodding at nodes and such like as well?
Viscous cycle really make myself sore then get worried that its sore and end up wanting to go to the doctors lol
I was doing good for a few days but recently it has come back. Again I have given myself bruises from poking and proding so hard. My husband always asks me every day if I did it at all today and if I tell him I did, he always says let me feel what you are feeling then lets me know they are normal tissues and things.
I have already been the doctor and been fully checked. So now its just getting myself to stop doing this. I have to cause some days I am so sore its ridiculous.
Hello MissBoo,
Why don't you ask you husband to check you before he goes to work, and then promise yourself not to check again during the day, and then let him check again when he gets back. I have found this to work really well. I know it is REALLY hard to stop prodding - I also remind myself how awful I feel once i start on a checking cycle, which tends to stop me from doing it.
That is actually a very good idea. I can't do it most days when he is home, some nights he has school.
You know it was so nice in a weird way to hear others do this to. I have been checked by my doctor twice and he said everything is fine. But then I go poking and prodding around. He told me you are pushing too hard, sometimes to the point of bruising and you are feeling tendons, nodules, etc. Normal parts of your body that have always been like that but you never were doing this stuff before.
Same thing with my husband and my brother. They have lumps and bumps and could care less.
I just wish I could convince my mind it is the health anxiety instead of focusing always on the little pink elephant in the room. Its exhausting.
Hiya. I felt a pain in my right thigh. I thought "What is that? could it be cancer?" I prodded around so much that the next day I found a massive bruise that I caused my self. We are our own worse enemies without a doubt. I just have to remember that all the time!
This is a nightmare. I recently found a tiny lump on my testicle after having some tenderness down there and could not stop messing with it (in the privacy of my own home obviously lol), convincing myself it must be cancer. Had an ultrasound and it was a harmless cyst, they found I had something called varicoseles which is harmless but causes the tenderness.
Anyhow since then it has been my neck I have not been able to stop prodding. Whenever I get a sensation there I am feeling around there and am even finding myself doing it sub-conciously now. Have told my g/friend to stop me when she sees me doing it - hopefully that will stop me.
sarahsarah
21-09-09, 17:15
My poor neck has endured so much poking a prodding over the past 6 weeks or so, no wonder it is sore. My GP checked my glands last week and said they were "slightly swollen, as they should be when you have an infection" (which I did) so I have stopped feeing those ones and moved onto ones behind my ears. This morning I convinced myself that one side of my skull behind my ears is harder and more pronounced than the other (and therefore I must have lymphoma- again) and I have made myself sore in the process.
Nothing can beat a few weeks ago when I was lying in bed and felt bumps on my tailbone- I prodded and poked them so much that by the time morning came, I was bruised and battered and even more convinced I had cancer of the spine (all confirmed by Dr Google, of course). Mind you, a sore bump on my big toe (caused by new shoes) also turned into bone cancer and when I felt an identical one on the other side, I didn't feel relief just so hard done by that it had spread to both feet. Now that one was also irrational but I am still poking and prodding away, finding all sorts of lumps and bumps and driving myself crazy.
I'm going through this all right now. So far, I've had lymphoma from my anxiety making me itchy for a few days, and I could find nodes in my neck. Now, I'm panicking about the fact that I can feel little bumps under the surface of my skin of my abdomen, etc. if I push real hard. Hoping they are fatty tissue? They are EVERYWHERE and soft, squishy, pea sized. I have to push pretty hard.
Now, I've had killer flu and can feel nodes in my pits and up my arms, in my neck, and in my groin. I can't stop poking.
To add insult to injury, I found a lump in my breast that I posted about yesterday, and while it was not sore when I found it, it's damn sore now from my prodding. I have an apptment Friday. Now i'm worried in addition to the bump being there that because I touched it so much, I've managed to spread the cancer from it with my rubbing. OMG.
I'm currently a wreck and it's all due to lumps and bumps.
MoonlightFire
09-09-10, 10:27
Im exactly the same. I prod and poke obsessively. At the moment it's my gums. I check them all the time then panic and cry. I also prod them. When I'm with my Mum or my boyfriend I get them to check but I think it probably gets a bit wearing for them after a while. I'm so sick of it. I'm sick of shaking and panicking, I'm sick of feeling like a sore gum is the start of something terrifying. I hate this.
Xantimisfit
20-11-13, 01:16
I am sitting here with a nice pack on my pectoral muscle because last night I was convinced that striations felt within that muscle was breast cancer undetected by a Maemo in September! (2 months ago!). I rubbed and poked and prodded so deeply that I fear I have traumatized the tissue and will enviably cause the thing I fear. My recent flare up of HA is the direct result of having to put my mother into care this year and recently discovering a fibroid which may need surgery. Before they diagnosed it, it was referred to as an "adnexal mass". Cancer blood tests drawn (perfect, thank God) my first MRI etc. HA came on like gangbusters and Google (the antiChrist) held out its hateful arms to me...
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Spell check really betrayed me on that last post! Hahaha, "ice pack":D
I have had health anxitey for years im 36 and last week i thought i found 2 lumps in my breast went to doc and dhe said they werent lumps just tissue that was a bit hard i was constantly touching it so it was very sore doc also thought it was hormonal but the day after i seen her i found a lump in my armpit its very tender to touch now im really scared ive got to go back in a couple of weeks to see her
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I have had h a for years last week i found 2 lumps in my breast and was feeling them constant i went to thr doc on fri and she says not to worry it was hard tissue and not breast cancer she thought it was hormonal and to go back in a few weeks to check again she also gave me tablets for my anxiety then yesterday i found a lump under my arm its very tender now im scared and cant stop touching it any advice
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