Have you convinced yourself you are seriously ill?

[meg86]

Hello :)

I wanted to write this post as i feel i need to think objectively about my current worries, i have Health Anxiety and have so far 100% convinced myself i have had a brain tumour, breast cancer, M.S, Heart problems, Lymphomia the list continues.

I have been to the doctor a zillion times and i know many of you have but when will we give up the Health Anxiety Ghost and believe we are not ill??

Most of the people who post on this section are seeking reassurance and looking for other peoples similar stories to persuade them selves nothing is wrong, some of you have had scan after scan MRI and believe that you are the very rare case that the results have come back wrong.

Is this likely to happen to so many of us?? No!! we dont really listen to what anyone else says, the doctors even people who post on here, you will feel the slightest comfort thats someone has been through something similar and tomorow it will all be forgotten and you will convince yourself something is definately wrong!!

We have Health Anxiety that what it is!! we keep fuelling and fuelling our fears and wasting our life away looking for a something terrible to eventually happen to us.

I heard a quote once that was fitting "my life has been filled with misfortunes most of which have never happened"

Yes sometimes medical mishaps do happen, they are very rare and i doubt that its the case for nearly everyone that posts on this section.

How do we give up the ghost? because looking at this forum (and yes it does include me) test after test and doctor appointments dont seem to solve the problem.

Thanks for reading if anyone has any advice please reply :) xx

[bukendaa]

Yes many times..i sometimes fell as though my doc does not give two hoots about my life but he does and knows im 100% safe Health anxitey is a curse the symptoms are just to real yet nothing is wrong a humans brain is a strange thing.Some of us do get over our fears some never (OCD) some simpily just get better and some the fear always comes back.

[cascade70]

Excellent post, at present I have to say that i am getting better with my HA as due to having CBT, i am challaging the negative thoughts and after a while I start to relax. If anxiety did not bring on the physical symptoms then i am sure we would be all better. My main problems is that i am concerned about my heart, been going on for 8 months and i am still here. But i now study my feelings, when i have pains in my chest, i assess how nervous and panicky i am feeling and it can register quite bad. This is when i know its time to go to a quiet room and do some relaxation exercises for 15 minutes or so then i feel much better when i return to my desk.

[agent orange]

constantly lol

[sarah jayne]

I constantly worry that ive got something seriously wrong with me, im always ill and in pain ! x

[NeverRelaxed]

Convinced I had:

Heart Disease (easily caused the worst bout of HA ever)
Brain Tumour
M.S.
Bone Cancer
Bowel Cancer (Im 23...)
Lung Cancer or some sort of lung disease
Thyroid Storm
Severe Anemia

[KK77]

This is the problem. People go to the doctor, have tests done, come here and get support/reassurance but it's just temporary relief because the next day they're worried again and it just goes on and on.

Instead of worrying about what may be wrong with us we should worry about trying to end the anxiety that's causing the HA in the first place. So the key is to shift the focus from symptom to cause - health anxiety is the symptom of anxiety. I hope it makes sense!

Very good post.

[Cell block H fan]

Hello :)

I wanted to write this post as i feel i need to think objectively about my current worries, i have Health Anxiety and have so far 100% convinced myself i have had a brain tumour, breast cancer, M.S, Heart problems, Lymphomia the list continues.

I have been to the doctor a zillion times and i know many of you have but when will we give up the Health Anxiety Ghost and believe we are not ill??

Most of the people who post on this section are seeking reassurance and looking for other peoples similar stories to persuade them selves nothing is wrong, some of you have had scan after scan MRI and believe that you are the very rare case that the results have come back wrong.

Is this likely to happen to so many of us?? No!! we dont really listen to what anyone else says, the doctors even people who post on here, you will feel the slightest comfort thats someone has been through something similar and tomorow it will all be forgotten and you will convince yourself something is definately wrong!!

We have Health Anxiety that what it is!! we keep fuelling and fuelling our fears and wasting our life away looking for a something terrible to eventually happen to us.

I heard a quote once that was fitting "my life has been filled with misfortunes most of which have never happened"

Yes sometimes medical mishaps do happen, they are very rare and i doubt that its the case for nearly everyone that posts on this section.

How do we give up the ghost? because looking at this forum (and yes it does include me) test after test and doctor appointments dont seem to solve the problem.

Thanks for reading if anyone has any advice please reply :) xx

In answer to the thread title, yes. To the point of being suicidal! Many moons ago I hasten to add. In the very early days of HA for me.
You're right, we dont hear anything anyone says really. To a certain extent.
I didn't believe the doctor, in the end I believed the consultant at the hospital though, & things were never quite as desperate ever again thankfully ive got to admit.
This site is good though, in that it helps me to hear other peoples opinions on when they have had a similar symptom. This site doesn't cure you, but it is a temporary relief I guess :)

[Ella_Jayne]

Over the past four months I've diagnosed myself with:

Heart Disease
A fatal heart Arrhythmia
Brain Tumor
Clot on Lung
Lung Cancer
Bowel Cancer

Keeping in mind that I'm only 21, it's horrible!

[grahammatt]

Sure, I have convinced myself I have a tonne of different very serious ailments recently. It seems like, often, the only thing that stops me worrying about one thing is that I start worrying I have something more serious! And then, surprise surprise, the first set of symptoms disappears. An embarassing example: this summer I went to my GP with general abdominal pain, thinking something had happened to my liver or kidneys. The doc said that wasn't it, but I should be on the lookout in case the pain concentrated on the lower right side, in which case it migth be appendicitis. Surprise, surprise, that very day I felt this happen, and the next day I was in A&E. They took my appendix out, and guess what? There was nothing wrong with it!

[meg86]

Thanks to everyone that replied :), i think that people who have health anxiety really need to take a different approach, the endless doctors appointments and reassurance isnt making most of us any better, if the doctor has told you nothing is wrong, i really think we really need to start to believe this, its such a shame that young healthy people are making themselves severly distressed over something that is imaginary!!.

I am 23 and have had anxiety for 2 years and have had ECGS, Ultrasound, Blood tests after blood test, Intensive eye exam my life is being bombarded by different health worries, when you have been cleared of a certain so called disease you think you may have, up comes another a few weeks later.

Many of us may see the pattern but choose to ignore it and think" yes but i thought i had this and i didnt! but i know i have (whatever) for sure"

We need to take our minds away from the imaginary illness and concentrate on the illness that we actually have which is Anxiety.

xxxx

[melanienz]

I suffer from terrible health anxiety and as I cross one 'possibility' off my list another one replaces it. I can't watch medical shows or read about people who have medical problems as I adopt those problems. I am at the dr weekly tho at times its monthly, have received counselling and have techniques that help with the irrational thoughts but talking to others in this situaoptn helps. I have spoken to people with anxiety but not health anxiety which is why finding this forum has been so valuable. I don't think I will ever be anxirty free but will hopefully manage it better as I know over the last 2yrs since I developed health anxirty I have been a nightmare to live with.