Does anyone with health anxiety have trouble trusting themselves?

[biscuitlover]

I suffer from a combination of anxiety, panic attacks and health anxiety.

One of my main problems is distinguishing between what is anxiety and what could be a serious illness.

I usual get a benign symptom say my ibs flaring up and I worry I have food poisoning or I feeling a bit hot and tense and assume im coming down with a fever.

I find it hard to trust myself, how will i know if im ill or not? I don't want to assume its anxiety and then miss something? My husband says 'you will know when you're really ill' but I feel that way about 5 times every day convinced that this is the moment that Im seriously ill. It feels like im just waiting for it to happen and then anxiety comes in and confuses it!

Does anyone else get the same thing? What do you do to help?:wacko:

[debs180]

Hi,
I feel this way also.....if i get a headache i think "this time its got to be serious", then the cycle begins....i feel sick with worry so i worry more about feeling sick....then my IBS flares up.....panic, i start thinking its all related to the headache. (i'm obsessed with my head issues, always worrying theres something wrong with my head).
I try to distract myself, eg: Read a book, put on a film, do some housework, sometimes it works and other times it doesn't. I haven't really got any advice, just thought i'd let u know i feel the same in trying to determine whats "real" or not.

Take care,
Debs xx

[lucyeast]

i feel the same too at the start of all this i was always at the doctors now i feel as though im wasting their time but worry if i dont go there could be something wrong and i dont get it noticed cos i didnt go to the doctor! its just such a vicious cycle.
sorry i dont really have any advice just remember you are not alone and you WILL get better

[rebeccad]

hi, i think everyone with ha me included feels this way, this is what defines health anxiety we cant distinguish between benign symptoms that everybody gets and real health worries, I get a slight symptom and then worry that if i ignore it then it is bound to be a serious disease, but up to now everything has turned out to be nothing, but the trouble is as we all know even people with health anxiety can get ill so we run the risk of when we really are ill nobody believes us, when i get anything at all wrong with me now my hubbie rolls his eyes and i can see the look of "here we go again " come upon his face, im sure the doctor feels the same way about me,
take care xxxx

[LisaLisa]

Hi there

I too am this way and agree with rebecca that it is the main syptom of health anxiety.

I have recently started to beleive that really as nutty as it seems to those who dont suffer from it, its a just an exagerated response to a pretty rational fear. In that no one in the world can honestly say that they dont fear being very ill. Its human to worry about this stuff. Its just the degree to which we worry is in appropriate. But the thing is, we know we are doing it, we just arent sure of another way to deal with these health concerns. I have started to think to myself, how would i have felt about this before i had health anxiety or how would......( who ever else) feel about this?

Its really puts it in perscepctive for me and lets me see how immersed in a specific worry that I am that I cant see the wood for the trees!!

Lisa
xxxx

[jojo2316]

I actually think you've hit the nail on the head! This is one of the most difficult aspects of HA. I completely can't tell what is my HA head speaking and what might be serious.... I trust myself so little that often I'll think something seems benign, but i keep revisiting it, thinking perhaps my initial interpretation was wrong, because i know i am incapable of interpreting symptoms...... it's completely exhausting - and frightening.

[Cell block H fan]

I think the problem is over trusting ourselves sometimes! Its amazing how many times ive had HA episodes, came ou the other side, only to end up with a different one soon after & then thinking THIS time its the biggie, what the heck was I worrying about before!?
Then that goes & the cycle continues. The majority of HA sufferrers (myself NOT included, they scare the bejeebies out of me) tend to visit their doctor a lot, so thats probably a bonus for them!

[biscuitlover]

Its good to know im not the only one. Lisa what you said makes sense, i hadn't thought of it like that, that we all of course have the same fear of illness/death its just that we over think it more.

I try to busy myself with other things, but still end up having the worries in the back of my mind. Maybe its because im a woman and am so good at multi-tasking! lol

[mikhail1028]

You are not alone on this my dear friend the last month was soo hellish for me,,

i was once(till now though) obsessed with a serious illness when i started looking for symptoms then my HA came to its peek. Im pretty convinced i had it i had all the symptoms which my mind is telling me. But surely its just anxiety talking here,, we tend to react or response to a certain danger but we cannot just simply shake it off,, well to tell you one thing you are just worrying in a wrong direction