New and want help

[Totally obsessed]

Hi all, I am new here today and came to this forum looking for help.
I am overwhelmed with anxiety about health. I have always had a bit of health anxiety but never to the extent it is now where it cosumes every waking thought! I have epilepsy since age 22 and this does not worry me too much but I am obsessed I am going to die with some sort of cancer. I am at the point where I just can´t keep going to the doctor every time i have something wrong. I have been seeing a psychotherapist who is doing some sort or cbt with me explaining that if I keep insisting on tests all the time it is just fuelling my anxiety and yes, I will feel better at the time -until the next time!!!!!! I am 40 years old and other than a smoker and epilepsy am healthy. But as I know i shouldn´t smoke I am absolutely convinced i am lung cancer and also feel I deserve it for being so stupid to smoke. But, despite all this worry - I just can´t seem to stop. I have just thrown out 1/2 pack of cigarettes and I AM going to stop tomorrow. I have a pain in my outer arm at the moment which I am convinced is caused by some sort of lung cancer called Pancoast!!!!!!! Yes I have been on every single website there is and analysed every single symptom. How do you control this - I should be enjoying life, not sat in doctors surgeries and worrying all the time. Any advice, help or anything would really be appreciated.
Totally Obsessed
Live in Spain and happily married!

[andrea thompson]

hi hon

you lucky thing - living in spain!!! i have anxiety and get quite depressed at times and i too suffer from health anxiety.

i used to have panic attacks. they were awful. when i started taking meds for the panic. i found that some of my symptoms faded but were replaced by worry / health anxiety. i have been through this once already and seem to be going through the same cycle again. i think my health anxiety is just my general anxiety manifesting as health anxiety. for me last time it eventually faded altogether and i am hoping it will again. but it took meds, rest and counselling.

i try to think of the health anxiety as a symptom of general anxiety and treat that - it makes more sense to me. i can understand anxiety and how it affects your body and mind. i hope this makes some sense to you. and i hope it helps.

lots of rest, relaxation, give your body and mind plenty of time to recover.

take care

andrea x x

[Jan63]

Hi,

I'm exactly the same as you and the first thing I think of when I wake up in the morning or even the middle of the night is cancer. It's never far from my mind and I hate it. Every new symptom I get I think it's cancer. I end up in tears frequently because I let it get to me. I have a bit of rib pain at the moment on the right side so I did a stupid thing and googled and now think I have lung cancer even though I've never smoked a cigarette in my life. :unsure: I know non-smokers can get it though. I am scared to death of having tests cos I don't think I could deal with the results if they are bad. I've had blood tests but that's about it and it was at the end of last August. I feel my doctors don't take me seriously any more and always end up in tears in the surgery so don't like going any more as when you come out everybody stares at you and you have to walk in front of all the other patients which I hate.

I am peri-menopausal and I've only had this health anxiety thing for about 18 months now, I've convinced that my hormones are something to do with all these horrible symptoms that I get at the moment because I've always been fairly healthy. I find I don't know what are real symptoms and which are ones in my head any longer.:weep:

[Vanilla Sky]

Hi and welcome to NMP , you will find it supportive here :welcome: Paige x

[Totally obsessed]

Hi thanks for all your replies. It feels so reassuring to know that there are others that understand. I am very much like you in that I am scared to go and get tests. I keep thinking that at least if I don´t go I can blame it on anxiety! But on the other hand I think that if I go and have all the tests it will put my mind at rest. But do I just continue going for tests everytime I am frightened as like you, it is ALWAYS cancer. I am the QUEEN of googling and I just can´t help myself - I am almost 100% sure I have lung cancer - god what do I do!!