is this turning into OCD???

[bexy84]

as most of you no i have been obsessed with skin cancer and freckles and moles!!!! i have had a full body check by my gp (who is specialised in skin, when i questioned this he said "i have studied skin for half of my life"!!) but yet do i beleive?? nooooooooo!!! i have like a compulsion to check my skin i mean like about 20 times a day and each day i seem to find a new blemish..a darker freckle or a bigger freckle ect ect .. i have even dug out old photos to see if i always had theses...everytime i have always seen it on an old pic so i guess they have always been there!!! but i cant understand why i wasnt ever bothered by them!! i dont want to move from anxiety to ocd!!

[uk23]

I would say that is anxiety, from what you have written there are no compulsions that you have, only obsessions. There is 'Pure-O' types but they are not that common.

[Rachel W]

No, this is NOT OCD. You have health anxiety and these are the symptoms of such. I have OCD and you do not have it. Please try not to worry.

By the way, looking at old photographs won't help as it isn't unusual to get new moles each year. I have many more freckles now than I did a few years ago. The doctor would have been able to see if any that you have are worrisome; they are skilled at this and would have removed any that looked suspicious.

You DO NOT have skin cancer. I know that you will most likely still worry, but he really would have found something if you had anything to worry about.

Believe me, I am in your shoes with HA and I KNOW how difficult it is to let things go. But we are all here to help each other.

Bless.

Rachel

[LisaLisa]

Hi Bex

I just wanted to reassure you ( sorry I know reassurance is not helpfull for HA) that HA is an obsessional problem and the obsession and fixation behaviour is a very important symtom of health anxiety. The checking and re checking and the checking allllllllllll day long!! is very obsessive but is 100% health anxiety symptin hun.

I also look at photos from when i was younger to see various physical things to compare with now. And also the same as the other checking I do of my body daily ( although very much in control of that now) it feels like either i do it ALL the time or I dont do it at all. Kind of like an addiction more than an obsession.

Alos i notice when I start the checking.... I feel like I need to keep doing it until it FEELS right to stop. Unfortunately it never does and the only thing that stops a ' checking binge' or blowout ( LOL) is a leap of faith and checking cold turkey!!!!

I hope you feel okay and realise that you are dealing with health anxiety and nothing more complex for you to stress about luv

Lisa
xxxxxx:hugs:

[countrygirl]

I have been told by many Drs including the mind ones! that health anxiety is a form of OCD just different from the conventional OCD so depends which OCD you are talking about. This is not something to worry about in fact it is helpful in explaining why we are like we are.

We obsess over bodily symptoms and then complusively check and/or seek reassurance - we maybe don't wash our hands 100 times a day but the mechanism is similar in that we have compulsions ( seeking reassurance medically) to try and make us feel better.

Personally this explanation of a form of OCD actually makes me feel better as it makes sense to me.