I hate my anxiety

[David_1]

Every symptom I get is always cancer. Why do I think like this ? It makes life miserable for everyone around me. The stress is making me so ill :weep:

[worriedgirl21]

Hi david,

I also feel miserable from my health anxiety but there are so many great stories on this forum about people coping with this and Id suggest that you look at some of them. i wish you all the best for the future :)

[David_1]

Hey Worriedgirl,

Thanks for the reply. I do read a lot of the stories here and they are a great help but once I get fixated on something it's very hard for me to shake it and I get confused on what symptoms are anxiety and what are not and i just get anxious at being anxious and then depression kicks in then by that time I'm no good to no one. My wife has just given birth to our 3rd child, and while I'm so so happy about becoming a dad again my anxiety and depression soon brings me down and at a time when my wife need's me and I become distant to the people who love me the most ( wife and children ). I feel very selfish.
Should I go to my GP and maybe see if there is some medication to bring some balance back to my life? Cos I feel I can't beat this on my own.

[worriedgirl21]

I think that medication is one option that you could look at. this is something you could definetely discuss with your GP. But there are also a wide variety of other treatments you could try. In particular, cognitive behavioural therapy seems to be extremely beneficial in the area of anxiety and depression.

I also feel that when things get better, I wonder why Im feeling better and I continuously question it until I feel down again. We have to stop questioning ourselves too much!

Dont feel selfish, its not your fault that this has happened and I truly believe that there is a way out of this cycle of negative thinking. We just have to break free of it

[RLR]

Vigilence to concerns that one has a life-threatening illness or disease more typically originates from feelings of vulnerability from lack of self-confidence and self-concept.

People with health anxiety commonly envision their symptoms to be at the farthest end of the spectrum in terms of severity and it not only produces significant fear, but also a diminished outlook in general that can have an impact on motivation and sense of well-being.

The tendency to focus on severity of health problems has increased in recent decades due to greater information available on the internet and the use of this portal by healthcare agencies to increase proactive attention to individual health practices. Naturally, information about heart disease and cancer becomes a front and center topic. Realize, however, that statistics about cancer and heart disease indicating these diseases to be on the rise are misleading. Advances in technology which allow us to detect problems much earlier make it appear that the disease could exist anywhere in any person, which isn't true at all.

It's also critical to realize that changes to the structure of healthcare providers in general produces the need to market patients, if you see my point. Advertisments tend to suggest that you can never be too careful and that those subtle symptoms, or even no symptoms at all, could nevertheless suggest your health to be at risk. So it's no wonder that people are becoming increasingly anxious about their health.

I was in practice for more than 40 years as a physician and specialist. I'm here to tell you that there is no explosive growth taking place in terms of diseases. We're just getting better at detecting it earlier in the same average caseload that has in reality, remained fairly stable.

So take a breath and relax. Anxiety tends to produce fearfulness, which subsequently causes vigilence to a threat that cannot be identified. Thus, your mind will naturally seek to prompt any action necessary for you to feel safe once again. In other words, if the cause can't be identified, it can exist in any form and present itself at the most inopportune moment. The real truth is that you're unlikely to get cancer and the odds are far less than what the healthcare marketing group is working to make you believe.

Best regards,

Rutheford Rane, MD (ret.)

[kah]

Hi there,

Cancer is my big fear too and like you every symptom I have could be a sign of cancer. It got so bad for me that I couldn't function on a day to day basis but I'm well into my CBT sessions now and think they have made a big improvement. If you've not tried this approach maybe you could ask your GP to refer you?

K xx

[rosi]

RLR. That is a great post, thank you so much. While I understand the need for vigilance I do feel that we are over informed to the extent, as you mentioned, that we all think we are a ticking time bomb.

In my case I have got to the point where I walk around and look at the very elderly and imagine what is lurking inside them when in reality they are probably as healthy as age will let them be.

[jen2503]

Cancer is my biggest fear too, that and death! i do agree that these days we are made to feel like we are ticking bombs and we should check ourselves every single day just to make sure which will obviously make our health anxiety worse.

Sometimes i wish i could be carefree and fearless like you are as a child, i look at my kids and theyre so happy, not a fear in the world and i envy it. i never used to be scared of illnesses or dying but since the anxiety started thats all imscared about, to the extent of being scared to sleep at night sometimes.

I think ive now asked hubby to check every lump bump and mark i can onmy body, and yes theyre all imaginary, hes never seen any marks or bumps and only one lump which was a swollen lymph node because of a cold i had lol i thought it was neck cancer!! ive in total convinced myself in the last year that i have lung cancer, breast cancer, neck cancer, throat cancer armpit cancer, leg cancer ect ect ect cancers that dont even exist!! hubby told me its because cancer is always on the tv, always in the news, always in stupid flyers you get through your door so theres no escaping it so then i panic about it.

I seem to have rambled on, i do apologise! :)