Poll: How did your HA come to be?

[tangled]

Hi all,

Something I think about a lot is how I came to have such horrible Health Anxiety -- and whether people have had similar experiences.

So to start, my parents were extremely health anxious. My mother would insist on my taking my blood pressure upwards of 10 times a day from the age of 18 (when I had zero risk factors). My dad would often lament about us 'not making it' every time we got sick.

So.... is that the way it starts for most people? Just curious!

Here's to feeling good today everyone! :)

[Greenman50]

Mine only started in August last year when i was 45 . I was always a bit of a worry pot :D , but usually shrugged things off in an hour or so .

I had a sore throat that was burning 24/7 for 3 months , plus swollen lymph node under my arm , i eventually became anxious about it (didn,t know i was anxious at the time) , which led to neck ache , chest pain , acid reflux etc etc , variuos blood tests , hospital appointment about the lymph nodes all came back ok but i was getting to a stage where i couldn,t cope , i felt depressed with all the pain and convinced myself it was something more sinister , a number of people i know had got varoius types of cancer (all still here and makeing great progress with there treatment) .
These invents somehow led to the anxiety and depression over a period of 5 months untill i needed valium as on one of the on going doctors appointments i was shakeing and anxious when i was in there , i didn,t realise i was but got prescribed 2 mg of valium as a short term help.

Anyway i ended up on another Doctors appointment bursting into tears when i was in there ...HOW EMBRASSED WAS I :blush::blush:. Any way got prescribed citalapram 20 mg in January and have now slowly got back to my old self :yesyes:
I,ll be on these for 6 months then slowly come off them according to the Doctor .
All the neck ache , chest pain , burning skin etc etc must have been anxiety as they was never explained and have slowly gone , i,m just left with globus , and a feeling of food going down at times , both anxiety related apparantly.
This site was a God send and has really helped me to understand what went on .


Thats the short version ..lol...

[daisycake]

I've had it all my life I think - I remember when I was thirteen I found a lump and paniced about it. But people have been telling me to stop worrying since I was about three or four years old, I've always been very anxious!

[Em.ma]

Mine started with a consusson last may but i've always been a worrier and shy.

[Zee]

Mine started with indigestion.. I had been feeling low though for about 12 months before that incident after several years of very stressful events..Think it was just waiting to happen :shrug:.. Thats when I stopped eating .I was afraid to eat incase it triggered indigestion again .The lack of food caused hormone imbalance ,low blood sugar and anxiety to wreak havoc.Before you know it you are in it and then its a hard climb to get back out of it.
I did it 11 years ago with my first HA experience. Took 8 months. You can overcome it as I did back then.
I just keep trying to reason with myself and trying to get the eating back on track.

[Clairalou]

Mine started after having emergency surgery and nearly dying altho i didnt realise what i was suffering was anxiety untill 2 years later then took almost 4 years to get to grips with!! its been a long haul :blush:

xx

[missykat]

mine started wen my dad died from a brain tumor wen i was 19. it became more prominent after i gave birth to my baby girl! its been there ever since! some days are bad, some days are ok and rarely days are good :lac:

[marie1974]

I have always had it and my mum suffers too, plus my dad is a worrier, but my mum mainly has anxiety and panic etc, always worrying. mine got worse when my nan died 5 yrs back and comes in waves now, i can b fine for ages then something small can trigger it. xx

[*clare*]

I've always been fairly health concious and a worrier but it started after i suffered my first panic attack. Not knowing it was an attack and not being told by doctors it was panic, i then convinced myself something was wrong, undergoing lots of tests all to turn out negative. Such o terrible thing to live with, especially having kids. I find i worry about their health, well, more extreme like them having a dodgey heart or something. It can be soul destroying at times.

[AngelHeart]

Mine started after giving birth natuarlly to my large ( 11lb 3oz) second child nearly 9 years ago. I was really ill after having her and started with a really bad pain in side which I use to be doubled over in pain with most days , was mis diagnosed with IBS and 2 years later went in for a laparoscopy only to find I had a rumbling appendix !! The pain started my health anxiety and panic attacks, could hardly leave the house for a year after givng birth, shakes and panic attacks ruled my day. Ive managed to control them now, but still get episodes of health anxiety, panic attacks and depression. It has got easier for me and am very lucky but when it strikes it crippling.

Background info : Abused as a child physically and emotionally, my gramps who was a dad to me died in my arms, lost my mum 5 months later, lots of other stresses too :S

[Need2Live]

I just recently started having HA. I can link its onset to a couple of things. One, health related and the other was after I stopped working and could not find another job, I was more sedentary then ever (already sedentary) and I was in the house most of the time. I think I may have been/be depressed and that is one cause of it.

Just the past month or so it became really, really bad but the past few days have not been bad. I have not worried to a point of crying in the past couple days so that's always a good thing. I remember when I first started having it, I would lay in bed at night and cry because I was scared I would not wake up the next morning. That is such a horrible way to live so I am trying to make conscious changes and actually LIVE by being the best " me " by doing several things.

Last week, I started exercising (walking for 30 min/day, 4-5 days per week) and eating better. This has helped I think. Also, I try to reroute my thinking and be positive when I start worrying.

[uk23]

Sexual abuse, emotional abuse, bad relationship, being 'held up' with a gun when working in off license, mauled by a dog, stomach issues, absent father, bullying at school.

Started at 13 with depression, then bipolar, now bipolar/OCD/GAD and mixed personality disorder

[tinycritter]

I genuinely don't know what started my HA, just that it manifested for the first time when I was out of work and very depressed when I was about 22. I've always been anxious though - stems from my childhood and the way I was brought up. I've often thought that if I could pinpoint the thing that kicked off my HA I might be able to conquer it, but I've got no idea. Annoying! :shrug:

[serendipity]

After having 2nd baby in my 30's. Had huge panic attack one day. Didn't know it was that but it also followed sickness and daily anxiety episodes for months. Never been right since!!:huh:

Seren

[SleeplessFog]

Mine started after my sister died after complications from an organ transplant. She was sick her entire life. We were raised to be anti germ and clean freaks in my house so I always was paranoid of being sick or getting sick.

[HazG]

My started last year when my mum passed away with bowel cancer and i watched her die it was the worst thing of my life,and from day 3 after mum went i started been sick not eating then i got indigestion and i wouldn't eat incase it started it off,then the runs started,then i was convinced i have bowel cancer too it was a long hard road! it took several trips to the GP to convince me i didn't have it and i was ok.
I muat say its been the worst 12 months of my life!

[blueangel]

I've had HA on and off for a lot of my life. I'm sure there is a hereditary component to it, as I remember being told that my father had been a "hypochondriac" (he died when I was 7, so I didn't get the opportunity to learn this behavious from him).

I've always been anxious as far back as I can remember, and this was compounded by 7 years constant bullying at primary school, bad/odd relationship and my grandmother taking up with a "hellfire and damnation" religious group when I was 10, bombarding me with stuff about death and judgement.

I'm surprised I'm not madder than I am, frankly!! :D

[im.miki]

iv had a few things happen in a short space of time. we had a flood in the house 2 years previous, unhappy in my job, relationship wasnt quite as ud like it, and i lost 2 grandparents in the space of 2 months a little before christmas.not to mention lifes general stresses and strains, but it really hit me after an excersise class with my friends (legs bums and tums-KILLER!) and it hit me hard!!!! I hadnt done excersise for 7 years since school. i also hadnt eaten that day either.. thought nothing of it.. iv gone days without eating at work so thought why couldnt i then lol.. bit silly and naive really. and i was halfway through my period (apparently this had some significance) plus in the end i REALLY didnt want to go. anyway.. minmum effort and after 15 mins my legs started to cramp, so i sat down.. no drink or anything with me.. plus i have a habit of holding my breath, that and excersise.. not good lol. so after a while i moved my arm up to scratch my head and then i just noticed everything started to go quiet, bit dizzy, so i had to find someone. i layed down and then just couldnt get back up again i was so dizzy... ended up going to hospital, iv never experienced anything like it so naturally i was terrified! they assured me i was okay.. blood sugar fine.. pressure fine. but everyday since then i have been scared to put one foot in front of the other in case i have a "funny turn" 5 months on.. im getting there.. getting help. fingers crossed.. and to think this was going to be a good year for me!

x

[lindajane1971]

if i think really hard about it, i remember having some anxiety sometimes in childhood, (im 40 this year) but it has really kicked off since my mum died 3 years ago, 54 - heart attack.
Im slowly coming round to the idea that i have anxiety and not some dreadful disease of some sort, but i know its a long road and that i may be on it for a long time ahead!!!

Linda x

[Meewah]

Me I started when my Dad was ill after a Heart attack. My anxiety shoots up around the same time of year as he had his heart attack. It was many years after that my Dad died of vascular dementure.


I suppose that you watch your parents suffer in later life and this makes you aware of your own mortality.

Mee