Is Health Anxiety an Indulgence?

[macc noodle]

Before you all go mad and post your objection to my question, I am asking it because my GP asked me the same question during our consultation yesterday!

I denied it in an instant and refuted all suggestion that I enjoyed suffering HA and said that if I could stop it I would.

So, it got me to thinking today....................... And I can see her reasoning if every waking hour is taken up with HA, then it leaves no room for anything else and could I suppose be described as an indulgence.

But, how many of us live that way - we carry on doing what we have to do to the best of our ability coping with this disability (because that is what I believe it to be) and just hoping that one day we will be better.

What do you think guys ? I would have called it a hindrance not an indulgence.

:shrug:

[countrygirl]

Well I have always said that HA is selfish as we are so wrapped up in our worry that we cannot find room for anything else so maybe that means it is an indulgance but BIG point is that it is one we cannot control even if we do, like me ,think we are being selfish.

Then again loads of people are selfish in other ways.

What do other think?

[scaredstiff695]

mmm
yeah i could see that but would also say that thats suyrley ignorance by your doctor.

i hate so much thinking im dropping dead every waking moment or every nifgglre is life threatning.

but i try to ignore these symptoms andf carry on as best as i can.

surly indulegence would imply we enjouyed iot and welcomed these thoughts and symptoms but if we did why would we feel so down wiyth it etc.
or asm i misunderstanding your doctor xxx

[Em.ma]

I wouldnt call it an indulgence because i dont enjoy it. Id call chocloate an indulgence lol x

[RosieXXX]

I wouldn't call health anxiety either selfish or self indulgent; it is a mental illness, which is all too often totally misunderstood even by health professionals.

[bloxy]

I would liken it more to an addiction than an indulgence...it's something that I don't want to do but feel compelled to do because of the thoughts and worries I have. I think sometimes it the googling, worrying etc can become a bit of a warped 'comfort zone', in that, yes, it does distract from everyday 'real' problems.

Countrygirl, I understand what you mean about feeling selfish because I've felt like this lots of times when I've given into HA and spent days googling and worrying rather than having fun and enjoying my family.

[snowgoose]

am horrified by the suggestion ?
We would choose to feel like this ? ......indulgent ?
yet again I weep for us all . it is why we feel so alone .

[onlysmee]

I think there's a difference between indulging your HA - which I am guilty of sometimes, particularly when I want to avoid addressing other issues - and having HA in the first place, which I think is an unwanted and unpleasant condition which I would in no way describe as an indulgence. For a GP to say that just reflects their own prejudice against mental health issues over other health issues, which to my mind is unacceptable. Would they view chronic depression as an indulgence, and tell patients to "pull themselves together"? I think that's pretty unfair of your GP if I'm honest. I bet they "indulge" in self destructive behaviours themselves - do they drink? Smoke? Eat unhealthy foods? Drive too fast? No-one has impeccable psychological health, and no-one, particularly not a GP, should make someone feel worse than they already do. In my opinion. Rant over!!

[happycamper]

Indulgence..? I sort of understand where your GP is coming from, he/she who probably treats many genuinely ill people who are experiencing lots of suffering, many medics do develop thick skins and lose empathy over the years.

However in my meek opinion, it possibly depends on how much a person lets it rule their life. If at the end of the day they can maintain their job, bringing up children, normal day to day stuff, then how can it be an indulgence. The fact that some people put everything else before them and their anxiety, health or otherwise, is in fact the opposite. Which is possibly a downfall in itself, some people struggle so much internally to enable them to get on with life otherwise, I think it can make matters worse for them because they aren't giving themself enough leeway to care for their own mental health, rather than enjoying the indulgence of it.

Wonder if that makes any sense...?

[Anxious_gal]

well is a mental illness, a neurotic one at at, it's as much self indulgent as feeling sorry for yourself when your depressed or spending hours worrying because your anxious!

My health anxiety is set off by symptoms

,its a very good read :) http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200912/hypochondria-the-impossible-illness

some times I ask my self what an I going to freak out about today!
I tend to assume I'm overreacting anyways which can make it hard for me to tell if I maybe need to see a doctor or not!
Most of the time I honestly cannot tell if I'm overreacting, when symptoms are very much real.

[Anxious_gal]

Just read in Cosmo that someone actually used their iphone to google their symptoms while in the ER and proceeded to tell the doctor they are wrong because google says so!
Turned out they just had a bit of gas!
:roflmao:

[Taffy]

I indulge in an expensive bottle of Wine every now and then, I also indulge myself in watching a much Rugby as I can. Because I love both of those things.

What I don't love is constantly worrying myself sick that I have some terminal illness that I'm going to die a long, slow, painful death from. Leaving my beautiful Wife and Son without a Father.

So in my case HA is definitly not an indulgence. It maybe a warped kind of addiction but I prefer to think of it as a mental issue / illness that with the right support and advice can be cured.

[cathy s]

I see an anxiety bout (I'm doing well right now) as me trying to keep myself and family safe - being on red alert, making sure I'm doing everything I can to prevent something bad happening. I don't think indulgence is a word I'd use, self involved perhaps, but in trying to feel better and get some relief. To feel secure and comforted and reassured. The only way out is to build confidence by confronting it all gradually and build confidence in ourselves and take ourselves off red alert, back down to green!

[jue67]

I can see where your GP maybe coming from , I have had panic and anxiety and the more you pander to it the worse it gets! IMO. for me. I had no choice to get over it and move on a I have a child, and the option was not there for it to have an adverse affect on her life! So now my daughter knows i am a wuss, for example when her and her dad chose to go paragliding!! i nearly cried!!
but for anything else i keep it quiet, and get on with it, and it does go away, i had a few sessions with a mental health worker who said to me, ' I can make you feel a pain in your finger' and she could by persuading me into it!!! I think the indulgence is not doing anything about it, and accepting you have it and letting it rule your life, when people like me are saying, if you can work on it, and you can do this on the internet or with books, then yes i do belive you are indulging the anxiety, health anxiety or panic.
So you may want to chew my head off, however I am still there, a person who suffers excruciating health anxiety, a person in the past who spent more time in ER than at home!! but i work on it, i dont have a choice if i want a more normal lifestyle.


Julie.

[macc noodle]

Thanks guys for all the input - certainly food for thought!

I do suffer dreadful health anxiety (full blown hypochondria I think) - but although I spend many hours worrying about it I do not always run to the docs or hospital (scared of 'em) and I still carry on as normal with family life BUT it does take far too much of my headspace and for that reason alone I am determined that I will find a way of dealing with this and stop "indulging" myself.

:D

[blueangel]

Like jue67, I think I can see where this has come from as well, although it perhaps wasn't very well expressed. I've thought about this one very carefully over the weekend as I don't want my response to wind people up.

If anyone wants my two pennyworth (and this is all from my own experiences of spending most of my life with one sort of anxiety or another), is that when we suffer from anxiety, we become very self-centred. We might not want to be that way - I most certainly don't, but it's a consequence of the condition.

Therefore, we become too inward-looking and everything focuses on what's happening within, so:

I'M ill
I'M anxious
I can't cope
Nobody understands what's happening to ME
I might/will die
What's going to happen to ME
If I die, it's my fault for leaving MY family
If my partner dies, what's going to happen to ME

I have had every single one of these thoughts, often many, many times, so believe me, I know what they feel like. The problem is, when we're locked into one of these destructive cycles (which can go on for months or years), then we lose sight of what's happening in the world around us. In that way, I suppose it is indulgent, because we are so self-focussed that not much else matters. Therefore it's vital for us to reconnect with the rest of the world, and until that happens, it's difficult to get better, or manage the feelings of anxiety.

One of the really useful things I learnt from CBT is not to personify anxiety - as soon as we start referring to IT, anxiety becomes a thought form and gets stronger because we feed it. In learning to manage anxiety, the condition becomes starved and will diminish. It will never go away entirely, as without anxiety and stress reactions, we would quickly end up dead.

Hmm, bit lengthy, I'm afraid, but I hope someone understands what I'm on about.

[bloxy]

Very good post blueangel...I understand and agree with what you are saying:yesyes:

[jue67]

I expressed it in exactly the way i see it, thats why its my opinion.

[blueangel]

Sorry Jue67, I didn't mean the way you had expressed it, I meant the way the GP had originally expressed it.

[workinprogress]

I would liken it more to an addiction than an indulgence...it's something that I don't want to do but feel compelled to do because of the thoughts and worries I have. I think sometimes it the googling, worrying etc can become a bit of a warped 'comfort zone', in that, yes, it does distract from everyday 'real' problems.

Countrygirl, I understand what you mean about feeling selfish because I've felt like this lots of times when I've given into HA and spent days googling and worrying rather than having fun and enjoying my family.

Bloxy, i definitely agree. We all Gogle our symptoms looking for some reassurance...or confirmation that we're not going mad. We fall into that comfort zone of sitting on Google for hours on end in our HA bubble. Whilst I wouldnt think of my HA as an indulgence, i do think that I wallow in it. Its SOOOO hard to pick yourself up, forget about your symtoms, put them down to anxiety and start living...but it has to be done. Trust our doctors when they tell us we're ok. Be positive...and start living. Baby steps but positive affirmations are a great start.

HA is a horrible horrible thing but we can heal ourselves. It just takes lots of positivity, effort and dedication. BUt it will be worth it!!

WiP X

[Lanesra]

My counsellor asked me yesterday if I'm reluctant to let go of it. I told her there's nothing I want more than to make it go away but I just don't know how! It made me realise why I automatically feel anxious though - by preparing for the worst, it won't come as such a shock but then I'm fretting over something that has not happened and that I have no control over!
I wish I could be one of these people who gets a rash and can put it down to eczema instead of worrying what it could mean if it doesn't go in 3 weeks!!