I didn't even realise health anxiety existed but I am sure I have it, what to do??

Hi everyone, I had never heard of health anxiety until the other day, I was watching a program and someone was talking about it and I thought that sounds just like me.

My family joke and call me a hypochondriac. I have been convinced (recently) I have had breast cancer, HIV, throat/tonsil cancer, Ebola, Ovarian Cancer, Lymphoma to name a few.

Currently - I am 31 & seriously convinced I have dementia/Alzheimers/Vcjd - over the last 2 months my memory has become terrible, I literally forget things all the time - I forget where I put things, I forget words last night I forgot I let the cat out & spend 30 mins looking for him in the house (I still dont remember letting him out but I must of cos he was out). I also mix up my words all the time for example I say something similar or opposite, or if I am reading/watching something & someone asks me a question I answer with a word related to what I am reading. I really feel like I am losing my mind.
My doctor said its prob hormone related (although I had my baby 5 months ago - so I don't think it is this) he put me back on the contraceptive pill to try & regulate my hormones & at first I thought this was helping but now I don't think it is so I am back to worrying about Alzheimer's.

I am also sure I have nasal cancer - I have had a lump inside my left nostril for about 2.5 years, I saw a doctor a while ago & he told me he thought it was part of my nose (I don't believe him, I know something is there) I hadnt really thought about this for a while but over the last few days I have become fixated on it again.

I am not sure if I have health anxiety or what it actually is, it isn't constant I have periods where I don't think about my health at all & I don't worry about other things - I am generally a laid back person but as soon as I start worrying I cannot stop. I spend hours googling and looking at symptoms/pictures. For example yesterday I was on the internet from 9am to when I went to bed. I am currently on maternity leave from work & all I am doing is ignoring my children and googling my symptoms. I also ignore my partner and get very annoyed/pissed off if he interrupts me when I am looking up my symptoms online.

Would you say this sounds like health anxiety I just thought everyone felt this way?

Yeah, it does sound a lot like health anxiety, and you are aggravating it by Googling symptoms, which is a cycle everyone here would suggest that you stop... Hormones can sort of mess with your levels of anxiety, but given the scope of your worries, it sounds like it might a wider issue for you. You could talk to your GP about referral for talking therapies, but that can take some time, I would suggest that while you have a lot of home time that you direct your googling towards finding out more about anxiety, read some books on the subject and learn how to fight those anxious thoughts.

There is a section on here specifically for pre/post-natal anxiety, it's a sub-forum under the GAD section, so you may find some of the posts there useful as well. I would also recommend the sticky thread of cpe1978 - "get a plan and get on it" for good advice about recovering, and there is also a lot of info in the "getting there slowly thread". Anxiety can affect you in surprising ways, and you may find that you have anxious tendencies and negative style thoughts - even if you don't feel anxious all the time.

Hope that helps and isn't too much of a bombardment of info for you! But the thing is you seem to have recognised the HA already, which is a good thing! Don't get drawn into the cycle of worrying about more diseases and more and more... you are in a good place to cut it off now, and enjoy your baby break :hugs:

Thank you so much for your reply, I will definitely have a look a the pre/postnatal forum & do some research on anxiety.

I really never thought I might have anxiety - I never connected the fears I have over my health with anxiety but after reading around it makes sense.

My dad died of cancer when I was very young but old enough to understand what was happening and then an uncle died from a brain tumor - after this I was absolutely convinced that I had a brain tumor & looking back now I think this was what triggered it.

I'm sorry to hear about your dad and uncle, that probably has affected the way you think about health because it happened when you were quite young. It must've been very painful, but remember it doesn't necessarily mean that you will experience the same diseases.

A lot of anxiety is caused by negative thinking, and the internet really, really doesn't help that... you probably have tendencies towards negative thinking in health issues because of your dad's story, but Googling symptoms will only add fuel to the fire - the memory thing is something that is both an anxiety symptom, and I believe known as 'mummy brain' from what my friend's have told me! :D I'm sure that it's nothing sinister.

This article about symptoms may help you - http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/articles/symptoms although it refers to panic attacks specifically, it helped when I realised that actually it's not just during a panic attack, but that you can experience these symptoms almost continuously if you are continuously worrying! That's what got me started down the HA route - just not understanding that my body reacted like that to anxiety, it's easy to get mixed up :)