Health Anxiety Really Affecting Life

Hi everyone,

I came on this forum today because i wanted some reassurance regarding a neck lump i have. A lump i have had examined twice already. However, while writing the post i realised that the lump isn't my problem, because every single week i rotate around the same set of obsessions with my appearance and health. This has been the same for many years now. I burst into tears and realised i need some support.. i really don't know how to cope with health anxiety.

I have constant waves. The first was several years a go and it was by far the worst, as i didn't know i had health anxiety at this point and i worried myself into being very ill. I was convinced i was dying and was at the doctors every week with a whole list of symptoms. I recovered slowly but it's never gone away. Only a few months a go i went to get help, but to have the full help i would need weekly appointments during work time which i just can't do. i was fine again until a few weeks a go.. and then i started to obsess about my teeth.. then my heart..then my neck..and now i'm upset and crying because i know i'm stuck deep in the health anxiety cycle yet again.

I'd love some advice from someone maybe going through similar. It's so hard to deal with. Everything in life is stressful to me, and i know full well most of them arent worth stressing about. I feel very alone and can't really talk to anyone as they just brush me off as being silly. I'm starting to feel very depressed again. I don't think i am ill.. but there is always something that in my head is the end of the world. I dont go to the doctors now about symptoms as it makes me worse.

Has anyone got through a similar phase?

I'd love to end this cycle for good, it just seems impossible and exhausting!

Just out of interest have you been to the doctor to discuss your anxiety? They can help, and certainly helped me. You could be describing how I felt a year ago. Still have moments but it is a world apart.

I have discussed it several time at the doctors but i always find that i come out feeling great and that i can forget about it all, but a few months later it all begins again.

I think i feel better after some reassurance. Just posting on here yesterday made me feel a bit calmer.

I'm so glad to hear that you are getting better. I'm tempted to pay for a course of CBT out of work hours as i think it might help. Were you given any CBT or was it discussing your fears with the doctor that helped you?

Thanks you so much for the reply.

Hiya

I paid for CBT myself as I decided that i wanted to be in control of how long I accessed it for. It certainly isn't a golden bullet but it made me think about things differently. To put it in context the last nine months has been the first time in about 8 years that I haven't either been taking meds for depression or anxiety or withdrawing from them only to start again.

Still have fluctuating mood and probably always will but I have weapons in my locker and for the time being at least can fend it off. I genuinely believe that if people are prepared to out in the hard yards that they can get better.

Hi BIF.

Like CPE I for the last 12 months have been doing well after 10 years of fairly intense HA. CBT is useful as is a lot of the advice on this forum See CPE's and I Still Believe's threads for example. Myself and a few others have supported each other on the 'getting their slowly' thread. Along with your concerted effort their is support on here from those who will be able to offer a rational perspective. These people are rather quite at present probably because (and I summise here) they are not in the game of giving reassurance and that seems to be what's been asked for on nearly all posts.

Lucia.