Health Anxiety - What are you afraid of?

[reddevil]

Hi all,

I was out eating this lunch time with a close friend at a pub and I put lot's of salt on my dinner.
My friend looked at me and said "to much salt is bad for your heart".
We then got talking (my friend knows I suffer from health anxiety) and asked me the folloiwing question:-

"Why are you afraid of cancer and do not worry about your heart etc as I find that strange".

This was a good question and got me thinking this afternoon about my health anxiety.
After a long thought, my anxiety actually boils down to me as a person being afraid of cancer!

Can anybody relate to this and I was wondering if anybody on this forum is like me and is in a constant worry
situation about every lump or pain being related to cancer?

Red

[manmoor]

Oh Red,

I can relate 300% to what you are saying. When I had cbt a year ago my therapist was amazed when I said I had a perfect heart. My health anxiety is cancer. The amount of times I've been asked that question your friend asked you is unreal. Our poor minds never get a break and our poor bodies are bound to be fed up with the poking and prodding. You are not alone and I bet before long this post will have loads of replies.

Take Care

Mandyxx

[stephen_neilston]

thats wot started me off a pain in my testicle then i was convinced it was cancer then my throat thought i had cancer in that to every ache and pain must be sumfin serious or why would it be sore thats the way i looked at it lol

stephe miller

[yorkylover]

Me to,when I have severe headaches i think the worse,and my stomache problem always think the worse.[8)]

Ellen XX

[anxious]

Hi Red,

me too. I'm always on red alert for lumps and bumps, but strangely enough i never worry about heart problems.

take care
anx x

Laughter is a tranquilizer with no side effects

[djm]

Hiya

I just seem to worry about any kind of ache or pain. Then the mind does overtime, releases adrenalin and the whole cycle kicks off.

Dave

[pinkpenny1uk]

hiya,
i'm the same. i don't worry about my heart now (i did when i first started with health anxiety)
my biggest fear is cancer. i am constently checking myself for lumps . a headache is a brain tumor, achey joints is bone cancer.
i had a full bone profile and c reactive protien test done not so long ago. these are pointers for cancers and inflammations. they can back clear. for about half a day i was fine. then all the old worries and fears came rushing back.

i'm still waiting for councilling so i just muddle through one day at a time.

all the best
pp x

[strawberrie]

hi red

i am exactly the same. i dont have an exaggerated fear of any disease except cancer. Mine is so ridiculous that i think even if i started having heart pains, i wouldn't think 'heart attack', i would automatically think 'cancer of the heart' (don't know if you can even get such a thing).

What is such a bummer worrying about cancer is that you can get it pretty much anywhere, which means i manage to interpret every symptom i get as 'cancer of the something'.

Try to think of it as a good sign, if you are able to hold rational beliefs about other diseases, then you must be able to do it for cancer too, its just finding the way to do it that's difficult.

im sure that didnt help at all, but i totally relate.

take care
mag

[lass]

Yes, my fear is cancer too. It scares me because it can be in your body without you having any symptoms, or very minor ones. Also because the sooner it is caught the better chance you have, I then over react to any minor symptom "just in case".

[leanne1980]

hi

im also scared of cancer, and strokes/heart attacks etc

leanne xx

i just wanna feel normal