List of things that helped your HA

[Hypo84]

I know most of us here are still suffering from HA, but maybe there is someone who had HA and then got rid of it or there were times where some of us had lower anxiety and it was caused by something with it, so I want to start a topic to move into right direction basically...curing HA.

For a long time, I've been thinking that HA will stop when my symptoms. That proved to be true of course, since when I didn't have symptoms I didn't have anxiety and I was happy, but, there is a catch. Symptom free period is usually very very short and I think that wishing for symptom free time is worthless since it just won't happen, ever.

There are couple of scenarios :

1. You have some symptom and you are constantly terrified of 1 particular disease and then you get new symptoms that confirm your diagnosis.

2. You have a symptom and you are afraid of 1 disease, and then you get new, different symptom, so, you have 2 diseases at once ?! Or maybe you don't have both, but you have to have 1 of them...I mean look at the odds

3. You have a symptom, you get checked and you stop being afraid of disease.. Huuray...anxiety free time...and after a couple of days usually, maybe a month you get new symptom, new disease and it keeps repeating.

I will first list things that didn't help at all, they are just making things worse :

1. Googling - Problem with Googling is that now, even when I Google a little, I have read so many bullshit stories and I know so many diseases that now I don't even have to do it anymore. Fear won't go away.

2. Constantly checking your symptoms - This is definitely hurting you. Do I have lump here? and 5 minutes later you check again, and after 5 minutes again, and again... No way you can stop thinking about it if you are constantly checking it.

3. Seeking reassurance - Now, I am not sure about this one. I read online that this is not helping at all and that it is making things worse in a long run. Problem with this is, that it does help in short term, and it's hard from this perspective to see big picture.

Things that could help but are not doing much for me :

1. Antidepressants - Tried them 2 times, Cipralex and Prozak, didn't help me at all I think (was taking it for 5 months each). I mean, maybe it is because I am not depressed. I get depressed when I am so afraid of diseasebut if that fear would stop, I would instantly fell happy and fine, so I don't have real depression. So, not sure about this one, but it didn't help me.

2. Anti-anxiety meds - Klonopin was great for me 4 years ago. I was taking 3x0.5mg and it did help. Now, it's not doing much I think. (And you can't take it all the time, since you can get addicted to it, I think the longest time I was taking it was couple of months).

3. CBT - This should help I think, and I think I might try it again since I can't really complain it didn't work when I wasn't doing it as regularly as it should be done. Feeling Good by David Burns I didn't like that much , so any recommendations are welcomed.

4. Exercise - can't say really about this one since doing slow weightlifting exercising I think is not helping much and cardio would be much more beneficial, but I am not sure about that.

Things that did help me :

1. Swimming - when I was going 5 times a week I definitely felt better. Maybe there is something about rhythmic breathing that helps, I am not sure, but it definitely does help.

2. Therapist - I always feel better when I come back from session, but I am not sure if t has a lot to do with reassurance I get from my therapist. Anyway, in my opinion it helps.

Please share your opinions and experiences. I am sick of this disease, I am sure most of you are as well so let's cure it.

Copied from anxiety zone

[Liv7117]

Great idea for a post! I agree with all of what you've said on things that don't help. Anyway from my experience with HA, here are some things that have helped:
1. Anti-depressants(Zoloft)
2. Therapist
3. Running
4. Journaling
5. Reading

[sial72]

Good post Hypo84
Got to agree on both:
The swimming, it was very helpful, I think it is the combination of the physical exercise and the breathing.
For health reasons I can't go now but I pray to get better so that I can get back to swimming.
And my therapist helps a lot too.
Another thing that sounds awful but it is true, when I get obsessed about some health issue I think of a friend of mine who is very ill and very very brave and it kinds of puts things into perspective.
Xx

[damianjmcgrath]

I suffer from health anxiety, exclusively about my heart. I get pains, dull aches, tight crushing sensations, although never bad enough to require painkillers. It just really freaks me out, panics me, I get feelings of dread, etc.

I don't currently take medication. I've been prescribed a beta blocker but I'm scared about the possible side effects.

I've tried CBT. I had 6 group sessions through LIFT Psychology (NHS) which was more education than anything else. It helped me to realise it is anxiety and not a heart attack. It taught me breathing exercises, which I can see how they work, but I really struggle to do them right.

I also have fortnightly individual CBT sessions where I can talk about my personal problem. I actually don't really learn much from it, there's only so many times the therapist can try and convince me to accept the anxiety and that's what I struggle with. However, I do feel better after going. It's nice just to unload for an hour.

I am currently trying hypnotherapy. I'm a few sessions in and its made me realize this isn't a new problem for me, although the current form of anxiety is new to me. It's not really telling me how to fix it though. Perhaps it will in future sessions.

I'm similar to you. I feel that if I could get rid of the aches, I'd be really happy. I don't think I'm depressed.

My main problem is that when I feel the pains, it feels so heart attacky that I really panic. I struggle to remember it's anxiety when I feel like that. I really feel it's a medical problem at that stage. I need to overcome that. That's my one problem area. If anyone has ideas on how to overcome my brains instinct, that would be amazing!

[Hypo84]

I am now in testing phase of smth, not sure if it will work but I will definitely make updates frequently.

As of yesterday I decided to stop completely checking for my symptoms and looking if they are really present (most important part of challenge) and I decided not to Google anything, I can only post on anxiety type of forums.

My current symptoms are sudden sweating under armpits and traces of fresh blood in stool.
So, since I would always check my armpits in mirror, touching them to see how much they sweat, checking is it asymmetric and for blood I would constantly check toilet paper multiple times, inspect it etc I stopped doing that yesterday completely. I can feel that I am sweating i.e. but I don't go to mirror to raise my arm and see just how much it is, or I don't touch it to see which side is more wet. I do feel urge to do it, but when I do smth else I forget about it for a while, then I remember, but I consciously remind myself of challenge and I don't do that.

Day 1 went really well. It could just be placebo, but I hope it is not and that it will prove to be very helpful.

Btw, it can also apply to things that at first glance can't be checked, i.e. heart problems. I know, that if I thought I had heart issues I would constantly do some jumping jacks or similar things to reassure myself that nothing is wrong with me, but that is the same as checking symptoms all the time so I would make a challenge not to do that.

Hope this helps.

[damianjmcgrath]

In my house, I have a blood pressure monitor, blood sugar testing kit, and the worst of all, a ECG monitor. Every time I got weird symptoms, I did a test, because I'd read somewhere that if your blood pressure is fine, the chances of a heart attack is pretty low.

Stopping using those tests is the #1 step to getting better. They make me feel temporarily comforted, but it keeps me in the checking cycle.

[swajj]

I don't have much to add. When I am busy my anxiety is not too bad. I'm actually sick of having to be busy just to make my anxiety better. I don't think medication helps at all. In the short term whilst you are waiting for your therapy to start helping you but without the therapy you are just escaping through meds. I'm also not sure about reassurance. You made a good point about reassurance from your therapist helping in the short term. I found this to be true as well. Also reassurance from other people experiencing HA is probably helpful in the short term as well. But like meds it needs to go hand in hand with therapy.

[spacebunnyx]

Good post.

I have one symptom - avoidance. I'm scared to check, I get changed in the dark so I cant see what is making me anxious.

What helps me: exercise and seeing friends. Keeping a routine and not taking time off. Avoiding Google. Keeping a diary and rating how anxious I feel in one day. Making a list of all the other things my symptom could be. Looking after me: getting a hair cut etc.

Xxx

[Hypo84]

Just got back from therapist who told me that anxiety leads me to passivity which in return leads to more thinking and more anxiety, so I should plan my day completely and be active all the time. That is also the thing that I will try from now on.

[damianjmcgrath]

I've made myself an Action Plan. My aim is to do as many of these as possible, but not beat myself up if I don't feel up to doing all of them. I'll record how many I do in a day, and hopefully, I'll see a progress over the course of a few months.

- Do 20 minutes of exercise (walking/jogging/cycling) a day.
- Drink 4-6 bottles of water a day (a lot more than current)
- Eat more fruit than usual - have an apple/banana/blueberries every day
- Don't ever use the blood pressure monitor
- Don't ever use my home ECG monitor
- Don't use Google to search for symptoms
- Have a mindset of ignoring symptoms for the entire day
- Participate in more activities (family/social/time alone with my baby). This particular point is split into about 5-6 specific ones which are unique to family events I make excuses to miss.
- Leave the house without tablets in my pocket.
- I've noticed I stay downstairs when my wife goes to bed and I watch my own things. I use this time to calm down. So, there's an action to go to bed with her more and more each week to stop avoiding that.
- Start and maintain a food and symptoms diary to spot trends and spot things I'm doing that works.
- Reduce with an aim to completely stopping having conversations with people about how I'm feeling.
- Start watching "serious" TV series again that I used to really enjoy like House MD, NCIS, CSI, etc.
- If a specific problem persists for 3 weeks, or gets substantially worse to the point of having a big life impact, then book a doctors appointment, but don't worry about it until then.