Re: health anxiety taking over my life
I too suffer from health anxiety and have had similar episodes to you so I can sympathise greatly. I started with IBS as a child, always due to anxiety. As an adult and in recent years I began to fear that it was something more. And the more I feared the worse it got.... I too had food poisoning that triggered a flare-up and the anxiety then caused the IBS to last for 8 months! I did elimination diets, research, lost lots of weight until I had to hide the scale I was so scared. Somehow, through tests and reassurances from doctors my brain finally clicked that my anxiety was actually the cause of the cramps, wind, diarrhea and once my mind accepted that, I calmed down and found I could actually eat anything with no problem at all!
I've been through the head ache / brain tumor thing too. It took six weeks of acupuncture to calm me and my head down.
I think what I'm really trying to say here is that yes, when we're this anxious then most of our symptoms are due to the anxiety. Test yourself. Next time you get a symptom, tell yourself " I'm giving myself a whole week before I start to worry. Nothing's going to happen to me in a week. If the symptom's not gone by then, I will take my body off to the Doctor. After a week I will allow myself to worry, but NOT until then! "
I hope this helps you, it seems to be working for me.
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General Anxiety, Health Anxiety and Panic Disorder for over 25 years. South Africa