Hi there,

My last visit to this site was in November 2013 when I was going through a very bad case of health anxiety. I thought I had a brain tumour and I let that control my life. Eventually I got through it with the help of counselling and for a long time my health anxiety was under control. I would still occasionally worry about illnesses but it didn't completely take over my life and I could usually get over it after a few hours.

I'm aware that my health anxiety will never fully be gone, but being able to keep it under control as I had been didn't seem too bad.

However as you may have guessed, I've had an episode of sorts and I'm back to worrying about a brain tumour. This time though it feels so real. In fact I can barely remember a time when I was so sure about my own diagnosis.

I have every symptom of this particular type of a brain tumour which involves my speech and comprehension (Similiar to the fears I had last time I posted on this forum). I feel like it's gotten worse recently as well and I'm really struggling to work out if I'm experiencing real symptoms or if I'm making these up.

What happened today that really set me off is that I thought I had said the words "write it up", but two other people heard me say "moisten up" and questioned me on it. When I repeated myself they understood but laughed a little at what they thought I had said originally. Maybe I mumbled, maybe I did say moisten up by accident, but it's absolutely convinced me that I have this type of brain tumour because one of the symptoms (aphasia) is associated with saying nonsensical words and not knowing it.

How do I get through this again? How do I convince myself that this is health anxiety and not a terrible illness? I really thought I had got through this and I know I'm falling into the same traps as before. I can tell that I've created this post to ask for reassurance over my speech issue. I'm thinking, if other people also make similar mistakes, then I must be okay. I do not think this really helps though and it's just part of the vicious circle.

Please help if you can.

Thanks.