Ladies please can boob stretchmarks look slightly dimpled

[Carys]

Start 'convincing yourself' of the opposite!



The mind is a powerful thing and can respond to self-talk (internal or out loud). If you keep telling your brain that there IS something to worry about, then it will keep reenforcing that point. Keep repeating out loud; 'Its JUST stretch marks', 'its a spot, I always get them'.



Every time a negative thought pops into your head, counter it with a whole series of reassurances.If necessary write them down, everything that is reassuring - from the threads and from yourself. Read them out when a negative thought comes to you, over and over and then get on with something else. YOU have to take control of this, strongly, or it will control you. It's hard, in the early stages to retrain your mind like this, to respond more appropriately to minor symptoms or observations, but it will reap rewards longterm.


It takes effort to retrain yourself, and willpower to make sure you don't let the negative thought have the last say! Take it from me (I've had BC), I had to learn this myself, as every single niggle, twitch or spot became something sinister.

[pulisa]

Carys, your insight and advice is invaluable on this subject x

[Carys]

Bless you Pulisa, thats a kind thing to say x

[herbie73]

I just wanted to thank you carys for you advice, I’ve been doing this for 2 days and it seems to help, hopefully I will eventually stop thinking about it altogether, once again thanks for very good advice, it’s really appreciated xxxx

[Carys]

Oh Herbie ...I am SO pleased !!!!! Keep it up, any minor slips and keep doing it, keep doing it !!!




and well done ! its takes strength to try and do this, and ....very few follow any advice lol

[herbie73]

Thank you you are so kind I will keep trying thank you xxx

[herbie73]

So I’ve been trying really hard to turn my thoughts around and try to convince myself it’s just stretchmarks which I can clearly see, and also trying to convince myself that I’ve had this ages, as I know I have seen it many times before, so why does ha turn something that is obviously benign into something sinister, there just this part of me that won’t let go, I’ve been taking Prozac 60mg for 5 weeks now, shouldn’t I be completely back to normal by now, I do get rational times but then the fear kicks in and it’s like what if it is something bad xxxx

[Carys]

Herbie, its not even been a full week!

When I said it took effort and hard work, willpower and courage, I meant for a long time.....like months and years.

Can I be honest with you, I think you are expecting that tablets will just magically solve this for you. Of course medication can help calm things down on an axiety front and give you time to address the fears, but in my opinion there isn't a tablet that will suddenly make it disappear, which is why cognitive behavioural therapy is the treatment of choice for HA. HA isn't an illness or disease(I'm not saying its not debilitating or awful to live with!), and its not 'HA' turning the thought into something frightening, its you and your brain. HA is a set of phobias and fears and learnt behaviours and thought processes. You have spent years and years reinforcing the fears and responses to those fears, now it will take a long time to really sort it out.


The reason why I say all this about it YOU and YOUR brain, and that it takes effort and some elements of cbt etc. is for a reason. You have the power in your hands and in your head to change this. Thats good news right?

[herbie73]

Yes I know I’m just impatient, I do think it’s working a little, I have a day off work today so need to occupy myself, when I booked this day off I was absolutely fine, no health anxiety at all and that was only a couple of months ago, I’m hoping I can get back to how I was then or even better xxx

[herbie73]

Morning all, so now I’ve decided to worry about my other boob because my nipples (tmi) don’t look the same, I’m sure they are checked yesterday didn’t worry me then,I was to focused on my stretch marks, but this morning decided to check and realised they don’t sit the same if you know what i mean, I can’t believe I’m worrying about this now, what a complete idiot xxx