Re: Do you remember the moment your health anxiety started?
I was a bit anxious as a child/teenager, but it went "full blown" in March of 2012, when I had a pressure/headache feeling behind my eyes. I can remember this "very" well.
I was sitting in the back garden of my mum's old house, on a very "summery" evening for March, when I googled "headache brain tumour". I somehow landed upon the NHS Choices page for "benign brain tumours". I read the section that said "outlook is excellent". I didn't panic and felt relief, thinking "even if it is a brain tumour, I'll be OK". But then, still in the garden, I sat and thought "but I've heard people die from brain tumours". So I then typed in "death brain tumour" and read a word that became imprinted on my mind for the next seven years:
Glioblastoma Multiforme. Median survival: 3 months without treatment, 12-14 months with treatment.
It started a battle with health anxiety, that only stopped in early 2019. Seven years of my life I spent worrying about that illness. And I mean seven years. It was relentless.
My obsessive Googling led to me joining this forum, only a couple of weeks after my HA "really" kicked off, in April 2012 (as can be seen in the banner above this post). As a result, I've been a regular on here ever since.
I do consider myself "in remission" from HA now. I still have a wobbly every now and again, but life has finally gotten back into a more normal routine.
Hope this helps
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Healthcare Professional with Health Anxiety
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle