Health Anxiety by proxy

[cerridwen]

Hi all

I'm not a new member, I've been a member for a long time, but I'm sort of masochistic in that I try to battle on alone with health anxiety, general anxiety and panic. It's not working at the moment because of the COVID-19 outbreak, worried about my job, my health etc etc......

My husband has a health issue that he is being investigated for by the hospital fairly quickly. He has a weird, quick growing growth on his scalp, not a melanoma. Only had it about three weeks so it's early growth, whatever it is. He's holding up well, but I'm not! I've been doing the unforgivable thing and consulting Dr. Google. Now I'm in full blown panic and anxiety mode about what it is. Even though it's likely very treatable whatever it is, I have health anxiety by proxy. Does anyone else get like this about other people's health? How do you cope?

Also I get very angry at the expert definitions of health anxiety, they only seem to cover the situations where's there's nothing wrong with you and you've had a clean bill of health, not where you have a symptom that is being investigated and you've extrapolated it to the worse ever scenario before it's even been looked at! Most people I know with health anxiety have this problem but we are ignored.

Any advice would be helpful on how to deal with this.
Cerridwen

[flygirl767]

Hello I couldn't not reply as your situation struck a chord with me! Over the years I have diagnosed myself with numerous life threatening illnesses which all have turned out to be nothing, reflux at the worst. I finally got a grip over a year ago simply by not Googling. It was hard at first but I decided as advised to wait 2 weeks with any issues before consulting a Dr and they nearly all go before then.

Anyway, re your DH, I am going through similar with my teenage son now. He's had a few minor issues resulting in a blood test which came back showing slightly low WBC. I googled () and you can guess the rest..I've been in a terrible state for the last 2 weeks until his retest earlier this week. Not had the results but I was told I would be contacted immediately if anything untoward-I haven't.

I think it is particularly easy to over think things at the moment during lockdown. I am not working so got too much time on my hands to think. I've banned myself from Google but I can't unsee what I saw!! I do feel better now as I have been trying to keep busy, going for a long walk helps, cleaning, gardening, anything to stop my stupid anxiety ridden mind wandering! I'm sure you are feeling the same and me telling you it is most likely nothing will not reassure you but realistically, it is likely to be nothing serious. Glad he is under the hospital and I am sure they will take great care of him.

Good luck!