Anxiety over blood tests

[wingo22]

Good morning everyone,
Over the weekend I had a flareup of sorts. I saw a commercial about people going for cancer treatments and how they get many CT and PET scans throughout their treatment. That lead me to my own googling about the effects of CT scans. (I have had 2 in my life, one for brain at 18 years old, and another for my abdomen and pelvis at 20 years old). I am 30 years old now and the radiation issue used to be a fear of mine, however it had gone away. But it came back on Saturday. I started googling and you all know where that went to. During this time I had a fear of like MS or neuro diseases, but that just vanished away and I am on to something else.

Anyways, I started to worry about cancer, specifically leukemia and lymphoma. I normally go to my doctor once a year in June for a physical and complete blood count, etc. This year due to COVID I guess they are postponing them. I am super worried now about my blood tests being off or having a bad disease. I go get these tests once a year for peace of mind and now I have to wait, likely over 2 months to get it. What can I do to stop worrying about this stuff. My wife is the same age as me and said she has gone to maybe 5 physicals in her entire life. It just doesnt phase her. ..I know its anxiety and I was booked to go to a psych appointment, but again that got postponed too.

[pav1984]

You need to treat health anxiety like OCD rather than anxiety. The health worry is the trigger the reassurance makes you temporarily better but only for a while where you need your next fix. By breaking the reassurance habit you eventually get better. If going cold turkey is too hard at first, why not challenge yourself to not seek reassurance for a week? Or even a day. Then gradually increase the gap between reassurance.

I find distraction helpful. I read a lot. Play chess. Learn something new. Anything that you enjoy.

If you need to talk about your worries dont ask for reassurance but speak about your anxiety. Sometimes offloading without receiving reassurance is helpful.

Of course everyone is different and this may not help.