Overcoming health anxiety isn't about ignoring symptoms. It's about challenging our HA thinking so that we stop catastrophising and it's about understanding bodily sensations - especially those hundreds of stress response symptoms. There will be times when a trip to the doctor is necessary but that doesn't equal 'life-threatening'. It's our HA minds that lead us to believe that...
Again, this isn't about ignoring these symptoms - it's about understanding them.It’s a cruel circle. I just want this to stop. I want to stop being afraid but ‘ignoring symptoms just doesn’t seem to work, even if I tell myself not to panic I’m already panicked. I can feel my heart instantly race and my stomach goes into knots and I need to run to the toilet. It happens before I even have time to think
Fight or flight is a physical response. If you have fearful thoughts, you will trigger this response (and those stress hormones). I can sit here now and trigger my stress response simply by thinking of something. Difference is that I won't panic when my heart starts to race because I know what's happening and I know what I have to do to stop it. People who don't understand the stress response add fear and panic to this normal bodily response, then they catastrophise about the other symptoms - like having to run to the toilet. They don't understand that fight or flight is about priming the body to fight the axe murderer or run like hell and for those actions to be maximised numerous actions have to take place in the body - one of them being purging (urine, poo, undigested food). This is normal for fight or flight but people with HA will think that running to the toilet to be sick, have a shit or a massive wee is sign of something sinister and this is all part of the never-ending cycle of health anxiety.
Fight or flight feels very unpleasant but it's not meant to feel nice. It's there to help to keep our bodies primed for action, our brains sharp, and us alive.
Chlobo, my sympathy & empathy are a given but you need to get proactive with your HA and there be less of the self-pity on here. Your HA mind feeds on shit like that, believe me!
The only person who can get you out of this hole is you, and that's the bottom line.