Does your HA prolong your symptoms, magnify the pain?

[Beckybecks]

As the title says, do HA sufferers feel their symptoms more intensely?
How does one guage whether a symptom/pain is serious or not?
I've noticed that any health issues I have seem worse and last longer than they should simply because my mind enlarges the symptoms and any pain seems much worse than it actually is.
Right now I have toothache which I've had on and off for two months. I've had two courses of antibiotics and almost constant painkillers which help for an hour or two. The dentist can't actually find anything wrong but has treated me for infection but as my husband pointed out to me there is no swelling or fever and even knocking on the teeth involved doesn't produce huge pain. There may be a small infection but not enough to cause this huge and prolonged pain.
Now of course my HA mind is telling me it's some other mysterious disease the dentist hasn't picked up on after two visits and full mouth x-rays.
Am I only feeling a twinge but turning it into a huge pain in my.mind?
I feel like the 'pain meter' I have in my mind must be faulty and always turns to FULL when it detects any pain.
Does anyone else with HA feel this way?
How do you rationalise with yourself and decide if this pain is big or small?
I'm about to head back to the dentist to ask him to extract this tooth that I believe is causing me pain and he says has nothing wrong with it.
I feel a bit like someone in Grey's Anatomy who insisted on having a perfectly good leg amputated because it was causing him so much pain.
If I tell the dentist all of this he'll think I'm mad surely?

[JHR]

I can relate to this 100% Becky, I really think my mind magnifies everything
I had similar to you some years ago ended with me insisting thectooth was pulled...lost a perfectly healthy tooth cos me brain won over the dentist

[Beckybecks]

I can relate to this 100% Becky, I really think my mind magnifies everything
I had similar to you some years ago ended with me insisting thectooth was pulled...lost a perfectly healthy tooth cos me brain won over the dentist

Thanks so much for your reply. I'm not the only one being crazy 😜
5 years ago I actually had my gallbladder removed due to anxiety issues too! Big regrets over that one!
I know my anxiety is magnifying my toothache BUT I have no idea how to stop this. I'm clock- watching, waiting until it's time to take the next painkiller. My mind's telling me nobody could have worse toothache than me ...

[JHR]

Toothache and earache are probably high up on the pain scale hence the reason I had mine pulled Becks...poor you we're more of less into the weekend now. I asked why the pain went when the tooth was pulled and he said he thought the pain was nerve based due to my anxiety showed me the pulled tooth it was huge but perfect.... I truly don't doubt you're in pain tho...I was rubbing oil of cloves on in between pain killer's

[Beckybecks]

Toothache and earache are probably high up on the pain scale hence the reason I had mine pulled Becks...poor you we're more of less into the weekend now. I asked why the pain went when the tooth was pulled and he said he thought the pain was nerve based due to my anxiety showed me the pulled tooth it was huge but perfect.... I truly don't doubt you're in pain tho...I was rubbing oil of cloves on in between pain killer's

Thank you so much for your reply. I can't tell you how much it's helped me. I never realised that anxiety could affect a nerve.
I do have toothache but I know it's not nearly as bad as my mind would have me believe.

Anyway, since I read your reply, my anxiety has reduced from a 10 to about a 5 and so has the toothache!

My dentist is only back from leave next week but I'll be there as soon as he'll see me and I'll probably demand that the tooth comes out. I'm no good with pain that's for sure.

[Beckybecks]

Toothache and earache are probably high up on the pain scale hence the reason I had mine pulled Becks...poor you we're more of less into the weekend now. I asked why the pain went when the tooth was pulled and he said he thought the pain was nerve based due to my anxiety showed me the pulled tooth it was huge but perfect.... I truly don't doubt you're in pain tho...I was rubbing oil of cloves on in between pain killer's

Did you get relief from the pain after your dentist pulled the tooth? Even though there was nothing wrong with it. Did your mind still tell you that if the tooth is gone then the pain will be gone too?

[JHR]

The chronic pain disappeared almost immediately but the extraction pained a bit after.....dentist says the only thing he could put it down to the tooth was pressing on a stressed nerve....so I guess I'll never know if the pain was that real, it certainly felt it. On a similar note I had a routine mammogram on Wednesday and I could swear I felt pain before I went...so I definitely think we can force pain...not much help when you're in agony tho Becks