Very well put ladybird

Whilst I have joined you on the 'soapbox' I thought I'd just mention that I really do believe that we (myself, as a health anxiety sufferer, included) need to take a bit more responsibility for our mental health. We cannot expect GPs to spot every case of health anxiety, especially when I know a lot of us will see our GPs having read up on the condition we think we have, and maybe even manipulate the truth slightly, so our symptoms fit the condition!! But WE know we have health anxiety because we are here posting on this forum. There are many things we can do to help ourselves (advice here, books, online information). It's fine to ask for help, but there's always going to be a limit to what others can do for us - and we know constant reassurance just DOES NOT work! It might not be what we want to hear but we cannot rely on everyone else when we won't help ourselves...