Can your thoughts hurt you?

[ScaredAsHeck]

Silly question. I was finally recovering from a month of bad anxiety and yesterday I stupidly googled anxiety provoking things and read vaguely about the nocebo effect and how if you can actually hurt yourself from thinking too much.

Is this a bunch of BS?

Cause now I’m scared and don’t want to give myself a panic attack or worse from thinking of the worst.

---------- Post added at 17:10 ---------- Previous post was at 15:36 ----------

So is this possible or am I over thinking too much?

[ankietyjoe]

Define 'hurt'?

If you keep googling symptoms and thinking the worst, then it's technically true that you are causing your self more mental pain.

Thinking is highly overrated unless applied to a specific and tangible problem.

Thinking about a disease you 'might' have is 100% pointless and serves no purpose.

Your thoughts are abstract, temporary and without any basis in reality. Anxiety and most forms of mental health problems are self fulfilling feedback loops generated by the sufferers insistence on repeating habitual worrying. Or so I've come to believe

[ScaredAsHeck]

Define 'hurt'?

If you keep googling symptoms and thinking the worst, then it's technically true that you are causing your self more mental pain.

Thinking is highly overrated unless applied to a specific and tangible problem.

Thinking about a disease you 'might' have is 100% pointless and serves no purpose.

Your thoughts are abstract, temporary and without any basis in reality. Anxiety and most forms of mental health problems are self fulfilling feedback loops generated by the sufferers insistence on repeating habitual worrying. Or so I've come to believe

I’ll define “hurt” for you. “Hurt” as in, can you think yourself into having a cardiac event or think yourself into collapsing? I know it may sound silly. I read that somewhere by mistake yesterday due to excessive googling. Now I’m a bit scared and my anxiety came back. My main fear is being so scared, like a jumpscare and messing up your heart. Am I being irrational? Because now I noticed I startle more easily now and it scares me lol. Any advice?

I read a doctor saying that there have been patients who were diagnosed with a serious illness and they ended up having a cardiac event. But he also said it was mainly elderly patients who were already at risk.

[ankietyjoe]

Hmmm, I think that's a little bit trickier to answer with 100% certainty.

In the short term, no. Even in the mid-long term, not really.

It is true however, that stress can contribute to heart problems, but it doesn't directly cause them. Stress = cortisol which = lowered immune system etc etc.

IF...you had a pre-existing heart condition then it's possible for you to scare yourself into more serious problems...I guess. But this won't be a fast process.

To all intents and purposes the answer to your question is a resounding no, even more so if you just don't Google anything. There is nothing regulated about Google, and nothing you read can be guaranteed to be fact anyway.

[ScaredAsHeck]

Hmmm, I think that's a little bit trickier to answer with 100% certainty.

In the short term, no. Even in the mid-long term, not really.

It is true however, that stress can contribute to heart problems, but it doesn't directly cause them. Stress = cortisol which = lowered immune system etc etc.

IF...you had a pre-existing heart condition then it's possible for you to scare yourself into more serious problems...I guess. But this won't be a fast process.

To all intents and purposes the answer to your question is a resounding no, even more so if you just don't Google anything. There is nothing regulated about Google, and nothing you read can be guaranteed to be fact anyway.

Thank you. I’ve just been worrying myself for no reason it seems. I’ve had a crap load of tests done including a holter moniter, echo and stress test. All came back 100% clear. I guess it makes sense if you were already born and diagnosed with a heart condition but thanks again. I’m over here thinking you’d just collapse. Us Anxiety suffers have been through a lot of panic attacks. I’m sure if someone had a condition then all it would take would be be one panic attack, does that make sense?

[ankietyjoe]

Even if you had a heart condition a panic attack isn't as dangerous as you'd think. Your body isn't demanding oxygen, your heart is just beating fast. A heart attack is usually caused by a blockage to an artery, and a panic attack doesn't block an artery.