BEFORE you listen to the podcast I am giving a link to please understand that some of what is discussed COULD be triggers for some who suffer from HA.

You may be asking yourself why then would I post it.

I believe that the more we arm ourselves with information, the more empowered we are to find a solution that works for us.

In this podcast sufferers as well as members of the medical profession discuss:
When are health worries normal and how to recognize when they are encroaching on one's life.
Obsessive thoughts about one's health
Googling symptoms
Individual stories of health fears from sufferers
and
CBT

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rbkyk

Basically getting HA under control, from the perspective of the doc on the podcast, is changing thought patterns.

The part I found most interesting and that struck me as the most true statement that I relate to is that HA turns into a vicious circle.
Negative thoughts equal negative reactions which in turn reinforce the negative thinking.

So if someone I know has a heart attack and I start to think "I could have one too" then my anxiety level increases which in turn causes my heart rate to increase. I may sweat and feel light-headed from the anxiety. This then reinforces the heart attack fear.

We have to learn to recognize this and change our thinking. For example, every headache IS NOT a brain tumor, every chest pain IS NOT a heart attack...etc.

Thank you to happycamper who originally posted this on the useful links section of the forum.
xxx
Sandy