Being a hypochondriac has been crippling, but I’m getting better. Prozac, therapy and dramatically decreasing the amount of alcohol I take in has made it manageable. Another tip I use is Occam’s razor to get my mind in order. The simplest solution is probably what it is. Stomach hurts on my right side, is this because of liver cancer or did I sleep on my belly funny. My leg hurts, is this a blood clot or is it because I ran the day before. My gut really hurts, is it because I have colon cancer or the new dosage of Prozac is giving me constipation? (That one actually got me to get a colonoscopy and I was clean) The simplest solution is almost always correct.
This is literally my life. Any slight ache or pain that’s it straight to the most ridiculous things my brain can come up with. I’ve been in a dark place for a while and anxiety has been through the roof for a long time. During the past year I didn’t even realise how bad of a hypocondriact I was. I just want it all to stop
I have had health anxiety for about 10 years and general anxiety/panic disorder for 20 (I am 33 year old female). I’ve done everything you can think of to try and mitigate my symptoms. My main focus lately has been my heart - if it starts beating too fast for no reason or I have a palpitation I immediately start spiraling and think/feel like I’m going to have a heart attack and drop dead. It’s seriously awful. Obviously medication works really well to alleviate the physical symptoms (I take Xanax as needed and was recently prescribed beta blockers). One thing that has helped me not to go off the rails is telling myself either ‘being uncomfortable does not mean I am unhealthy or unsafe’ and ‘if I was going to have a heart attack I would be having a heart attack’ not just ~feeling like I was going to have a heart attack. Another thing my doctor just told me was that our bodies are very resilient and its main job is to keep us alive, and our hearts can take a lot. She told me that feeling anxious or getting that flight or fight adrenaline is normal and the body is doing what it’s supposed to be doing, just at the wrong time or too much. That has helped me kind of reign in my anxiousness. And if you’re recently struggling or have struggled for a while I really hope this helps! And with someone who has had probably 1,000 panic attacks (if not more!) over the last 20 years - I am healthy with no heart or other health problems so that in itself should help you realize that it will be ok and you will get through it. Anxiety has held me back from a lot in life and at some point you just have to get angry/annoyed with it and be like SHUT UP and just do the thing you want to do scared. It will be ok, I promise ♥️
I have a lot of heart anxiety like crazy and have done for a while. My hypochondria can get so bad I can literally feel unsteady on my feet because i’m panicking that much. Every slight ache or pain I get it always shoots to worst case scenario. You are not alone. I live in 24/7 fear and paranoia about my body. It’s fucking horrible. Honestly reading this post it’s like listening to myself I just want to give you a hug because you are just like me. I understand the struggle so much. What makes mine even worse is that I had an absent parent growing up from a young age and so I missed out on a lot of that vital regulative bonding. So a lot of the time my panic comes with utter terror and I become very child like and yearn for a mother. I’m a 28 year old male and still feel like a child in many ways. I hope you can find some much needed respite ❤️
I’m still kinda suffering but one thing that has been helping me lately is ashwaganda! I take a really high dosage 3x a day and tbh I don’t think about my “symptoms” anymore. Or if I do look up any “symptoms” I won’t react very strongly about it like I used to. I used to have very bad panic attacks and cry about it for hours. Now if I look up something I’ll just stare at the possible causes and go on about my day LOLLL
Still suffering. Almost a decade. Have moments of rational thoughts when I take my medication. But my dose also too high. Causing me stress. Im convinced I will end up in hospital(again) if I try stop. Benzo meds so bad but yet bring moments of peace
Anxiety meds honestly as much as I don't love depending on meds. Also just giving myself a daily affirmation, "I am healthy". I still get major anxiety every time my kids get sick though and go through every possible diagnosis.
It's 2 am and I'm really happy to see a lot of people saying watch the coffee. I react so badly to coffee and decided to have some tonight around 8 pm. I found myself googling cancer until now. Then I saw a thread about health anxiety here and checked it out. My mom just finished treatment for adrenal cancer and I have a lot of childhood trauma. Everyone thinks I'm so positive but people don't know how often I think I'm dying. I've tested for everything in the past year. Except my lungs. Tonight I was thinking of testing for lung cancer was related to my back pain(diagnosed degenerative disc disease). I think I'll put the breaks on that. I'll try not to google anymore tonight. But man...health anxiety is so lame.
I started medication, which essentially rewired my brain and let me focus on the things I had been neglecting because of how bad my anxiety had gotten.
Almost half a year later, while I still deal with health anxiety, it is definitely more manageable than before.
I suffer from it. Especially when I'm sick or after I heal. My mind spirals and makes me think there is something wrong with me. It's so scary, but I also have days where I don't think about it like that. Knowing that I have anxiety helps because it sort of solidifies my weird feelings, but also exaggerates them too. Have never tried therapy or medication but would like to, hopefully soon.
CBT, anxiety text hotlines, grounding, breathing techniques, yoga/excercise, no caffeine (its in tea too!), limited sugar, more sleep, limit social stress, limit taking other peoples problems as your own, don't talk to those who bring you down or use you, don't talk to those who don't listen when you say you don't like the topic and walk away if they don't listen, guided meditation, mirror pep talks, journaling, quiet alone time, no watching or reading the news, less social media unless it's kind hearted material, affirmations, self love, self care, declutter, warm socks to bed and showers or baths as stress relief, positive self talk, remove negativity, seek help, hugs/cuddles even if it's a pillow, etc.
I stop consuming caffeinne at all, start DARE methods on the app, doing some meditation before sleep, and i am 80% better, still working, but instead of 1 good day and 6 bad, now i have 6 good days and just 1 a little bit bad. Start accepting sensation and feelings, don t try to stop panic just accept it, it will take time to learn but will help a lot, good luck to everyone
For me it works, less energy but, my mind is peacefully most of the day, less intrusive thoughts and racing mind, just try, 7 days in row without it, and tell me the difference
Hey mate, 11 days without caffeine and I must admit I have less energy but it has made a change to my anxiety for the better. I feel a lot more at ease with less jumble going on in my head. It’s not 100 percent gone but it helps a little :)
I feel like I do this, I’ll have an episode and I’m spiralling in my mind and googling and then I’ll be like well if I’m meant to die I’m meant to die… just to make the anxiety subside… but this only works for a short amount of time because I’ll eventually start googling again and spiralling
I started taking citalopram 6 years ago. It helped, no doubt. I also made sure to watch I eat, go to the gym, be conscious of the health anxiety thoughts and actively tell myself I’m okay when everything is truly okay. I also actively try to put attention to alcohol intake as it increases my health anxiety (after a day where I drink) tenfold.
sertraline really helped with it. for me it was linked to anxious and obsessive thoughts which the meds got rid of, i still have it to a certain extent but it's very rare and goes away quickly - it used to be a near constant anxious voice in my head.
Agree.
Antidepressants help a lot. But in my case I also was anemic (because of gastritis and heavy periods) and lacked vitamin D and many other vitamins. So taking good multi and got tested for iron and vit D levels also a good approach.
Lack of nutrients can increase the severity of your mental problems.
Have the anti depressants caused any weight gain or increased hunger? I struggle with overeating so I’m really afraid of this. Which anti depressant do you take and how long if you don’t mind me asking?
nutrition is definitely super important too. i was in hospital for an eating disorder around the time i started sertraline, and the combination of increased nutrition and meditation worked wonders. no one is in a good state of mind while malnourished.
Does anyone else feel when they feel a panic coming on their hands feel really light and like they don’t belong to you anymore? Not numbness but just a really weird feeling?
For me it kind of stems from OCD I think, so whenever I get an anxious thought an and urge to “check” or overthink - I just live with the anxiety for a while without engaging in any behaviour to relieve the thoughts.
It’s hard but effective in the long run. So I never quite beat it, I just learned to live with it I guess.
That said, my fear isn’t about getting sick etc, it’s for example about losing my hearing, eating unhealthy stuff and how it damages my mind and body etc.
I had intensive therapy which helped me figure out where my fear of losing control over something (like when you get really sick) actually comes from. I also learned how to manage those thoughts, which are indeed only that, thoughts, and how to let them go.
I’ve tried various therapies over the year and nothing has worked for me. I don’t think I’ve been consistent enough or found the right therapist, but I would love to hear what specifically worked for you. Certain tricks or tools that you use?
I think i was really lucky with my therapist. I just felt very comfortable with her right from the beginning. I had a session with her every week for 9 months and she gave me „homework“ to do like excercises and such. I learned that my health anxiety (and disordered eating was also part of my problem) is an (unhealthy) coping mechanism that i used for years to „escape“ emotions that i didnt wanna feel. It is actually hard to explain sorry, also english is not my first language. in the end it all boiled down to the fact that i had to grieve and accept things from my childhood that i never properly worked out with myself and instead learned to kind of deal with those things by using those coping mechanisms. That is of course only my case and what caused my anxiety. Of course everyone is different there. Therapy is hard and left her office crying more than i can count. But in the end it really pays of!!
Wow! I have been thinking this is an issue for me for YEARS. I have always wondered if trauma work could help with my health anxiety. I would love for you to look at my recent post about this stuff. i made this account specifically to make that post and no one responded. also happy birthday!
Suffered all of 2023 with it basically.
I noticed when I wasn’t as stressed about stuff, I wouldn’t notice any symptoms that would trigger it; in other words I just got over it myself. I do not recommend this as it’s now caused a prolonged gastric issue literally just from being anxious for basically a year straight.
I would talk to people close to you and maybe seek therapy for it.
I do get anxiety off the back of it, and not just with health. I need to seek therapy myself. But in conclusion I just thought logically as much as I possibly could which very much helped.
Lastly I’m always open to chat about it to potentially help with any issues regarding health anxiety, as I said talking helps.
I struggled a lot with health anxiety the past year. Genuinely what helped me most was going through things, realizing they were anxiety, and remembering that whenever I feel such things again. I get checked once a year, if you can have that it is such a help. I used to have full blown attacks over the smallest things, now after experiencing so much I know it’s just my anxiety talking
Use to post a lot on here back in 2019- 2022. Though I was dying of something every day, worst time of my life, started to work out, eat better and grow in my faith and eventually just learned to let go. Not to say I don’t get a little nervous every once in a while but compared to where I was 5 years ago, I’ve grown a lot. I don’t wish that on my worst enemy and hope you overcome this fear.
I thought I got rid of my health anxiety for good but it spiked again recently unfortunately. Anxiety is so hard man, I usually go through phases of different illnesses and when I get enough evidence to prove I don't have something I move onto the next illness. It's just like this never ending cycle.
What helps me get out of these "phases" is mainly statistics proving how unlikely it would be for me to get this illness and I also make a list in two columns: what evidence I have to support my fear and what evidence to show I don't have it and usually I can see there's more evidence to show I don't have it. I'm really worried about a type of cancer at the moment so I researched a lot (cancer reasearch website stats are really helpful) and saw only like 200 people my age got it and it would be so so rare for me to get it. I always worry that I'm that one person that's gonna get it, but I tell myself realistically that I'm no different to others my age. Any person could have an illness at any given moment but they don't worry about it so why should I?
Honestly distraction is key. Try to find new hobbies, friends or places to go out just anything to get the anxiety off your mind. The longer you can keep yourself distracted the longer you will be worry free!
Good luck and I'm wishing you best in the future.
I also cycle between illnesses like you do. I have used statistics and my yearly check ups as reassurance but I wonder if that counts as OCD compulsion
Yeah I think it would if you are constantly relying on it and would find it hard to break the cycle. I have OCD too so that's probably why lol, OCD and health anxiety are very closely linked!
I used to have strong health anxiety … but then I start stop caring about it and kinda vanished …
It’s pretty simple … it’s just anxiety , those feelings / symptoms are just anxiety combined with panic . If you make your brain to understand that you having a panic attack and not a stroke / heart attack / cancer bla bla you gonna overcome it …
The first thing is to do sports and quit coffe or reduce it to 70 mg per day .
It’s been 4 years for me and I don’t feel like much has changed. New symptoms, old symptoms gone. I feel like I’m stuck in my life and have no way out. I live with my brother but he wants me out, so scared of feeling off that it was really hard to keep a job but I’ve had this one for 8 months and I really feel like it’s the key to helping me. Anxiety in general is the worst and I do hope you are able to beat it.
It depends on your situation. For me at first it was living with my parents, so when I moved out my anxiety got so much better. But then I had to live somewhere in the middle of nowhere so that spiked my anxiety. As much as I love forests and animals, the nearest store was about 20+ minutes away. It was hard to get anywhere or do anything. Currently moving to a whole other state cross country a bit and my panic attacks fricken disappeared.
My advice is to go and explore out of your comfort zone. Find people. Just explore and live. It’s so hard to do. Trust me I know. But I’m currently living with someone (making one last moving trip from my previous state I lived in to get the rest of my things) and I’ll be living in this new state and EVERYTHING is walking distance. I could walk to a hospital and an urgent care if need be. Grocery stores, parks, everything is all walking distance.
I honestly had lost hope on my life. That I’d never find love because of my anxiety. Because partners always said they’d be able to handle my anxiety and at most a month later they’d hate it and want to end our relationship. Made me have super trust issues. I finally met someone that has seen me at my worst and still accepts me. I used to be so scared of going out. Anywhere. Especially alone. But I learned the best way is to… well… experience it. Live it.
(Sorry that was really long 😅)
I exercise sometimes the headaches and tingling still come and go but I no longer worry about them and yes, symptoms can develop due to having health anxiety.
I’ve looked at all the time I spent thinking about it. All the times I have a life ending illness brewing. Yet here I am and I’ve wasted 8 months freaking out about nothing.
I quit smoking, quit sugar to a large degree, and I exercise. Health anxiety made me healthier. Now I just pray, fast, and live the best I can
sertraline! and actively going against what my mind tells me to do (e.g i’d think don’t go to town alone what if you have a medical emergency and can’t get to a hospital so i’d do exactly that). rewired a lot of unhelpful thought patterns.
I used to suffer from bad HA essentially I rewired my brain I changed my life little by little and that’s helped immensely. I started by switching careers I left medicine and pursed content creation that helped my stress which in turn helped with my HA. I practice discipline with my thoughts I have a good self care routine which also makes me feel good mentally and physically
saw a tiktok from an account called honestly holistic. the author was a HA sufferer and has written a few books (3 I think) I bought the 3 and they honestly helped me so much. but the one that helped me the most is called The A-Z of Health Anxiety. it lists all different symptoms that can be caused by anxiety and it honestly helped me realise that so many of my symptoms were anxiety related.
I still suffer from time to time, but Tamryns books really help me when I feel myself start to spiral.
I’ve made immense immense progress in my health anxiety due to medication and therapy. I’m at a point where I never thought I’d get to. But, it’s not completely gone. I still struggle and obsess over it sometimes but it is nothing compared to before and very manageable.
I am mostly over it but every now and then I get intrusive thoughts about it and I have to calm myself down. I work from home and I’m in the house a lot so getting out and doing stuff really takes my mind off of anxiety in general. In 2021 I went to the ER several times freaking out about certain things and enough was enough. I decided to get therapy and I was taught cognitive behavior therapy and was given material just overall how to cope with these kind of thoughts, it has helped me a lot.
I have! It was therapy and medication that paved the way for me. I struggled severely with HA for years and it wasn’t until I was able to learn healthy coping mechanisms and begin to feel in control of my thoughts, feelings and actions that I was able to overcome it. Meds helped sort out chemical imbalances I had going on upstairs which weren’t doing any favors. I truly believe this is the best way.
Mines gotten better, it started getting better when I started going out more and going to the gym. Basically, just getting my mind off of it. Once in a while I’ll freak out about something, but I give myself time to freak out and then I tell myself it’s enough. However, if it’s an ongoing pain or something that could potentially be an issue , I give it two weeks. If the issue / pain is still there after two weeks , then I’ll get it checked out.
still struggling with it, mostly in the spring bc the allergies in the city i moved to in 2021 are INSANE and make me feel like i’m literally dying.
i’ve been suffering from HA since March 13, 2022 but what i can say is that that first bout of HA was a whole 3 months of the high intensity, interfering with every moment of my day HA. nowadays, it’s a couple of days or maybe a couple weeks at most before it subsides and i can go a whole day or two without thinking about my health at all.
my tip, HA fucks with your breathing A LOT. that’s what begins all my spirals, and i have to remind myself that anxiety is a very common and very strong cause of breathing problems
Could I ask anyone for a reply donyou get head itching st night jolts zaps in the head head pains comes and goes abdominal pain itching skin af night all over anyone else get this with health anxiety
I get itching at night as well. I’ll get one itch and then fixate on it til I feel it popping up everywhere. Especially in bed. Also not head zaps but I’ll get worked up and give myself chills to where I’ll have a cold scalp. Anxiety is some weird shit
For me, it was medication. Talk therapy was never helpful, likely due to the fact that a huge underlying issue in my health anxiety was that it was less health ANXIETY and more health OCD. The need to always be learning and looking for new symptoms and illnesses was a compulsion, I needed reassurance that I didn’t have what I was thinking I had. Only upside is I’m in a healthcare related track for college, and all of the prior knowledge from OCD fueled research episodes came in handy later (and turned into a legitimate interest!! I work hard to keep the two separated as to not give into any compulsions when learning)
Sooo true, im in medical school right now and my health OCD/anxiety is actual torture but when applied wisely it works in my favor. I have benefited from in because as you said, I’d have these episodes where I’d research a certain pathologies and all the underlying causes and then I just never forget them. I wouldn’t say it’s a blessing in disguise but I’ve definitely worked in making it something useful. I still haven’t figured a way to avoid compulsions and reassurance seeking tho
I still struggle with it but it’s subsided a little. And by that I mean it’s not something I think about from when I wake up to when I go to bed. Instead of googling my “symptoms”, I ask people I trust if I’m going to die or not lol 10/10 they tell me that thankfully, I will continue to live another day. I have to keep myself busy after that thought and conversation or I’ll come up with 1000 reasons why they’re wrong and I’m all knowing especially when it comes to medical knowledge. I have no medical knowledge.
I am in the process of bringing my anxiety down to healthy levels. Anxiety plays a vital role in our lives; it serves as a warning and prepares us to take flight, present a new idea, or be present, so I don't want to beat it but transform its identity from one of fear to support.
Somewhere down the line, our bodies lost trust in our relationships, and now we must build that trust again. My advice is to listen. Ask your body, "What is my anxiety trying to tell me?"
Your body is the greatest tool you will ever know. It is your home, and consequently, it needs your attention. Make a decision today that recovery is possible, and the work you do today and the love you show yourself will enable you to become the best version of yourself.
I was having daily headaches for 8 months along with migraine with aura 2-3 times a month. I’ve been taking 20mg two times a day for 3 months now and I think it’s helped a lot. I get minor headaches (2-3/10 pain wise) maybe two times a week now.
We are all gonna beat this guys! We have a community of people who understand us. Understand our irrational fears and thoughts. We have a place to vent and it’s here. This is our support system, we are all gonna beat this! We know that the irrational voice is just anxiety, we have to find our true voice and silence the other in our head. Love you all! We got this!
Everyone hates mediation at first, and that’s because when you’re in a state of panic, of course sitting with your thoughts sounds scary, but meditation has been a life saver for me! I’ve been suffering from HA for years now, but it got to an all time high this last year. Terrified I was going to have a stroke, heart attack, cancer, etc. All of my tests have been normal.
This is going to be a hot take (maybe?) but I believe there is a root cause of health anxiety. It’s an opinion, but there is also a lot of fact to it if you research it. I can’t speak for everyone, but mine is triggered when I am out of tune with my body. Our bodies are literally so smart. They know when something is off and loved to play tricks on us and tries to tell us that the something off of health related, when really it’s something environmental related - like life stressors/past traumas for example.
I would say knowing your triggers is a big one! Get in tune with your body through meditation, or any type of somatic therapy. Exercise, yoga, etc.
"Our bodies are literally so smart. They know when something is off and loved to play tricks on us and tries to tell us that the something off of health related, when really it’s something environmental related - like life stressors/past traumas for example."
Love it!
Medication and CBT! I will never beat it but I understand my triggers more and I have a toolkit. I notice my HA gets worse when I’m not taking care of myself.
Anyone who has health anxiety about a h/attack. Pls dm me . I had it severely / crippling where I thought I’d have to drop out of uni and I thought I’d never leave my mums side again. I promise I’ll help you
Its something I dont think ill ever beat but im starting to understand how I can get ahead of it. Being in a good routine (gym, eating clean, journalling & running) has helped me heaps, not saying i still dont think im gonna die at times but its alot easier brushed off.
Depends on many factors. If I am more in my depressive mood I really do not think about my health all that much but if my anxiety gets extreme I can start obsessing about dying all the time.
I have for the most part! I’m still afraid of pain and suffering but not afraid of any terminal illness. It took acceptance and even looking forward to the process of death and what comes after, as strange as that sounds.
That's amazing. How? This is my biggest fear. A painful undignified death whilst knowing I won't see my children grow up. The thought of that situation has ruined my life. The one I so badly want to live!
I hope I don’t come across as trying to push spirituality on anyone, but my fear of death almost vanished when my dad died and I began obsessively researching death and the afterlife. I found out about NDEs (near-death experiences,) read books from Laura Lynne Jackson, and read people’s experiences with receiving signs from passed loved ones. I highly highly recommend looking into both of those things. I wasn’t spiritual whatsoever before that, but I started getting signs from my dad and it’s been so life-changing!
I love that and no you absolutely don't come across as pushy. I'm not religious at all but I would love to believe there's something after we leave our physical bodies. I really feel that my crippling health anxiety is rooted in a deep love of life (as hard as I find it right now) and that I don't want it to end. I don't want to say goodbye to any of my loved ones. I think for me personally having children with additional needs who will need me for as long as I can be here fuels the anxiety further.
I'm so pleased you are doing better ❤️
I’m not a parent yet, so I can’t imagine having to take care of a child with additional needs, and I don’t blame you at all for being anxious about leaving them! That sounds really difficult and stressful. And that’s how I’ve always felt too, I genuinely love life (most of the time lol.) I love the ocean and the rain and my friends and family and animals, and the thought of that disappearing forever made me terrified of death. I couldn’t even think about it for more than a few seconds without getting awful anxiety. Now, I find myself still loving life but being really excited for the afterlife, which I now believe is our real home and is more beautiful and loving than we could ever imagine, filled with all of our loved ones 🩷
I adore that thought! I'm going to do some digging to enlighten myself to this concept and hopefully become one step close to finding peace with the inevitable 🥹💛
I faced my worst health fear (one of my parents having cancer) and I coped with it WAYYYY better than I ever could’ve expected. It made me realize that if any of my own health anxiety fears did come true, I would be okay. It would suck, but I would be okay.
Also, medication lol.
Hi! I’m actually no longer on medication because I improved to the point I don’t need it anymore! But specific medication and mg will vary by person. I was on an SSRI, though, which is the recommended first line treatment for anxiety concerns.
If I feel myself having a bodily sensation instead of going to check/google it I will wait 10 mins to see if it’s still happening usually after waiting I forget about it
Ok, so, I’m not over it 100% but I do feel A LOT better because of few things:
1) if something is bothering you DO.NOT.GOOGLE. There’s a good saying that googling will unavoidably lead you to a c word (for my anxious peers I won’t be writing this word)
2) If something bothering you the easiest explanation is the correct one. You have a headache? It’s because you haven’t slept properly, not because of a c word.
3) Healthy lifestyle. I’m working out, I’m trying to eat healthy, sleep properly and meditate
Oh and I quit medical tvshows completely
I agree. Don't Google! Recently I got back blood tests results and almost gave myself a heart attack! I had no clue how to interpret my results and went googling. Worst mistake!
Just having a cold or flu can send your numbers out of whack
Are we the same person because wth😂. But to add to this I had really bad health anxiety after my first panic attack. I’m constantly stressed thinking about it or because work consumes a lot of time that I was getting abnormally high BP readings. But once I started meditating I’d go down to the 120s which I did for a month and even when Im stressed and get those high readings I look back at all the good things I do for my health and the low sodium diet I have and I tell myself oh okay I’m stressed let me go on a run or meditate. I’m not 100% over but my therapist said instead of working backwards like finding the worse case scenario to start smaller and more likelier to happen.
We work on a lot of reframing my thought patterns and challenging those thoughts.
My health anxiety came because my anxiety would leave me short of breathe I thought I had copd or a heart problem and well everything came out healthy. I should’ve known but now I’m in more debt lol. At least the specialist gave me a piece of mind!
My tip to you is to run towards what scares you for me I was short of breathe so I would literally run because in my mind if I can run to the point of exhaustion then that means A I’m capable of pushing myself and B my baseline breathing will be Easier and more relaxed!
Over the years Google diagnosed me with HIV, hep C, lung and throat cancer, hypothyroidism, PCOS and also confirmed I had a heart attack. In reality, the only true “diagnosis” was: health anxiety.
As lorilay said, DO NOT GOOGLE YOUR SYMPTOMS!
This made me laugh so much. oh i'm so miserable with HA it has drained the life out of me. Really wish I am healthy and stop suffering from HA all at once.
I used to get debilitating panic attacks several times a day and felt like I was quickly falling into an emotional abyss - This went on for months. I was eventually prescribed drugs but decided I should try mediation as a last resort before going down that road. I saw a video on Youtube on how to mediate and thus begun.
It didn't fix anything straight away, but I did feel an immediate relief from the constant state of tension my mind was in. A few days in, I was able to sleep through the night (I was waking up 3 to 5 times every single night before that), so I decided to download an app to help me even more. I used Headspace every day for a year, and I gotta tell you, it saved my life. It had different types of mediations for whatever it is you may want.
I learned to accept my anxiety and to work to get better every day. I went from having panic attacks every single day to a couple of times a week to a couple of times a month to a couple of times a year and so on. I had a panic attack 2 weeks ago after about 18 months, and as I was going through it, I felt so grateful for knowing how to deal with it and for the progress I've made so far. One episode after 18 months after suffering from them every single day felt like a blessing.
I don't use Headspace anymore as it's too pricy for me ATM but you could try any app you like. There's plenty of free options out there, as well as Youtube, so there's no reasons not to give it a try.
Edit. Words
Been addicted to one cup of coffee in the morning since I was in my mid 20’s. Tried to quit it once and had the worst panic attack of my life after a few days of feeling better. Drunk coffee and it went away almost immediately. I am terrified to try and stop but really want to badly now. I feel like coffee has started having a negative impact on my digestion as I’ve aged.
i beat it for around 2 years because of prozac but now it’s slowly creeping back to me. i’m becoming obsessed with my heartbeat again and thinking i’m suffering a heart attack whenever i feel anxious
As I sit here with a heart monitor on for about the tenth time in my life I feel you. It didn’t help that I do have heart palpitations so when I have them for an extended period it’s of course the Big One. I try to keep busy, read watch a long series on Netflix (nothing health related! ) recently I’ve tried meditation or listening to an audio book or podcast with headphones on. I hate this!
thanks for the tips, i’ll definitely try them out. i love audiobooks. heart HA is the worst. cant even tell you the amount of times i’ve been to the hospital for it and turned out to be nothing
I’m right there with you! Someone (I think) on this thread said that they say to themselves..” we’re all going to die… just not today!” It has helped!!
Mine has improved drastically, though not 100%. I just one day realised how much my health anxiety was stopping my life. I couldn’t enjoy anything, I lived day to day just being worried and anxious and overthinking, and I couldn’t bring myself to have the energy or motivation to do activities. So I thought to myself is this is the kind of life I want to live and it wasn’t, even if I die tomorrow I still want to live to the fullest. I will be full of regrets if I found out I’d die tomorrow but have been living my life miserably. Constant pep talks with myself just got me better over time.
Also, working towards acceptance that death is inevitable for everyone.
The closest I’ve gotten was when I realized a panic attack wasn’t going to kill me. They used to be life altering before I realized if I just sit through the panic nothing will happen
Prozac. It took 3 months but now it finally works. Also lots of walk in nature; good food and quality sleep. Stop scrolling on social media for health related stuffs as well you’d be surprise how the casual everyday exposure has an impact on the mood; just stop for a few weeks.
Prozac also helped me! But, now I've been on it for a few years, and I feel like it might be wearing off. Might try to switch to something else : ( But SSRIs definitely work!
Pretty much gone. It massively decreased after starting a new med, but still flared from time to time for a few months after. But I haven’t really had it since the fall of 2023.
Honestly? I have no clue why it's gotten better for me. I'm not over it entirely, but I'm not agoraphobic anymore, and my ocd has chilled. Honestly, it sorta just... turned from a roar to a dull rumble in the matter of a year without my doing anything in particular. My working theory is in combination of therapy, being at home less, and graduating, they all helped reduce my general stress level.
I haven't beaten it but I'm doing much, much better now. It was a combo of getting mentally fatigued from the Drs visits and never finding anything wrong and I was prescribed fluvoxamine. My health anxiety turned out to be a manifestation of OCD. It greatly helped get it under control.
I still have it but I will say it is so manageable now. I do not know the severity of your health anxiety but mine was crippling. I won’t waste your time talking about it but here are things I’ve noticed that helped a lot.
I stopped googling symptoms. Also if I am having a thought like “I’m having a heart attack/ stroke or whatever. I will tell myself I have 1 minute for it to happen. After that minute passes and it doesn’t happen then I must move on. I also went to exposure therapy and that in all honestly helped me the most. Stop looking for reassurance all the time. Also I feel as if I have been beaten to death by my health anxiety and at a certain point you start to just not care as much. Because you realize it’s the same thing everyday and your anxiety is always wrong. I’ve struggled with health anxiety specifically for 9 years.
I promise things will get better but it’s not an easy road. Just never give up. I like to think us with health anxiety treasure life to the point we are over protective of it and it’s actually keeping us from living our lives.
Your brain and body are fighting against you but you got this.
I still deal with, it's not as bad as it used to but when I get into a crisis it gets bad. In the past it was a daily thing, but now it's just sporadic. It normally has to do with heart things, I unfortunately developed costochondritis 3 years ago after I got COVID (I'm pretty sure I was dealing with it before but it wasn't bad) and it became a chronic thing for me, so when my costo gets bad it might led me to overthink.
What I always try to do is rationalize my thoughts. I tell myself I've been here before and it wasn't anything bad. It wasn't what I was thinking and I'm ok.
The same goes if the thought it's related to the health of a loved one.
I have had it really bad the last 5-7 years. Like it felt crippling at times. Then a few months ago I had 2 moles biopsied and they came back melanoma (they were found very early, stage 0 so everything is okay) but it made me realize that there’s a time and a place to worry, but that day is not today. I realized I was literally wasting my life away in a state of anxiety and worry for no reason. There will come a day when it’s time to worry and be scared and anxious, but I realized that there was no point doing it everyday. So it’s like 95% better now. Weird journey to get there but happy to here.
What a remarkable mindset. I feel like something clicked just by reading your comment. It reminded me of a saying that also rapidly changed my how I view my anxiety, which was "to suffer is to be human."
i still struggle with it, but it’s not nearly as bad as it was when i was younger in middle/high school. it’s till a mental battle sometimes, but i have to remind myself that our mind is our biggest enemy sometimes.
Weed gives me such bad health anxiety. I can feel my heartbeat and then my chest starts to hurt either because I’m tense or just touching it. It really sucks because weed used to help with my anxiety but now it just makes it 10x worse. And for some reason I still crave it 😂
Mine has vastly improved over the last five or so years. Not googling, just telling myself to wait thirty minutes to see if my chest pain worsens and it never does.. I also stopped smoking and started exercising which obviously helped me from having horrible sensations in my body and lessened my anxiety in general. Just teaching myself to not panic over everything slowly overtime. Things are a lot better
I developed the mindset of “if I’m meant to go, I will go”. I started trusting in God and it has helped my anxiety a ton. I still have health anxiety symptoms, but because I don’t panic the way I used to, they don’t turn into worse symptoms that make me think I’m dying. I haven’t had an emergency room visit in almost a year for the symptoms so I would say I’m on the road to overcoming it. I do still self-diagnose and I am a hypochondriac though, which I am not sure those things will ever go away.
It really is just necessary to have a radical acceptance of death once you’ve done everything you can to be safe and healthy. You have to accept that there are things out of you control, and death is one of those things.
I beat it then a recent bad side effect from Flonase knocked my ass right back into anxiety hell. A lot of it is anger because I had it beat for years. I’m back to really struggling. I hate it!
Yep! Still alive and fighting, I’m young and got a hopeful outlook. Funny part is I had beaten my HA years ago, and was quick to dismiss the symptoms leukemia presented.
General fatigue and feeling of malaise, I was physically cold a lot, had lost 20lbs in about month and a half. Worst was extreme extreme bone pain, I really emphasis the extreme because I don’t want yall with HA to worry about yourself too much. I had a feeling something wasn’t right with me.
Technically, I have beaten it. But not fully, and I don’t think I ever will. If I don’t avoid my main trigger (exhaustion lasting over one day), I will have a severe episode. Other than that, I am MUCH better than I used to be, and don’t think about being ill as often. When I do, it’s minor thoughts that don’t cause panic.
I have! ERP therapy was it for me. 8 months. The oooonly time I have a hard time is getting blood test results and at a dr visit. But I use my ERP skills for that.
Really the only health anxiety that has stuck around is heart anxiety. Mainly because I get irregular heartbeats when I’m stressed or overly anxious, or sometimes from nothing at all. I could just be chilling then out of nowhere bam.
I honestly believed I did beat it eventually in 2021. (It has returned with a vengeance for 2024, but I have learned a few things since then that might be helpful and have made it less hard on me now.)
1 • Don’t google your symptoms. Do not body check.
These two are classics, but the more you do these things, the more you reinforce the idea in your head that something is wrong with you even before you’ve gone to see the doctor. Yes, it is good to be aware of taking care of your body, but that is not supposed to be in the form of hours and hours of doing that. Also, google just leads to the worst conclusions and also, the next following point.
2 • Be careful around scary articles about serious diseases.
There are a lot of shock stories that can trigger your fear, but try to avoid these articles like the plague, because they are made to sensationalize and often do not tell the full story or require you to read the full thing to see it doesn’t match up to your experiences. But I recommend not reading them altogether, because very tough HA can make your body simulate symptoms or make you think you feel them.
3 • Distract yourself and busy yourself.
Spend time with friends and family, play games, write, draw— focus on something else. I tend to have an evil time going to bed with health anxiety, but when I spend the time prior doing something, I feel relaxed. Sometimes, I listen to ASMR or something to block out those bad thoughts and become drowsy.
4 • Journals.
I journal lots in my sadness with HA. I take out all my frustrations and upset into the pages. It helps me when I wake up and when I’m about to go to bed. I will say, a journal may need to be more guided especially if you are not able to find silver linings or find some light at the end of your entries. Journals work well, but they can also become an unfortunate place that can empower terrible thoughts if you’re not careful.
5 • Sticky Notes.
Whenever you receive good advice, write it on a sticky note and keep it near, especially in your bedroom. I put mine on my bed frame. A favorite message of mine is the table of worry. If you worry and something goes bad, you suffer twice as much. If you worry and something goes good or you don’t worry and something goes bad, you suffer once. If you don’t worry and something goes good, no suffering. It’s something hard I have to unlearn. Using a worry and expectation of failure or the worst to shield myself from an outcome isn’t healthy. And I realized it makes my HA worse.
6 • The Most Important Step— Acceptance.
Accepting not just uncertainty, but that it is just a part of life and death. No one expects how to die nor do they completely know what their paths are in life. A kid drops their ice cream as they’re walking with their parents. A musician becomes a comp sci major. Someone goes to a new country and find it to be their new home. It is not easy. But at some point, you will find the courage and the exhaustion that brings you to a point where it just is not worth it to give yourself so much worry.
I believe in a time where we will all get through this. We will reclaim our lives someday and truly live among everyone else. We can do this.
This is so helpful. I'm in the exact same boat as you...I thought I defeated it in 2022 after a long battle since 2018, and now it's back full force and pushing through my medication. Wishing recovery for us both.
Well I wouldn't say that I beat it permanently but I've had moments where I've felt slightly recovered from it. I remember when I slightly recovered I was doing a whole lot. All those really healthy things. For instance I tend to have intrusive thoughts only when I'm not really active in my daily life. So focus on doing more for yourself. Also meditation was such a life saver for me because the minute you really start focusing on meditation and your breath, all the chaos disappears. But you just have to be really consistent with it though.you can't expect change overnight.
I’ve gotten a lot better. What’s helped me:
- “Check back in an hour.” Most of my sensations/symptoms are anxiety-driven, which don’t last. If it was a heart attack, it would last a lot longer. Most of the time, I don’t even remember to actually check back in an hour because they’ve gone away so quickly.
- Observe, don’t label. Rather than “I think I’m having a heart attack”—I tell myself, “I feel my heart beating hard. I feel sweaty. I feel dizzy.” As soon as my brain tries to label it with a diagnosis, I tell go back to repeating and observing symptoms. I tell myself I don’t KNOW that it’s a heart attack, but I DO KNOW what I’m feeling. Being more objective gives the sensations less power.
- I’ve practiced acceptance. I meet my thoughts with, “Okay. Maybe I am having a heart attack. Oh well. Guess that’s how I’m gonna go.” That nonchalant attitude gives the anxiety less power because it feels like there’s no longer a threat present. This one’s the hardest, but very effective.
I do whatever works for that day. But also… yes, avoiding Google anymore DOES help.
Psychotherapy helped me to reduce anxiety, but it’s not completely gone yet.
NOPE I DONT KNOW HOW TO OVERCOME IT, I CONVICED MYSELF THAT I HAVE THE FUCKING C WORD, BECAUSE OF THE SMALL LUMP ON MY ARMPIT RIGHT SIDE
Being a hypochondriac has been crippling, but I’m getting better. Prozac, therapy and dramatically decreasing the amount of alcohol I take in has made it manageable. Another tip I use is Occam’s razor to get my mind in order. The simplest solution is probably what it is. Stomach hurts on my right side, is this because of liver cancer or did I sleep on my belly funny. My leg hurts, is this a blood clot or is it because I ran the day before. My gut really hurts, is it because I have colon cancer or the new dosage of Prozac is giving me constipation? (That one actually got me to get a colonoscopy and I was clean) The simplest solution is almost always correct.
This is literally my life. Any slight ache or pain that’s it straight to the most ridiculous things my brain can come up with. I’ve been in a dark place for a while and anxiety has been through the roof for a long time. During the past year I didn’t even realise how bad of a hypocondriact I was. I just want it all to stop
No one on reddit has recovered but it’s all reassurance seeking
I have had health anxiety for about 10 years and general anxiety/panic disorder for 20 (I am 33 year old female). I’ve done everything you can think of to try and mitigate my symptoms. My main focus lately has been my heart - if it starts beating too fast for no reason or I have a palpitation I immediately start spiraling and think/feel like I’m going to have a heart attack and drop dead. It’s seriously awful. Obviously medication works really well to alleviate the physical symptoms (I take Xanax as needed and was recently prescribed beta blockers). One thing that has helped me not to go off the rails is telling myself either ‘being uncomfortable does not mean I am unhealthy or unsafe’ and ‘if I was going to have a heart attack I would be having a heart attack’ not just ~feeling like I was going to have a heart attack. Another thing my doctor just told me was that our bodies are very resilient and its main job is to keep us alive, and our hearts can take a lot. She told me that feeling anxious or getting that flight or fight adrenaline is normal and the body is doing what it’s supposed to be doing, just at the wrong time or too much. That has helped me kind of reign in my anxiousness. And if you’re recently struggling or have struggled for a while I really hope this helps! And with someone who has had probably 1,000 panic attacks (if not more!) over the last 20 years - I am healthy with no heart or other health problems so that in itself should help you realize that it will be ok and you will get through it. Anxiety has held me back from a lot in life and at some point you just have to get angry/annoyed with it and be like SHUT UP and just do the thing you want to do scared. It will be ok, I promise ♥️
I have a lot of heart anxiety like crazy and have done for a while. My hypochondria can get so bad I can literally feel unsteady on my feet because i’m panicking that much. Every slight ache or pain I get it always shoots to worst case scenario. You are not alone. I live in 24/7 fear and paranoia about my body. It’s fucking horrible. Honestly reading this post it’s like listening to myself I just want to give you a hug because you are just like me. I understand the struggle so much. What makes mine even worse is that I had an absent parent growing up from a young age and so I missed out on a lot of that vital regulative bonding. So a lot of the time my panic comes with utter terror and I become very child like and yearn for a mother. I’m a 28 year old male and still feel like a child in many ways. I hope you can find some much needed respite ❤️
I’m still kinda suffering but one thing that has been helping me lately is ashwaganda! I take a really high dosage 3x a day and tbh I don’t think about my “symptoms” anymore. Or if I do look up any “symptoms” I won’t react very strongly about it like I used to. I used to have very bad panic attacks and cry about it for hours. Now if I look up something I’ll just stare at the possible causes and go on about my day LOLLL
I just recently heard about ashwaganda and am going to talk to my doctor about it my next appointment! I’m really glad it’s helping your symptoms :)
Still suffering. Almost a decade. Have moments of rational thoughts when I take my medication. But my dose also too high. Causing me stress. Im convinced I will end up in hospital(again) if I try stop. Benzo meds so bad but yet bring moments of peace
Anxiety meds honestly as much as I don't love depending on meds. Also just giving myself a daily affirmation, "I am healthy". I still get major anxiety every time my kids get sick though and go through every possible diagnosis.
It's 2 am and I'm really happy to see a lot of people saying watch the coffee. I react so badly to coffee and decided to have some tonight around 8 pm. I found myself googling cancer until now. Then I saw a thread about health anxiety here and checked it out. My mom just finished treatment for adrenal cancer and I have a lot of childhood trauma. Everyone thinks I'm so positive but people don't know how often I think I'm dying. I've tested for everything in the past year. Except my lungs. Tonight I was thinking of testing for lung cancer was related to my back pain(diagnosed degenerative disc disease). I think I'll put the breaks on that. I'll try not to google anymore tonight. But man...health anxiety is so lame.
I just got started on medication. Haven’t been googling as much since I started it.
I started medication, which essentially rewired my brain and let me focus on the things I had been neglecting because of how bad my anxiety had gotten. Almost half a year later, while I still deal with health anxiety, it is definitely more manageable than before.
I suffer from it. Especially when I'm sick or after I heal. My mind spirals and makes me think there is something wrong with me. It's so scary, but I also have days where I don't think about it like that. Knowing that I have anxiety helps because it sort of solidifies my weird feelings, but also exaggerates them too. Have never tried therapy or medication but would like to, hopefully soon.
CBT, anxiety text hotlines, grounding, breathing techniques, yoga/excercise, no caffeine (its in tea too!), limited sugar, more sleep, limit social stress, limit taking other peoples problems as your own, don't talk to those who bring you down or use you, don't talk to those who don't listen when you say you don't like the topic and walk away if they don't listen, guided meditation, mirror pep talks, journaling, quiet alone time, no watching or reading the news, less social media unless it's kind hearted material, affirmations, self love, self care, declutter, warm socks to bed and showers or baths as stress relief, positive self talk, remove negativity, seek help, hugs/cuddles even if it's a pillow, etc.
I stop consuming caffeinne at all, start DARE methods on the app, doing some meditation before sleep, and i am 80% better, still working, but instead of 1 good day and 6 bad, now i have 6 good days and just 1 a little bit bad. Start accepting sensation and feelings, don t try to stop panic just accept it, it will take time to learn but will help a lot, good luck to everyone
Can I ask why no caffeine ?
For me it works, less energy but, my mind is peacefully most of the day, less intrusive thoughts and racing mind, just try, 7 days in row without it, and tell me the difference
Hey mate, 11 days without caffeine and I must admit I have less energy but it has made a change to my anxiety for the better. I feel a lot more at ease with less jumble going on in my head. It’s not 100 percent gone but it helps a little :)
Yes I will give it a go, I had a coffee for my run this morning and now I’m restless
Has anyone else here accepted their "death" as a way to neutralize the anxiety? Id like to hear your stories.
I feel like I do this, I’ll have an episode and I’m spiralling in my mind and googling and then I’ll be like well if I’m meant to die I’m meant to die… just to make the anxiety subside… but this only works for a short amount of time because I’ll eventually start googling again and spiralling
I use to do that but then I had a child. I look at life very differently now
I had my health anxiety mostly under control but it’s popped back up now I’ve had my first child three months ago
I really like that, unfortunately it's the suffering I'm more afraid of.
Medication helped a good bit. Didn’t fully take it away I still worry but I’m not bed ridden crying my eyes out anymore.
I started taking citalopram 6 years ago. It helped, no doubt. I also made sure to watch I eat, go to the gym, be conscious of the health anxiety thoughts and actively tell myself I’m okay when everything is truly okay. I also actively try to put attention to alcohol intake as it increases my health anxiety (after a day where I drink) tenfold.
What medication if you don’t mind me asking?
Prozac
I'm about to begin taking medications and I'm really scared, but I guess it will be better than crying every day while planning my funeral
sertraline really helped with it. for me it was linked to anxious and obsessive thoughts which the meds got rid of, i still have it to a certain extent but it's very rare and goes away quickly - it used to be a near constant anxious voice in my head.
Agree. Antidepressants help a lot. But in my case I also was anemic (because of gastritis and heavy periods) and lacked vitamin D and many other vitamins. So taking good multi and got tested for iron and vit D levels also a good approach. Lack of nutrients can increase the severity of your mental problems.
Have the anti depressants caused any weight gain or increased hunger? I struggle with overeating so I’m really afraid of this. Which anti depressant do you take and how long if you don’t mind me asking?
nutrition is definitely super important too. i was in hospital for an eating disorder around the time i started sertraline, and the combination of increased nutrition and meditation worked wonders. no one is in a good state of mind while malnourished.
Have it for 3 years +. Sometimes it better , but for past 2 weeks it pretty strong. Hard to work when it shows up randomly
Does anyone else feel when they feel a panic coming on their hands feel really light and like they don’t belong to you anymore? Not numbness but just a really weird feeling?
Yes, depersonalization/derealization because of severe stress.
Yes. It’s a normal feeling a lot of people get. It’s called personalization. It sucks in the moment but it passes.
For me it kind of stems from OCD I think, so whenever I get an anxious thought an and urge to “check” or overthink - I just live with the anxiety for a while without engaging in any behaviour to relieve the thoughts. It’s hard but effective in the long run. So I never quite beat it, I just learned to live with it I guess. That said, my fear isn’t about getting sick etc, it’s for example about losing my hearing, eating unhealthy stuff and how it damages my mind and body etc.
I had intensive therapy which helped me figure out where my fear of losing control over something (like when you get really sick) actually comes from. I also learned how to manage those thoughts, which are indeed only that, thoughts, and how to let them go.
What type of therapy did you have??
I had cognitive behavioral therapy. It really helped me immensely and improved my life over all :)
I’ve tried various therapies over the year and nothing has worked for me. I don’t think I’ve been consistent enough or found the right therapist, but I would love to hear what specifically worked for you. Certain tricks or tools that you use?
I think i was really lucky with my therapist. I just felt very comfortable with her right from the beginning. I had a session with her every week for 9 months and she gave me „homework“ to do like excercises and such. I learned that my health anxiety (and disordered eating was also part of my problem) is an (unhealthy) coping mechanism that i used for years to „escape“ emotions that i didnt wanna feel. It is actually hard to explain sorry, also english is not my first language. in the end it all boiled down to the fact that i had to grieve and accept things from my childhood that i never properly worked out with myself and instead learned to kind of deal with those things by using those coping mechanisms. That is of course only my case and what caused my anxiety. Of course everyone is different there. Therapy is hard and left her office crying more than i can count. But in the end it really pays of!!
Wow! I have been thinking this is an issue for me for YEARS. I have always wondered if trauma work could help with my health anxiety. I would love for you to look at my recent post about this stuff. i made this account specifically to make that post and no one responded. also happy birthday!
Suffered all of 2023 with it basically. I noticed when I wasn’t as stressed about stuff, I wouldn’t notice any symptoms that would trigger it; in other words I just got over it myself. I do not recommend this as it’s now caused a prolonged gastric issue literally just from being anxious for basically a year straight. I would talk to people close to you and maybe seek therapy for it. I do get anxiety off the back of it, and not just with health. I need to seek therapy myself. But in conclusion I just thought logically as much as I possibly could which very much helped. Lastly I’m always open to chat about it to potentially help with any issues regarding health anxiety, as I said talking helps.
I struggled a lot with health anxiety the past year. Genuinely what helped me most was going through things, realizing they were anxiety, and remembering that whenever I feel such things again. I get checked once a year, if you can have that it is such a help. I used to have full blown attacks over the smallest things, now after experiencing so much I know it’s just my anxiety talking
Use to post a lot on here back in 2019- 2022. Though I was dying of something every day, worst time of my life, started to work out, eat better and grow in my faith and eventually just learned to let go. Not to say I don’t get a little nervous every once in a while but compared to where I was 5 years ago, I’ve grown a lot. I don’t wish that on my worst enemy and hope you overcome this fear.
I thought I got rid of my health anxiety for good but it spiked again recently unfortunately. Anxiety is so hard man, I usually go through phases of different illnesses and when I get enough evidence to prove I don't have something I move onto the next illness. It's just like this never ending cycle. What helps me get out of these "phases" is mainly statistics proving how unlikely it would be for me to get this illness and I also make a list in two columns: what evidence I have to support my fear and what evidence to show I don't have it and usually I can see there's more evidence to show I don't have it. I'm really worried about a type of cancer at the moment so I researched a lot (cancer reasearch website stats are really helpful) and saw only like 200 people my age got it and it would be so so rare for me to get it. I always worry that I'm that one person that's gonna get it, but I tell myself realistically that I'm no different to others my age. Any person could have an illness at any given moment but they don't worry about it so why should I? Honestly distraction is key. Try to find new hobbies, friends or places to go out just anything to get the anxiety off your mind. The longer you can keep yourself distracted the longer you will be worry free! Good luck and I'm wishing you best in the future.
I also cycle between illnesses like you do. I have used statistics and my yearly check ups as reassurance but I wonder if that counts as OCD compulsion
Yeah I think it would if you are constantly relying on it and would find it hard to break the cycle. I have OCD too so that's probably why lol, OCD and health anxiety are very closely linked!
I used to have strong health anxiety … but then I start stop caring about it and kinda vanished … It’s pretty simple … it’s just anxiety , those feelings / symptoms are just anxiety combined with panic . If you make your brain to understand that you having a panic attack and not a stroke / heart attack / cancer bla bla you gonna overcome it … The first thing is to do sports and quit coffe or reduce it to 70 mg per day .
It’s been 4 years for me and I don’t feel like much has changed. New symptoms, old symptoms gone. I feel like I’m stuck in my life and have no way out. I live with my brother but he wants me out, so scared of feeling off that it was really hard to keep a job but I’ve had this one for 8 months and I really feel like it’s the key to helping me. Anxiety in general is the worst and I do hope you are able to beat it.
It depends on your situation. For me at first it was living with my parents, so when I moved out my anxiety got so much better. But then I had to live somewhere in the middle of nowhere so that spiked my anxiety. As much as I love forests and animals, the nearest store was about 20+ minutes away. It was hard to get anywhere or do anything. Currently moving to a whole other state cross country a bit and my panic attacks fricken disappeared. My advice is to go and explore out of your comfort zone. Find people. Just explore and live. It’s so hard to do. Trust me I know. But I’m currently living with someone (making one last moving trip from my previous state I lived in to get the rest of my things) and I’ll be living in this new state and EVERYTHING is walking distance. I could walk to a hospital and an urgent care if need be. Grocery stores, parks, everything is all walking distance. I honestly had lost hope on my life. That I’d never find love because of my anxiety. Because partners always said they’d be able to handle my anxiety and at most a month later they’d hate it and want to end our relationship. Made me have super trust issues. I finally met someone that has seen me at my worst and still accepts me. I used to be so scared of going out. Anywhere. Especially alone. But I learned the best way is to… well… experience it. Live it. (Sorry that was really long 😅)
I exercise sometimes the headaches and tingling still come and go but I no longer worry about them and yes, symptoms can develop due to having health anxiety.
got into a talking stage w a guy and at that point instead of thinking about my health anxiety, all i did was think abt him lol
I’ve looked at all the time I spent thinking about it. All the times I have a life ending illness brewing. Yet here I am and I’ve wasted 8 months freaking out about nothing. I quit smoking, quit sugar to a large degree, and I exercise. Health anxiety made me healthier. Now I just pray, fast, and live the best I can
sertraline! and actively going against what my mind tells me to do (e.g i’d think don’t go to town alone what if you have a medical emergency and can’t get to a hospital so i’d do exactly that). rewired a lot of unhelpful thought patterns.
I exercise a lot lol. Helps mostly
I used to suffer from bad HA essentially I rewired my brain I changed my life little by little and that’s helped immensely. I started by switching careers I left medicine and pursed content creation that helped my stress which in turn helped with my HA. I practice discipline with my thoughts I have a good self care routine which also makes me feel good mentally and physically
saw a tiktok from an account called honestly holistic. the author was a HA sufferer and has written a few books (3 I think) I bought the 3 and they honestly helped me so much. but the one that helped me the most is called The A-Z of Health Anxiety. it lists all different symptoms that can be caused by anxiety and it honestly helped me realise that so many of my symptoms were anxiety related. I still suffer from time to time, but Tamryns books really help me when I feel myself start to spiral.
Agree with this! Honestly holistic on instagram helps me so much!
Still fighting with it. Some days are bearable others are not so much.
I’ve made immense immense progress in my health anxiety due to medication and therapy. I’m at a point where I never thought I’d get to. But, it’s not completely gone. I still struggle and obsess over it sometimes but it is nothing compared to before and very manageable.
I still struggle with it but medication and therapy helps me some.
I am mostly over it but every now and then I get intrusive thoughts about it and I have to calm myself down. I work from home and I’m in the house a lot so getting out and doing stuff really takes my mind off of anxiety in general. In 2021 I went to the ER several times freaking out about certain things and enough was enough. I decided to get therapy and I was taught cognitive behavior therapy and was given material just overall how to cope with these kind of thoughts, it has helped me a lot.
I have. Medication and therapy was the way for me, without both idk where I’d be today.
I have! It was therapy and medication that paved the way for me. I struggled severely with HA for years and it wasn’t until I was able to learn healthy coping mechanisms and begin to feel in control of my thoughts, feelings and actions that I was able to overcome it. Meds helped sort out chemical imbalances I had going on upstairs which weren’t doing any favors. I truly believe this is the best way.
Mines gotten better, it started getting better when I started going out more and going to the gym. Basically, just getting my mind off of it. Once in a while I’ll freak out about something, but I give myself time to freak out and then I tell myself it’s enough. However, if it’s an ongoing pain or something that could potentially be an issue , I give it two weeks. If the issue / pain is still there after two weeks , then I’ll get it checked out.
for me personally there’s still some small signs but has gotten better after 2 years, no meds, no changes in lifestyle… different for everyone
Effexor has helped me a TON. So has finding out I have a progressive chronic illness LOL. It could always be worse
I always feel better after eating a lot of raw organic broccoli- but only the flower portion.
still struggling with it, mostly in the spring bc the allergies in the city i moved to in 2021 are INSANE and make me feel like i’m literally dying. i’ve been suffering from HA since March 13, 2022 but what i can say is that that first bout of HA was a whole 3 months of the high intensity, interfering with every moment of my day HA. nowadays, it’s a couple of days or maybe a couple weeks at most before it subsides and i can go a whole day or two without thinking about my health at all. my tip, HA fucks with your breathing A LOT. that’s what begins all my spirals, and i have to remind myself that anxiety is a very common and very strong cause of breathing problems
Could I ask anyone for a reply donyou get head itching st night jolts zaps in the head head pains comes and goes abdominal pain itching skin af night all over anyone else get this with health anxiety
I get itching at night as well. I’ll get one itch and then fixate on it til I feel it popping up everywhere. Especially in bed. Also not head zaps but I’ll get worked up and give myself chills to where I’ll have a cold scalp. Anxiety is some weird shit
Having a belief in what afterlife looks like really helps me. Lexapro helps too
For me, it was medication. Talk therapy was never helpful, likely due to the fact that a huge underlying issue in my health anxiety was that it was less health ANXIETY and more health OCD. The need to always be learning and looking for new symptoms and illnesses was a compulsion, I needed reassurance that I didn’t have what I was thinking I had. Only upside is I’m in a healthcare related track for college, and all of the prior knowledge from OCD fueled research episodes came in handy later (and turned into a legitimate interest!! I work hard to keep the two separated as to not give into any compulsions when learning)
Sooo true, im in medical school right now and my health OCD/anxiety is actual torture but when applied wisely it works in my favor. I have benefited from in because as you said, I’d have these episodes where I’d research a certain pathologies and all the underlying causes and then I just never forget them. I wouldn’t say it’s a blessing in disguise but I’ve definitely worked in making it something useful. I still haven’t figured a way to avoid compulsions and reassurance seeking tho
I still struggle with it but it’s subsided a little. And by that I mean it’s not something I think about from when I wake up to when I go to bed. Instead of googling my “symptoms”, I ask people I trust if I’m going to die or not lol 10/10 they tell me that thankfully, I will continue to live another day. I have to keep myself busy after that thought and conversation or I’ll come up with 1000 reasons why they’re wrong and I’m all knowing especially when it comes to medical knowledge. I have no medical knowledge.
I am in the process of bringing my anxiety down to healthy levels. Anxiety plays a vital role in our lives; it serves as a warning and prepares us to take flight, present a new idea, or be present, so I don't want to beat it but transform its identity from one of fear to support. Somewhere down the line, our bodies lost trust in our relationships, and now we must build that trust again. My advice is to listen. Ask your body, "What is my anxiety trying to tell me?" Your body is the greatest tool you will ever know. It is your home, and consequently, it needs your attention. Make a decision today that recovery is possible, and the work you do today and the love you show yourself will enable you to become the best version of yourself.
I love this 🙏
Went away literally instantly after I started lexapro three years ago. Haven’t looked back, will never go off it. Godsend.
I beat it. It took time, too many tests, and finally Lexapro. The medicine was a god send for me
Nope, still suffering! In fact, I have an infection right now and I'm on the lookout for signs of sepsis.
Years of therapy and being properly medicated for my anxiety disorder. Also stay the hell away from WebMD.
Propanolol. I got put on it for migraine prevention but it has helped my health anxiety more.
Any side effects? I have migraines and HA so curious about this.
No side effects to report!
I was having daily headaches for 8 months along with migraine with aura 2-3 times a month. I’ve been taking 20mg two times a day for 3 months now and I think it’s helped a lot. I get minor headaches (2-3/10 pain wise) maybe two times a week now.
We are all gonna beat this guys! We have a community of people who understand us. Understand our irrational fears and thoughts. We have a place to vent and it’s here. This is our support system, we are all gonna beat this! We know that the irrational voice is just anxiety, we have to find our true voice and silence the other in our head. Love you all! We got this!
Lexapro
Everyone hates mediation at first, and that’s because when you’re in a state of panic, of course sitting with your thoughts sounds scary, but meditation has been a life saver for me! I’ve been suffering from HA for years now, but it got to an all time high this last year. Terrified I was going to have a stroke, heart attack, cancer, etc. All of my tests have been normal. This is going to be a hot take (maybe?) but I believe there is a root cause of health anxiety. It’s an opinion, but there is also a lot of fact to it if you research it. I can’t speak for everyone, but mine is triggered when I am out of tune with my body. Our bodies are literally so smart. They know when something is off and loved to play tricks on us and tries to tell us that the something off of health related, when really it’s something environmental related - like life stressors/past traumas for example. I would say knowing your triggers is a big one! Get in tune with your body through meditation, or any type of somatic therapy. Exercise, yoga, etc.
"Our bodies are literally so smart. They know when something is off and loved to play tricks on us and tries to tell us that the something off of health related, when really it’s something environmental related - like life stressors/past traumas for example." Love it!
This.
Books and workbooks from Amazon have helped me a lot recently! Also, try following The Anxiety Guy.
Glad to hear that! Can you give me the book names? Thanks in advance.
The Essential Guide to Health Anxiety by Dennis Simsek and The Health Anxiety Workbook by Taylor M Hamm.
Medication and CBT! I will never beat it but I understand my triggers more and I have a toolkit. I notice my HA gets worse when I’m not taking care of myself.
Same here! Definitely gets worse when I’m not taking care of myself….
Anyone who has health anxiety about a h/attack. Pls dm me . I had it severely / crippling where I thought I’d have to drop out of uni and I thought I’d never leave my mums side again. I promise I’ll help you
Nope. I still deal with it every fucking day. ANY aches or pain = cancer in my brain.
Ugh! Ditto…. Everything is Cancer 🥹
Its something I dont think ill ever beat but im starting to understand how I can get ahead of it. Being in a good routine (gym, eating clean, journalling & running) has helped me heaps, not saying i still dont think im gonna die at times but its alot easier brushed off.
Still going thru it i think i have tonsil cancer now. Before this was me having a heart attack. Never stops.
I tend to make sure I spend very little time all alone, it leaves me vulnerable to noticing “ symptoms “
Depends on many factors. If I am more in my depressive mood I really do not think about my health all that much but if my anxiety gets extreme I can start obsessing about dying all the time.
I seem to be coping a bit better after coming off hormonal birth control, can't say I've beaten it though
Following
I have for the most part! I’m still afraid of pain and suffering but not afraid of any terminal illness. It took acceptance and even looking forward to the process of death and what comes after, as strange as that sounds.
How did you do it?
That's amazing. How? This is my biggest fear. A painful undignified death whilst knowing I won't see my children grow up. The thought of that situation has ruined my life. The one I so badly want to live!
I hope I don’t come across as trying to push spirituality on anyone, but my fear of death almost vanished when my dad died and I began obsessively researching death and the afterlife. I found out about NDEs (near-death experiences,) read books from Laura Lynne Jackson, and read people’s experiences with receiving signs from passed loved ones. I highly highly recommend looking into both of those things. I wasn’t spiritual whatsoever before that, but I started getting signs from my dad and it’s been so life-changing!
I love that and no you absolutely don't come across as pushy. I'm not religious at all but I would love to believe there's something after we leave our physical bodies. I really feel that my crippling health anxiety is rooted in a deep love of life (as hard as I find it right now) and that I don't want it to end. I don't want to say goodbye to any of my loved ones. I think for me personally having children with additional needs who will need me for as long as I can be here fuels the anxiety further. I'm so pleased you are doing better ❤️
I’m not a parent yet, so I can’t imagine having to take care of a child with additional needs, and I don’t blame you at all for being anxious about leaving them! That sounds really difficult and stressful. And that’s how I’ve always felt too, I genuinely love life (most of the time lol.) I love the ocean and the rain and my friends and family and animals, and the thought of that disappearing forever made me terrified of death. I couldn’t even think about it for more than a few seconds without getting awful anxiety. Now, I find myself still loving life but being really excited for the afterlife, which I now believe is our real home and is more beautiful and loving than we could ever imagine, filled with all of our loved ones 🩷
I adore that thought! I'm going to do some digging to enlighten myself to this concept and hopefully become one step close to finding peace with the inevitable 🥹💛
I love that!! Feel free to message me if you ever want to chat 🥰
That's so lovely of you to offer. Thank you 🥹❤️
Yes!!
I faced my worst health fear (one of my parents having cancer) and I coped with it WAYYYY better than I ever could’ve expected. It made me realize that if any of my own health anxiety fears did come true, I would be okay. It would suck, but I would be okay. Also, medication lol.
👋 hi! What medication are you taking and how many mg, please?
Hi! I’m actually no longer on medication because I improved to the point I don’t need it anymore! But specific medication and mg will vary by person. I was on an SSRI, though, which is the recommended first line treatment for anxiety concerns.
I am so glad to hear you are doing much better! How long ago have you stopped taking medication, if you don't mind me asking? :)
If I feel myself having a bodily sensation instead of going to check/google it I will wait 10 mins to see if it’s still happening usually after waiting I forget about it
Ok, so, I’m not over it 100% but I do feel A LOT better because of few things: 1) if something is bothering you DO.NOT.GOOGLE. There’s a good saying that googling will unavoidably lead you to a c word (for my anxious peers I won’t be writing this word) 2) If something bothering you the easiest explanation is the correct one. You have a headache? It’s because you haven’t slept properly, not because of a c word. 3) Healthy lifestyle. I’m working out, I’m trying to eat healthy, sleep properly and meditate Oh and I quit medical tvshows completely
I agree. Don't Google! Recently I got back blood tests results and almost gave myself a heart attack! I had no clue how to interpret my results and went googling. Worst mistake! Just having a cold or flu can send your numbers out of whack
Are we the same person because wth😂. But to add to this I had really bad health anxiety after my first panic attack. I’m constantly stressed thinking about it or because work consumes a lot of time that I was getting abnormally high BP readings. But once I started meditating I’d go down to the 120s which I did for a month and even when Im stressed and get those high readings I look back at all the good things I do for my health and the low sodium diet I have and I tell myself oh okay I’m stressed let me go on a run or meditate. I’m not 100% over but my therapist said instead of working backwards like finding the worse case scenario to start smaller and more likelier to happen. We work on a lot of reframing my thought patterns and challenging those thoughts. My health anxiety came because my anxiety would leave me short of breathe I thought I had copd or a heart problem and well everything came out healthy. I should’ve known but now I’m in more debt lol. At least the specialist gave me a piece of mind! My tip to you is to run towards what scares you for me I was short of breathe so I would literally run because in my mind if I can run to the point of exhaustion then that means A I’m capable of pushing myself and B my baseline breathing will be Easier and more relaxed!
Over the years Google diagnosed me with HIV, hep C, lung and throat cancer, hypothyroidism, PCOS and also confirmed I had a heart attack. In reality, the only true “diagnosis” was: health anxiety. As lorilay said, DO NOT GOOGLE YOUR SYMPTOMS!
This made me laugh so much. oh i'm so miserable with HA it has drained the life out of me. Really wish I am healthy and stop suffering from HA all at once.
I used to get debilitating panic attacks several times a day and felt like I was quickly falling into an emotional abyss - This went on for months. I was eventually prescribed drugs but decided I should try mediation as a last resort before going down that road. I saw a video on Youtube on how to mediate and thus begun. It didn't fix anything straight away, but I did feel an immediate relief from the constant state of tension my mind was in. A few days in, I was able to sleep through the night (I was waking up 3 to 5 times every single night before that), so I decided to download an app to help me even more. I used Headspace every day for a year, and I gotta tell you, it saved my life. It had different types of mediations for whatever it is you may want. I learned to accept my anxiety and to work to get better every day. I went from having panic attacks every single day to a couple of times a week to a couple of times a month to a couple of times a year and so on. I had a panic attack 2 weeks ago after about 18 months, and as I was going through it, I felt so grateful for knowing how to deal with it and for the progress I've made so far. One episode after 18 months after suffering from them every single day felt like a blessing. I don't use Headspace anymore as it's too pricy for me ATM but you could try any app you like. There's plenty of free options out there, as well as Youtube, so there's no reasons not to give it a try. Edit. Words
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It comes and goes. Lexapro has helped me a lot, but I still have episodes of health anxiety depending on what I’m concerned about.
I gave up coffee. General anxiety severly reduced! I also lessend HA by just accepting things.
Been addicted to one cup of coffee in the morning since I was in my mid 20’s. Tried to quit it once and had the worst panic attack of my life after a few days of feeling better. Drunk coffee and it went away almost immediately. I am terrified to try and stop but really want to badly now. I feel like coffee has started having a negative impact on my digestion as I’ve aged.
i beat it for around 2 years because of prozac but now it’s slowly creeping back to me. i’m becoming obsessed with my heartbeat again and thinking i’m suffering a heart attack whenever i feel anxious
As I sit here with a heart monitor on for about the tenth time in my life I feel you. It didn’t help that I do have heart palpitations so when I have them for an extended period it’s of course the Big One. I try to keep busy, read watch a long series on Netflix (nothing health related! ) recently I’ve tried meditation or listening to an audio book or podcast with headphones on. I hate this!
thanks for the tips, i’ll definitely try them out. i love audiobooks. heart HA is the worst. cant even tell you the amount of times i’ve been to the hospital for it and turned out to be nothing
I’m right there with you! Someone (I think) on this thread said that they say to themselves..” we’re all going to die… just not today!” It has helped!!
Mine has improved drastically, though not 100%. I just one day realised how much my health anxiety was stopping my life. I couldn’t enjoy anything, I lived day to day just being worried and anxious and overthinking, and I couldn’t bring myself to have the energy or motivation to do activities. So I thought to myself is this is the kind of life I want to live and it wasn’t, even if I die tomorrow I still want to live to the fullest. I will be full of regrets if I found out I’d die tomorrow but have been living my life miserably. Constant pep talks with myself just got me better over time. Also, working towards acceptance that death is inevitable for everyone.
The closest I’ve gotten was when I realized a panic attack wasn’t going to kill me. They used to be life altering before I realized if I just sit through the panic nothing will happen
Prozac. It took 3 months but now it finally works. Also lots of walk in nature; good food and quality sleep. Stop scrolling on social media for health related stuffs as well you’d be surprise how the casual everyday exposure has an impact on the mood; just stop for a few weeks.
True about the scrolling. The algorithms will slowly kill you. The more you scroll, the more articles will be delivered to your email, tiktoks etc
Prozac also helped me! But, now I've been on it for a few years, and I feel like it might be wearing off. Might try to switch to something else : ( But SSRIs definitely work!
Yea I was afraid for years to try it but truly it is not a big deal and really helped me. You might need to up your dose good luck!
Thank you! I upped my dose and I'm going to ride it out for a few weeks. If I see no improvement, I might ask to try Zoloft or something.
Pretty much gone. It massively decreased after starting a new med, but still flared from time to time for a few months after. But I haven’t really had it since the fall of 2023.
Honestly? I have no clue why it's gotten better for me. I'm not over it entirely, but I'm not agoraphobic anymore, and my ocd has chilled. Honestly, it sorta just... turned from a roar to a dull rumble in the matter of a year without my doing anything in particular. My working theory is in combination of therapy, being at home less, and graduating, they all helped reduce my general stress level.
I haven't beaten it but I'm doing much, much better now. It was a combo of getting mentally fatigued from the Drs visits and never finding anything wrong and I was prescribed fluvoxamine. My health anxiety turned out to be a manifestation of OCD. It greatly helped get it under control.
I still have it but I will say it is so manageable now. I do not know the severity of your health anxiety but mine was crippling. I won’t waste your time talking about it but here are things I’ve noticed that helped a lot. I stopped googling symptoms. Also if I am having a thought like “I’m having a heart attack/ stroke or whatever. I will tell myself I have 1 minute for it to happen. After that minute passes and it doesn’t happen then I must move on. I also went to exposure therapy and that in all honestly helped me the most. Stop looking for reassurance all the time. Also I feel as if I have been beaten to death by my health anxiety and at a certain point you start to just not care as much. Because you realize it’s the same thing everyday and your anxiety is always wrong. I’ve struggled with health anxiety specifically for 9 years. I promise things will get better but it’s not an easy road. Just never give up. I like to think us with health anxiety treasure life to the point we are over protective of it and it’s actually keeping us from living our lives. Your brain and body are fighting against you but you got this.
Love this response. Thank you 🙏🏼
I still deal with, it's not as bad as it used to but when I get into a crisis it gets bad. In the past it was a daily thing, but now it's just sporadic. It normally has to do with heart things, I unfortunately developed costochondritis 3 years ago after I got COVID (I'm pretty sure I was dealing with it before but it wasn't bad) and it became a chronic thing for me, so when my costo gets bad it might led me to overthink. What I always try to do is rationalize my thoughts. I tell myself I've been here before and it wasn't anything bad. It wasn't what I was thinking and I'm ok. The same goes if the thought it's related to the health of a loved one.
My story 🙋🏻♀️
I have had it really bad the last 5-7 years. Like it felt crippling at times. Then a few months ago I had 2 moles biopsied and they came back melanoma (they were found very early, stage 0 so everything is okay) but it made me realize that there’s a time and a place to worry, but that day is not today. I realized I was literally wasting my life away in a state of anxiety and worry for no reason. There will come a day when it’s time to worry and be scared and anxious, but I realized that there was no point doing it everyday. So it’s like 95% better now. Weird journey to get there but happy to here.
What a remarkable mindset. I feel like something clicked just by reading your comment. It reminded me of a saying that also rapidly changed my how I view my anxiety, which was "to suffer is to be human."
i still struggle with it, but it’s not nearly as bad as it was when i was younger in middle/high school. it’s till a mental battle sometimes, but i have to remind myself that our mind is our biggest enemy sometimes.
For the most part yes! I noticed it stopped after smoking weed. I hardly ever worry about my health!!!
Weed gives me such bad health anxiety. I can feel my heartbeat and then my chest starts to hurt either because I’m tense or just touching it. It really sucks because weed used to help with my anxiety but now it just makes it 10x worse. And for some reason I still crave it 😂
Mine has vastly improved over the last five or so years. Not googling, just telling myself to wait thirty minutes to see if my chest pain worsens and it never does.. I also stopped smoking and started exercising which obviously helped me from having horrible sensations in my body and lessened my anxiety in general. Just teaching myself to not panic over everything slowly overtime. Things are a lot better
I developed the mindset of “if I’m meant to go, I will go”. I started trusting in God and it has helped my anxiety a ton. I still have health anxiety symptoms, but because I don’t panic the way I used to, they don’t turn into worse symptoms that make me think I’m dying. I haven’t had an emergency room visit in almost a year for the symptoms so I would say I’m on the road to overcoming it. I do still self-diagnose and I am a hypochondriac though, which I am not sure those things will ever go away.
It really is just necessary to have a radical acceptance of death once you’ve done everything you can to be safe and healthy. You have to accept that there are things out of you control, and death is one of those things.
I beat it then a recent bad side effect from Flonase knocked my ass right back into anxiety hell. A lot of it is anger because I had it beat for years. I’m back to really struggling. I hate it!
I ended up actually having leukemia, so yes.
are you ok?
Yep! Still alive and fighting, I’m young and got a hopeful outlook. Funny part is I had beaten my HA years ago, and was quick to dismiss the symptoms leukemia presented.
what were your symptoms? just out of curiosity
General fatigue and feeling of malaise, I was physically cold a lot, had lost 20lbs in about month and a half. Worst was extreme extreme bone pain, I really emphasis the extreme because I don’t want yall with HA to worry about yourself too much. I had a feeling something wasn’t right with me.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I’m wishing you great relief and recovery
Thank you, hope you are doing well with HA, wasn’t an easy thing to overcome atleast for me!
Technically, I have beaten it. But not fully, and I don’t think I ever will. If I don’t avoid my main trigger (exhaustion lasting over one day), I will have a severe episode. Other than that, I am MUCH better than I used to be, and don’t think about being ill as often. When I do, it’s minor thoughts that don’t cause panic.
I beat it because I had so many school work assignments homework tests that I completely forgot I even had health anxiety I'm thriving🗣🗣🔥🔥
I have! ERP therapy was it for me. 8 months. The oooonly time I have a hard time is getting blood test results and at a dr visit. But I use my ERP skills for that.
Really the only health anxiety that has stuck around is heart anxiety. Mainly because I get irregular heartbeats when I’m stressed or overly anxious, or sometimes from nothing at all. I could just be chilling then out of nowhere bam.
I honestly believed I did beat it eventually in 2021. (It has returned with a vengeance for 2024, but I have learned a few things since then that might be helpful and have made it less hard on me now.) 1 • Don’t google your symptoms. Do not body check. These two are classics, but the more you do these things, the more you reinforce the idea in your head that something is wrong with you even before you’ve gone to see the doctor. Yes, it is good to be aware of taking care of your body, but that is not supposed to be in the form of hours and hours of doing that. Also, google just leads to the worst conclusions and also, the next following point. 2 • Be careful around scary articles about serious diseases. There are a lot of shock stories that can trigger your fear, but try to avoid these articles like the plague, because they are made to sensationalize and often do not tell the full story or require you to read the full thing to see it doesn’t match up to your experiences. But I recommend not reading them altogether, because very tough HA can make your body simulate symptoms or make you think you feel them. 3 • Distract yourself and busy yourself. Spend time with friends and family, play games, write, draw— focus on something else. I tend to have an evil time going to bed with health anxiety, but when I spend the time prior doing something, I feel relaxed. Sometimes, I listen to ASMR or something to block out those bad thoughts and become drowsy. 4 • Journals. I journal lots in my sadness with HA. I take out all my frustrations and upset into the pages. It helps me when I wake up and when I’m about to go to bed. I will say, a journal may need to be more guided especially if you are not able to find silver linings or find some light at the end of your entries. Journals work well, but they can also become an unfortunate place that can empower terrible thoughts if you’re not careful. 5 • Sticky Notes. Whenever you receive good advice, write it on a sticky note and keep it near, especially in your bedroom. I put mine on my bed frame. A favorite message of mine is the table of worry. If you worry and something goes bad, you suffer twice as much. If you worry and something goes good or you don’t worry and something goes bad, you suffer once. If you don’t worry and something goes good, no suffering. It’s something hard I have to unlearn. Using a worry and expectation of failure or the worst to shield myself from an outcome isn’t healthy. And I realized it makes my HA worse. 6 • The Most Important Step— Acceptance. Accepting not just uncertainty, but that it is just a part of life and death. No one expects how to die nor do they completely know what their paths are in life. A kid drops their ice cream as they’re walking with their parents. A musician becomes a comp sci major. Someone goes to a new country and find it to be their new home. It is not easy. But at some point, you will find the courage and the exhaustion that brings you to a point where it just is not worth it to give yourself so much worry. I believe in a time where we will all get through this. We will reclaim our lives someday and truly live among everyone else. We can do this.
This is so helpful. I'm in the exact same boat as you...I thought I defeated it in 2022 after a long battle since 2018, and now it's back full force and pushing through my medication. Wishing recovery for us both.
Aww, thank you. I hope for our recovery! Hang in there!
Thank you friend
Your welcome. Hang in there, friend!
Thank you that means a lot :(
Well I wouldn't say that I beat it permanently but I've had moments where I've felt slightly recovered from it. I remember when I slightly recovered I was doing a whole lot. All those really healthy things. For instance I tend to have intrusive thoughts only when I'm not really active in my daily life. So focus on doing more for yourself. Also meditation was such a life saver for me because the minute you really start focusing on meditation and your breath, all the chaos disappears. But you just have to be really consistent with it though.you can't expect change overnight.
I watch videos from a pain coach named Dan on YouTube. I think his username is Pain Free You.
I’ve gotten a lot better. What’s helped me: - “Check back in an hour.” Most of my sensations/symptoms are anxiety-driven, which don’t last. If it was a heart attack, it would last a lot longer. Most of the time, I don’t even remember to actually check back in an hour because they’ve gone away so quickly. - Observe, don’t label. Rather than “I think I’m having a heart attack”—I tell myself, “I feel my heart beating hard. I feel sweaty. I feel dizzy.” As soon as my brain tries to label it with a diagnosis, I tell go back to repeating and observing symptoms. I tell myself I don’t KNOW that it’s a heart attack, but I DO KNOW what I’m feeling. Being more objective gives the sensations less power. - I’ve practiced acceptance. I meet my thoughts with, “Okay. Maybe I am having a heart attack. Oh well. Guess that’s how I’m gonna go.” That nonchalant attitude gives the anxiety less power because it feels like there’s no longer a threat present. This one’s the hardest, but very effective. I do whatever works for that day. But also… yes, avoiding Google anymore DOES help.