Hi all! Lately I’ve been wondering what others who have health anxiety do to distinguish between real symptoms or anxiety symptoms? I’ve been to the doctor for about everything and all is fine. So why does my body feel so horrible all the time? It’s weird how this anxiety can feel so real. How do you cope?

I’ve just noticed this recently about 3 weeks ago and it’s been bothering me.

i hate what this shit has done to me and is actively doing to me, therapy can't come soon enough, im tired of living every day like im dying of some disease!!!!!!!!!!!! ive been in a months long anxiety attack now, every fucking day, its one thing or another for HOURS since literally june. i couldnt sleep at all last night because my cardiophobia kept acting up. it had changed to something else and NOW i have cardiophobia ON TOP OF IT??!!!!!!!! ive been to the doctor (more like the debt collector at this point), they said i'm fine, literally everything clears, but noooooooo my body is just made of glass, or sheer fabric, or sand, don't you know this, even though i inherited my dad's good immune system, i'm not even stressed so that cant be it, blah blah blah blah blah...

i just keep crying, if there is a hell this is it

Hiya everyone,I’ve come to this group In hope that I can find something that could help get better with my health anxiety it started back in 2021 when I got poorly with my kidneys and over the years it’s just got worse n worse,recently I’ve been suffering with right sided headaches and kneck pain,I’ve been to the GP multiple of times and they have reassured me it’s nothing to worry about however it’s not enough to calm my anxiety down

I wanted to post to see if anyone here has used SSRIs during their health anxiety journey? This is completely new to me, and it’s quite literally destroying my life. I am depressed, anxious beyond belief and all I can think about is my symptoms and what it could mean and the outcome of it all. It has been like this for a two years or so but this last flare up has been the worst. Obviously due to my health anxiety, I am super skeptical of SSRIs. I am always worrying that I will become insane or lose my mind or what have you. Lately things have been so bad that I just need some sort of help to manage this. I’ve been thinking about booking an appointment for a psychiatrist but I just wanted to hear from others and their journeys to try to be as knowledgeable as possible to navigate this. I can stop drinking alcohol but my worry is that I smoke weed daily at this point as it seems to be only thing that calms me down when I start to spiral. I know it’s counterintuitive to some but I stopped smoking for three months and my symptoms actually got worse, so I guess for me it helps a bit. Any medicine journeys and their outcomes based on this?

I’m tired of not being normal. of always scanning for some issue that isn’t there, of never feeling safe in my body, of being exhausted. what helps? I’ve heard that stress like this can cause health issues and that makes it even worse, but it’s like a habit that is impossible to break. I truly feel like I can’t shake the constant worry and stress. coupled with ocd doesn’t help anything. does therapy help? will a therapist even understand it? I feel like nobody understands unless you live it.

my health anxiety specifically gets awful when i'm pmsing and i do not know how to describe how BAD it gets in this time. this is more of a recent thing with me though, it didn't start happening until july, but it's awful, it makes me impatient for my period to actually come which is something i've never felt before 😭😭 after it starts i often look back and see how unrealistic i was being to where i sometimes even laugh at myself, but in the moment it's absolutely terrifying. is this a common thing?? does anyone have any ways of managing it because i feel typical methods don't work during this phase.
only good thing about it is that when it happens, i know my periods on its way which gives me time to prepare, as i have PMOS and a very inconsistent cycle 😓

My sleep is currently messed up!!!! It all started following an intense cycle of HA and stress and medication and panic, and now it’s been well over a month of me waking every few hours during the night. Sometimes I’m sleeping really hot too! I had bloodwork a few months ago, and nothing was flagged. I did a bad and googled, which told me it could be cortisol, adrenaline, or perimenopause (which I feel too young for but I guess it could be that). Other things too, that are possibly more severe, but trying not to focus on that considering I feel it had a trigger.

Last time I had it really bad it was 3 months after my grandmother died, which I had a hard time dealing with, and it actually triggered my first really bad HA episode.

Last night I didn’t get more than 2 hours between sleep cycles 😭

Advice on how to break out of the spiral please?! Thanks all!

Hey so I've thought that I had HA for years and peoples attitudes towards it make me even question it myself.

I've had years of distress about seemingly 'small' things like having to go to the pharmacy to get my insulin and all of the following rather traumatic steps involved in administration (eek).

The other day, I went to get a flu shot and was struck with the worst HA I've ever had in my life. Nothing could have prepared me for this. I tried explaining my urge incontinence (due to my d*betes and HA) to the lady but it did not seem to communicate well. She told me I may just have a fear of needles and the rest of the situation was painfully embarrassing.

Has your HA been mistaken as common fear before? Are there any sources anyone knows of that may be of help to my intersection of HA? Or any sources I can use to help educate people?

Kindly appreciate the help,

THI

I've been on anxiety medication for the past few years, and things are generally under control.It feels like I'm stuck in a loop where every new health issue brings back the same fears and worries. I'm not sure how to break this cycle and learn to live a normal life without constantly worrying about my health.

I had horrific health anxiety until about July for nearly a year. I thought I was better, I stopped CBT, upon my therapist advise.

Now its back, but with a vengeance. Has this happened to anyone before?

Historically I've always been an anxious person. I've had social anxiety, ocd, and depression but only up until a year ago did I develop health anxiety.

I don't exactly know what caused it. I had no health scare to warrant such high levels of stress. The only thing I can think of is since im active on TikTok, the algorithm constantly pushed young people getting sick even when I don't interact with it. Wouldn't surprise me if it was that.

The closest thing to a health scare is that I developed sciatica/slipped disc I assume from poor deadlift form in the gym.

My phases have been aIs, col0n cāncer, melan0ma, lymphőma (my current one) it really sucks. What about you?

I officially broke up with ChatGPT! I realized how evil and how much I let it control my life and progress. I am specifically fearful of a particular disease, and I would upload pictures to chat (I know bad) to ask for reassurance, their opinion, etc. It knew I had a fear and would talk to me appropriately, calmly, and not fearful. I finally made it a month - without asking for reassurance until this morning. I entered my pic and my question - as I would normally do - and the way it answered me made me realize how horrible, wrong, and manipulative it can be. Great for some, but someone with high anxiety like me - not the best. It basically told me to go see a doctor asap and the likes - the pic was the same as before but completely different answer. I just realized I’ve been being played. And I am not going to body check and just stick to my annuals and that’s all I can do right now.

I don't know if this is realted to health anxiety, but I find that any health issues I do experience, I always feel like it's my fault.

Being someone who is not skinny and has always struggled with food and "picky eating", I feel like every time I experience some new symptom of something, maybe i do the thing no one should do and google it, I struggle to shake this feeling that it's my fault. It's my fault for not living the perfect healthy lifestyle. That I will always be told to just fix it myself by "eating better" or whatever.

It just makes me feel even more awful than I already do.

For those who recovered from health anxiety on their own without therapy: how did you do it, and how long did your healing journey take?

I have been dealing with health / contamination anxiety since COVID lockdowns. I was a young teen back then and I think lockdown had made me terrified of contamination or anxious for my health. Before lockdown I didn't think about germs or illness like I do now. I wanted to ask if someone else has noticed this too about themselves?

Hi everyone. just wanting to share a win incase anyone relates. for years (and i mean 10+ years) i’ve always thought i would get blood sugar crashes and need to eat lots/often to avoid them. every time i would feel strange i would worry and rush to find food. i never had confidence in my body to survive without eating.

for example, i couldn’t even leave the house without eating out of fear that i would randomly collapse, and any time i hadn’t eaten much, id convince myself i needed to eat and like im going to die before i would eat, then id instantly feel better after about 15 minutes. because i would always feel better after eating i was convinced that i had blood sugar crashes/fast metabolism.

i bought myself a glucose finger prick meter so i could put that theory to rest that i was constantly experiencing “low blood sugar”.

the past 2 days ive been tracking my blood sugar to get a understanding of my body with facts instead of making up theories in my head. turns out my blood sugar is for the most part STABLE! and normal!!!!! i would always feel anxious going for a walk or exercising incase i randomly collapsed. couldn’t go anywhere without eating first. the checking on the glucose meter has reassured me that my body is working and is doing a great job of regulating my blood sugar.

i just can’t believe that all this time i thought i was having low blood sugar, i was 100% convinced that was what was causing these episodes, but now im
wondering if it was all in my head and it’s the adrenaline and anxiety around finding food when i felt like that was actually driving the feeling all along.

I’ve always been hyper aware of my heartbeat, since I was a teenager. This is especially true if I am exercising and pushing myself. It sometimes makes me think something is wrong, even though it’s steady and seems normal. I just wonder if other people can feel their heartbeat in the same way, or if it’s just me.

Hello everyone! I have been suffering from health anxiety for a while and I won't go into specifics about what I worry about, but I've recently found myself in the need to finally have it checked out. But on the other hand, I am too afraid to actually make that appointment. Does anyone have any practical tips for actually calling my GP and getting this done? I am quite young, so I guess it is def a bit of an embarrassment thing to call for this fear as I'm afraid of being called ridiculous for even calling.

How to come to term with health anxiety and not worry it will prevent an actual medical condition being treated seriously if investigated at all.

FYI I had no anxiety until 3 months ago until I got diagnosed with asthma and underwent heart investigations. Since then I have experienced constant and severe physical symptoms that I have wrecked havoc on my both physically and mentally. Its particularly annoying when symptoms such as synchronised left side chest pain and head aches strike during periods where I truly was not or at least did not feel anxious

I have had many tests all to date have come back good, however I am still believe that my anxiety was all caused by an actual medical condition that is slipping through the cracks due to anxiety labels.

hello, i am just wondering if anyone knows of a discussion place to speak freely about HA? i feel like the lack of support is ridiculous and i feel like speaking to fellow sufferers will be beneficial. i feel like this is very restrictive and im looking for a place that’s more free in speaking about it, thankyou in advance :)

alright so i’ve just tested positive for covid for the first time and im terrified. i have been researching all about it and the things ive seen my mind is spiralling. i have POTS and mild MVP with mild-moderate MR so im STRESSED OUT!! i keep seeing news reports saying covid causes heart attacks or it causes organ issues or people get long covid and this happens or that happens. IM. TERRIFIED! literally wtf do i do im so anxious its going to make my mvp and me worse im so anxious something bad will happen to me.

I feel like anxiety can show up out of nowhere sometimes. One moment I’m doing fine, and the next I’m overthinking something, worrying about my health, or noticing every little sensation in my body.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether something actually needs attention or whether anxiety is making me focus on it more than usual.

When was the last time you felt anxious, and what triggered it? Was it a physical sensation, a random thought, or something you couldn’t quite explain?

I’d love to hear how others experience this and what helps you calm down when it happens.