My health anxiety story
Posted , 3 users are following.
It all started a few years ago when I felt as though my breasts were super sensitive and I felt tiny little lumps everywhere. It wasn't until 2 doctors visits and an ultrasound that I was told it was just many little cysts and that's it's normal for some to have. So after that reassurance, my health anxiety scare went away, for just a little while.
I began becoming pretty nervous to drive, I felt as though I was not able to breathe and even felt as though my vision was messing with me. The road began to spin slowly and I would have to convince myself that it was just my mind playing tricks on me. However, then I would get these new headaches I haven't gotten before. Almost everyday, I would even track them down to see if there was a pattern. So with all of this happening I was convinced the worst, that I had something wrong with my brain. I didn't have any doctors visits and thankfully this horrible heath anxiety scare went away a few on its own.
The next scare was one day while sitting down, I noticed a hard lump on the side of my second toe, of course I was thinking the worst. So I made an appointment to my universities' clinic and got xrays done. The doc said she didn't see anything, that didn't really convince me. But thankfully the lump went away on its own.
Now, I'm going through another health anxiety scare. A couple of months ago I had a bad bacterial infection in my throat. Took two rounds of antibiotics and after 2 weeks I finally felt better, until I felt a small moveable lymph node on the side of my neck. I went to one doc who said he feels it but it's too small to be anything serious and that I would need to go to an ears nose and throat doctor to see what it is. After googling things I came across horrible illnesses that cause symptoms like night sweats itching and swollen lymph nodes. So then I began developing those symptoms. Is a brain capable of doing that even though you truly are not sick? Anyway, I ended up going to an ent doc and he said he couldn't really feel it but did an ultrasound and saw nothing. However I'm still not convinced yet.
I'm posting this to see if others are maybe going through the same, or have some advice. As you can see, just when I thought health anxiety was behind me, it always finds a way to creep back in.
0 likes, 4 replies
john47751 trish37413
Posted
Anxiety is very new to me and its extremely scary and confusing. The best advice I can give you is abit of a two fold answer. The bulk of this is MENTAL. Its a battle between your mind, your feelings and you personally. The problems you've been having hit such a cord with you that it litterally ( parden my wording ) scared the sh*t out of you. A severe hit like that mentally will bring forward allot of blocked mental feelings you've not really thought much about or locked away in your mind and all of that plus the fear you experienced when you started fearing the health problems you may have hit you like a freight train.
The answer isn't easy. You need to seek help from a counselor and you need to seek help from yourself...yes yourself. What you did was scare yourself so bad that you hurt youself but fear not, all hope is not lost and you can recover from this. learning to not fear the fear is much easier said then done but simply trying to take your mind off of it by doing or just simply saying things to yourself will go a long way. There is NO "quick fix" for anxiety BUT you can and will recover from this if you truly want to get better. You just need to put in the effort....it will be hard but it CAN be done.
I wish you the best friend...best of luck
trish37413 john47751
Posted
john47751 trish37413
Posted
You don't need to thank me. I'm only paying it forward. A few weeks back I came here a shell of my former self. I was frightened beyond belief do to never having experienced anxiety before and the anxiety had a death grip on me.
I made my post here litterally begging for help and I got allot more kindness and and advice then I ever thought I would get. Now I'm here almost daily just trying to help those that were in the same spot I was. Its been very therapeutic for me and has really helped with my anxiety.
I truly wish you luck friend. This will be a very hard and long road to recovery but you are NOT alone and you are among friends here. Always remember that you will recover. You'll have your good days and bad days but those good days will become more frequent as the bad days will decrease over time. Just keep remembering you'll get better and as time goes on you will.
Daniela084245 trish37413
Posted
I'm going through a similar situation. Around the beginning of November, I started having these headaches, and it was all due to googling my symptoms. At that time i thought something really bad was happening to me, like a stroke, or a tumor. Ive even went to the er, but turned out to be just a migraine. theyve send me to a neurologist just to make sure everything is fine ( tomorrows my appointment) But thank God I came across this website, people have been in the same/similar situation. So now when I have a headache or feel theres something wrong with health I just reassure myself that's its just all anxiety causing all this. I wish you the best of luck and hoped this helped.