Health Anxiety is ruining my life! Is my mind playing tricks on me?

Thank you for your kind response. It's nice to know I am not alone. I wouldn't wish this on anyone!

I have a therapist and I take medication. I feel like I may need to talk to someone who specializes in anxiety. Seeing my therapist can be helpful. It depends on the day. You are right. If you don't have anxiety you don't understand. I hate it when people say things like "it's all in your head". If I could change it I definitely would. I have another coworker who has health anxiety so I get it! On the other hand, I see how irrational she can be and I am the same way. I think "why would she worry about that? ". Then I realize I do the same thing so I can see both sides.

You can only do you best. We are human. You are very observant and thats good. You can change it but it is a slow step by step..day by day thing with lots of therapy and awareness to get from pont a to point b. Hang in there and dont let other people opinons make you feel worse or bad about yourself. You are working on yourself and thats fatastic.

I definitely have physical symptoms. It took years for me to accept the fact that it was anxiety. I have xanax and I take a mood stabilizer. My doctor thinks I get slightly manic at times. The medication is working as far as my mood goes so I guess she is right. I took zoloft once and I thought I was going crazy! I definitely need to focus on retraining my brain.

Reading your comment sounds exactly like me! My doctor told me that if she could prescribe "no googling" she would. I Google everything and I panic more! It's like I get inside my head and I can't get out. I can't overlook a single pain. My mind races to try to figure out what it is. Then I Google and the first thing that seems to come up is cancer. I try to focus on something else but the thoughts are always there. I want you to know that you are not alone and if there is anything I can do to help let me know. Have you talked to someone? Even though I don't like to take medication it does help. It takes the edge off so to speak. The mind is so powerful and I wish my mind would give me a break. I bet you feel the same way.

Doctors now have a term for all of that googling. It's called Cyberchondria.

How much Better I felt after reading your comment knowing that I'm not alone .

I google everything though I'm scared of knowing the symptoms still I do read cause I'm conscious about my health , and next thing I do is to start crying everyone my family and friends are telling me that I'll be fine but I just can't stop I wish to be normal like before not caring of what I think , I have to think every word I say I feel so negative , specially in the morning I get weird feeling in my heart and nausea .

Yes I have been to a doctor and I'm on Medicines they helped me a lot but still I can't stop over thinking , I get nightmares and i think they are throwing some hints that something disastrous is about to happen with me .

We are so similar! A few weeks ago when I found a weird brown spot I took a picture of it and zoomed in on it. The spot had irregular edges and different shades of brown which can be melanoma. I looked up brown spots for days! It took 10 days to get into the dermatologist and I remember freaking out and crying uncontrollably because I was sure I had melanoma. I wanted to go to urgent care but I knew I needed to see a dermatologist. Finally, the spot was looked at and it was nothing. I am almost 42 and I have lots of freckles. It wasn't a freckle but I guess it's not a big deal. That's one example of what anxiety does to me. I have lost friends over my anxiety. People just don't understand. I am here if you have any questions or need some advice. My coworker has it too. She says I give great advice. I wish my advice would work on me. I try to practice what I preach but it is hard.

I do SAME! I keep on checking my body parts to be assure that there isn't anything wrong with them , I hated going to a doctor but now any minor pain I start panicking what would it be now so I just ask my parents to take me to dr immediately .

Next month I'm going on a vacation , and i doubt I would make it , I always feel it's useless to buy things when i can't even use them I always worry that i won't be there why ? I always feel so negative and create scenarios what everyone would be saying after I died and all , like I feel i can't get happiness .

Thanks a lot felt relieved .

One thing that has helped me lately is instead of googling symptoms I Google symptoms of health anxiety. It's weird but it helps. It just makes me feel better because I realize a lot of my symptoms are from health anxiety. One article said that when you have health anxiety you are hyper focused on physical symptoms so any pain that is normal would basically be magnified and you feel every little twinge. It's interesting and mostly true in my case.

Same here , every pain i get I just write it down along with the word ' Anxiety ' .

Do we avoid our friends ? Cause I loved social media and I hate it now I don't feel like talking to my friends or even meeting them .

I do avoid my friends! I always find an excuse so I dont have to meet them. I can't focus because I am always thinking of my anxiety symptoms but I don't want to bring it up because they don't understand.

Exactly , but my anxiety keeps on changing , like sometimes it's health anxiety , sometimes I just keep on stressing and thinking sometimes I feel depressed it's so confusing.

Me too! Yet it's never two at the same time. I am either depressed or anxious. Although stress can trigger my anxiety but the depression and anxiety are never at the same time.