Health anxiety ruining my life looking for advice/help can't cope
Posted , 97 users are following.
I'm 25 years old and for the past 3/4 weeks i think I've been suffering from health anxiety. First I was having night sweats and google made me think this was the start of a serious illness. Next I had chest pains which I thought were strained muscles but it lasted for a few weeks and I convinced myself this was serious. I now have a pain in my left breast and now I'm convinced I have breast cancer and I'm loosing the plot. I have two small children (aged 2 and 10 weeks) this is running my life and my partner thinks I'm mad. Every little symptom I get I google it and it makes me worry so much more. I've had my left breast checked and it's okay, also had an ECG and that was fine. I go from being fine one minute to panic and google searching the next.
I don't know what to do. I'm so upset and keep thinking about my children now growing up with a mum.
The pain I have is like a lingering pain from the back of my breast, sometimes i feels hot and the pain travels to my back. I'm also now worried about my other breast because the nipple has inverted tonight so I'm thinking this is serious 😟
Please is anyone having the same symptoms. Please help me x
7 likes, 122 replies
julie97097 nicola_57830
Posted
I'm late joining the conversation. Ive had health anxiety for almost 18 yrs. I really thought I was past the worst of it until recently. My health anxiety originally started after becoming a mom to my first child. Now I have 6 children total and my biggest fear is leaving them. I lost my mom at 17 after a 3 year battle with cancer. I am obsessed with there being something wrong with me even though I've had every test imaginable ran. I was in the ER last night and had blood work, ekg, cardiac monitor, ct scan, everything. All came back ok. But I woke up feeling lightheaded and palpitations so I'm right back to obsessing. This is truly a miserable way to live. However I know it got better in the past so I'm hopeful it will get better again .
nikki683 julie97097
Posted
I am in the same boat and don't know what to do anymore. I had a baby 7 months ago and what should be the most amazing time of my life has been so hard. I have always suffered aniexty and health aniexty but since having my son I'm on an entire new level. I don't know what to do anymore. I have heart palpitations, chest pains, arm pain, shoulder pain, pins and needle feelings and even an electric like zapping feeling in my face and chest. But the worst symptom of all is the shortness of breath. I feel like I can not get a breath in at all which in turn makes me dizzy and also makes me feel like something is stuck in my throats I can't clear. It makes me so nervous. The strange thing is it happens out of the blue and comes and goes Throughout the day. I swear I am still not convinced it's nothing. The other symptoms I can live with and are most likely aniexty but this shortness or breath is horrible and feels different. I even wheeze sometimes and it happens when I am in a "safe" place with my "safe" people. I think my aniexty makes it worse but it starts somewhere else. I have been in and out of the docs and has a chest X-ray done an ekg and a pulmonary lung function test and all came back fine. What could it be??? Is it really just aniexty??? I can't take it anymore! I want to enjoy my life and my son and stop thinking of just this and being so scared
nikki683
Posted
I also see a therapist once a week and am not on any medications for it. Maybe it's time I am?
katie3699 nikki683
Posted
katie3699 nicola_57830
Posted
I'm sorry that you're having some health issues. Schedule an appt. with your regular MD before taking anything you read on the internet seriously.
Sending hugs in the meantime..
rohit68664 nicola_57830
Posted
jane200711 rohit68664
Posted
I am so sorry you're going through this. Trust me when I say, I know how you're feeling and you are not alone. Health anxiety ruled my thoughts for a solid year and a half of my life. It was awful, it felt unbearable. I had convinced myself I had everything from MS, brain tumor, lung cancer, colon cancer, skin cancer, etc. I would project stories I heard of others onto myself and assume what happened to them would happen to me.
The extreme state of anxiety this put me in cause me to have ringing in my ears, headaches, shooting pains throughout my body, stomach issues, heart palpitations and dizzy spells.
Personally, my healing journey started when I spoke to my Doctor and he prescribed me Effexor. I was extremely anxious about taking medication so it took me two months to fill the prescription. I went into his office because I was had been bitten by a tick and thought I had Lyme Disease...he noticed I hadn't filled my prescription yet and I explained I was nervous it would cause me to have a terrible reaction. He assured me it was safe and said anxiety was doing worse damage to my body than anything. So I decided to take it.
After two weeks I felt different. I was a little calmer but felt like myself still. After a month I still had tendancies to think irrational thoughts but was better able to reason through them. After three months, my body finally felt as it had before I had anxiety. My symptoms of stress vanished.
I realized I didn't want to be on medication forever so I decided to start seeing a counselor about one year into taking Effexor. She counseled me through slowly going off the medicine. We talked through my fears together, as they popped up. She gave me breathing techniques to try when I felt anxious. I felt pretty confident weening off my medicine about 15 months after starting it.
For me, I felt I had perspective again. Being on medication allowed me the space in my head to control my thoughts again and reason through my worries. Before I was on medicine...it felt like I was in a tidal wave... a tsunami of panic, fear, worst case scenarios and the worst part is it felt REAL. I didn't just wonder if those things would happen... It felt as though I KNEW they would happen.... That's what made me feel so out of control.
My counselor explained that after being is such a high state of anxiety for so long, my nervous system had a new default setting. Instead of processing fear as a "healthy" person would, slowly, thoughtfully ... my body would instantly react. I literally did NOT have control! So I totally understand what you mean.
Right now I still see my counselor once a month, but we don't always just talk about anxiety - anxiety is NOT the center of my life anymore. I have been off of medication for over a year now and I feel even better than I did on it.
This WILL get better.
The Worry Cure is a great book - listen to it on audio! Find a counselor you trust and keep at it visiting them. i visited two counselors that didn't work out before I found mine now and she is a God send, I have loved working with her. Ask your Doctor is medication is right for you. I know I needed medication to help my thoughts slow down to a normal pace again, so I could sift through them and say... yes, that's a logical thought... or no, that's not a logical thought.
Just know things WILL GET BETTER! You are NOT ALONE! You have ANXIETY!
If you're worried about symptoms you're having, go to anxietycentre[/b].com[/b] and look up your symptoms there - they will reassure you a LOT of symptoms caused by stress and anxiety are nothing to worry about. Stress caused me ringing in my ears, headaches, shooting pains throughout my body, stomach issues, heart palpitations and dizzy spells. Those symptoms were FUEL for my anxiety until I realized anxiety was causing them.
I am sending hope and clarity to you on your journey!!!
chloe72384 nicola_57830
Posted
Hiya, just wanted to say I suffer from serve health and generalised anxiety. I've not long turned 19 and been having this for at least 3 years now but I've always had some form of anxiety since a child. I obsess over every pain or niggle I feel. Once a year I have a really bad episode where I stay in a anxiety state for weeks/months which im still currently in now! I get bad chest pain and side pain constantly and I constantly think I have apendisitis or cervical cancer or heart problems ext.. 2 weeks ago the ambulance came out as I feared a heart attack after going on a night out i encountered extreme chest pain, the next day I couldn't breathe and the pain was unbearable.. had a ECG and a few other tests everything seemed okay. Dismissed as anxiety. Which is fine but how do you deal with it from there On?..my anxiety has led me to hospitals and GPs for ages. My health anxiety all started when I thought I felt a lump in my breast, from that day I spent 2 weeks on the sofa, unable to shower in fear of feeling more lumps as I completely obsess and start feeling for more! Even now I constantly touch everywhere to feel for things. My head, legs, shoulders ect...currently expierincing niggling chest pain in the centre that also migrate either side and have done for over a month now ever since I got I'll with a chest infection...doctors reckon all okay but doesn't stop me worrying..also have a cyst under my eye lid caused my constant eye lash wearing and it's caused me to have nightmares over my fear of operations...anxiety does weird things to the body..currently prescribed Amitriptlyn once at night and bisoprolol during day, it has helped a little in aspects of functioning...but the thoughts and obsessing are just the same x
samantha_81282 nicola_57830
Posted
Hi, I know this is an older post, but I think I'm suffering with health anxiety, too, and a lot of what people have been saying on here has really resonated with me. For the last month I've been having issues with my stomach, nausea, bloated, bowel problems, mild stomach pains but recently I've been feeling dizzy and having episodes of vertigo. It all started on the first day of my new job, and prior to that my long term partner was having treatment for a lump on his neck that I convinced myself was cancer, it wasn't he had a cyst, he's completely fine now. I know the timing is poor, I've been to doctors, I'm having blood tests this week, I went to Aand E they said my core bloods were fine. I'm at a loss, I've diagnosed myself with everything from stomach and liver cancer to a b12 deficiency. I'm honestly losing my mind, I'm making myself panic, and it's at the point were I can't go to work some days because I feel so poorly. I havnt been diagnosed with anything, but that's making it worse because I don't know if I'm doing this to myself or if I'm genuinely ill. Does anyone have any advice??
kennedy_61910 samantha_81282
Posted
Hi Samantha,
?Health anxiety is very troubling, isn't it? I am only 18 and have been a hypochondriac for as long as I can remember. Recently the anxiety has gotten very bad, following recurrent infections and side affects caused by medicine I was taking. It is very tiring and debilitating. Know that you are not alone. I have convinced myself that I have everything from cancer, to HIV, to brain tumors, to adrenal gland problems. Every lump I find or pain I feel makes me think that something is severely wrong. My first piece of advice would be to go to the doc and make sure there's no underlying cause to your digestive issues. Anxiety can very well cause digestive distress, and a trip to the doctor may help to reassure you that you are ok. My doctor is very accommodating to me and understands my worries, she has no problem "talking me off the ledge" as she calls it. Hopefully yours will do the same. I recently started going to therapy to manage my anxiety and obsessive thoughts. I have not been going long enough to see a huge difference yet, but having someone to talk to and teach you how to keep your mind in control is very helpful. Try to distract yourself. I find I feel best when I am occupied, like at school or when I'm watching my favorite show. I hope you start feeling better. This is something I would never wish upon anybody. Once again, just remember, you are not alone! xx