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Health anxiety swinging from one thing to another......

Posted , 5 users are following.

louise_emilie
louise_emilie

I feel so annoyed with myself. I have been health anxiety free for pretty much a year and now over the last month I have been going from symptom to symptom - starting with worry about food sticking feeling in my oesphagus to lung cancer, to ovarian, to breast, to worrying about how my veins in my arms look different to one another and then back to oesphagus. This one is always at the back of my mind even though I don't smoke, don't drink, don't have acid reflux , am relatively young and am a woman. Statistically there are only 400 women in UK who get oesophageal c under the age of 60. I am 39 and in good health- so I realise my chances are v low, added to the fact that I had scope down there 4.5 years ago - nothing found. Why oh why is it impossible for us to accept that it's not a sinister disease that's gonna kill us, but our own sanity! How can we quickly go from one symptom to another so quickly and believe we have a totally different cancer one day to the next???!? Any advice.....

0 likes, 4 replies

4 Replies

  • NatCali
    NatCali louise_emilie

    Posted

    I had that feeling too like I had something in my throat so an allergist looked at it with a scope and said it was acid reflux. I have been having tension headaches, burning sensation in my head when I have a panic attack and my body is sore.i also have been running and pool arobics so I'm sure that's why my body hurts but I am a hypochondriac also and think I have a brain tumor or something. Every doctor has told me it's all anxiety but I'm tired of feeling this way. It's wearing me down and I'm exhausted. Just started lexapro a week ago so I know that has to take time to kick in and also been taking Xanax to sleep. I don't like taking it but it's the only thing that is kind of working. So I feel ur pain
  • caroleUJ62
    caroleUJ62 louise_emilie

    Posted

    I dont know but I started to get severe health anxiety when my dr referred me for a colonoscopy and endoscopy because I was very anaemic. She prescribed me iron tablets in the meantime which gave me appalling stomach cramps and diorrhea. I have had IBS for years anyway, so this just made it worse. I had to stop the iron tablets, and tried eating more stuff with iron in it. I was also panicking like mad about bowel or stomach cancer while waiting for the investigations, which pretty much ruined last Christmas and New Year for me. 

    The results of the tests were all negative, but since then it seemed to spark of health anxiety about lots of things - heart problems - I was told by one doctor I had a small murmur but it was harmless. I totally panicked about this, and ended up going to A & E with chest pains.    I had a bad headache and neck ache after I got whiplash - another trip to A & E as I thought I had a subdural haematoma. Then certainty I had thyroid problems which were causing anxiety attacks - tests showed nothing wrong.  

    Oh yes, and of course the perimenopausal thing of thinking I had early onset Alzheimers because I kept forgetting things.  Once I stopped worrying about this my memory got better!

    I still get some pain from the whiplash - not everday - its improving - but God, what a terrible year so far!    Think I'm getting to the other side at last. I have a funny feeling that if my Dr hadnt mentioned the bowel cancer thing I wouldnt have worried about that or anything else and been fine, but of course - if there had been a problem she might have saved my life.

    God - I think I'll go and live on a Greek Island on 10 euros a day,never see a doctor,  chill out and feel a hundred times better and never worry about any of this rubbish again...........

  • louise_emilie
    louise_emilie

    Posted

    Like you say, it's so frustrating - why do We have to think it's going to be something sinister every time we get any aches or pains?

    What annoys me even more is you wouldn't get the really poor third world population worrying about such things, they have far more important things to worry about.... We are all so privileged in comparison but still cannot be happy. What are we all searching for???!!!

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