Hypochondria

Posted , 10 users are following.

Hey!

I've posted in the anxiety disorders section before, but unfortunately again I need some help and reassurance.

Is anybody else with healthy anxiety completely obsessed with researching diseases, medication, side effects etc.? I can't stop it. I feel like something will go horribly wrong if I don't do it. It's becoming a ritual now and I do it every night before I go to bed. It feels like something that'll make me feel better, but in the long run it makes me feel worse yet I never learn. I feel like if I know my symptoms then I'll know what to do when something serious happens to me (which I expect it will if I'm honest).

I feel like a complete weirdo doing this but I can't stop. I really feel like I'm going mad

0 likes, 11 replies

11 Replies

  • Posted

    I am exactly the same as you!

    I freak myself out by thinking I have all these disorders but I can't stop because I think that if I know what they are, I'll know what to do - which obviously may not be the case at all. 

    Quite honestly, its given me quite a few panic attacks and I try not to do it anymore because I feel that (for me) it has become a vicious obsession of mine. 

    Try finding something to distract yourself with whether it be a funny show, a good book or even just a chat with someone, these things tend to keep my mind preoccupied (:

    Best of luck! xx

  • Posted

    I'm right there with you as well! Health anxiety has been ruining my life for a few months now. Some days are better than others.. But I'm always freaking myself out thinking bad things are going to happen rolleyes

  • Posted

    That's what health anxiety is, that's how it presents itself. As you'll now reassurance makes no difference,we just move on to something else or don't believe it. The only way to deal with it is to deal with the root anxiety with therapy and/or meds if you want them

  • Posted

    I do the exact same thing your not alone!!! I have health anxiety and I'm a hypochondriac. I have done all the above and then my mind made me panic and freak out and then I started thinking I had those symptoms I was looking up.

  • Posted

    Right here with ya!

    I stopped going stuff and I accepted the fact that I am okay and that anxiety is causing all of this. But then I get some really weird symptoms and then I start panicking and start thinking can anxiety really cause this? The more I focus on the symptom the more it escalates. I was really good for a month or so. Then bam out of nowhere. I started the habit of searching for symtpoms. Then I see one that fits my profile and then I get even more symptoms. I then start searching that up and then I get even more paranoid. It's a never ending cycle. It's called psychosomatic Hypochondria. The brain is really powerful. We are right here with you!

    • Posted

      It is a very vicious cycle and I'm on meds now which has calmed me down and I've stopped looking up stuff. I was only making myself miserable. But yes I know the look up stuff and see something that matches then I'd have a panic attack and new symptoms and look that up and so on and so on. I was having anxiety and panic attacks on a daily basis and thought I had the worst of the worst disease or condition there was. Even been to the ER to find out I was ok. Got so bad my mind wanted to escape and I ended up suffering from depersonalization and derealization.

    • Posted

      Thought I was literally dying or going to die.
  • Posted

    Hey guys. I was doing the exact same thing with the researching trying to find out what symptoms i had. I was doing to much research thinking it would make me feel better but it really didnt. I would see all these types of symptoms and type of anxieties and it made me wonder if i could have these, but thats where i went wrong. Im a 24yr old male and went through anxiety twice. The first time it took bout a month and a half to get over it and the second time took four months. The second time i thought i was down and it was over. It was 10 times worse than the first. I had so many symptoms it was crazy. The first thing we anxiety sufferers need is someone by our side that cares and know and understand what we go through. Im talking bout the type of people that been there before and got over it. First thing it does is give us hope that we going to beat it and we will. I had my mom who suffered from it and my 2 of my cousins and they all beat it. I been to the ER 3 times in 4 months cause i felt something was wrong, but like everyone says who goes to the doc for it they results come back ok but it doesnt feel like it. I was prescribed medicine each time i went. Now this when my mom stepped in and told me alvin dont take them pills fight it natural cause you dont want to depend on them and i was already thinking that way. So i decided to do just that. Of course it was hard and it would take a little longer but i got through it without medication or therapy. I have so much more to say but i dont want to talk you guys ears off
    • Posted

      Wow, good for you all. This is hereditary  too. I beat it  in the beginning a couple of times. It can come back when you least expect it,and probably will. Just saying. I would never tell anyone not to take a antidepressant,cause for me I feel like it saved my life. I first experience it when I was 22, and because there wasn't these amazing meds that can help us, I suffered on and off till the age of  about 34.I had a panic attack that dropped me to my knee's,and it went on, and on. I couldn't come out of it, so meds for me saved my life.I am so glad you are doing fine. 

  • Posted

    You must stop this madness. I must tell you that I was so anxiety ridden, that I could not even focus on putting one leg in front of the other, let alone look up anything. If you were taking a antidepressant you would not be doing this, so I think you need  to be on something. Then again,I know that you won't take it cause you think it will kill you, am I right. This is a slippery slope,this anxiety.

  • Posted

    The story of my past few months.... Still, we should know that googling is not the best source. What you will find there is usually cancer, brain tumor, stroke etc. The best source is your doctor. He is not subjective like we are and he/she tests things wink

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