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Terrible Health Anxiety & Panic

Posted , 6 users are following.

regina66524
regina66524

Hi,

I'm 22 years old and have developed terrible health anxiety over the past 2 years. It has become seriously debilitating and is going to ruin my life if I do not get a handle on it. I go to the doctor all the time. I always think I am ill with something new, either a chronic illness or a sudden life-threatening illness that requires immediate medical care. Almost every single evening I develop some symptom that I latch onto, and slowly (or very quickly), my panic starts to build which makes all my symptoms worse. This makes me want to rush off to the emergency room. I have only done so once, but every single night I feel like I need to. Sometimes I lie in bed scared to sleep at night because I just know I won't wake up. Of course, I always do though, and in the morning, I feel better and less anxious. I don't think anyone in my life knows how bad it has gotten because I tend to keep it to myself. My parents know I'm "a little bit of a hypochondriac", but I don't think they know I spend almost every spare second obsessing over it or having a panic attack over it. I was on Lexapro for a while and that seemed to help. However, I have stopped because I start graduate school soon, and I feel like I cannot think as clearly as I can when not taking it. Now my health anxiety is back in full force. I am currently concerned that I have a pulmonary embolism in my left lung (neutral) because I get chest pain/pressure that comes and goes. It can feel like a needle in my left chest and through my shoulder that comes on when I move a certain way. I also get a pressure feeling. It extends down sometimes almost to my mid-abdomen on the left side. It feels like something is in there. In reality, I know it is most likely muscle spasm as I have constant muscle twitching all over my body or even GERD. Does anyone have any tips on how to cope with extreme health anxiety without taking medicine? 

0 likes, 5 replies

5 Replies

  • ashley02537
    ashley02537 regina66524

    Posted

    I understand completely...you need to focus your mind on something else when you are starting to over think...do you like to color (yes sounds funny and childish) but it gets your focus off of yourself...seek and find word searches help me alot
  • lynsey72874
    lynsey72874 regina66524

    Posted

    Hi Regina, have you had any type of therapy for this? You need to deal with the underlying causes of why this is happening before you can move forward. You need to tell someone the extent of your anxieties as keeping it to yourself only makes it worse, I know from my own experiences. Talk to your mum about it and go to the doctor about a referral for therapy. You are so young to be obsessing over your health and should be out enjoying your life. Distraction is a great tool and getting out with friends helps to stop you focusing on the negative. At night get into a routine of taking deep breaths to lower your heart rate before sleep. I also play games on my phone when it gets really bad to keep my mind occupied. The physical symptoms are anxiety related and are worse when we fixate on them. I’ve done this myself but as soon as I’m distracted by something, those symptoms disappear, so I know it’s in my head. Keep us updated and we are always here to chat to x
  • arthur1992
    arthur1992 regina66524

    Posted

    I highly recommend you to visit  doctor, to survey and not to delay with it

    But if you still ( it's likely to be that) doesn't want to take medicine, try medical cannabis in edibles

    It helped my uncle with depression a lot

    http://www.ncsm.nl/english/best-ways-smoke-wax-dabs look , that's a great way of consuming,especially for serious pain that regular weed is not able to take

  • morph25
    morph25 regina66524

    Posted

    Trust me this is all part of your health anxiety. I even had all these shooting muscle pains and i used to go breathless and in full deep panic when i used to obsess over these pains. i cant assure u wont go mad. first thing you have to do is divert your mind from your body and use the time elsewhere. googling symptoms used to give me more and more panic and i remember i became a hypochondriac and i was even scared of leaving my home. First thing you have to do is think and feel that you have no problems at all are completely normal. thinking or having a fear that something is wrong with your body will give you more anxiety. try relaxing. go for a walk in the evening. join some social support group and divert your mind. stop obsessing over urself..what you are doing is creating a negative image of urself that ur diseased and not fit for anything. it isnt the case. its in your hand you can come out of it. this is just anxiety getting the more out of you.. All the best in your recovery process.
  • regina66524
    regina66524

    Posted

    Thanks for all the replies! I had a fairly "good" day yesterday as in I didn't obsess about my health as much as usual. But today it's back to "normal". I probably am just going to have to suck it up and realize that taking Lexapro or a medicine like it is something I'm just going to have to do, otherwise I won't be able to function. I will also consider cognitive behavioral therapy. I always try to keep myself distracted but it seems that no amount of distraction will keep me from working myself into a panic. My mind always wanders to something. Then I keep thinking about it and one Google search has me in a panic. Tonight it is an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Lol I know how crazy it sounds. It would be extremely, extremely unlikely for a 22 year old to have one. Yet in my mind, my pulsing stomach is a sign that I have one that is about to burst. It's weird because I know its not logical and is crazy, but I still have this like primal fear that something bad is about to happen.

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