Dealing with Health Anxiety: Frustrations and Worries

super helpful thank you 🤗

Hi all thought I’d chip in on this. I suffer with health anxiety to the point that it completely debilitates me and my sofa is my safe place.. everything is worse case scenario! Headache is a brain tumour, chest pain is a heart attack, tummy issues cancer it’s endless the doctor just says it’s somatic symptoms which is frustrating when you physically feel these things- I recently started seeing a private counsellor he’s fab and works on a TA basis - looking at why, he asked some really good questions that got me thinking and he explained things. He asked how my parents were when I was ill growing up and there reaction to me- from memory unless we were dying we had to go to school. We have looked at childhood trauma and how the brain copes with and stores it a wealth of information happy to chat anytime I find talking and sharing these awful issues that we carry around really help x

wowww i feel this. honestly i’m going through the same thing right now so i don’t have a good solution. one thing i’ve found somewhat helpful to notice is pattern around my physical symptoms- i now know that i sometimes get headaches from dehydration or stress rather than something else. i also seem to notice more physical symptoms when i’m anxious, so it might make sense for that to be linked. i don’t know if that’s helpful at all, but it’s helped me calm down a little when i’m super worried. i also try to think about how i’ve survived this long so far and if my doctor isn’t super worried, i’ll probably/hopefully be ok for the next few weeks at least.