Anxiety/ fear of getting physically ill.

Mental health
1

Okay guys so I'm new here.

I am diagnosed with anxiety and am on medication for it.

The problem is, whilst it calms the effects of my social anxiety my other anxieties are strong. One being fear of becoming ill. My biggest fear is being physically sick but I find myself having panic attacks over the worry of getting a cold or the flu, I often convince myself I have problems with my appendix and if I feel any pain in my body I often think the worst automatically for example if I have a headache I'll start to panic that I may have a tumour or bleed on the brain.

If people are ill that are in my house hold tend to lock myself away so that I don't catch it, and I don't allow people to visit even my family members if they are ill through fear of catching it too.

I feel terribly nauseated everyday for the last few months every night, and am fighting with my self to eat at the moment as I feel sick every time I eat even if I only eat little amounts.

All of this is becoming such a problem as I can hardly do anything in my life due to anxiety and social phobia as it is but now with all of this I'm becoming more and more confined and alone because of the thought of catching something from people when they visit, or I try my best not to move around to much due to dizzie spells and lack of energy which I think is also to do with my anxiety.

Does anyone else have the same thing? Or does anyone have any advice? It would be much appreciated.

2

Kellie. I suffer from PTSD and I totally get where you're coming from. To make matters worse for me, I broke my ankle last week and am now stuck at home with evern more time to worry about things. I don't really know what to advise you. I try to do some breathing excercises to try to keep me calm and relax.

 

3

Hey Kellie. I don't have what you have but I do suffer with anxiety. How long have you been on your medication? It could be that it's not working for you and another medicine may be more effective? It's tough but we're all here to support you xx

4

I've been on sertraline for depression for about 3 months and propranolol for about 4 months, but have been on various anti D's all with anxiety components in them since I was 12 and I'm 21 next month. Had psychotherapy an seen psychologist, psychiatrists and cognitive behavioural therapy over the years too. X

5

It's called health anxiety,and it's just a different presentation of anxiety. As your treatment for anxiety starts to work it'll settle down

6

Thankyou Luke, yes I can imagine. Moving about and staying occupied often helps a little so I can't imagine how you're feeling not being able to right now, I don't really go out due to my anxiety and panic attacks so I have all the time in the world to worry unforchenately. I do breathing exercises on a daily bases and "tapping" coping self therapy but it doesn't seem to work very well. Hope your ankle heals okay!

7

Thanks Kellie. Really finding it hard at the moment to get about. Ankle is still really painful.

 

8

Are there things you have interest in like music for instance or reading or a hobby you can do whilst not moving about? Just to keep your mind occupied.

I get benefits for not being able to work due to my mental health so I tend to order a lot of adult colouring books and adults arts and crafts, it may sound abit 'lame' to some people but it helps keep me occupied. I do a lot of art at home too and i read and listen to music all the time. I find it hard to concentrate so I'm always bobbing between different things to keep myself occupied.

9

I've been having cbt for anxiety and on medication for it for about 9 years now, seems never ending

10

I'm not moving far from the sofa at the moment as crutches are hard work. Yeah i've been watching a lot of catch up tv, reading, & listening to music. Also speanding a lot of time on line.

 

11

When I was at the worse with my anxiety I couldn't eat at all and whenever I did I'd vomit it up. I lost half a stone because of this.

Headaches are so common with tension and anxiety! Anxiety is very clever, it can mimic physical symptoms of what you are worrying about. The mind and body are so connected it's unreal. An example of this is when my nan told me about this illness that she had and the horrific symptoms of it. From feeling absolutely fine, I started to mimic the symptoms she was describing.

There is actually a study on this I studied in psychology but I can't remember it's exact name.

All you need to know is this is anxiety and you will get through this if you break the anxious habit and start living your life in a way you truly deserve