Hello, I am new to the community. I have been suffering from health anxiety for couple of years and I would like to share my story with you. Reading about experiences of others really help me to calm down and see that I am not alone. Recently my state got worse and I feel like I am on the verge of total breakdown. My problems started 2-3 years ago (I was 21 now I'm 24). It was after a very stressful period of my life - my grandfather died, my beloved dog died, my father remarried and was expecting a baby, we moved housed and I was finishing my first year of uni. It all started with my skin spots. I looked at them and started to fear there might be something wrong with them (which was only intensified by google research). I had my first panic attack. I made an appointment, but it took two weeks. My mum, who suffers from the same problem, tried to reassure me but it was no help. I was so panicked and had panic attacks almost every day. I started to experience different body sensations like feeling cold and hot on my skin, tension, headaches. My appointment went fine and there was nothing wrong. I however started to research all my other bodily symptoms and find several illnesses connected to them, mostly fatal. I started to have panic attacks once again, monitoring myself every second of the day and I was able to see only the symptoms. I finally went to my GP and she told me I had no rights to feel like this as I am too young and gave me antidepressants. I had a breakdown afterwards. However after couple of weeks the meds started to work and I felt much better. Eventually though my problems reappeared from time to time. I was watching myself and everything that I felt was not normal send me to a spiral. I was questioning my every move, every sensation. This summer my condition got a lot worse. After again stressful period ( state exams, bachelor thesis, family issues and other things), I started to feel really desperate. I thought about all of the things that I felt and started to be afraid it may be really is something. One day after experiencing stomach issues I broke down. I started once again having panic attacks quite frequently, I could not sleep as I was feeling I will choke, I had a tight throat, I couldn't eat, I started to have tremors in fingers (which I had previously as many illnesses I researched and was very afraid of had this symptom), I had a feeling like I cannot think, that I forget things or I'm dumb. I felt light-headed and weak, like with a black hole in my chest. I had feelings that came to me from nothing that felt like intuition that told me that, " That's it, your dead. You have this illness and you will die." Finally after I had a major scare with my vision I went to GP and she wrote me a recommendation to psychiatry. I also started to go to CBT therapy. However, I do not feel any better. I started to have pains in my arms, tingling sensation in my palms. My fingers still twitch from time to time. I was trying to calm myself and just ignoring it but this morning I had a tremor in my right arm. When I was tensing my arm it started to really shake. It scared me so much as I was not stressed out this morning and this never happened before. Usually my fingers twitch but not a whole arm. I had a very strong panic attack and suicidal thoughts. I just felt I am done, dead and I should rather end it. I am feeling at the end of my rope. I do not know what to do. I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday. I just feel I'm done. All that is in my head are the illnesses and I don't see anything else. Thank you if you made it this far. I know it's a long text but I just felt I had to write it down. I would like to ask you if you experienced or still are experiencing body tremors as well? Is it possible to be so shaky even when not particularly stressed? Do you have any recommendation? I will be grateful for anything.
i’m sorry you’re feeling so poorly. this is long but I wanted to share with you.
if you have had a physical check up by your doctor and everything is OK then there’s only ONE thing left.
first let me tell you that I am now in my 50s and I have been through the exact thing that you are going through now. I was also in my 20s when it all began. So I know how you feel.
so now back to what I said before. There’s only one thing left, which was also the same for me …
YOUR BODY IS RESPONDING TO WHAT IS GOING ON IN YOUR MIND!
when a person has major health anxiety , stress for a long period of time , like myself back then, it creates very fearful and negative thoughts. Your brain starts believing what you’re thinking. So it’s sends out all these symptoms. The symptoms can mimic certain conditions. that’s why people think they have these horrible diseases. I thought that about myself back then.
and when you read horrible things on Google you’re basically telling your brain that this is factual.
of course the body is going to respond to the constant negative thoughts that we feed our brain . The more we do this, the more symptoms we are going to have and after a certain amount of time, the brain will automatically go to those negative thoughts without you even doing anything. That’s the bad part.
so it’s important to start reversing this cycle
ALL of your symptoms I can relate to! I had every stress anxiety symptom you can think of including severe weakness, numbness and tingling everywhere, muscle twitches everywhere, hot sensations, foggy thinking, feeling like nothing seems real or looks real, floaters in my eyes, ringing in my ears, shortness of breath, panic, tremors, and many more. At that time nobody was using the Internet so you can just imagine how scary this was! symptoms went on for quite a while. I was sure I was going to die. EVERY One of those symptoms was caused by long-term chronic anxiety and stress!
The symptoms of anxiety and stress are not harmful but I know how scary they are. Many of them are caused by increased adrenaline due to anxiety.
I wanted to let you know that I am strong, healthy, and very grateful for everything in my life. None of those symptoms hurt me. I had to finally come to the realization that my life was way too stressful and I had to turn it around.
A Big part of it is attitude change. I saw things a different way, being more positive. I did get counseling which helped a lot. Whenever I had a negative thought, I released it from my mind and did something else. You have to be persistent. It’s easy to fall back into the negative groove, but we have to call right back.
I highly suggest that you have regular counseling because this is difficult to do alone. There’s also great talks on YouTube for this. There’s one called the anxiety guy.
IM SO glad that I worked on this and yes, life is definitely worth living! nothing is perfect. Everybody has something in their life that is very bothersome. We just have to be a fighter for ourselves! Never ever give up! my life is very full now and I cannot imagine not being here. Once you start to feel a little better you will feel that way also.
But one day at a time! some days will be better than others but you just keep trudging forward!
Stay off Google! That will set your way backwards .
I WILL admit that every now and then I will get anxiety symptoms here or there. But that’s only when I am already anxious. The symptoms don’t bother me. I basically ignore them and they go away. in fact, I laugh at them . Attitude is everything!
Now I just get my yearly physical check up and if everything’s OK then I get on with my life.
Just thought I would share this with you. You can do this! You are young and healthy! The symptoms don’t matter. They are just a result of your thoughts. There’s a great book called finding quiet that really helped me a lot. It tells how to create A peaceful and joyful mind and how to deal with the negative and fearful thoughts. Take care 
yeah,its anxiety.its only in your mind.try to not to focus anxiety symptoms try to make your self busy.it will make you feel better.
Hi Kate Can you personal message me . There is an excellent book which has really helped me with my health anxiety,but im not allowed to recommend literature publicly.
if you find out about the book could you message me the details thank you
sent you the message. Hope this helps.
you are absolutely spot on! Wonderful advice! Thanks so much for sharing and caring. xx
jan34534-998356
I could have written this as well, I’m 61 and just had Counselling, but even though only 2 sessions, we are just going over and over what has happened over the past 40 years! I am on medication and have been since I was 30, came off a few months ago, but everything came flooding back and started having panic attacks, so now back on them. I just want to know why it started up again, as I was doing OK back on the meds and what I can do to get rid of this horrible feeling, but not yet found an answer. I am now on the NHS waiting list for cbt.
Felis…sent you a private message
Take care 
ive sent you a personal message. Do hope it helps,available through Amazon.
Thanks, but not yet received 