Does anyone else suffer from hypochondria? It's really starting to affect me and my anxiety. I keep thinking something is wrong with me. Anything that seems off I will freak out about. I need reassurance or someone to tell me their experience with it. Please guys, help me out
Hi Honey
This sounds very much like health anxiety, i can't stand any thing going wrong with my health and always fear the worst. I think hypochonria is a bit different, do you act on any symtoms you get, for example do you visit your GP alot? 
hi, yeah this sounds like health anxiety - i am the same way when my anx is high, i fixate on my health and imagine every little ache or pain is just proving that something terrible is wrong
Hi Myrissasauras,
you are not alone, i suffer with health anxiety too!
It started with double vision, dizziness
and because i over reacted thinking the worst (ie, brain tumour or MS) it extended to tinnitus, weak heavy arms, breathlessness, chest pains, palpiltations, i wake in the night startled afraid that my limbs have gone numb.
anxiety is a terrible thing to have as it comes with so many physical symptoms that also could be so many sinster things, but try not to worry yourself, your mind is so powerful that it can so easily create / make these symptoms worse which in turn will make your anxiety worse. it can be a vicious circle thats hard to break!
For me at the moment, i am trying to accept that my symptoms are anxiety and that they are not real, (which is the hardest part!!!!) once i can accept that they are not real symptoms and i am not dying then hopefully they should dissappear as i know i am creating them.
For example, if i go to the doctors with palpiltations and they keep asking me 'do you have chest pains, and i dont, to me it is obvious that chest pains would be bad, then a few days later subconciously i develop chest pains too!
my mind hears awful life threatening symtpoms and mimicks them! i feel very silly as i am a smart person but i am letting the subconscious part of my brain control me!
anxiety is a mental illness with physical symptoms!
i hope this helps you feel reassured!
ps. since i have accepted that my symptoms arent anything sinster to do with my health, i have gotten my symptoms less, which in turn has reassured me, hopefully i can create my own vicious circle of no symptoms and reassurance :D
if i can do it so can you, its hard but its worth it, and its worth doing so as soon as possible
have a happy healthy day xxx
Thank you, Courtney! That sounds just like me. I know I create all the problems I think I have, but it is very hard to break the cycle. I usually break the cycle after awhile, but it comes back months later! Like recently my palpitations from my heart has been getting to me bad, but they only happen when I think about it. I'm glad to hear that I am not alone!(: that was very reassuring. And I'm glad to hear that you're getting better, hopefully I can do it, too!
How do you cope with your anxiety?
I seem to be like that too, I will have a few days where I don't get any anxiety at all and then it's seems to come back worse than ever!
It kinda makes you scared to enjoy the non anxious times doesn't it!
I will let you know if anything I try helps!
Do you know what could of triggered your anxiety at all? I am going to go to cognitive behavioural therapy and hopefully they will find the root of it and get rid of it for good!
it really does make u suspicious of the better times for sure - and lets be honest, we're right to feel that way lol i guess all i am for is the length of the good times is greater than the length of the bad times, id settle for that i think
I really don't know but I think I should go see a therapist and such. Maybe they can help.
thats good! I hope that works out for you. Tell me how it goes!
therapy is a great place to start, it really can make a huge difference. its not all smooth of course, but it does bring me a lot of comfort being in therapy
I'm glad to hear that I'm gonna try out therapy first and see how that goes. I do usually find myself needing to vent a lot
Defaintley, and then hopefully the bad times will dissapear completely.
ive started to keep a diary of my anxiety now too, so everytime i feel anxious i will write it down and the time and what i am doing at that moment in time, or what i have eaten, and it seems to be helping, i thought it might be a good way for me to recognise patterns so that i could reassure myself its just anxiety, for example, if it happened everytime i had a coffee or the same time everyday.
hope your doing well
let me know how your therapy goes if you do it, my first session is on the 1st of june, and i think i will struggle to talk about it seriously
please could you tell me what sort of stuff you talk about in your therapy sessions? or what they ask you, as i have my first session booked, and im not excited to talk about my feelings etc. lol
writing things down is a good idea, and i would say its helpful because its about control in many cases - for me certainly. the more in control of things i feel, generally the better i cope. by writing things down your in control again. as for what is asked in therapy, that really does depend a lot on the therapist and the type of therapy. in my experience, its less about what they ask, and more about what you tell them. there is never pressure for you to say anything, but the more you can share - then the more insight you will bring, and in time the better you will feel. it can start very slowly, sometimes all you might want to talk about is how you feel - not WHY you feel, that comes in time. just take it slowly, be honest with the therapist always - even if its to tell them how aprehensive u feel - if your not honest, then you will end up frustrated, and therapy will end before you feel its done any good. its a long and hard road, but really it is worth it
thank you!!! it has made me feel better about the idea of talking to someone, to be honest this forum in itself i think has helped me alot. im quite socially aware and socially switched on, and so itcan be difficult for me to be honest with people about stuff that would potentially make you a bit socially backward, if you know what i mean. i think i like to put a 'im very normal' act on, so its nice to speak to people you cant see, and especially people who dont judge because they are the same. so thank you
Oh i do the same, to the outside world im very calm and together, people dont believe that i might have issues, even family to a large degree. Glad you feel better about therapy now :-)
hi every body
reading your comments make me feel that I'm not alone. but my problem is a little more.. I'm a medical student! and this make everything worst.. I know all the symptoms, all the disease , I see dying patients.. I see complications.. and always I see my self instead of them!, and with smallest symptoms I think the worst..
recently I thought that I have MS, I had brain MRI and it was normal.. but this not reassure me! and I think of worst diseases..
I'm so disappointed.. please help me
This is such a common 'ailment' for medical students there must be classes within the school that address it. There have been plenty of studies. One thing to consider is whether or not you want to become a physician.
As all the comments indicate - something is, in fact, "wrong." I'll make a request that may hold true for many here: if there is no evidence of disease, then have the guts to give the diagnosis of hypochondria, health anxiety, or whatever the popular term is. Then, at least, the patient has knows the physician's point of view, and can decide to stay with him or her, or find another physician.
I have asked, outright, several times, if my physician has washed his hands of me, and I am always told that is not the case. Clearly, it's the case, but "the plan" is that I can now no longer get appointments. What a cowardly way to approach this.
It is not that there is no pain. It is also not that there isn't some other modality that might work for patients with chronic symptoms - there are. Massage therapy, for one, if incorporated into general practice, (and covered by insurances, or made affordable somehow), could do much to alleviate symptoms, as could clinical hypnosis, herbal and flower remedies, or just being validated as a human being who is experiecing chronic pain, along with anxiety. Have some sensitive - if genuine - human condition humor about it. Prescribe Marx Brothers movies. Anything, but the medical brush off or treating them as if they are psychologically ill on the level of someone who is psychotic. How can patients confront what it is that they need to change when physicians won't help. "Tests negative. See ya." doesn't help. Compared with other options for things not being right, hypochondria is hardly the worst coping mechanism. At it's worst, it is expensive and a vicious cycle because it isn't dealt with straightforwardly.
On the other hand, there is reason to consider that there are environmental factors that make us feel lousy, including using this computer and the internet. A whopping change in how - and if - people communicate, what is seen as making a valued human being, (among this I count people who "drain resources" but never hurt anyone).
As to dealing with the ill and dying and those effects on you, It just might be worth mentioning to you, that it isn't about you. My "physician," as an example, made one thing very clear: it is my job to make him feel good - and he's not young. We're the same age. I can't change physicians, or I would. He has a hundred times more resources than I do, can afford the aforementioned massage therapy and/or adjunct services - but unless I get "better" he's going to be miserable? Hell. If I can live with it, and keep trying to get "better", who has the real problem here?
Anyway...