Health Anxiety

[Jm12301284]

As a current medical student, I find that a lot of our training focuses on trying to find an “answer” for a wide variety of physical symptoms. We take each symptom and try to piece together a “cause” or “diagnosis.” This has caused me to enter into the world of health anxiety and to constantly think about “what could be causing this physical symptom?”

It all started when a two young men I knew through mutual friends were diagnosed with stomach cancer at age 32 and colon cancer at 20, respectively. For the better part of this year I had lower GI symptoms that I was sure was colon cancer. After an elective colonoscopy, no cancer. Now, with the worsening stess, I have been experiencing worsening GERD for which I started taking Omeprazole. After dwelling on the “why” of my seemingly worsening symptoms, I read an article of a woman who had the feeling of tightness when she swallowed, of course, this article went on to explain that she had stage 4 stomach cancer. After reading this I began to focus on how it felt to swallow food and within one day, I swore I was having difficulty swallowing and sometimes had food requiring two swallows. what did all of this add up to in my mind? Stage 4 stomach cancer with only 1-2 years left to live.

I hate that my mind immediately runs to the worse case a scenario for the smallest symptom. In the past year, I have been afraid of: colon cancer, hepatic carcinoma, gastric carcinoma, esophageal cancer, pancreatic cancer, bone cancer, prostate cancer and some others. My fear is ignoring symptoms as anxiety and delaying a needed diagnosis.

I find comfort is reading the posts of others who have or are going through similar situations. Let me know if you can relate to what I am going through. Thanks so much.

[Agora1]

Jm, I can relate to anyone including myself with a medical background. After years

of suffering from health anxiety, I made a complete turnaround by using my knowledge

for my benefit. I always preach about not going to Google when concerned about our

physical symptoms. Well, when dealing with sick patients as you are, the same thing

holds true. They are not you. No matter what age even if it relates to yours, it doesn't

mean you will suffer the same horrific diagnosis.

There is a lot to be said about the mind/body connection however anxiety can still be

anxiety and nothing more. You knowing about the body and how it functions would

benefit in not looking at yourself when trying to find an answer for medical issues.

I use to love watching Dr. House on tv. Trying to out guess his diagnosis of patients.

When it comes to myself, I know when to seek professional help and when it's anxiety

playing it's mind game on me. It takes practice and belief in your own judgment.

You are not the first and won't be the last medical student who has gone through

health anxiety. Have you talked with a therapist regarding these issues. Jumping

from one catastrophic illness to another is physically and mentally wearing. You need

to keep your mind on your studies and your patients and less focus on your physical

symptoms.

I hope things settle down for you soon. Congratulations on going into a medical

career. You're going to be okay. It will all work out in the end. x

[HappyThinkin]

Hi JM,

I feel your pain. After many years in a medical field, my health anxiety has become so severe that I had to resort to antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds. Now, of course, I get caught up in extreme worrying about side effects of these meds and I am trying to get off of them against the advice of my doctors.

I process info the same way as you do. What can start with GERD, in my mind is ending up in esophageal, stomach, pancreatic, or thyroid cancer. I get myself so obsessed that I google every symptom and condition and I am convinced that I have it. Every sensation in my body signals a catastrophic outcome in my head. It is awful! I think I am going to start CBT with a counselor to see if it helps. I feel like I am going crazy and I worry that my husband is getting overwhelmed with all my crazy health anxiety, worries about taking meds and side effects, and constantly thinking that I am suffering from an incurable condition.

How do you feel about therapy? Do you have coping skills that you use to ease your mind? LMK

[givingup1]

I am a recent grad from dental school, and I had some similar experiences. So far, I have found that the health anxiety eases up the longer you are around these types of diseases, afflictions, etc. Hopefully, when some of the stress of med school has eased, and when all the things that can go "wrong" in the body have more familiarity to you, your health anxiety will relent, as well.

[Anxiousdude]

I totally agree. It completely sucks. The sheer random array of symptoms that I have mostly assure me that it is anxiety. The way my anxiety began also tips me off as well. I had so many ransom areas of pain come and go all over my body today that I was concerned but I kept thinking how is this even possible? I’ve been in and out of the doctor for a couple years now and they all say I’m fine. It’s almost like using a broken computer or one that has a virus and it is misfiring all over the place. Anxiety suuuuuuuucks.

[justanote]

Thank you for sharing your struggle with anxiety related to health issues. I have been in the same position of freaking out about every little symptom that I thought I had. I would read books and look up symptoms on the internet to try to figure out if what I was feeling was the real. In most cases, the symptoms were real, but my self-diagnosis was way off base. Two things have helped me manage my anxiety: 1) Listen to my doctor; 2) Stop self-diagnosing. My doctor told me that I needed to stop the cycle of over-analyzing my symptoms because the anxiety was producing the symptoms. Plus, I needed to stay away from self-help books and medical web pages. My mind was able to rest from all of the worry and start thinking logically. I do understand that you are a medical student and likely involved in diagnosing others. But you want to be careful about diagnosing yourself! My suggestion for you is to start journaling your feelings and then read them aloud. This may help you figure out the fact or fiction in your thinking. I'm praying that you will find a way to renew your mind.