severe health anxiety

[lazybunny]

hi, i'm 24 years old, female, and live in the US. i have debilitating health anxiety, and depression.

my health anxiety is beginning to completely run my life. i do a lot of researching things on my own time and recently i've been feeling very fatigued, just, very tired a lot of the time. i drink about 40-60 fluid ounces of water daily, i'm not overweight, i quit smoking almost three months ago. Usually my health anxiety surrounds my heart, feeling like i have heart disease, suffering from a heart attack, etc, all of which have been ruled out by doctors over the past two years.

now it's diabetes. i am terrified that i have diabetes. sometimes my fingers feel swollen (they aren't, they just feel like it) the past couple days my vision is blurry from time to time. and i'm super tired all the time. and after looking stuff up on the internet, i feel like i'm going to die or lose my limbs.

i know partially, i do this to myself. all the stupid research, looking stuff up on the internet. but i'm just scared.

[LilyAnnepuppy]

Sorry to hear you are struggling. This is a good place to be for support.

You don’t say what you’re doing to treat your illness. Are you in therapy? On meds?

[AnonymousUsername13]

I have health anxiety, too & i have learned i can't look up ANYTHING health related, because all of the worst diseases have symptoms that are common, & i trick myself into thinking i have symptoms that i didn't actually have, or my mind will exaggerate the symptoms i do have. It's best to only talk to ur doctor about ur symptoms. Never look them up online, no matter how strong u think u are. This will only have negative consequences for people like us who can't separate rational or illogical thoughts about our own symptoms. If u do have these thoughts, anyways, thinking them through to their actual conclusions can help. What if u did have diabetes? U would be fine, still. U would get on medication, make some healthy life decisions (exercise more, eat better), & go on living ur life exactly like u are now. It's not something that is guaranteed to kill u in a short time. Many people live happy, healthy lives with diabetes. Many can also recover from it (I've read studies not too long ago about how intermittent fasting helped reverse diabetes in some people). So, don't let ur emotions lie to u, & make u think it's the end of the world if u actually were to have an illness. Try to convince urself that this fear is irrational. This helps me often. It was a suggestion in a book I read (or may have been a suggestion from therapy in a nutshell on YouTube). I wish u the best in overcoming the health anxiety.

[designguy]

Hello lazybunny, as you are aware of the worse thing you can do with health anxiety is to play doctor google when you are feeling triggered because it just reinforces the anxiety and maintains the cycle. Medication can help you cope better if you are not on meds currently but also learning how to constructively deal with the health anxiety can make a big difference. I suggest you check out the website and youtube videos of Paige Pradko, she is a therapist that had it and healed herself and now helps others. Another one to check out is Matthew Codde at restoredminds.com he is also a therapist that had health anxiety and healed himself and now helps others. Both of them offer online programs if you are interested. You may also have some OCD issues that is typical with health anxiety and they both offer help for that.

[Hidden]

hey lazybunny, I’m so sorry you are scared about this. I would listen to your doctors first and foremost. I agree with Designguy in not letting Dr. Google diagnose your symptoms I’ve been down that rabbit hole and it only leads to rumination, unnecessary research and health anxiety. Sometimes anxiety makes us believe there is more going on than is actually the case. Be kind to yourself. 💛