Health Anxiety

[Worrier1960]

I am a hypochondriac. I don't invent my symptoms (a lump here, a funny mole there), I get in a panic until I get resolution. I had an elevated PSA in September - not past the limit usually set, but higher and my Dr's said they wanted to check further. I'm waiting for my 3rd blood test (a much more detailed one that the Dr. thought appropriate) and it's been 5 days. It's driving me nuts. The Dr. said it's probably nothing, but if it's not, it's probably minor, and if it's not minor, we will have caught it very early. That kind of reassurance works for about a day and then I'm off to the races with worry. Anyone else experience this?

[Celtic27]

Hi worrier its not easy having health concerns it can be a problem with your interactions with other as very few will take the time getting to know the real you ! I know its not easy but take each at a time ,try not to fret about any tests as the will be mostly clear please care of your self and all the best !

[designguy]

Hello, my anxiety can sometimes morph into health anxiety especially if i'm not feeling well and not getting better quickly. What I have learned is to not believe my anxious thoughts and actually mentally talk back to them and get rational with myself and reinforce that I am ok. Also to ask myself what are my rules and assumptions about my pain and tension and body sensations if they are an issue for you or even physical things like weird moles, bumps, etc... It's the thoughts we have that are fueling the anxiousness, even the subtle ones that we're barely aware of. You may also have some degree of OCD which is common with health anxiety.

You might benefit from the youtube of Paige Pradko, she is a therapist that had health anxiety/OCD and healed herself and now helps others. Another good one is Dr. Rami Nader, he has some good info on using CBT for health anxiety. Another therapist that had health anxiety/OCD, healed himself and now helps others is Matthew Codde at Restore Minds.

[CL3V3R-G1RL]

Ooh yeah I get this way every time I have to do labs for my doctor. What makes it worse is that I have a patient portal which I can review the results even though I have no idea what the hell it means but I know red ain't a good color.

I then get anxious and afraid cause I see numbers in the red and think horrible thoughts. Then I see my doctor and she's like "you're fine. Your results are in the margin of error'. Then I relax.

I started telling myself that I'm not checking the blood work out because it'll make me anxious. And when I go see my doctor and let them explain it to me. If there are problems, I'll ask them questions right there on how to resolve it. 9/10 it's mostly self correcting like I using get low potassium. Not terribly low. Something I can fixed by eating more food rich in potassium.

And staying away from Dr. Google 😂 cause googling symptoms always makes it worse 😂

If you have a good doctor, trust in them. It probably isn't anything. Doctor just wants to make sure. If it is something, hey bright side is that you caught it early and can resolve it before it gets worse.

Wish you health, peace of mind and healing 🫂❤️

[Worrier1960 in reply to CL3V3R-G1RL]

Thank you. That's essentially what I try to do, with varying levels of success.