Health Anxiety Woes

[Jedi17]

I have been suffering with extreme health anxiety for about 6 years now. I have recently started seeing a therapist and also have tried mindfulness, deep breathing, pretty much everything you can think of. I feel like most of the time I am okay but when a small sensation arises, it sends me spiraling out of control, which I assume intensifies the symptoms I think I am experiencing. Once the "threat" is clear I feel full of shame and guilt for spending so much time on it. Has anyone else had health anxiety issues? Did any medication help? I just don't want to feel like this anymore. So many people don't understand, but it honestly feels so real when I have an episode. I just want to have some relief, its exhausting.

[Atheo82]

Hello,

I’m sorry to hear you are having a hard time.

I lost my dad to COVID 3 years ago and my grief manifested in to health anxiety.

Any strange sensation I had would send me in to a state of panic. My heart would race like crazy and I would go in to a full blown panic attacks. They could last up to an hour at times and like you would feel full of shame after.

I would take myself to a&e in a state of panic to get checked out to be told there is nothing wrong. I would come home feeling reassured and then again out of nowhere it would happen again and again. I tried everything too, meditation, therapy, it didn’t help.

I booked an appointment with my GP and asked him to do a blood tests. I had read that low B12/B9 can cause a lot of the symptoms I was having. To my surprise it came back that I was vitamin B9 deficient and put on a 4 month course of folic acid. I am now two months in and all of my symptoms have subsided. I never thought in a million years that being deficient in B9 would have so many symptoms. Don’t get me wrong I still have health anxiety but I am managing it better. I feel like it’s made me think more rationally as my thoughts were very irrational sometimes.

Just a suggestion it might be worth checking to see if you are lacking in vitamins. Specifically B12/B9 and maybe checking your Tyroid as these are know to cause increase anxiety.

Before I had my blood test the doctor recommended anti depressants which I refused as I wanted to grieve my dad. He suggested when I feel anxious to take an antihistamine, which again to my surprise helped.

I hope this helps you in some way.

You are not alone!

[Worrier1960]

SSRIs seemed to help. Benzos help, but they are habit-forming. Exercise relieves the symptoms, as does being fully engaged in anything.