Health

[sarm]

I think I have health anxiety. I am constantly scared of strange feelings in my head, my chest my heart my eyes my throat.. and so on. I am awake now in the early hours worrying about my physical well being. I have been told I have generalised anxiety disorder but I think its all around health. Any advice on dealing with this specific problem? I am on meda and awaiting counselling. Any techniques for time being ?? X

[Damian]

I think health worries are probably similar to other kinds of worries. My anxiety is completely unpredictable, but sometimes I get health worries. The same kinds of things work: mindfulness, looking at the evidence to see if I'm exaggerating the worry.

I suppose the thing that's different with health is that the Internet is often unhelpful. I just searched for "toe pain heart attack" as an example (not because I'm anxious about it). Sure enough, there is a site that links the two.

If I had pain in the big toe, and thought that might suggest I was having a heart attack, obviously it would be driven by my anxiety. Pain in the toe has nothing to do with heart attacks. And yet Google would find me a site that links the two, which would probably make my anxiety worse.