health anxiety...help?

[miasouth4]

okay so I'm a teenage female and have been dealing with health anxiety for months now. The variety of health issues I've been either worried or worrying about are all cancer related. I have to live with daily negative thoughts about having cancer and dying, this leads to anxiety attacks. Recently my biggest worry is brain tumour. It all started when i had a slight headache and googled it... came up with the worst. From then on I kept thinking about it and making myself think i had a headache. I had no other symptoms except for feeling nervous (due to worrying about it). Everything that happens to me or my body I always think it's the worst thing possible... not fun at all. I know I'm not alone and sorry to anyone experiencing the same.

[Coopers12]

miasouth4 Hey! You are 100% not alone in having these thoughts, I know because I have them myself. I've been thinking I have a brain tumour since I was about your age and now i'm 21. However i've thought i've had a stroke, heart attack, diabetes ect, but that was all my fault for googling the symptoms. I'm still suffering by these thoughts now, but every time I start to panic I always think 'if i did have a brain tumour, i'd most certainly know about it'. Just wondering, have you seen a doctor about this? They can give you much more help for this than anyone else can, they can refer you to councilling which I thought really helped me.

Lots of love x

[miasouth4 in reply to Coopers12]

thank you for your help! I'm sorry you had to go through that, i wouldn't ever wish it upon anyone. To answer your question, yes I am going to see a doctor soon about seeing someone to assist me with anxiety. Although i'm not so sure how i can mention this 'worry' to her without sounding nuts! yet a doctors reassurance would be mind easing.

[Hidden]

Hello

I am sorry that you have what seems like Health Anxiety at such a young age and you really need to talk to someone you can trust either your parents or friend , teacher maybe or even your Doctor as there is support out there if you ask for it

You should be 16 to be a member on Health Unlocked even though Admin seem to bypass this a lot but please stay safe , never give out your personal details or arrange to meet anyone that you come across on Social Media and tell your parents about the sites you join as safety comes first above everything else

Take Care x

[miasouth4 in reply to Hidden]

yes I know, thank you im very aware of that and will remain aware haha. Thanks for your advice!! x

[Here2helpxLx]

I'm almost 21 and i experience these thoughts every day! All about cancer/heart attacks/tumours... it's endless!! All because I googled symptoms!! Worst thing I ever done haha. I'm going to the doctors tomorrow to get advice on dealing with this. You're not alone 😊

[miasouth4 in reply to Here2helpxLx]

yes i made the same mistake! Definitely had the heart attack feeling too. i wish you the best with the doctors appointment! I’m having one too xx

[Evgl]

Hi! I used to suffer this after my first panic attack a couple months ago. I used to be afraid of going hiking (which I loved doing and love doing again now!) because I thought I was going to have a heart attack out of nowhere and no one would save me. I used to be terrified of having colon cancer because my dad had it and when I had a weird stool one day, I swear I thought I had colon cancer but it turned out to be what I ate that day. You gotta think of these fears as irrational fears when they come up. I was so tired of feeling this way that I developed a "so what" attitude to it. I was like "if I'm going to die, I'm going to die. It may or it may not happen. It's something I can't control so if I were to die, I'm not going to waste my last moments here on earrh worrying about something I can't control"

It took time to develop this mindset but hey it worked after a long while. I can have a tickle on my chest or leg and not think I'm going to have a stroke or heart attack now and I can finally hike and do so many things again that I would've been afraid of doing a couple months ago.

Btw I'm a nursing student. My panic attacks happened midway through the program so imagine that. I used to be terrified of diseases and such at first after my panic attack and it made me wonder why when I'm so used to being exposed to these diseases and illnesses through nursing. I knew so much about it that I didn't even need to go searching up online. So if I can do it with my situation, everyone else can do it too!

Hope this helps

[shrs3]

I remember just last year dealing with this. I would literally sit day in and day out on my couch just googling different diseases and symptoms. I frequently worried about brain tumors, or that my anxiety was misdiagnosed and that it was something else like schizophrenia or a personality disorder. I would also google my anxiety symptoms to see if other people experienced them or if I was just crazy. It got so bad that I eventually told myself I wasn't going to Google anything anymore because it just makes it worse. It took some time and discipline but it is a lot better now. And I've noticed now that I've stopped Googling all the time, it has gotten so much better and I don't worry about that stuff anymore.

[miasouth4 in reply to shrs3]

wow thanks for replying. I feel the exact same way as you felt and you are completely right about the googling part. Im going to try to stop doing that as well. Hopefully it helps. Thank you!! x