Anybody else think this way?

[Leavic]

So I am continuing to struggle horrendously with health anxiety. I have CBT therapy due and I have also been prescribed Sertralin (I am yet to take them as I have done a bit of reserch and do not like what I have read).

Because I think there is always something wrong with me, I keep thinking I am seeing/hearing signs that I am seriously ill. E.g I walk In a shop and today a lovely old man was telling me about his story battling Cancer, I listened but it set off my anxiety. I go on facebook for example, see stories of people battling or who have passed away from Cancer or Brain Tumor, see or hear things on the TV and I take it as a 'sign'. I know this is ridiculous but does anybody else think like this?

I have a lump in my hand and got an Xray yesterday, so I am waiting for results. I am absolutely petrified and I am 'feeling' pains all over my body. I don't know if this is normal bodily changes/feelings or Its on my head or what, but I can't help but feel they are related to the lump...and of course I have seen all sorts of signs today.

I just can't enjoy my life at the moment because I am constantly feeling sick to my stomach

[Michele_B]

I can relate. I have been dying of some form of cancer several times now. Not literally, mind you, but every time I feel the slightest pain or something feels "off", I manage to convince myself that I am dying of some incurable disease.

I had a pain in the back of my right calf and convinced myself that I had a blood clot that was going to travel to my heart, lungs, or brain and kill me.

My liver enzymes were elevated so I convinced myself that I had liver or pancreatic cancer.

My head hurts and I have a brain aneurysm or brain tumor.

I get allergy shots about once a month and because a story was playing on the TV in the Allergists waiting room about a woman that had a life-threatening allergic reaction to her shot; I started freaking out right then thinking the same thing was happening to me.

I've been convinced that I was having a heart attack and a stroke because of symptoms that my brain manifested.

I am on Buspar right now...and I just started therapy. As in yesterday just started BOTH the Buspar & the therapy. I did not want to be on a daily medication. BUT...I am willing to try it to see if it works. My therapist equated medication for my brain like contacts for my eyesight. So even though I have read some bad things about Buspar...every medication affects different people in different ways so I am going to give it a try.

I would suggest trying the medication that you were prescribed and see if it helps. What have you read that scares you?

[Leavic in reply to Michele_B]

Hi ..Thanks for your reply I am literally the same. I get a twang in my armpit or my breast, I think it's Cancer. Or a pain in my head, tumor! It's an awful feeling everyday...I read the symptoms of the sertraline and two of the 'Rare' symptoms was Tumor, Cancer...I know these are very rare symptoms but these are the very things I am afraid of. I did some reserch and found a forum where a load of woman said they had taken the medication, and some years later, were diagnosed with breast cancer. It could be coincidental I know, but it still scares me :/

[Michele_B in reply to Leavic]

Yikes! That's scary. I haven't seen any major side effects like that with my medication. Maybe talk to your doctor and see if he or she can prescribe something else?

And yes the health anxiety/hypochondria is debilitating. I tell my family all the time that it is AWFUL and I don't wish it on my worst enemy!

Hope yours gets better. Hang in there and know that you are not alone.

[Leavic in reply to Michele_B]

Thanks you...you too!