Health anxiety struggles

[yellowstar368]

Hi everyone,

My partner has ocd and I also think that he has health anxiety. The health anxiety has started in the past six months after him suffering with ibs. There were numerous trips to the doctors and hospital and only last week did we get an official diagnosis of ibs from the doctors. He always believes that there is something really wrong with him, such as cancer, despite constant reassurance from myself and others. I thought that this diagnosis would finally put it mind at rest but if anything the anxiety has got worse against.

He is constantly googling health related things which just leads to more panic and upset and this in turn triggers his ibs. It’s a vicious cycle but he can’t seem to get out of it.

It’s starting to have quite an impact on me because I hate seeing him upset and I feel like nothing I do makes a difference, so I feel quite useless and down about it.

Any advice or suggestions on things I could do or try to help either of us would be greatly appreciated?

Thank you x

[Hidden]

I suffer from health anxiety and one thing that helped me is to challenge your thoughts with a fact vs opinion technique for example, your partner may think he has cancer but that’s only his option not a fact and you or any medical professional wouldn’t agree with his opinion so maybe try that out the next time he’s is convinced he has something, I also used to google stuff constantly something that helped me is whenever you get the urge to google something have a distraction technique like put your phone in a box or go for a walk, anything to take your mind off things even for a little while. I’m sure it’s hard for you to see him like that but he can beat it I promise just small little steps really do help, I hope he’s back to himself soon x

[yellowstar368 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you so much for your response, this really means a lot to me. I’ll try the fact vs opinion technique, it sounds quite promising. The distraction technique is also a really good idea, so I’ll run that by him and see what he thinks. Im glad to hear that you’re managing your health anxiety well! Thank you so much x

[Hidden in reply to yellowstar368]

You’re more than welcome I hope it helps even if it’s just a little bit x

[yellowstar368 in reply to Hidden]

Fingers crossed! I’ll definitely give them both a go x

[Jessie8]

Hi Yellowstar,

This definitely sounds like health anxiety and unfortunately reassurance does not work. I suffer myself with the exact same thing and these are things that I’m currently doing to help.

Mindfulness

No caffeine

Don’t google

CBT to help retrain the brain

Excercise

Healthy eating

Hope this helps

[yellowstar368 in reply to Jessie8]

Thank you for your reply! CBT is something that I’ve heard quite a lot about and I do think it’s something that could help. All the other suggestions are really helpful too and they would also help his ibs. Thank you so much! X

[Jessie8 in reply to yellowstar368]

I hope it does help him. I also have IBS and my anxiety just amplifies it.

There are lots of foods that can help IBS which you can find online.

[yellowstar368 in reply to Jessie8]

Yeah he’s exactly the same, the anxiety just makes the ibs so much worse so I suppose it’s about getting it under control as much as possible. Thank you again!

[Jessie8 in reply to yellowstar368]

You’re welcome. I know it must be hard for you to watch as the same as for my husband.

He might benefit from joining this forum so that he can see that he isn’t alone with his anxiety.

[yellowstar368 in reply to Jessie8]

It is, I just want him to be okay and happy, as I’m sure your husband does with you.

He’s actually already on the forum, he joined when he first started experiencing ibs and it did help him a lot then. I might suggest him becoming more active on it again, thank you!