Health Anxiety made worse by AF diagnosis.

Hello there!!

I became ware of my health anxiety last June when I was told I would need my gallbladder removed as I have a massive fear of GA. This is partly due to my weight. It was a tough time anxiety wise and as I started to feel better I was diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation and this has really set of the health anxiety. I am receiving therapy for this which seems to be helping a little. I curious to know how others deal with health anxiety when they do have a medical condition? Thanks x

[b1b1b1]

I am curious about this too. If you are worried about a physical problem the advice is to always see your doctor and check. Usually people then say the doctor said everything is fine and the person then knows it is a psychological problem and that nothing is physically wrong. I have the same question you have. What do you do about the health anxiety if there is something wrong--even if it is not a serious problem. I have never seen this issue really addressed, so hope there will be some replies in answer to your post.

[designguy]

One of the things that can help is to let yourself feel the normal feelings of fear and try not to repress them. You may even have anger about it and if so, let yourself feel it and express it. Sometimes I will write out stream of conscious style my feelings and just let them flow without editing them or worrying what it looks like. Mentally focus on the emotions as you do it and just vent. You can throw it away when you are done. Anxiety can come from repressing our feelings so expressing them helps. The other thing is to realize that your anxiety can be due to distress intolerance and a false belief of trying to maintain some control over things. I suggest you check out the youtube videos of Paige Pradko, she has a lot of good information and I think she even has an affordable course on health anxiety available.

[AdamFCastillo31]

Yeah, I know healthy is the most difficult one to handle at least from my perspective. I do have clinic/health anxiety. But now I am learning to manage it. Well, everyone's method is different to cope but Once my therapist told me to not overthink/ predict the future. And stop seeing movies with this stuff and practice deep breathing and relaxation exercise and yes it eventually worked for me.

[CL3V3R-G1RL]

I feel for you 🤗 I have health anxiety bad cause of my thyroid went all outta wack. I can't run around like I used to cause I get real bad shortness of breath and tightness in my chest. All bothers my anxiety. Most recently got diagnosed with low vitamin D and iron. I tried my damnest to live healthy but now just seems all down hill. Like 2 weeks ago I got diagnosed with a UTI. Never had one before. Really scary to me.

[b1b1b1 in reply to CL3V3R-G1RL]

I also just had a UTI for the first time. The first antibiotic didn't work. Who second did work, but after that was left with bladder inflammation and sensitivity. The whole thing was very scary and I was afraid it would never go away.