Am I really sick? I don't know whether I am ill (constantly) or is it just anxiety?
This has become a vicious cycle; do I feel anxious because I feel physicial symptoms, or are those symptoms originated because of my anxiety? Is anxiety so powerful to manifest physicially?
Any recommendation to deal with this? I don't want to live like this.
Written by
munrapz
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Anxiety is powerful. It can actually cause physical symptoms and sometimes you don't think that these symptoms can be caused by anxiety. Moreover, when you are concerned about a particular disease, and if you have health anxiety, you keep getting the symptoms of that particular disease, and if you get checked and get clear of any physical illness, anxiety will gove you new symptoms so that you believe that your tests were inaccurate and that you do have a serious health condition. This all happened to me several times. Try to get help for your health anxiety.
I think you’ve made a good start by recognising that there could be a link between physical symptoms and anxiety; in fact, the “flight or fight” response (which is what acute anxiety triggers) wouldn’t work unless it did produce physical symptoms!
The problem comes when the anxiety becomes chronic as that can lead to chronic physical symptoms. It took me about 20 years to realise this and, as a result, some of my chronic symptoms have reduced. They’ve not gone completely, and I do get flare-ups from time to time (as now!), but it does show that improvements are possible.
As you seem to have realised this already, I suspect you’ll start to notice improvements, but it is a gradual process, so don’t expect any quick fixes.
Yes! I developed IBS from chronic "worrying". It was painful, which made me worry more, which made the pain more. After ruling out medical reasons, I found meditation and mindfulness. There are lots of free guided meditations on YouTube. There are also guided hypnosis videos that you can use. They use visualization. Both helped immensely for my IBS. You can also Google the "Vagus nerve" and how to stimulate it thru breathing and other practices. The Vagas nerve helps control your bodies response to your fight, flight, freeze response. There is an app called Insight Timer that I totally recommend. It has literally saved my life!
Good luck with your journey. I wish you much success!
Thanks, everybody for your replies, but most of all for caring! It seems by these replies and by engaging with similar people with health anxiety issues that meditation it's worth a shot at starting to practice constantly, since I have NEVER EVER tried it.
Absolutely! The mind/body connection is so real. When the fight/flight response is on for a while in our bodies we tend to have other physical reactions: headaches, muscle twitches, heart palpitations, muscle tension, dizziness and many more. I am now trying to relax the mind with mindful breathing. There is a book by Dr Benson called Relaxation Response. He was a cardiologist and explored the connection between the heart rate and anxiety. He determined there is a link between being anxious and other physical signs. I wish more doctors would understand this important principal and accept the fact that some of us have more active mind.
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