Health anxiety

[Maisie1]

Does anyone have health anxiety

[Hidden]

Hello

My condition is chronic pain, causing Reactive Depression, how can I help

BOB

[Suzie40]

Oh God, yes! I would say I have cancer at least once a week, a stomach ulcer a few times a week, occasionally a DVT and the odd brain tumour thrown in for good measure. At the end of term in school we had a teacher awards ceremony and I won the award for best hypochondriac. I was so proud!

And I know exactly where it came from, too. Years and years of watching my Mum choosing the bottle over her health. Ignoring appointments, check ups, procedures. I spent all my teenage years wondering when she would die, trying to make sense of a world where the person I loved more than anything else, drank her life away.

As a result, I am completely obsessed with finding out what's wrong with me before it's too late, and my children are left without a Mum. It engulfs me. Slightest lump or bump and I'm on Google finding out how long I've got left to live! My GP told me years ago that worrying about getting cancer actually increases your chances of getting it, which didn't help!

I think people think that having health anxiety means a person wants to be ill. They mix it up with munchausens syndrome, which is completely different. I don't get any pleasure whatsoever from being, or feeling, ill. I'm just a bit obsessed with finding out that I am before it's too late!

[Maisie1]

Hi borderreiver I have got muscle problems, muscle twitching, contracting muscles and some pain but can't get a diagnosis, so of course I go on the Internet anf frighten myself to death. Seen a neuro but he can't find anything. Thanks for the reply.

[Maisie1]

Hi lucy34 thanks for the reply. Like you I have had every disease under the sun. Paid for numerous tests etc. every time I get something it will be fatal. The worst thing is the Internet. I use it to diagnose but end up depressed and terrified. Had CBT but nothing helps. Don't know what the answer is.

[Suzie40]

And then when you actually have got something, no one believes you! X

[Maisie1]

True, I dread going to the doctors. I feel so guilty. I am sure they think I am an attention seeker. I think it is an awful illness