I always think I'm dying, I Google every symptom I have and convince myself that I have something serious wrong with me. Lately I've been worried I've got throat cancer, I've felt like I've had mucus stuck in my throat for the last couple of weeks and this evening I've developed a sore throat. Can can swallow food and drinks fine but I feel saliva is stuck which is making me feel the need to swallow more. It's now 2.40am and I'm lying hers awake in panic that there's something seriously wrong because I have a sore throat, is it going to swell and block my airway? I'm so scared.
I think I'm dying: I always think I'm dying, I... - OCD Support
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I think I'm dying
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100hope
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It's a temptation to google all your symptoms, and one you need to resist. Just reading about symptoms is enough to make you think you have them, and before you know it, you've convinced yourself you have every disease going.
I can remember if you are on medication. I mention it because sertraline can cause a runny nose and congested throat. It does with me, although I've found it worth putting up with for the benefits I get.
So it might just be worth a trip to the doctor for this, but don't keep going for reassurance once you've been cleared. Or it could just be hay fever, or a cold starting.
I know how it feels. I had problems with health neuroticism as a child and as a teenager. I remember how as a seven year old, I was convinced I'd got tetanus and kept checking my jaw in case it was seizing up. It flared up again as a teenager, and I was always thinking I'd got some horrible disease or other.
The more you think about symptoms, the worse they appear, when they are mostly just the sort of thing everyone experiences, and don't mean anything.
Thank you for your reply, how did you stop your health anxiety? I can't stop myself from looking up symptoms as I feel if I don't look to see what it could be then I am ignoring something that could be life threatening. I feel do embarrassed to talk to a doctor, I feel like they'll just fob me off.
Doctors are used to people making appointments for sniffles and the like, which don't really need treatment and go away on their own! However, OCD is not something that usually goes away on its own, so if you do go to your doctor, say you'd like a check up but perhaps discuss the OCD as well. Don't be embarrassed, as doctors, however stretched they are, are there to help.
It can be a problem, investigating every tiny pain or ache or lump or bump, because the more you think about them, the more of these you will notice when really they don't mean anything at all! They magnify themselves in your mind, a bit like when you have a little pimple on your face that no one else really notices, but that you think resembles a huge fluorescent beacon that has taken over your face!
I'm not saying ignore anything abnormal, but it's easy to imagine something is abnormal when it isn't.
I think I got over mine partly by being busy with other things, but also because OCD has a habit of shape shifting.
It's spring, the beginning of spring is the time for allergies and infections, so don't worry about it too much!
If you're worried, try going to a doctor, and if you dont want to tell them about you'r opinion (throat cancer) just tell them that it hurts, they studied that field and will find out.
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