Health anxiety. How to beat it!By ItsJayx
Posted 12/2/17 247 views
I know this is not W.A.M related at all, but, I feel its something I need to talk about. If I manage to help one person, just once, a little, I will be happy.
I have been suffering with heath anxiety for around 2 years. It crippled me . At one point I thought I was having signs of a heart attack. I called 999 (Emergency services) and they told me I was fine, it was just anxiety. However, I did not believe them. I then thought I had testicle cancer. This was the very worst I ever had health anxiety, even though I did not find any lumps or anything abnormal. In my mind, something was there, and I was going to die. I even planned out my funeral. It got that bad. Due to all this stress, I had a very bad outbreak of eczema. This stopped me from working. I had it in my eyes, legs, back, feet...everywhere. I could not walk without it being painful, If I kept my eyes open, it would hurt, if they were closed, it would hurt. If went to sleep, it would hurt. All this, on top of worrying about losing my job, and the constant fear of death, almost made me go insane. I would constantly search for things on the internet, to see what these signs were. Doctor Google made things 100 times worse for me.
It is a well known fact, that health anxiety will never go away. Well, that is bollocks. I beat it. I have not had any worries at all what so ever, for a long time.
Here are the things that helped me. I hope these will help others as well.
1-Use common sense. Common sense is almost impossible to use when you have health anxiety. This is the whole problem. So, take a breath, and look at the situation. If you are getting very bad chest pains, if you find a lump, if blood is coming from places you never should find blood, then get it checked, A.S.A.P. People used to tell me "Its probably nothing" but I just thought it was them trying to calm me down, but, in reality, it probably isn't nothing. People with health anxiety worry about things that do not need worrying about. People with serious problems tend to ignore it and let it go away, when it then turns into a BAD problem. Get it checked.
2-KEEP AWAY FROM GOOGLE! Everything on google is death. Websites like to get hits, so publishing worst case scenarios, will get hits. Its just like the news. Bad news will get more views than good news. A great website I highly recommend is a forum called "No more panic" its great.
3-Look at how long you have had the symptoms for. I thought I was having a heart attack for 18 months. Seriously. If you have had chest pains for months or years, then its not a heart attack. If you have been worrying about a lump for years, then its not cancer. Only worry about new symptoms. If nothing changes, then its nothing to worry about. However, hopefully you have seen a doc before this point, but people with health anxiety seem to put it off.
4-Enjoy life. If you smoke, then smoke. If you love junk food, then eat junk food. If you like alcohol, then drink alcohol. For me, the one way out of a bad day of worrying, was a few beers and my favourites songs blasting away on my head phones. Obviously don't eat and get unhealty, and don't drink so much it causes problems, just enjoy life. Forget about what is good or bad for you. If it makes you feel good, then do it. It can really stop you from going insane.
These four things really helped me get myself better. I want to the doctors 8 times, and went to hospital as well as sat in a ambulance getting tests. The problem with health anxiety is, nothing anyone says can make you feel better. Its your mind in constant "Fight or flight" mode.
I promise you, if you follow these 4 things, you will get better, trust me.
Always here if anyone needs a talk.