Are we just worrying about our heallth in lieu of worrying about real problems?

[AnxiouSteve]

I'm not trying to diminish what anyone is going through.  Trust me, I know it sucks.

Over the summer I was fine.  I went substantial periods of time without giving my health much of a thought.

Sure, going to the gym, getting a dog, and everything else helped, but I noticed what helped most was getting addicted to a video game.  It's the one game I play, and I can play it four hours on end.  I don't need to sleep or eat when I play.  I can just sit in one spot smoking, not blinking, happily gaming away for hours, and think about nothing else.  These are all things that would usually exacerbate my anxiety.

Eventually I had to stop playing because, besides greatly hampering my productivity, it does eventually lose some of its merit when I go overboard like that.  In the end it did more harm then good, because I had no time to keep going to the gym, and I've yet to get back.

Still it goes to show:  maybe all some of us need is a new obsession.  Hopefully someone can find a healthier one than mine.

[Pan]

One of the very first GP's I ever saw gave me no reassurance and no comfort....not a grain!

I explained my symptoms to him and told him I was convinced I had MS.  He told me it could be MS.  I tried to press him on the matter and he told me to come back and see him if my symptoms became serious/debilitating as opposed to vague/annoying.  I left angry and confused and was so close to writing a letter of complaint.

About 6 weeks later I had been back to the surgery about 4 times and still felt I was being fobbed off.  I had always made sure I never booked an appointment with 'that' doctor again.  On one visit my usual doctor was on call and I walked into the consulting room only for my health anxiety to face it's nemesis once again.

I tried the usual tricks to get reassurance and the GP was having none of it and was constantly frustrating me by reverting the conversation away for my symptoms onto my hobbies, friends and my life in general...anything but my physical symptoms, frustratingly the very thing I had been see him about, how could he be a doctor hey!!

As I was walking out of his surgery he performed the coup de grace on me!  He looked up and basically said he could diagnose me in an instant but that I would not be interested, intrigued I couldn't resist and asked him what he thought and he basically said that I was bored, unfulfilled and that I did not have enough going on in my life to hold my attention and that my health quest was the best hobby I could have.

I walked out of his surgery in a daze and was convinced I had visited the most arrogant and inept GP ever.  Funny old world eh.

[gypsywrter]

I feel that this definitely applies to me and my health anxiety struggle. I have found that if I don't have enough going on in my life/I'm bored, I obsess over my health even more than usual. I have been struggling so much since about June and just realized that I need to find something that I am passionate about, and do it. I decided to go back to school to pursue a screenwriting degree next sememster, and it is giving me something else to focus on. I think that one of the keys to recovery is to pursue a passion and get interested in living. I want to be so involved in life that I don't obsess over death. Great post!

Liz

[AnxiouSteve]

My experience seems to give some credence to what you've been saying for years, pan. 

It's kinda like I addressed the theoretical 'unhealthy distraction' cause for anxiety successfully... with another unhealthy distraction. 

Something in my subconscious said 'This will do!" (not that I give much credence to psychoanalysis (as opposed to CBT))

I kinda forgot to give you credit for my hypothesis, I'm sure you don't care, but I wanted to point that out as a matter of principal.

[Bama21]

I think that one of the keys to recovery is to pursue a passion and get interested in living.
Liz

Great quote.  I might have to frame that and put it in my office. 

[marc]

I think in certain instances you are correct. However, all of us at one time or another
worry about our health, which is perfectly normal. My urologist has told me that typically
when he sees a patient with a potential problem, they think it is time to cash their chips in.
My GI physician has said that many people who are feeling bad and come to see him think
they have a large tumor growing inside of them. The woman that works with me had a
Melanoma on her face and had it removed by a Moh's surgeon. He told her a little
paranoia is good at times when it comes to our health. It is very difficult to make any
sort of blanket statement about anything. For instance, can you imagine if all of the
people over 50 had the proper colon cancer screening, how many lives would be saved?
I think we need to take control of our health and be diligent to a point with out
obsessing over it. Our diligence could very well save our life.

[idreamofskiba]

I really believe this to be true.  Although when I'm worrying about health issues, my worries seem so real -- if that makes any sense.  Like, I am honestly worried about my health when I'm worrying about it.

I had no problems with health anxiety at all over the spring and summer.  I still had anxiety, but didn't worry about my health one bit, and felt really good for the first time since the end of September of last year.  One week I was in the doctor's office getting an EKG for chest pains, and the next week I met someone and completely snapped out of it and felt great.  My mind was so focused on said person that I stopped all the crazy self-tests and worrying immediately.  He made me really happy for a while.  But that ended, and I'm pretty much right back where I was before.  This coincided with a bad ankle sprain leading to a fear of DVT/PE, and the time of year where I usually end up getting pretty depressed and anxious anyway. 

I'm kind of over him.  I think.  But I wonder if I got back into this HA spiral because I don't want to think about him.

This time of year always gets a little dark for me, anyway.  Here's what I think is going on:

-Every major loss in my life has happened between the months of September - December
-Every year I plan on moving out during the summer (yeah, still living at home).  End of summer comes, still not moved out.  FAIL.
-Getting closer to the holidays.  Always fear it's going to be the last for my aging relatives.
-'HOW DID THIS YEAR GO BY SO FAST?!' - the older I get, the faster time goes by. 
-Almost 30, don't feel like I've accomplished much.

I have a couple of other, what I guess could be called, behavioural issues that may indicate that I just have a hard time dealing with anything.  I also have the attitude that if I can't do something with perfection, then it's not worth doing it at all.  I wont try out of fear of failure.  This leads to a lot of procrastination or just getting nothing done at all.

...and I get bored very easily.