Teens With Health Anxiety? (Anxiety In Teenage Years?)

[AnxietyFreakAlert]

Is there anyone else on this site that is a teenager with anxiety or just anxiety full stop?. (Also if you had anxiety during teenage years).
I'm eighteen and I've had anxiety since I've been very young it seems to be getting worse I work myself up so bad that when I get a symptom, a pain or something somewhere, it becomes a huge thing and it's nothing so I'm just making it worse. It's only been very recently that this has been happening so badly. I think that with me finishing school it's set it off somehow. I Google compulsively whenever I get a symptom of something, i try not to but I just think something terrible is wrong with me. Over the last week I thought I had appendicitis, gallstones or gallbladder disease, pancreatic diseases and whatever. I'm terrible and I want to know how people cope with this, how to breathe and relax and tell myself I'm being ridiculous. It's gotten to the point of where I'm embarrassed to my GP because I go there and it's never anything. I'm too young to be held back by things like this. General anxiety is bad enough it's never been this bad. What do you do when you want to Google your symptoms because your sure somethings wrong?.

[Ravens Lady]

Hi and welcome to anxietyzone.

I am no longer a teenager but I did experience lots of anxiety and health anxiety in my teenage years.  Its tough to be so young with such heavy burdens!

But I do believe there is hope, indeed, and there are many things we can do to combat, manage or even eradicate our health anxieties:

Don't Google Medical Issues.  Dr. Google should be viewed as a quack!     We go to google because we don't know how to deal with our anxieties that first strike us as nagging fears.  We hope that we will find something to help us, but usually we our only given bits of pieces of information that are misconstrued and before we know it we have convinced ourselves of our fearful fantasies.  Then, we bring to life new symtpoms listed that we fear, because our talented brains have this uncanny way of creating our worst fears.  For the very health anxious person that has not yet learned to manage their anxiety, I believe Google-medical should be completely off-limits.  Resist the temptation to Google!  Fight the power!

When you have those questions and physical sensations you want more information on, there are other things you can do:

1) Come here.  Tell us your worries, your physical issues you are dealing with. People here can help to point you in the right direction without you being lead down the wrong path of thought causing you to be concerned with things you don't have to begin with.  You can also try the chat room if you have not.  There are usually people there that can help you to reason better. 

2) Talk to a doctor instead of googling.  Doctors, I believe, are in general much better than google.  I know you have seen your doctor so many times and feel embarrassed but you should not.  Talking to your doctor instead of of going online is better. 

3) Look at valid evidence, not 'hunches'.   We can't believe what our worrisome fears whisper (or sometimes shout) to us.  Instead we need to look at proof.  Unless we know for a fact (meaning we have an actual diagnosis or test result) we should not allow our minds to be convinced we have something we have not confirmation of.  Every other worry and concern should be view with much skepticism.  And fear is not always an indicator of the truth.  In fact, fear often clouds our judgment.  You can 'feel' ill and not be. 

4) Take care of yourself: Exercise (Get rid or extra tension), Eat well, sleep well, meditate, journal. 

5) STAY BUSY- This is most important for my health.  My anxiety prone mind doesn't like being idle.  It finds busyness of the negative variety (meaning worries) if I don't keep it busy doing creative projects.  Living my life with a purpose and using my talents is one of the best things I do to combat health anxiety. 

Anyway, those are just a few ideas.  Please stick around and let us know how you are doing. 

-Ravens Lady 

[AnxietyFreakAlert]

Thankyou! That really helps. It was such a blessing to find this website and know that I'm not alone