Have you ever had a problem trusting doctors and medical professionals?

[MyMiddleNameisHypo]

Just wanted to see if anyone else ever went through a period in their lives where they did NOT trust/believe doctors and other medical professionals regarding your health.

I have found myself in a situation (without getting into too many details) where my doctor, nurses, and several major health organizations have told me the same thing but I do not believe them. It's like I just keep seeking out this reassurance - but when I get it, it's still not enough.

Any advice or suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

[marc]

Seeking continual reassurance is a typical sign of health anxiety. It is a difficult pattern to
break. My doctor has told me that medicine is not an exact science and that there are no
guarantees. I try to accept what the doctors have told me.

[SighNoMore]

Oh I have a very hard time accepting! I get a moment of ok, great then going back to worrying they missed something!

[middlenamehypochondria]

Yes.  I once saw this cartoon that had one person saying "wouldn't it be great if we could have a machine hooked up to us to immediately alert me if something was wrong" and then the person with health anxiety replies, "yeah but I would always think the machine wasn't working right."  It made me laugh because it is true, it is so hard to believe tests and doctors.  It is all part of the lovely HA package.  I actually stopped going to the doctor because it caused me such anxiety. 

[SighNoMore]

See I am too scared to not go. The strange thing about me and HA is that I am a very naturally led person--don't like to do meds if something homeopathic can treat it, etc. I don't run to the doctor often, but when I have a large issue hit I have to go or I make myself sick with fear and worry. I go, feel better, then doubt again. It makes no sense!

[MyMiddleNameisHypo]

See, I'm not afraid to go to the Doctor either. However, I don't believe a single word they say - ESPECIALLY if they do not run tests. In this most recent ordeal I'm in, my doctor's, nurses, health department and CDC have all told me basically the same thing and I still don't believe them. I think they are just making "educated guesses" - especially since I've found conflicting information on Dr. Google.. It makes me feel rediculous but I don't know how to STOP doing it.

[floridaguy65]

Just wanted to see if anyone else ever went through a period in their lives where they did NOT trust/believe doctors and other medical professionals regarding your health.

You do not have HA if this wasn't the case:) A hallmark of HA, especially when we are struggling a bit, is our inability to move past our doubt. We can tend to doubt nearly everything when we are floundering in our anxiety (and this does bleed over into many facets of our lives, often....it is not ALL about health stuff, ultimately). This is why we need to embrace one of the main tenets of learning how to, hopefully, move down a longer-term healing path from HA. This tenet is that medical intervention / med testing does so very little (closer to nothing) for our LASTING peace. Sure, there will, typically, be some fleeting relief (very fleeting, usually) from the dominant fears as we have just been told (by our Docs or a good test result) that we are not in imminent peril of croaking or becoming incapacitated. We are tremendously relieved that we will not be leaving behind our loving familes....we are wonderfully soothed that we will not be missing out on soooooo much in our lives. What a compelling feeling! No wonder we get obsessed in trying to keep this near guarantee that we are not destined for a tragic ending in the near future! Trouble is we were OK (healthwise) to begin with, overwhelmingly, and being that the root cause of the majority of our struggles is anxiety that 'near future' timeframe is wildly shortlived if we are not embracing what is needed to, potentially, be moving down a healing path for our mental health challenges. HA / ADs are doubting disorders, to say the least. Ultimately, the most potent doubt is that we can lose the trust in ourselves that we are the true definers of our own, overall, well-being. Again, HA can bleed over into other facets of our lives and create unpleasant lifeflow interruptions, when we are stuck in a fear cycle - repeating patterns of bad counterproductive habits and actions.

I have found myself in a situation (without getting into too many details) where my doctor, nurses, and several major health organizations have told me the same thing but I do not believe them. It's like I just keep seeking out this reassurance - but when I get it, it's still not enough.

One thing that experiece and history have shown us is that there, simply, will not be that final, ultimate reassurance. And, through our actions and habits, we fuel our fear cycles and keep chasing our own tails. Inevitably, to me, there will come a time when we feel desperately compelled to seek out ANOTHER reassurance that we are gonna be OK in life, but we don't do it. We rely on our own experience and, hopefully, can take heart in other peep's histories and we take a leap of faith and we do not seek out another reassurance. We "let go", so to speak. And, we accept that what we have done, to date, is more than enough reassurance that we are, so very likely, not going die from a disease or illness in the foreseeable future. And, then, we go about living as best we can alongside our anxiety issues....this part takes work and patience and diligence and compassion and understanding and persistence and dedication and resolve and fortitude and caring and knowledge and strength and faith. Easy? Of course not. Probably not as crazy hard as we have it built up in our anxious minds, though. Look at the alternative. We have lived the alternative. It is not where we desire to continue living - that much:) This stuff doesn't HAVE TO dominate us. Anxiety does not HAVE TO define us:)

We have to move away from almost all medical intervention, after we are told we are overall healthy. Hearing "You're OK" from our Doc just has to be enough. There isn't that 'golden reassurance', for an anxiety peep. Stop looking for it. The boldest reassurances come from within, ultimately. External influences do not begin to measure up to the power that is on our own minds and souls and spirits and hearts and bodies. Embrace this. Nobody else can be the definer of our life's course better than each of us can. We CAN learn how to 'rewire' our minds to accept that we, ourselves, can be that primary provider......and begin to move away from anxiety calling too many shots in our lives. Isn't that all we really want, in the end....to live with a little more peace and some more direction and a bit more trust and just a little more passion and hold onto some increased purpose in our lives:) We CAN do this.....begin with looking at our actions and habits:)

Peace and Feel Well:)

[floridaguy65]

We rely on our own experience and, hopefully, can take heart in other peep's histories and we take a leap of faith and we do not seek out another reassurance. We "let go", so to speak.

[/quote]

There is also the vital component of having embraced the many good actions and habits and exercises and techniques and self-help work. It is not, simply, saying "OK, I let go - I accept":) Acceptance is NEVER resignation!:)

Peace.

[MyMiddleNameisHypo]

Everyone has given me some excellent advice - thank you all. I guess the reason why I don't trust doctors,etc is due to the fact that I am just 1 person. They could care less if I live or die. Does that make sense? I just keep thinking that the doctors, nurses, health department and CDC are making educated guesses about my health because if they ARE indeed wrong and I DO die then oh well - what's 1 person out of millions?

[gcalex]

At some point you also have to recognize that prior to old age, the overwhelming majority of people do not have catastrophic illnesses, so the odds that you do -- when there is a perfectly plausible explanation for symptoms that is benign and you have a history of hypochondria  -- are extremely extremely low.