can you give yourself a symptom?

[middlenamehypochondria]

I know anxiety can cause an upset stomach or a headache but what about other symptoms?  Can you think about a symptom so much you start feeling it? 

For example:  I had a kidney stone the last time my family was in town, my Dad is coming to visit today and I started thinking what if I get a kidney stone or a uti it would ruin the visit.  For the last three days I have been worrying about it a lot and then wouldn't you know I started feeling I had to use the restroom more and it almost felt like it burned a little.  Could I have thought about it so much that I actually have symptoms? 

[Evap]

Yes. Anxiety can absolutely cause you to feel physical symptoms that aren't really there.

[aunjypoo]

I haven't had a HA freakout in quite some time but I still give myself symptoms.. I tell myself "this is just my anxiety" and I deal with it but they don't go away until I am completely occupied, then they come back when I'm not. But at least I know it's nothing serious.

[middlenamehypochondria]

Yes, last night I spent an hour teaching a class for an animal shelter (something I love) and I didn't feel any symptoms and then when it was done I thought about it and the symptoms came back.  It's just hard to believe that worry could cause me to feel symptoms other than a headache or stomach ache.

Do you think if I were to worry about getting a pain in my knee for instance I could actually feel a pain in my knee?  Is that how these kinds of symptoms work? 

[aunjypoo]

I think it depends how much you truly believe it. I can't make my hips hurt for example, but when the weather changes they hurt. But if I have a legitimate fear about an illness even though I can tell myself it's silly and push it out of the way the fear is still there and your brain will create the symptoms to go along with it, even if you don't want them there. Just like once you have a symptom you can't just tell it to stop. You have to believe you're fine and keep your anxiety at a managable level.

[msgb98]

drink water galore
Drink water with lemons in it.
take some magnesium take some vitamin b6.
Stay away from ice tea or black tea in general.

these all help if you think you have a kidney stone.
But it can feel like one with muscles spasms too.

[Slangevar]

Great advice from msgb98.

I've totally thought myself into symptoms. Once I did it on purpose to show myself it could be done (i.e. to distract myself from the other symptoms I was having). The mind is a very powerful thing.

[skleep]

Yes- when I worry about hepatitis C, my upper right abdomen starts to hurt.  Funny enough, back when I thought the liver was lower down, THAT area was hurting. lol

[middlenamehypochondria]

How can you make it stop?  I actually found myself wishing I would have a different worry this past weekend so I would stop thinking about my symptoms.  When I wake up in the morning I think okay do I have the symptom?  I think if it was real I wouldn't have to think about "do I have it".  Then it gets in my head and off I go with symptoms.  I can think about different things and forget it but as soon as I have down time I am back on it.

How can physcial symtpoms seem so real?  How can I make them go away for good?

[lawkcrabb]

Absolutely!!  During one of my google binges I started having symptoms I was reading about....and anytime I hear about someone being sick, I have their symptoms.  The mind is a VERY powerful thing!!

[ceh1354]

This is so interesting and scary to me. I do this, and every time I struggle with "is it real and something is wrong or is it because I have been ruminating on this for days?" Ugh.

[Nicole80]

When I was still googling symptoms of my feared diseases I would say in my head well at least I don't have that symptom and I'd get it within the next hour to day. I'm not kidding. I've never had noticeable muscle twitching in my life and as soon as I read about it, I got it within two days and have had it since. It seems some of the symptoms or stories I'd read would stay in my subconscious too because I'd forget reading them, get the symptom, be afraid and say oh no this is just like so and so I read about. So actually I was manifesting them myself...at least I hope I am since I still have many symptoms. The muscle twitching was the craziest to me, I don't see how our minds can cause that! I have to rationally think what are the chances I never had it, read about then got it, it has to be my mind playing tricks and of course the massive adrenaline my body continually releases due to my anxiety. So yes, in my experience we can manifest symptoms with no real underlying serious illness

[Nicole80]

When I was still googling symptoms of my feared diseases I would say in my head well at least I don't have that symptom and I'd get it within the next hour to day. I'm not kidding. I've never had noticeable muscle twitching in my life and as soon as I read about it, I got it within two days and have had it since. It seems some of the symptoms or stories I'd read would stay in my subconscious too because I'd forget reading them, get the symptom, be afraid and say oh no this is just like so and so I read about. So actually I was manifesting them myself...at least I hope I am since I still have many symptoms. The muscle twitching was the craziest to me, I don't see how our minds can cause that! I have to rationally think what are the chances I never had it, read about then got it, it has to be my mind playing tricks and of course the massive adrenaline my body continually releases due to my anxiety. So yes, in my experience we can manifest symptoms with no real underlying serious illness

[middlenamehypochondria]

Muscle twitches ruined my summer three years ago!  I had one little twitch and from that couldn't stop watching for more and the odd thing is they came!  I wish someone knew a way to make it stop entirely.

[Artman9865]

Yes, I do this to myself all the time i will obsess about something for so long and low and behold the symptom appears and no matter how much i tell myself its nothing it never works i always believe its the worst.