Going CRAZY.....

[karcat25]

Hi everyone,
         
       For the past month I have been going NUTS and it is messing up my whole life. About a month or so ago I woke up with my heart pounding - scared to death - took a xnanx and calmed myself down, was fine..... Was ok for about 2 more weeks, and then again it happend - woke up heart pounding - this time took a xanax was so much more freaked out went to the ER - they did an EKG - was normal - blood pressure was normal...... Then had my annual physical at my doctors office..... Everything checked out fine, bloodwork and everything was normal.... About a month ago I started having super panic and axiety attacks thinking i have every friggin illness that there is. I know I have asthma - went to my allergy asthma dr was put on advair.... not i think i have lung cancer - or something - i keep thinking these crazy thoughts have a full blown out panic attack and dont think I am going to make it......... then just before i go in my car - look at my neck and I can see my pulse - start super panicing about that.... what is funny though - is if i take a half of one of my xnanax's every single simptom goes away. Can your mind really play this many tricks on your body? and if so how do you get past this? does anyone have any good techniques? i dont want to keep thinking i have every single disease out there....

throughout my life so far i thought i have had:
brain tumor
lung cancer
hiv
just about any other kind of cancer
heart problems
thyroid
the list goes on.... i think my worst problem is going online diagnosing myself... even my dr's have said that is something that everyone does and the internet is the WORST place to play doctor -

any help on how to east the brain - i just need to calm down and stop thinking so much about all of this things and live my life.... i am such an outgoing person and love helping others but have not been there for anyone becasue i am so caught up with everything.....

i am 32 yo and married 1 yr - my husband is so suportive of me through all of this - he laughs at me because i think i have everything.......

Here is a good one - a few weeks ago my good friend was over - we were sitting outside - my husband friend and i and my lower back was hurting (this was for one day) so after dinner i ran up stairs to see if i had kidney failure and they were both like you are NUTS.....

If ANYONE has any advice i would very very very very very much appriciate this - i just want to start living my life....

thanks so much for reading this... god bless you all....

[Xalatimo]

Believe it or not your husbands actions might be benefiting you more than you think.  Instead of reassuring you all the time he's actually making you feel like you have lost your mind and this makes you want to get help even more.  Though I'm not sure if that's what his intentions are.  Maybe he's just messing with you.    Regardless, with Health Anxiety you can't rely on on anyone but yourself.  Let him laugh all he wants.  Use it as motivation.  Try to overcome this and then laugh right back in his face when you do.  I don't think anything I am going to say is going to cure you, it takes time.  But just know that you probably need a combination of therapy (such as CBT) and medication.

You say you take a single pill and your symptoms go away.  That's your clue that this is all anxiety.  Your mind -does- play tricks on you, it's up to you to realize the pattern and eventually start ignoring your negative thoughts that tell you that you are sick or dying.  Also, don't fight the symptoms.  People get minor symptoms from to time, but try not to interpret every one of them as being something deadly.  Try to have some middle ground.  "Yes this symptom is uncomfortable, but most likely I am wrong again and it's probably nothing."  The more you can think like this, the less anxiety is produced with every symptom.  Less anxiety, less symptoms.  It's a cycle.  It's also very important to understand that the chance of being struck with a deadly disease is extremely slim.  Whenever you start to panic and think you have something, before it spirals out of control find out what the odds are of having that particular disease.  You will probably find out that it's not even worth it to worry about it, as the chance of anything occurring is so small.  I think with anxiety we always want 100% certainty that we are healthy and every symptom is interpreted as us not being in control of our bodies and thus we are unhealthy.  But that it isn't the case as you can be perfectly healthy and have minor physical symptoms from time to time, you just have to accept that.

You understand and realize that at any second death is possible.  A drunk driver can plow into your home.  You can get hit by a bus while crossing the street.  A stray meteor can crash near you wiping out your entire block.  But yet, you do not worry about these things because the chance of any of this happening is so small.  If you could take this very same approach to disease you will be much better off.

[Lauree]

"X" -   I'm tellin ya....you ought to be doing some head shrinking!

This is some of the most succinct advice regarding health anxiety that I have ever read.