Health Anxiety

[CodyG]

I am really looking for some help guys and gals. Health Anxiety is ruining my life. Everyday I fear of having a heart attack, or heart failure, or anemia. It is ridiculous. When I'm not having bad anxiety, my heart rate is usually in the 60's. My blood pressure is always normal. I quit smoking and caffeine. My problem is, besides taking .125 mg of klonopin a day, I can not take another med. I am way too scared of the effect it will have on me. I am prescribed to Effexor xr. When I was 21 I took it and I didn't notice any side effects. But now a days since I notice every little thing about my body, I don't think I can handle it. I have been to CBT but it didn't help. Ive bought the books, read all the time, and I still can not shake this. Am I going to live in this misery for forever? Can anyone help me? I really feel like this is going to kill me. I am afraid to exercise because I'm scared that if I get my heart rate up, I will have heart failure. Even tho I had a stress test 2 years ago and I am only 27. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[larmer]

Hello. I am going through what ur going through, I went to the hospital did a scan on my heart, blood tests and urine sample, told me was 100% healthy. The heart rate thing is anxiety , it is one of the main symptoms. I know I was running this morning and felt a pain in me hand and automatically I thought oh its a heart attack, but it inst. when you have anxiety you thing you have every bloody disease that ur going to die ,its you mind playing tricks with your body. Try this, when your having an attack , just sit down, and let it pass through, keep saying its only an attack. Anxiety is caused by stress in your life, what are you thinking about most? what has happened before you got the anxiety. If we bottle up problems in our life and we don't deal with them then the stress can come out in other ways like symptoms of an attack. Go see your doctor or nurse for support and advice. Go see someone and talk about your problems, because it problems you have not dealt with is causing your anxiety

[brittany09]

I don't think I have a health phobia per say,but I have had panic attacks because I think something is wrong with my body. One time,I had sprayed my apartment with this bug killing stuff and had a panic attack because I thought I breathed too much of it in and was going to die from the fumes. Another more recent time,I started getting a leg cramp and had a panic attack because I thought I had a stroke. It was from dehydartion. Lol. I also worry I have different diseases. I understand how that could become a phobia. Did you have anxiety issues before this health problem?

[CodyG]

I had some anxiety, but it wasn't like this. I didn't focus my anxiety on my body. Everyday it's something new. It's been going on for over a year and a half now. I am about as educated on it as I can be, but I can't turn what I know in to what I need to do.

[carmeld14]

Hi I'm new here. I have health anxiety. In my case , once I fixate on a particular symptom I imagine the worst . My main fear is cancer as both parents passed away from it. This week I worked myself up over waiting for test results and i know I let the worst case conclusion i came to get out of control. Now it's reignited my anxiety about other body issues where I'd normally take a wait and see approach. I hope just expressing it here, helps me deal with it somewhat.

[appshopper01]

I am really looking for some help guys and gals. Health Anxiety is ruining my life. Everyday I fear of having a heart attack, or heart failure, or anemia. It is ridiculous. When I'm not having bad anxiety, my heart rate is usually in the 60's. My blood pressure is always normal. I quit smoking and caffeine. My problem is, besides taking .125 mg of klonopin a day, I can not take another med. I am way too scared of the effect it will have on me. I am prescribed to Effexor xr. When I was 21 I took it and I didn't notice any side effects. But now a days since I notice every little thing about my body, I don't think I can handle it. I have been to CBT but it didn't help. Ive bought the books, read all the time, and I still can not shake this. Am I going to live in this misery for forever? Can anyone help me? I really feel like this is going to kill me. I am afraid to exercise because I'm scared that if I get my heart rate up, I will have heart failure. Even tho I had a stress test 2 years ago and I am only 27. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Maybe it's time to ask your doctor to start slowly weaning you off the med that is now problematic.
And focus more on healthy living and meditation and relaxation to deal with the anxiety.

[Buttercup]

I used to be just like you. My health anxiety was ruining my life at one point- I would take my temperature regularly throughout the day and any fluctuations really worried me. I also bought a blood pressure monitor and used that daily. Any sensation or feeling in my body would make me panic and I would be convinced it was something serious. I think it started for me as a child, my dad was a doctor and I used to regularly read his medical books and I would learn about conditions and illnesses, usually convincing myself that I had one of them. If I had a headache it was a brain tumor, a raised heart rate was a heart attack, a bruise would mean leukemia and so on. I think like me you are hyper vigilent when it comes to sensations in your body. It took me a long time to realise that everyone has funny feelings, aches and pains etc and it is normal. I saw a psychologist and eventually weaned myself of taking my temerature and blood pressure, I stopped using the net to look up symptoms and learned new ways of thinking, ie, I have a headache so maybe it's because I haven't drunk enough fluids today. I somehow learned to not jump to the worst conclusion with any bodily sensation. I found it helpful as well to read about the heart- why it increase during exercise and the functions it performs. I personally found CBT helpful with my health anxiety though. It could be an idea to see another psychologist or specialist in health anxiety if possible. I currently take beta blockers which help regulate the heart and stop it from going too fast, have you tried these?
I believe there is light at the end of the tunnel for you and you will be able to deal with this health anxiety one day. It's a struggle but is totally do-able.
B x