For those with health anxiety

[locksey]

Hi , I was wondering for all ov us with this horrible fear ov every ache, pain etc ..... What is everyone's actual fear ?

...... illness , hospital etc ?

[Cobra]

Death. Just death. At least for me, that's all it is. That's why I don't like driving. Someone might hit me. That's why I don't like being alone. I might need help and no one will be around. Whenever my heart beats fast, I think heart attack. No matter what everybody might think, I believe it all just goes back to death, plain and simple. I had a close call during a medical emergency, and it has made me confront my own mortality, and my brain cannot accept it.

[HideKoto]

I am not at all afraid of dying, I am always waiting for something to occur so I can take the way out. Unfortunately many survived jumping in front of a car, the buildings here aren't high enough and guns are difficult to get here.
Anyhow I mainly fear, as weird as it may sound, my father, as he was always quite abusive. Not so much physically, but his yelling, anger and threats really beat me on the mental side. So basically I always try to get out of the way and also finally move out next year + break up contact. I think my anxiety would be gone for good afterwards as well. :)
That is basically my only fear presently. I used to have financial worries, but they vanished luckily, as I have taking extreme action :D

[MrsJ88]

Illness leading to death, hospitals, etc

[u4ea]

For me it's not just the illness itself, it's the possibility of being hospitalized. I have a big hospital phobia, and honestly don't think I'd make it a night without trying to escape. Thankfully, I've yet to be hospitalized - though I realize the older I get (I'm 32), the likelihood increases.

I can't even get a routine physical without my heart racing and anxiety taking over

[raggamuffin]

I think for most it's sheer paranoia about illnesses and death. But here's the truth - you wake up every single morning after days/weeks/months/years of daily pains. Guess what? It's not an illness or killing you it's JUST ANXIETY.

Acceptance is key to start recovery.

Ed

[emtw12]

Why does anxiety mimic real illnesses though?? :/

[raggamuffin]

It's the bodies way of showing you it's exhausted. Read about anxiety, understand it. Knowledge will remove fear gradually. Anxiety can mimic any pain if you fixate on it enough. Check the anxiety symptoms list stickied to the top of the forum. Read about the Fight or Flight response. Understand how excess adrenaline can cause muscle aches and pains ANYWHERE in the body.

Have a read of a recent post I wrote, it might proove helpful:

http://anxietyforum.net/forum/showthread.php?19451-Fear-amp-Worry-Don-t-Exist

The more you worry and fear symptoms or Google the aches and pains the longer they'll last.. If you are addicted to googling symptoms every time a pain comes along type in the symptom followed by anxiety and you'll soon see how anxiety can conjur up any sort of pain imaginable.

Ed

[locksey]

Why does anxiety mimic real illnesses though?? :/

Yeah , and I think that's why it's more frightening

[raggamuffin]

A good analogy is this - if you broke your leg you'd go to hospital, get patched up and that'd be that. Now then you'd be in pain every day for weeks on end. But you wouldn't visit the dr constantly, google symptoms, worry, fret and panic. You'd accept your leg was broken, this was the cause of the pain and in time your body will heal itself

This is the exact same situation with anxeity. Every day you wake up even if the day before you had pains and fears of these pains so bad you were convinced it was game over. This is your bodies way of showing you that the fears,worries, anxieties are taking it's toll. The fight or flight response is going off multiple times a day and your body is making you ache and such to show you it needs to rest. If you pile more worries onto things it'll take longer to get better. Everytime you wake up it should be proof it's not illness it's anxiety.

Ed

[u4ea]

Why does anxiety mimic real illnesses though?? :/

I said the same - "I wouldn't have anxiety if anxiety didn't present itself with physical manifestations!"

But as I'm gradually learning; the human brain is an amazing organ! From it comes greatness - genius, creativity, love, etc.; but on the flip side, comes paranoia, anxiety, fear and panic...

So to answer your question - "why does the brain mimic real illness?" It's just that powerful and has that much control over your bodily functions, emotions, fear and happiness : )

[mistiblue]

Mine are mostly cancer and MS. I used to be scared about my heart, but not so much anymore. I think it's just the fear of the unknown, not knowing what's happening or what's going to happen. That's what it is for me anyway.

[str8trippin]

Definitely a fear of dying...which is sort of odd in a way because I've never particularly considered myself to be someone who is afraid of dying or death in general, but I'm afraid of dying right NOW. But it's like others said, a good indicator that nothing life threatening is happening is the simple fact that I've been dealing with this stuff for months and I'm still here, going to bed every night afraid that if I fall asleep something might happen to me or I might die, and then waking up the next morning exhausted, but no doubt alive. Certainly if it was something serious, physically, something more would have happened by now, or my doctor would have found something in my blood work, etc. Your brain really is a powerful thing. If someone tells you not to think about pink elephants, the first thing you think of is pink elephants, and the more they tell you not to think about it, the more you are. Anxiety is the same cycle. The more you think about it the more it manifests itself physically and the more physical things become the more you think about them. It's incredibly frustrating.

[defmunel]

Fear of suffering an illness during my long life.

[vic]

Mines fear of death old age and illness :( but we fear what we don't know we fear what we have never experienced and also we can see what's going on out side out body and we have control of it but we can't see inside so we don't knw what's going on in ther it's a complete fear of the unknown

[sazaroo]

Mine is fear of hospital and death xx

[HealthAnxNut]

Mine is MS (every stinkin' muscle twinge or pain), cancer, and also heart problems. It's crazy because it's all very minor physical symptoms that make me suspect all these huge medical problems. EVERY DAY. My mom has leukemia, but is in remission, and it has weighed on me. Also, my sister is only 45 and has every medical problem you can imagine. I'm guessing that's where it comes from. :/

[mkgirl01]

I fear about everything death ms cancer brain anyerisim every day that's all that goes through my head even being home by myself scares me

[chasingdogma]

I have a fear of hospitals for one. I also fear suffering a long term illness and how it would impact me and my family financially.

[sharacel91]

Death hospitals and anything to go with the heart!!n

[majesty]

Fear of death, brain tumour and that my heart is randomly gonna stop.