Hypersensitive to EVERYTHING

[rhar]

Have spent almost 18 months constantly analysing how I feel, scanning and reacting on every bodily symptom it drives me into panic.

Like this silly example, I'll think "oh my god my face feels weird/numb" then I'll remember I was just lying down resting on my hand so clearly that's what that was.

It's such a bad habit I am finding so hard to break, to stop "body scanning" because if I feel a little off balance or my vision is strange for a millisecond, my stomach drops and full blown health anxiety kicks in.. Arrrggghhhhhhhh so annoying!!!!

[Lee Grant Irons]

I've been there. Hopefully for you, there will come a time when you realize that nothing that bad has happened yet. The best thing we can do for ourselves is to find a way to age gracefully. A frequent surge of adrenalin that usually accompanies anxiety is not going to help us age gracefully. So everything you can do to de-stress will be good for you.

So, you have this problem that you are constantly body scanning. Your goal is to break this habit. I think there are some healthy realizations that you should accept at this point. 1. You are human and so you will age and will get aches and pains along with the aging. 2. Everyone dies, it is just a fact of life. 3. There are some things you cannot change, like your genes. There are probably some other things that you cannot change that you can think of to add to this list. Then there are some things you need to acknowledge. Acknowledgment is recognizing things that you already know about the problem. 1. Most of the aches and pains you get while you age will be normal aging and benign. 2. The best way to ensure that you do not contract a debilitating illness of age is to practice healthy living with eating, exercise, sleep. 3. You are likely not doing everything you could do to live a healhy lifestyle. With these accepts and acknowledgments, you can start doing things to help you be healthier, and presumably feel better, considering that feeling healthy could help you take your mind off of feeling unhealthy. If these strategies do not work, then you can still note what you have learned from the process and then start trying new things you have thought of to help you take your mind off of body scanning.

This is a general approach to trying to solve this problem. I have given you some ideas, but only you know what you know. I recommend you try what I did in the above. Write down some things you need to accept that you can;t change that are related to this habit. Then write down some things you think might help you break this habit based upon things you have read or heard, or ideas you might have. Then start doing these things. Periodically review the things you have had to accept that you can;t change, so that you can learn to remember these. This will help you learn to not stress over what you can't change. Monitor your progress on the things you are doing to try to break the habit and jot down notes of how you are progressing. If you need to make some adjustments, make them and continue to track your progress. This will be a journey and a learning process for you, but I promise you that you will find some improvement if you do this.

Keep us posted on how things are going.

[rhar]

Thank you. It's so hard to break this horrible habit

[rhar]

Watch the things you are telling yourself when these things happen as this is the key to getting past them . Eg , "oh my god my face feels weird/numb" . OH no its back , whats happening , im scared , it must be that stroke , this must be it , i am so scared . or "oh , face feels kinda weird/numb " . Well that strange , guess i must be a bit stressed , maybe i will just accept it and slow down a little . Bloody dumb ass brain , stupid anxiety , i am always amazed at what it tosses out . I have had it before and it past so i will wait and see .

Great advice, thanks so much. Yep I def know my thoughts switch to "holy hell this is it I'm going to pass out this time" and I know this feeds my anxiety. Thanks so much 😊

[mrseyeore]

Body scanning is something I do all day too! Gradually I'm learning that most of my pains are because of tension, and a few knots in my back.

[rhar]

Rhar I see alot of myself in your story . I just read one of your post you just done and would say my symptoms are the same . I dont have that fear anxiety behind it because i have had it a while . I was going to ask you , are you taking drugs at this stage . I found when i was on St Johns it all stopped but something happened and i come off them and it all come back worse . Maybe you could look into it . I had no side effects , never really noticed it was even gone until it came back .

I haven't taken any drugs. Except Valium twice when I couldn't calm myself. I want to have a baby so didn't want to go down meds path