Strange symptoms, constantly worrying about health

[zenith2]

I hope someone out there is experiencing similar things to me........I have always been a bit of a hypochondriac and worrying about my health all the time, seem to have almost weekly visits to doctors for reassurance. I have many symptoms and keep dreading the worst - does this sound like anyone elses experience of anxiety symptoms - strange feeling in right cheek and sometimes tingling all over right side of head, tingling in little finger on and off, legs feel tired and achy and muscles tight a lot of the time. Pains in left wrist and thumb on and off, pressure type headache that feels like a tight band, muscle twitching in eyelids, arms, legs and almost anywhere else. Just noticed too that one of my eye (right) pupils is bigger than the other which is totally freaking me out to the point where I may have to visit GP again for 2nd time this week. All drs I have seen say anxiety is the cause (although haven't mentioned pupils yet) and have refered me to a psychologist, and a neurologist (very reluctantly and only because I seemed so stressed). Both will take 3 months to get an appointment - can someone tell me if this sounds like anxiety ? Does anyone else experience different size pupils as I googled this and now fear a brain tumour. I'll be cracking up soon, apart from driving my husband mad ........... HELP !!

[Jay12345]

Hey there.. I think worrying about ones health is one of the most common symptons of anxiety, so don't worry if anyone else is experiencing similar things to you, because people are. Going to the doctor everytime for reassurance will only strengthen the anxiety!. Ive said it so many times, and i'm sure everyone is sick of me saying the same things but i truly believe that TIME will recover you, obivously if your doing the right things that is. Everyone goes to the doctor, BUT don't go just because your mind thinks theres something wrong with you, afterall... IT'S just a thought. You need to learn to control your thoughts, and perhaps CBT is an option for this.... Keep going! see your doctor for adivce....(drugs aren't the answer, in my opinion)

[northstar]

hi there!

firstly don't worry about your pupils! they don't have any set size, your pupils get larger and smaller constantly to let in different amounts of light into your eyes. in low light they will be bigger to allow more light in and vice versa. so they will never look the same. perhaps one eye needed more light than the other at the time you were looking in the mirror :) the next thing you should do is to stop googling symptoms, google is not a doctor, it's just a search engine! in my experience googling will always make you feel worse, it comes up with all kinds of exotic illnesses that
make people with anxiety feel 10 times worse. if you google you are giving yourself something to worry about, so do yourself a favour and ban yourself from it lol. :)

as jay says the health worry you are having is really quite a common symptom of anxiety, so many other people go through the same thing. when we are anxious there is lots of adrenaline flying around our bodies making us hypersensitive to even the slightest pain and feeling. the best thing for you to do is to learn to control the irrational worrying and replace it with the more rational side to your personality. you can do this through counselling, have a look in the phonebook and look up some
counsellors or psychotherapists who have good qualifications and check them out or ask your doctor if there is anyone else they reccommend whom you can see while you're waiting those three months. ask your doctor about cognitive behaviour therapy too,as jay suggested, this is another kind of therapy that is quite successful with your type of
worries.

there are lots of other things you can do to help yourself with the anxiety in the meantime, but i really think the first step is to start talking to someone and dealing with it rather than continuing the cycle of worry, it'll only wear you out. you can also look into things like diet & nutrition, exercise, and relaxation techniques to help yourself. you might also like to look into taking something like a yoga or meditation class to help you to relax and to learn breathing exercises that are beneficial :)

let us know how you're doing, i know anxiety is so hard to deal with but it is possible to get better :)

and stay away from google! ;)

[Jay12345]

Yeh, google really is terrible, all this does is gives you more things to worry about!

Anyway, I went to see a band tonight called 'Elbow' i'm sure some of you rockers in here have heard of them, anyway...

about half way through the gig i had a panic.. the feeling in my stomach came (you know what i mean)... ive recently recovered from anxiety and i remember when i used to go to gigs i always felt awful, so tonight i basically associated myself with being anxious so therefore the feelings came back..

But instead of worrying about this, i just laughed.. and i was like 'It's just a feeling, who cares....' and laughed, and it instantly went. If this was 3 years ago i would be crying now...

[Punk Rock Steve]

Hi Zenith2...You are most CERTAINLY NOT alone in feeling the way you do. I constantly have been worrying about my health and in my mind have had practically every disease that one could possibly have...the mind is a terrible place to hang out; especially when it's in the "worry mode" :) If you look further below in the General Discussion category you'll see a post I put on here titled Fear & Anxiety in North Jersey II. Read it to see what I've been going through lately, and you'll see that I'm in the same place that you are. I too am VERY guilty of surfing the web to see what (I think) I might have. I have been driving my wife crazy, especially these past two months during which I've been experiencing a real bad flare-up of my anxiety and stress. Unlike you, I don't go to the doctor much. Instead I worry more. More than likely however, I will find out that it's my stress and anxiety. If I however, had severe things happening to me, I would force myself to see a doc or ER. But I just keep plugging away...one day at a time (sometimes one hour or one minute at a time). My band is playing up in Boston this Saturday night and I'm already worrying that I'm going to be driving up there with the unbearable back spasms that have been my latest stress/anxiety symptom. You know what though? Once I get on stage and start playing they will more than likely dissipate....not because they just went away, but because my mind will be distracted from the 24/7 worrying that it usually does. You got some great advice from the other posts...just hang in there and stay strong and help yourself no matter how crappy you feel! This can be beat, but it just takes time.

[Obelysk]

Hey were are you guys going to play I happen to live in Boston myself. Small world. lol

[Punk Rock Steve]

Hi! Just sent you a private message with the details...we're playing at O'Brien's. I could use the support :)

[zenith2]

Hi everyone, thank you for all your kind messages, I hope you are all feeling a bit better today. I'm still plodding on and I know things will improve, I just need to stop dwelling on my sensations. I just can't seem to stop obsessing over little symptoms and in my head I must be making them worse. I know we'll all come through this eventually.

[Jay12345]

Hi everyone, thank you for all your kind messages, I hope you are all feeling a bit better today. I'm still plodding on and I know things will improve, I just need to stop dwelling on my sensations. I just can't seem to stop obsessing over little symptoms and in my head I must be making them worse. I know we'll all come through this eventually.


The thing is with anxiety is that it's not something which disappears like the flick of the switch, it may take months! The most annoying thing about it is that the progress is so slow and because of this, you can't tell whether you've improved, so therefore you start to worry again, which only brings on more anxiety, it's a cycle in your mind!. If you broke your leg, you can physically see an improvement, however in your mind this just isn't possible..!

You have to accept, but most importantly not ignore your anxiety, If you ignore, it will only get worse! you have to keep reminding yourself that your absolutely fine and that it's just obsession which is making the problem so much more out of proportation than what it actually is!

Keep going, you'll soon be fine, trust me! :goodjob:

[Marthax]

I worry about my health so much... when I was younger I was at the doctors CONSTANTLY because I had fear of having appendicitis.
I have heart palpitations often as well... and have been worried sick about that many times and have been to the doctors sooo many times for it.

A couple weeks ago my heart started POUNDING for over an hour... asked my doctor about it and she said to me it was because I never got it off my mind, and sure enough, the moment I didn't think about it, it had stopped going nuts.

I think its true most of the time we create our own symptoms... my biggest thing right now is fear of vomiting and my anxiety creates these symptoms and then I believe it.

I don't know... there's so many things I have concentrated and obsessed over and they last and last and last for as long as I give them attention, but the moment I stop, it goes away...

I think especially since you have been to doctors for these things and you have checked out okay, it really could be a symptom created by your anxiety, everyone here seems to have different primary things they worry about within their health and they are similar and different to eachother... it's hard to think it's nothing when it seems so real but try to relax and find comfort in knowing you have seen doctors for this.