in need of help.

[Forrest Owl]

I am having an episode with my anxiety and hypochondria and I can't seem to shake it, Ive been having lower back pain and bloating so I went to see the doctor because I was afraid I had ovarian cancer after reading that those are some symptoms. so I went talked to her about it and she sent me for an ultrasound and the results came back normal, but because I still feel crappy I am still convinced I have ovarian cancer. Ive talked to loved ones and they just say I am fine and stop worrying but I cant! I just dont know why I cant except that no tumors on my ovaries means no cancer and that the problems I am having is something else! Help :(

[jessed03]

Because the stakes are so high. Anxiety exists on 'What if's?". What if there's a 1% chance?.... What if there's a 0.01% chance?.... What if every bodies wrong on this one? etc. Your anxiety is designed to save your life. As you know it's fight or flight. It's there to alert you of danger. Your body has just become 10x more sensitive than some others. Most people get stressed at a 5% chance of tragedy. We get stressed at a 0.05% of tragedy. Unfortunately there isn't really a 'strategy' you can implement to over come hypochondria, there are just hundreds of tiny ones that you need to implement at every small moment. (Clinical studies have proven hypochondria is very treatable) I don't know if you do CBT, but my therapist suggested I do an alternative thought diary when I was suffering from it badly.

- Get a small notepad you can always carry around
- Whenever you're frightened about an illness, take out your pad and write it in there.
- Note the situation in which your thought came up.
- Write down the emotion accompanying the thought.
- Write down the thought in it's entirity, no matter how strange or embarrassing.
- Then, in your mind, sort of take a step back from it, and write down the more realistic alternative thought.

Just writing thing's can help, and writing the alternative thought allows your mind to re-programme back into a more rational state. Miracles won't happen over night, but you'll teach yourself not to reward your panic and anxiety with emotional attention. Over time you'll see you begin to react less and less to things, as your default state changes back to a more realistic one.

One more thing to add. Never EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER use symptom checkers. EVER!!!!! They are like crack cocaine for anxiety. It has it's own name: Using the internet to diagnose yourself with symptoms; CYBERCHONDRIA. I know it's tempting, and scary out there in the open, and they say knowledge is power, but power they also say; corrupts, and that's what anxiety has over you now; Power. It's because you keep giving it the knowledge. These symptom checkers are literally handing anxiety Cliff Notes on how to scare you. Read through the anxiety symptom list several times until you're familiar with it. Maybe read a book by Claire Weeks, explaining why anxiety makes you feel a certain way and then cut it off. Stop feeding it. For good. No "maybe I'll just check this one thing!" or "This seems serious, I'll just do a very small google search". If a real issue arises, your doctor is very capable of dealing with it in a far better manner than us uneducated, bias individuals.

You'll get there, it's hard and feels uncomfortable at first. But you'll begin to start seeing through it, and spotting it's tricks in no time :-)

[alankay]

Owl, are you seeing a counselor about this? Where are you in that respect ,i.e., professional help.

[Forrest Owl]

I was, Ive seen so many and all they do is treat me for depression which I don't have it, it's become very frustrating. :(