Health Anxiety/Crying

[thursday85]

I've been obsessing about my health lately, mainly on my heart. I know anxiety brings on chest pains but i can't get over the fact that something may be wrong with my heart or chest, i have been thinking about it constantly for the past few days and am hesitant to go and workout and do things i love because i feel like im going to enduce the pain ever more. I'm 21/m i know i am young and at low risk for heart disease but my anxiety will not accept that. Also i've been having crying spells for strange reasons, I think im so frustrated with feeling the way I do my body is trying to release some tension, I tried meditating and started to cry about 10 mintues after...I'm on my 5th week of lexapro 10 mg and im thinking of upping the dosage to 20, does anyone have some advice? thanks.

[V for Victor]

If the pills you're on aren't working after a few more weeks, perhaps an uppage in dosage, or even switching to another drug, may help.

I get what you mean about obsessing over your heart. Most of my anxiety is rooted in my own personal health, too. Diseases, toxins, heart attacks... you name it, I worried about it.

Medication has really helped me get a handle on it.

I know your anxiety won't accept that there's nothing wrong with you, but you have to force it. I always say that sometimes the best thing you can do is stop and remind yourself that the only REAL problem here is anxiety. Your anxiety has just happened to focus on your heart. There's nothing wrong with you phsyically, and that's that. You know that intellectually. You just can't shake the FEELING that something is wrong.

At that point, you just have to ignore it and go on with your business. In turn, the worries can diminish.