Health anxiety please help

[katyats]

So I've been getting headaches for a while now and I'm worried I have something wrong with my brain/head. I have been to doctor twice now but they just send me away saying everything is ok. In the past couple of weeks I have been occasionally getting ringing in my ears, and a few times have woken up with memory loss of about 5, max 10 seconds. About a week ago when I was trying to sleep I felt something almost move inside my head, like something clicking into place/out of place. What could this be I'm so worried and wont stop panicking

[Hidalgo21]

Damn I feel you , try to talk to your doctor tell him that you want an MRI or cat scan of your brain so you can have peace of mind and don't been thinking to much about it .

[NixonRulz]

I am not sure what type of things they did to determine nothing was wrong the times you have been to see a doctor but if it was thorough, why are you refusing to believe it?

I agree that you could get an MRI but you may be setting yourself up to always need some type of thorough test to be reassured.

That can get expensive and become a bad habit.

If you have an anxiety disorder and you are being told you are healthy, believe it

I am never surprised at any physical symptom of anxiety anymore

You need to start feeling your symptoms and instead of wondering what catastrophic thing is wrong with you, sate to yourself that your anxiety is flaring up a bit and continue on with what you are doing

Don't look for a diagnosis you already have determined.

[jessed03]

Hey Katya, I'll get back to your PM soon, Im on my phone today :)

I just wanted to say, you could tackle this two ways. One way I recommend, and the naughty way.

The way I recommend is educating yourself on anxiety, and it's effects. Once you realize you fit perfectly into the diagnosis you have been given, it becomes much more of a non-reactive process. I have a few ebooks, and a meditation guide that I'll send you when I'm on my PC.

The second way, and the naughty way (that I did actually) is to lie a little to exagerrate your symptoms. Doctors here in the UK follow such strict budgets, and have to meet certain targets. They don't like commiting themselves and sending people for extremely expensive tests, when there is very little to go on. When I had heart anxiety, I told a few naughty little lies to make sure I triggered the nurses heart awareness attention. She sent me for the tests, and inevitably they came back ok. Only after that could I accept it was probably anxiety. I do understand you may need an all clear like hidalgo said, before you move on.

Have you had any other health anxiety, or does it mainly revolve around brain problems? :) Be well!

[katyats]

NixonRulz, they did not do anything, they didnt look at me, they just listened to me and said I was totally fine. I understand that tests are expensive but after I'd have a test, I very much doubt I'd still have this health anxiety. I'd feel safe. If you were worried about a problem, and not just for no reason, ive had headaches every day for the past half a year when i dont remember ever having a headache before that, sometimes my eyesight goes so bad my left eye goes totally blurry, I wake up with memory loss, I feel numbness in my head etc etc, would you feel more reassured after a test or a doctor not examining you in any way and telling you that you're fine? GPs screw up all the time. I once went to my GP (before i had anxiety, was for something not serious) and to find out what was wrong with me the doctor googled my symptoms to see what it was that I had. Yep, googled. So how do you expect me to rely on these doctors? I understand that yes 99.9999999% chance it's only my anxiety but because I don't know that, it's gets me into panic attacks, it gets me depressed, i cant sleep, I have failed exams because of it and I have stopped socialising. Am I not worth one test?

[katyats]

Jessed03, I like the sound of the naughty way! And because you had that test you know for 100% that it's your anxiety and you have nothing to worry about!

[Lin]

I would definitely ask for a scan. I had headaches for a long time a few years ago and I was referred for a scan which showed my head was OK, and after that I stopped worrying about the headaches and just treated them normally with paracetamol etc and they went away. But I had been really worried until I had the scan.

Your doctor should refer you if you go back with headaches after a long period of time.

If it is anxiety causing them you will then know that learning calming techniques such as meditation etc will help you stop the headaches, instead of increasing your anxiety by worrying about them.

So I should go back and asked for them to be checked properly especially since you are so young and should be enjoying life, not having to worry about the headaches and not being able to socialise etc.

[NixonRulz]

NixonRulz, they did not do anything, they didnt look at me, they just listened to me and said I was totally fine. I understand that tests are expensive but after I'd have a test, I very much doubt I'd still have this health anxiety. I'd feel safe. If you were worried about a problem, and not just for no reason, ive had headaches every day for the past half a year when i dont remember ever having a headache before that, sometimes my eyesight goes so bad my left eye goes totally blurry, I wake up with memory loss, I feel numbness in my head etc etc, would you feel more reassured after a test or a doctor not examining you in any way and telling you that you're fine? GPs screw up all the time. I once went to my GP (before i had anxiety, was for something not serious) and to find out what was wrong with me the doctor googled my symptoms to see what it was that I had. Yep, googled. So how do you expect me to rely on these doctors? I understand that yes 99.9999999% chance it's only my anxiety but because I don't know that, it's gets me into panic attacks, it gets me depressed, i cant sleep, I have failed exams because of it and I have stopped socialising. Am I not worth one test?

If you haven't had a full range of tests then by all means you should find a doctor to do them.

With anxiety, it is important to eliminate and true physical problems so you can be sure it is your anxiety

Once you have those tests and get the negative results, I hope it is as easy as you say and you will not have health anxiety anymore

[TiffLynn]

I know how you feel. I have been in the same situation. Eventually I told my doc that I needed the MRI. I have had it done and they've looked at every part of my head and they say that I am ok. But even with all that I still feel the way I feel and still continue to have my episodes. The doc says it could be sinus relayed. My anxiety isn't any better. I know this doesn't help as I have no solution. But sometimes it's nice knowing other people are out there.

[Lin]

Katyats - hope you are feeling better, and it has been good getting support from people on the forum. Hope your headaches have got better, or you have manged to insist on tests, so that you can rule out anything serious, and just work on your anxiety etc.
So important that you don't have something like headaches worrying you, it is difficult enough to cope with depression when nothing in particular bothering you!

Lin x