Hypochondriac

[Amaarni]

Apart from my anxiety in the past 8 years I am 23 year old female and this year I have been a hypochondriac to the extreme literally self diagnosing and actually believe it and crying about it.. I wish I was normal

[geglilsis]

I think we all wish we were normal again, I'm not sure I remember what it was like. Pray, meditate and breath think of the funniest and fun times you ever had! I think of my old best friend a horse named pony, he used to eat ritz crackers and licorice with me, I could tell him anything, and he never talked back or judged. I sit on my front porch and take in the sounds around me breath and relax. Take five minutes of no anxiety out of your day! We are all here when you need us, we will not judge and we understand!

[Amaarni]

Thank you <3 I never open up to anyone but here to the perfect t strangers because most of you will understand me ..

[mykids12]

Hey I'm the same way. Since I can remember,I've always been a worrier. Just this year it's turned into more scary physical symptoms. Started with back pain and then tingling in my hands and throat tightness. Now I've got body aches. My worries are 90% health related. If not me its usually one of my kids I worry about. I've self diagnosed myself with almost every disease imaginable too. I say everyday I wish I was normal again.

[mw0929]

You will find that most of us do the same. I've been checked out for all kinds of illnesses and everything has come back all clear except anxiety and panic. I still have my moments but I try to remind myself it's only my anxiety and nothing more.

[KatLT]

I am also a 23 year old female and I am an extreme hypochondriac. I assume the smallest thing that goes wrong is a symptom of some terrible disease. I go to the doctors a several times a year and they always say nothing is wrong with me.

[Ryaan]

I'm right there with you... Trust your doctors, Don't google your symptoms, and just clear your mind, ule be fine.

[str8trippin]

Like others have said, probably a good majority of us here do the exact same thing...and also, like Ryaan said, don't Google your symptoms! Worst idea ever...it just feeds the anxiety. Most of my anxiety is health anxiety...I get stressed out about other things, but the health anxiety is almost always intertwined in there somehow. I'm not sure what triggered my anxiety starting (I think I just got overwhelmed because I had SO much going on and my mind and body just couldn't handle anymore) but almost immediately the fear became over there being something wrong with me physically. In the middle of the first panic attack I'd had in years all I could think about was that I was going to drop dead of a heart attack any second (I'm still here!), and the health anxiety just stemmed from there. Every little sensation would send me off into health anxiety land...but when I would think about the sensations rationally, most of the time I could relate them straight back to the anxiety, or to something else I'd done that might cause that particular physical sensation. Think about it logically...you probably aren't having a heart attack and a stroke and a brain aneurism and have every kind of cancer and rare infection and disease there is all at the same time!

[xxcraigiexx]

I am the same way. I am 26 and yesterday I went to the hospital for a little cp on my right side. They did an EKG and chest X-ray and told me it was not cardiac at all and my heart is healthy. Late last night I had some pains in my left arm and my mind just went to heart attack even though 12 hrs earlier i was told I am young and healthy. It's a terrible cycle.

[str8trippin]

I am the same way. I am 26 and yesterday I went to the hospital for a little cp on my right side. They did an EKG and chest X-ray and told me it was not cardiac at all and my heart is healthy. Late last night I had some pains in my left arm and my mind just went to heart attack even though 12 hrs earlier i was told I am young and healthy. It's a terrible cycle.

This is me, too! I was having horrible aching in my left arm and hand at the beginning of last week; finally decided I was better safe than sorry and went to the ER where they did an EKG, which was normal of course, but within hours my mind was right back in the game, telling me they'd probably missed something or it's something that isn't going to show up on an EKG. Ugh! It's a terrible cycle, indeed!

[calimel]

Yes, it's an awful cycle. My anxiety shows up as heart attack like symptoms as well. Chest pain, arm pain, short of breath. I've been to the emergency room, had tests. But I know now it won't kill me even though my mind tries to play the " maybe it's different this time" trick on me. I just breathe and realize that I'd be dead if it were truly a heart attack because my chest hurts like this all day, every day right now unless I have a full on panic attack and take a Xanax. Then it miraculously stops. Which is how I know it is definitely anxiety, not my heart. But I can't live on Xanax.