cancer anxiety?

[Samtastic]

i know this will be tmi but lately ive been having really bad anxiety about having breast cancer. im constanly feeling for lumps and bumps in my breast. i will even go into the bathroom in public places and feel them. i never feel any lumps but its always going thru my mind like what if what if. its to the point where i cant even live normally cause im always thinking about it. does anyone else do this??????

[Justice]

Yes accept I am male but I was obsessed with the fact that I might have lymph node cancer. The more I poked and prodded them obviously the sorer my lymph nodes got. I went for all the tests and every thing was perfect.

[Terre Nova]

i know this will be tmi but lately ive been having really bad anxiety about having breast cancer. im constanly feeling for lumps and bumps in my breast. i will even go into the bathroom in public places and feel them. i never feel any lumps but its always going thru my mind like what if what if. its to the point where i cant even live normally cause im always thinking about it. does anyone else do this??????

I worry constantly and had found a pea sized lump and after 6 months it went away (whilst waiting for results) and some women just have lumps in their breasts and it a benign thing..
No worries.. Tell you brain you've had enough for now and to beat it :)

[Terre Nova]

Any concern about breast cancer should be evaluated from your armpit to your nips

[jessed03]

Yeah, obviously get that all clear from the white coats first, then make a firm commitment to tackle this as an anxiety fuelled problem.

You can tackle this in the same way you would an OCD habit. There's obviously a degree of compulsion involved in your condition if you feel the need to go to public bathrooms, things like that, to satisfy the intense need for relief.

The best way to tackle it I think, is to take a pen and paper, and keep it with you (iphone would do), and when you get any kind of compulsion to check yourself for a lump, don't... Just pause... And write.

What comes out of your mind at this point may be very simple. It may be a simple case of 'What if I have breast cancer?', but keep digging a bit to make sure. Aggravate your anxiety a little here. Say to yourself 'This could be bad', and let it raise temporarily, just so you can get to those deeper layers of fear that aren't always evident. Be cruel to be kind to yourself for those few minutes ;)

There will be a few thoughts or fears, minimum. There will be anxious thoughts like 'What if I miss it?', 'What if I have breast cancer', 'What if the checks were wrong' etc... or just perhaps more personal thoughts like 'I hope I don't end up like Aunt so-and-so who died from breast cancer'

You can do this exercise a few times when your condition anxiety pops up. You're looking for several thoughts. Usually the ones that pop up each of the few times you do it, are the ones to tackle.

Now when you know what the poison is, you give yourself the antidote.

Once you have a few of these fearful thoughts or ideas, send me a PM, and I'll send you a worksheet on tackling it. I don't really want to upload it now, as there are different ones, for different types of anxiety based worries. I don't really wanna send one that would just be confusing, but I don't wanna send a simple one, if it won't be effective, ya know?

Once you have the worksheet, you tackle each of these thoughts from a different angle. You assault them with logic and reason, something that hasn't been coherently done so far. You compile a case against them, that halves their fear factor. This is when they weaken big time.

At this point, fear usually decreases massively, compulsions to check things like blood pressure, sugar, heart rate, for lumps, all decreases.

Then you're winning the war :)

[Steven Daws]

I have had similar anxiety about things like this. I might suddenly find a lump or something and think, what is that? My anxiety is triggered by many health situations so I can sympathise. Trying to rationalise it is definitely a good way to tackle it, this is easier said than done, but if you have had it checked and is is fine, then this is a powerful tool that you can use to convince yourself that it is ok.