Health Anxiety Questions

[Roxie271983]

Hello. I have been scoping around for a long time. I have been doing well with managing my anxiety. This last week it has come back with a vengeance. I suffer from Health Anxiety, specifically Heart related "fear of Heart attack/stroke. I just can seem to pull myself through this recent episode. I was wondering if anyone else suffers with this? and what they have found works? I have had my heart checked out by a cardiologist and all is fine. I am currently on Klonopin (0.5 tabs) and seems to help most of the time. Any advice would be appreciated?

[Goomba]

For me beating health anxiety was all about dealing with underlying fears. The anxiety was a manifestation of those fears.

In others words, I didn't fear a heart attack directly, I feared death. I feared a change in my quality of life. Your reasons may be different.

Deal with the fears and the anxiety begins to subside.

Attempting to treat the anxiety still allows the fears to thrive, and they will create new anxieties.

[Roxie271983]

Thanks. How were you able to identify your fear? I have trouble getting past my fear of a heart attack.

[Goomba]

Just think it through.

What is the problem with having a heart attack? What could happen if you had one?

[Roxie271983]

Thanks. I took some time kind of really thought through it. I am afraid of dying but I'm also afraid of death in general. I know that dying and death is inevitable but the uncertainty not knowing when it's can I come is scary. Hope you got pass that, the fact that it happens. how do you not worry or get anxious about it?

[Goomba]

There is a lot of good information about that here - http://anxietyforum.net/forum/showthread.php?30789-My-Hypochondria-Was-The-Best-Thing-To-Ever-Happen-To-Me

That post includes some of my experiences and has turned into a solid collection of what other people have gone through.

If death is what you fear - dig a little deeper.

Is it ceasing to exist you fear? Not knowing what will happen? No longer being able to experience this life? Every answer will ask start to ask more questions, and through exploring them you will begin to find the nature of what is causing your anxiety experience. Making peace with that was one of the beginning steps, for me.