# Health Anxiety



## 13728 (Jul 13, 2005)

I thought I would post this here. If I could have found this type of posting five years ago, it would have made my life a little bit easier. So in hopes of making someone feel better (and not worse) please read about my phantom illnesses. Hang in there and God Bless.-RooAre you a hypochondriac... I don't think so.. I read your post and felt a familiar pang in my gut. We could be twins! For the last five years I have had many episodes of phantom illnesses. I'll describe below... but yes - I personally believe that the body can manifest all anxiety, depression and suppressed feelings and gear it outward in REAL physical symptoms. I suppress my feelings. I had a HORRIBLE childhood and never really dealt with it. I have tons of INSECURITIES and constantly deal with depression, Generalized anxiety and I have a mild case of OCD. After years of suppressing feelings and worrying about EVERYTHING - It finally came to a head. Now I fear myself or someone I love dying EVERY DAY. I make the absolute worst of every situation. I can have a slight muscle ache and I turn it into Multiple Sclerosis... if I have fatigue, I turn it into HIV (although that is completely unrealistic), a headache is a definite brain turmo and if my knee hurts, I must have cancer and I must be dying - every day. I've never been suicidal, because of my faith, but if it weren't for my spiritual beliefs, I'd be long gone. It has ruined relationships and really slowed down my career development. I have a hard time focusing and cry for no reason. I'm depressed to a disabling point... but somehow I get on with my life. I'm sad that I've wasted all of this time worrying and not living and worried that I may spend the rest of my life worrying instead of living. I've isolated myself from most of the people I love. I finally went to a therapist and OH BOY did alot come out... I talked about things that I haven't thought about in 20 or more years. I talked about things I've never mentioned to anyone in my life. Although I walked out of the doctor's office still having stomach/poop issues... I can say that I feel better and I was able to tie my ailments to something. I will keep going no matter what the cost, as I think ultimately, this anxiety and fear will cost me my life. Someday I may *really* be sick and then what? Well, it happens to millions of people every day and somehow they deal with it. I hope your therapist session went well and I hope somehow you get the help you need. I hope we all get the help we need. If it makes you feel any better I have listed all of the REAL SYMPTOMS that have come from *phantom* illnesses. Note that I've gone through thorough testing for all of this... and everything comes back normal! Most of these were isolated and went on for weeks and weeks, sometimes months.*twitching (legs, arms, hands, eyes, face) to the point I'd call off of work.*shaking*stomach aches*Acid Reflux*Kidney Pain*upper and lower back pain*chest pains*HEADACHES to that point that I had MRIs and scans done.*Eye floaters and Light bursts*Earaches*Sore throat*fatigue*Hip Pain*Leg pain*Knee pain*butt pain*wrist/arm pain (of course I associated w/ heart attack)*swollen feet and calves (weren't really swollen but looked and felt swollen)*Tingling on top of head/ face tingling/arm tingling*Flank pain/pain below my ribs*stomach cramps*diarrhea/constipation/nausea*sleeplessness/anxiety attacks*Breast pain*groin pain*dizzinessIt comes and goes and now some of these I know are associated with stress and I won't worry, but when something new comes up (and it ALWAYS does - Hellooo, Poopie issues) I stress to the extremes).That's my story... Roo Posts: 26 | Location: Dallas, Texas | Registered: 13 July 2005 Roo New Member Posted 22 July 2005 02:22 PM AND, the internet can be *evil*. We need to avoid symptom surfing at ALL costs. If you really look, every symptom ends up being one of a horrible disease on the internet... Have you noticed that??!And, of course, doctors always shrug most of our ailments off to the simplest things. I trust my doctor and I'm weary of the internet. It has only made my life a living hell. Search on Diarrhea (well, don't really) and what comes up? Most of it is just frigging scary... and have any one of us been diagnosed with anything really life threatening? I haven't seen any postings about terminal illnesses... I wish I could lock the darn internet down until I get back to normal... but my OCD kicks in and my compulsion to search and worry and search and worry (and then guess what? I get a new symptom). Hmmm... A vicious cycle it is. Health Anxiety is horrible. It does need more attention from physicians and the medical industry....


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## 20486 (Jul 7, 2005)

I know how it feels to have health anxiety. I have it BIG TIME! It comes out of no where. I had been diagnosed with gerd and now have hadthrush on my tongue for three months,the ENT said it sounds like maybe a big problem,but I had seen a neurologist and swallow test done and everything seemed to be fine. I am in therapy and it is helping,but antidepressents so far have not been working with me. I tried Lexapro and Effexor xr and that made me more the anxious. I have all the symptoms that were listed and I know that it is anxiety,but my mind keeps insisting that maybe something else is there and that is what is keeping me back. I see a new psychiatrist this coming week so maybe things will get some better now.


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## 16412 (Jul 4, 2005)

Yep it sounds like anxiety disorder. I treat mine w/ buspar a non drowsy mild seditive.My Storyhttp://ibsgroup.org/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/51510173/m/19210786


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## 21286 (May 7, 2005)

We are twins ROO! I am a total anxiety wreck. This week I've convinced myself that my ribcage pain/back pain is certainly cancer. I have had a really bad bad week. I wish I could just turn off the voices. I can't! Nobody understands me. I hate living this way and I must try and fix me but everything I do only seems to last a short while before I start obsessing again. OH, I had a really bad childhood too. I posted about it a few times on here. Seattle weather probably does not help my depression. Warm weather seems to help me but makes me tired.My personal email address is rpduffy861###msn.com. I don't mind anybody emailing me.Chris


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## 13728 (Jul 13, 2005)

Chris - isn't it awful! If only we could get over it. I'm in therapy to try to get over these things, but it takes a while....Yes, warm weather helps - I always seem to do worse in cold weather. Although now that I live in Texas the IBS is going crazy... maybe these 100+ degree days...


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