Hypochondriasis, anxiety or terminal illness?

First I am a 21 year old male. who has been diagnosed with anxiety  by two doctors
ok for me it all started on July just with tiredness and constant headaches like for 2-3 weeks (I thought I had a stroke, brain tumors, cancer, and I thought i wouldn't make it more than a month from then). Then around September i was good. In October dizziness came 24/7 with diarrhea and stomach pain (I thought i had pancreatic cancer[most of the time], stomach cancer, esophagus cancer). by that time i had already visited the doctor about 3 times and gone to hospital emergency room and they all said anxiety. By the end of November I was more convinced that it really was anxiety and i was starting to get better...like the sun was shining on me again....that only lasted about a week then the dizziness came back(not as strong) and i also felt random pains all over my body (hands, arms, legs, feet) so I thought i had leukemia, lupus, fybromalgia, Lyme disease. Also I started noticing petachie (red small dots around my body) and that my skin was really dry and sensitive. AND THEN (around December 15) I MADE A HUGE MISTAKE : I started reading about als...and suddenly i felt like my speech was slurred and messed up....two days after i started getting twitches on my leg....they spread all over my body....then i got pain on my leg and stiffness...and now...my left arm feels so week and has that spaghetti sensation, and I am in a constant state of doom, I am convinced I have als while my logical side says that it cant be. I do know I am a hypochondriac and that it could be it, but the physical symptoms are there like my leg and arm and the twitches. I also think that maybe God wants to kill me ( I know a horrible thing to think) and that makes me feel even more doomed.
Also I sometimes I think that maybe I could have gotten als because I thought of it so much. its like I need to make a reason to justify the illness.

[bebakisses324]

It sounds to me like maybe you should stop reading. lol.
My best friend is a hypochondriac, and I am always talking her down.
I would say, go to the doctors, give them your symptoms just to be on  the safe side, and if they find nothing, focus on that...Let health be your focus, and don't read any more about different problematic diagnosis'.

You mind can play silly tricks on you. You can make yourself believe anything and manifest symptoms for anything...it's mind of mater here..

think positive and it will be positive...

[LIZ1971]

Oh do I feel for you!  I am experiencing the exact same thing as you.  I have diagnosed myself with everything from heart disease, to stomach cancer to brain aneurysms  you name it i've diagnosed it.  Anxiety is such a horrible horrible thing to deal with and unless you have experienced it you don't understand the effect that it has.  The thing I hear most is "get over it" "enough already".  What they don't realize is that the symptoms are very real to me.  I have good spurts and bad spurts.  I'm currently in a string of bad spurts.  My Dr. has given me 1mg Ativan which you meld under your tongue and this brings you back down almost immediately when you feel an attack coming on .   The one thing to remember (though I still forget sometimes) an anxiety attack can never kill you and the Internet is NOT your friend!

Hang in there
Liz

[crystalhanzelka]

This is perfect health anxiety.  I prefer not to use the word "Hypo"  I call it Health Anxiety.  I use another forum called anxietyzone and there is an HA board there and you will be surprised what illness people think they have.  ALS is a big one.  You sound like a symptom jumper.  Also, when you read something, you get worried and then tend to take on the symptoms.  Psychosomatic i think is what it is called.  Read about it.... reading the internet only feeds the anxiety... TRUST me.

[CG822]

Im right there with you guys!!!  I have convinced myself I have HIV for the longest time!  I freak out about it alllllll the time!  It consumed my life at one point.  Im getting better, but just like you guys, you have good days and bad days.  This is pretty common in a lot of people, they just dont want to talk about it because they are embarrassed.  I have meds and therapy, I also have had depression for years, my anxiety came in the summer of 08.  LEt me tell you, if I had to pick, Id rather be depressed alllll day!!!!

[criveros]

can HA/Hypo make you feel the physical symptoms such as pain, twitches, etc of an illness?

[CG822]

yes, I get chest pains a lot.  its from my Anxiety.  I notice them the more anxious I get.  Anxiety gives you the craziest symptoms and its different for every body.

[greenlydia]

Classic health anxiety, a/k/a hypochondria. Period, the end.
Go to your doctor for a VERY thorough physical, tell him all your symptoms, all your fears. Once he/she rules out anything organically wrong with you and you have your DX of anxiety, get hooked up with a good therapist and begin the journey back to mental health. This may require you to be on some meds to help you calm down and get out of the vicious cycle. Therapy really is the key here. The meds will only mask the symptoms, you need to find the root cause of this anxiety.
I am 99.9% positive there is nothing wrong with you. Our minds are incredibly powerful and can make us feel what we fear. And stay off the symptom sites. Come here instead and talk to us!
Peace
Greenlydia  

[criveros]

I want to go to the doc, but everytime i go he says that i just need exercise and vitamins, he thinks its anxiety. I dont want to request tests because i dont want to over impose . What should i do? should i see another doctor at the clinic? though my doctor seems to be a very nice person.

[Pum]

It sounds to me like you have a wise doctor. In your mind you know the truth ie that there is no way you could have thought you had all those rare things and then finally cottoned onto the true illness ALS. I have been through similar periods of symptom/illness hopping that were kind of a precursor to a depressive period. I think they are part of the same thing ie anxiety/depression. If you find you are unable to cope with your job/studies/or your relationships are suffering then please see your doctor. Take their advice about exercise plus read some self-help books (Dr Claire Weekes is brilliant), never sleep/go to bed in the daytime, listen to upbeat music, do things for others, socialise, eat regularly, don't weigh yourself for a month or two, and be kind to yourself. You need some time to get over this patch.

Take care. You will get back to your old self and you have a lot of exciting life ahead of you.

[mandylynn0621]

Hey, I was just wondering how you are and if you ever found out anything new about your illness. why i ask because i have all same symptoms as you and what worreid me the most is the little red spots you described did they tell you waht they are?

[mandylynn0621]

Hey, I was wondering what came of criveros, because i have all same symptoms. Has he been on since 09. Isnt it normal to petechiae spots without it being a disease he was afraid of? I am really curious cuz the tremors and spots led me to believe i have an autoimmune disease that hasn't been diagnosed. It started 2 yrs. I just noticed his last post was about that and was in 09. I think sometimes doctors dont find anything when there is but worrying about it will make a person CRAZY.

[criveros]

UPDATE:

It has been almost 4 years since I first started writing here. I have had different symptoms come and go and I've realized that it's mostly all in my head.

It is a vicious cycle in which stress triggers physical symptoms, which trigger more stress.

My advice to all is stop googling symptoms, go see your doctor and do all necessary tests, and believe your doctor.

Enjoy the present to the fullest.

[mrscaredtolivescaredtodie240]

Crazy ironic; everything you've posted. I have really been through it. I have been to the Doc so many times. I have thought I've had everything from an aneurysm, heart attack, cancer, all kinds of stuff. I have been dealing with alot of internal organ pains lately. I am yet to be seen by a GI. I do have diverticulosis and seems I am suffering from allergies. Of coarse with me it seems there is something way worse going on. Just like you I have had full body spasms and the strangest yet most alarming symptoms. Weight loss, fatigue, weakness. Been dealing with this for a month or so only to wake up today and thankfully I feel way better all of a sudden. Could this have very well been psychological and my Doc is right? I too have had a hard time trusting him. I keep thinking he is wrong or that he is an idiot,quack or w/e but the tests he has run were very thorough and everyone else says he is a good Dr. and that it's just anxiety. Are they all right and I am the one who is wrong? I can't even begin to explain how much I hope I am wrong about it being terminal. Tests have all come back fine. This has been like seriously living in hell or being cursed. I feel better the more sleep I get. I understand how you feel about feeling God has something to do with it. I have to say if he really wanted you or any of us dead....we would be dead by now. He is that powerful that if he wanted any of us dead we would be in a matter of seconds. So please don't feel that way. If anything maybe look at it as he is putting us through this in order to make us stronger and better then we were before this pain. Maybe it is the price to pay for getting better things later in life? Nothing comes free. I have often thought this and it seems like a nicer way to look at these things. Maybe all of the pain and suffering is the price to pay for having a super awesome happy upcoming future? Win the lotto? Get everything else you've ever wanted in our lives? LOL Who knows. Thank you for posting this. I could seriously relate.

[wolph_nl]

Hi, I just ended up on this discussion page through Google, while doing some research on psychosomatic symptoms.
Crazy thing is, as I am writing this, I should be sleeping, because in the morning I have my neighbor's funeral. A few days ago she passed away, about 5 years after being diagnosed with ALS. What's even more crazy is that I've been back in my home town for a year and over the past 6 years, there have been 4 cases of ALS, claiming 3 deaths and 1 recent diagnosis. Within a population of only 2600, you can imagine how scary this is.
After a really stressful period, about a year ago, I started becoming hypochondriacal. My fear of certain diseases all came from cases that occurred in this town. So, logically, I'm now experiencing psychosomatic symptoms, ever since my neighbor got admitted to hospital last week, one day before she died.
Now I was convinced that my hypochondriasis was gone, because I had a really good doctor earlier last year. I even felt a small lump on one of my testicles recently, and got it checked last week out without any fear at all. It turned out to be nothing or at least nothing to be worried about. Nevertheless, now I have this vague, weird feeling in my left upper leg/thigh all the time. Feels almost like a very faint sciatic pain, I just can't put my finger on it. However, my legs remain equally strong and I don't have the textbook ALS symptoms. I wonder why I still can't manage to rationalize my fear of it.
Our town doctor has been very involved in all of these cases, so this time I'm actually a bit scared to go. Also, I'm moving out of the country in two weeks, maybe it's also the excitement triggering these symptoms, along with this confrontational situation?