health anxiety nightmare

[crazycow]

Hello there,

I am a 26yr old female and just wanted to ask everyone if they have advice on how to beat health anxiety.

I have suffered with health anxiety for as long as I can remember but over the last few years it seems to have gotten worse. My health anxiety mainly involves a fear of stroke, brain tumors, aneurysms etc and also sometimes my heart as I have frequent heart palpitations. Even as I write this I feel as though the right side of my face is a little numb and I wonder if it is the beginning of a stroke! arrrgh, I cant go on like this anymore. I dont go on holiday anymore due to the fact that I may not know where the nearest hospital is, I hate seeing my friends just in case I might start freaking out in front of them, I find it difficult to concentrate at work as I am always thinking about the possibility of imminent death. I am so scared of dying, it freaks me out how there may not be anything after.

My symptoms -
Heart Palps
Neck Pain + Headache around base of skull/temples area (apparently a symptom of aneurysm)
Weak or numbness in arms/legs or face
Chest pain
Jaw pain
Clenching at night
Fatigue
Uneven pupils (neuro says it could be normal but obviously I believe its the sign of an aneurysm)
One Iris looks a little different color
Tongue fels strange
Upper back pain
Cant swallow sometimes
Feel unsafe when far from a hospital
Feel bad for my family and friends that I am not normal.

Could these feelings really be from anxiety???I have had a recent MRI which was normal but I always just believe that they have missed something. I wish I was able to forget about this, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your response xx

[nannerbee]

I just wanted to let you know that I have gone through--and still am going through--the very same thing...it will get better. Learn to meditate, get a massage, and know you are not alone:)

[RubyWitch]

I'm not a doctor, but there's no doubt in my mind that you do have some pretty severe health anxiety. When it affects your life to the point of not going on a vacation because you don't know where a hospital is, to put it bluntly, totally out of control. But you know that, don't you?
I was going to write a fairly detailed post about all your symptoms and attempt to show you that anxiety is no doubt behind all of them, but when I read that you didn't believe the MRI results, I decided to save myself the time as you won't believe me either.
My advice is to revisit your doctor and discuss all your symptoms. He/she will probably conclude it's anxiety, but I doubt you'll believe that. (I'm not being snarky here, those of us with health anxiety don't believe anybody!) Seeing a cardiologist would answer all your questions about your heart, strokes, aneurysms and palpitations. The brain tumor was no doubt ruled out by the MRI, which you didn't trust.
One thing I would like to interject here is that many doctors do look at our symptoms of anxiety and stop there........anything else we say just reinforces their belief that we're "Nervous Nellies..........Anxious Annies," and they send us home with a big bottle of "Valley of the Dolls" pills. Anxiety should be the diagnosis ONLY after everything else has been ruled out.
Having said that, see your doctor. Ask for a referral to a cardio. See as many doctors as it takes to rule out every single one of your symptoms. If they say you are fine, you have to find a way to believe them and begin to deal with your anxiety. You do that by getting into therapy to figure out the root cause of your health anxiety, and trust me, there is one. You can also work on your fear of death and what may or may not be waiting for us all.
I don't know how you feel about medications, but at this point I think you could benefit greatly by getting on a long term antianxiety drug. That, along with the therapy, will give you some badly needed relief from the anxiety and give you your life back. You've suffered long enough, you've lost enough time that you'll never get back..........it's time to face down your demons.
You'll be fine, but YOU have to drive the bus.
I hope you'll keep me posted, let me know how you're doing, OK?
Peace
Greenlydia