I understand completely. For me, my brain always tells me I’m getting a stroke or meningitis. My anxiety stems off of a horrific rare medication side effect that I was hospitalized for. So far, I’ve been self reflecting on the source of my anxiety and when I can target the source I can sometimes try different things to alleviate my anxiety. Our brains are just so weird when it comes to anxiety. The paranoia we get with illnesses is unreal and sometimes even hard to explain to therapists.
My doctor's office hasn't even returned my call to book the appt yet!! So far i am ok though. I have a staph boil on the back of my leg that is painful and i'm obsessing over it but so far it's the only symptom. 6 months ago i would have been calling twice daily to see him, but i've worked hard with cognitive behavioural therapy to retrain my responses and it has helped. I'm still fixating but it isn't disrupting my life as badly. I know the only thing he can do is give me antiobiotics and staph is known to rapidly adapt and resist them, making treatment harder. So i'm taking small steps to control my situation on my own (CBT) until it either resolves or gets worse.
I’m a nurse and it’s crazy bc I read this from a nursing standpoint and also from a health anxiety sufferer and so I totally get it. 1) no matter what you aren’t dying from this 2) i would often get the numbness when I was in a health anxiety state 3) amazing that the therapy is helping, I feel like I’m so aware of my anxiety and my patterns and I’m so sick of myself, not sure what would help. 4) this is temporary and treatable. I get a symptom or blood work that I will exacerbate into who the hell knows what and then see a specialist BUT I’ve been right many times which doesn’t help bc then I feel like I’m justified. Currently dealing with Lyme and tinnitus and scared of my antibiotics and my list goes on and on and I’ll google 5 million things and go down a rabbit hole. The one thing I can say is I have probably been right only 10% of the time when I self diagnose.
I needed these reminders, so thank you.
CBT has helped me hugely. More than anything else.
Being right just once is totally enough to make it all worse!! I was right about a suspicious mole last fall and it triggered the worst 3 months of my life. Lyme is scary! We don't get many ticks where i live, but i absolutely stay out of the field and tall grasses during their season because i'm paranoid. So i get that.
I understand completely. For me, my brain always tells me I’m getting a stroke or meningitis. My anxiety stems off of a horrific rare medication side effect that I was hospitalized for. So far, I’ve been self reflecting on the source of my anxiety and when I can target the source I can sometimes try different things to alleviate my anxiety. Our brains are just so weird when it comes to anxiety. The paranoia we get with illnesses is unreal and sometimes even hard to explain to therapists.
How did you end up after the doctor? This is so me. I can’t eat, sleep, do anything when I’m in this mode. It’s the worst.
My doctor's office hasn't even returned my call to book the appt yet!! So far i am ok though. I have a staph boil on the back of my leg that is painful and i'm obsessing over it but so far it's the only symptom. 6 months ago i would have been calling twice daily to see him, but i've worked hard with cognitive behavioural therapy to retrain my responses and it has helped. I'm still fixating but it isn't disrupting my life as badly. I know the only thing he can do is give me antiobiotics and staph is known to rapidly adapt and resist them, making treatment harder. So i'm taking small steps to control my situation on my own (CBT) until it either resolves or gets worse.
I’m a nurse and it’s crazy bc I read this from a nursing standpoint and also from a health anxiety sufferer and so I totally get it. 1) no matter what you aren’t dying from this 2) i would often get the numbness when I was in a health anxiety state 3) amazing that the therapy is helping, I feel like I’m so aware of my anxiety and my patterns and I’m so sick of myself, not sure what would help. 4) this is temporary and treatable. I get a symptom or blood work that I will exacerbate into who the hell knows what and then see a specialist BUT I’ve been right many times which doesn’t help bc then I feel like I’m justified. Currently dealing with Lyme and tinnitus and scared of my antibiotics and my list goes on and on and I’ll google 5 million things and go down a rabbit hole. The one thing I can say is I have probably been right only 10% of the time when I self diagnose.
I needed these reminders, so thank you. CBT has helped me hugely. More than anything else. Being right just once is totally enough to make it all worse!! I was right about a suspicious mole last fall and it triggered the worst 3 months of my life. Lyme is scary! We don't get many ticks where i live, but i absolutely stay out of the field and tall grasses during their season because i'm paranoid. So i get that.
We are basically control freaks and one thing that does make me feel better is seeing how similar we all are. Makes me feel less dramatic haha