Hypochondria Support Group
Hypochondria refers to excessive worry about having a serious illness. Hypochondria is often characterized by fears that minor bodily symptoms may indicate a serious illness, constant self-examination and self-diagnosis, and a preoccupation with one's body. Many individuals with hypochondriasis express doubt and disbelief in the doctors' diagnosis.
Hi. This is my very first post on a support group cite... EVER.
So here goes nothing...
I’m 23 years old and I’ve had severe health anxiety(hypochondriac) since I was 19. Along with my anxiety I have depression.
After I had my daughter is when the health anxiety kicked in to full gear. I think this is because I lost my father at a very young age and I’m terrified to do the same to my child. To shorten this up... I always think I’m dying.
Any little ache or pain and I automatically think it is something serious. Currently I have a pain in my arm that I’m convinced is bone cancer. I can’t help but cry and want to hide in my room because I’m so scared that I’m dying and only have months to live. I feel so alone because nobody understands how I feel. My family always tells me to relax or says “you’re fine”. They dont understand that I can’t turn these thoughts and feelings off... I can’t control this. It’s who I am and it’s really scary. I just want someone to tell me I’m not crazy or to tell me they understand.
Also, I would like to know something. Does anyone on here have such bad anxiety that it causes physical pain? I constantly have pains that move around my body. It would be nice to know someone else experiences this too. Doctors told me I have fibromyalgia but I honestly thinks it’s just my anxiety.
I have the same thing happen to me with my pains. They move every day, and with each one I'm convinced it's cancer and that I am going to die soon. I had an arm pain too that I Xrayed at an urgent care and then begged for mri bc i thought i had a nerve tumor. Currently my back pain is making me think i have pancreatic cancer. I have convinced myself that i have had lung, breast, ovarian, and brain cancer, and lymphoma. It is out of control. I will get one thing ruled oit with a scan of some sort them i start feeling a new pain and it starts all over.
I know anxiety can manifest as physical pain, have read lots of people who start to get thr symptoms of the exact disease they're terrified of. I just have a hard time convincing myself that all the stuff i feel is from anxiety. But it probably is.
I am so embarrassed about the way i feel that i have started hiding my googling and appointments from my husband recently. I talk with friends about it a little but i down play it with them. I've seen counselors and them i quit when i start feeling better. I hate the vicious cycle.
You are not alone. We are here because we understand one another. I wish I knew you all in person so we can help each other. Lately for me it’s been on high mode non stop. There are better days and there are miserable days where sometimes I wonder how I got through the day. Sometimes I feel like I’m not sure how I can live like this but one thing I know for sure is that I will fight through this because I love my kids and they are the reason that I am here today. I really feel that I was blessed with my children or I probably would have commit suicide. As a teenager I wanted to kill myself several times because I didn’t want to live with this anymore. Now I’m 37 and I fight through each day. I’ve had so much back pain lately that I’m so scared. When I had my youngest which is 7 now I was told I had calcium deposits in my spine that happened during labor with my children that would cause me to live with pain the rest of my life and I think the worst. I’m in pain every day. I’m so scared that it would be something worse something more serious. Idk. :( But we are not alone. We are all here for each other.