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 everyone. I'm new here. My names Madison. I've suffered with hypochondria and general anxiety for years. I was doing sooo well for years.. *TRIGGER WARNING PAST THIS POINT**
Until a couple weeks ago I got a bad ear infection and things spiraled. Since then I've been to two urgent care facilities and the ENT twice. Every day I get it in my head that something new and super serious is wrong with me. I also deep dive into Google and webmd about every little thing. Last night it really spiraled though. I was laying in bed and trying to sleep.. When I felt like my breathing was really shallow and my heart beat was barely there. I got out of bed and started walking around and of course hit up google.. which made it worse. I got myself convinced I was having a heart attack. I felt a squeezing in my chest and shortness of breath and suddenly I felt like I would pass out. I went back into the bedroom to tell my husband and he asked if I needed to go to the ER and at first I said no. To keep an already long story short.. I kept having episodes of feeling weak, shallow breathing and a weak pulse.. on top of now uncontrollably shaking. I ended up in the ER. YAY more doctors that I feel utterly insane around. Luckily they were all so kind and didnt make me feel crazy. They seemed to take me seriously and proceeded to screen me. Lucky needle phobic me got my first ever IV. I got an xray of my chest and blood work. Along with being strapped to an EKG and blood pressure cuff the whole time. I ended up getting some mild anxiety meds to help my uncontrollable shaking.. Turned out my xray looked totally normal, both lungs and heart.. Same with my blood work, no sign of blood clots, good glucose levels etc.. the doctor told me it could have possibly been a panic attack.. but in all my years of having anxiety I've never felt anything like that. I left feeling more at ease because of the meds around 2am.. luckily got a little sleep until about 7am.. today I'm feeling the same things again though. A tight chest. Shallow breathing. Weakish pulse. I tried to take a nap because I feel exhausted but I got that same feeling.. Almost like I'm dying as I fall asleep. Heaviness. Shallow breath. Weak heart beat. It may just be my mind hyper aware that I'm falling asleep.. Or maybe sleep paralysis even though I dont feel paralyzed? I dont know.. but its utterly terrifying and now I dread bedtime tonight. I feel like I'm losing my mind. I keep telling myself the doctors found nothing wrong.. I'm okay.. but I dont feel okay and I cant shake this feeling.
Anyone else ever experience this? Or something similar? Any advice? I think I may find a family doctor and try to get a full physical work up but at the same time I don't know if that'll help or make it worse. My poor husband doesn't know what to do or say to me. I feel really alone.
Any thoughts or tips would be most welcome.
I look forward to getting to know you all.
I am thankful for your posting. I have felt so alone for so long and nobody around me has ever understood. I had never experienced anxiety or worry about my health until I had a random stroke at age 25. They never figured out why, and I had a 2nd one at age 31. I am 37 now. I fully recovered after both, and had no lingering physical defects whatsoever, but my mind has been a complete mess ever since. It makes living with this illness anxiety even harder since I really did have some traumatic things happen within my body that were very real and out of my control. Now I live with constant fear and worry about my health, and have given myself every disease and form of cancer and illness under the sun. It is a very unpleasant way to live. I was doing fine for years, but my brother died a year ago and for 4 days have been in a constant state of panic that I’m going to have another stroke over all of this. Throughout the years I have thought I was having more strokes, heart attacks (I get palpitations and always panic even though the doctors say they’re harmless), breast cancer, ovarian cancer, colon cancer, brain tumors, DVT’s (blood clot in my leg), HIV, lung cancer, various other heart problems, etc. When I think I have something, it puts me into a state of panic and obsession until it finally goes away (for example the pain in my leg subsided), or until I get it checked out. I am living my life as if I am on the verge of dying at any minute. The anxiety and panic is debilitating. But, I have zero current actual evidence that anything is physically wrong with me. Have I had things happen in the past, yes. Will they happen again, I have no idea. So since I have no idea, why am I living as though the answer is yes? I have zero control over these things. My constant worrying will not change any outcome, it will only continue to keep me from living a happy life. If worrying meant that I had the power to stop something bad from happening, it would be worth it. But I don’t, I am powerless over the future, and I do not know what the future holds. But one thing I do know is that the only thing currently wrong with me is my obsessive worrying about my health. That is it. The mind is so powerful. It can create all kinds of harmless physical symptoms that people like you and I become hyper-aware of. Every single little thing my heart does, I’m aware of it. I need to remind myself that worrying is like a rocking chair. It takes up a lot of my time but gets me nowhere. I do not go online anymore and I would strongly suggest you fight that urge to google. It’ll only make you feel worse because there is so much nonsense online. You took a huge step by signing up for this online support group. I just signed up today because my anxiety has been 10/10. But I’m thankful I don’t have to battle it alone.
My dad passed from cancer but my hypochondria started welllllll before that. I have an appt on Monday with a psychiatrist and I’m hoping medication can stop the obsession and repetitive thoughts. I will let you know if it helps at all because we all can’t love like this. I hope we can all listen to each other here to help calm each other down.