Hypochondria Things

We are not alone with our hypochondria. I hope that this blog may help you see that. Please submit your things, be it problems, stories, or progress you've made. The tag "illness tw" is used whenever an illness or symptoms are described. Please note that I am not a professional and I can only give advice from my own experience. You should always consult a professional if you are unsure about your physical or mental health. If you don't want an ask you are sending me published, please say so.

[kyrianne]

The worst thing about hypochondria is not the paranoia that you have five hundred billion things wrong with you

it’s the paranoia that your paranoia isn't paranoia and you’re ignoring real problems because your anxiety has cried wolf so much in the past

[hypochondriathings]

Self-Help

I’ve been suffering with hypochondria for several years now, and I FINALLY went to see a therapist about it a month ago.  I felt like I was going crazy, always feeling like I have this “intuition” that I will die at a relatively young age, whether by illness or by some catastrophic event (have any of you other hypochondriacs felt the same? Where your fear goes beyond just illnesses?). Boy oh boy, she gave me the official diagnosis (my hypochondria is probably the ONLY thing I’ve ever correctly self-diagnosed…how ironic, right?) with a bit of OCD and separation anxiety thrown in the mix–all of them, she assured me, are on the “anxiety spectrum”. Anyway, she suggested I get this book, “The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook” by Edmund J. Bourne…it has SO many strategies for reducing anxiety and coping with fear.  I hate the thought of using medication for something that I feel is too deeply rooted in me that it wouldn’t do much good, and this book offers lots of alternative options for reducing anxiety without medication. I highly recommend it, and I hope it can offer comfort and help for anyone who needs it!! :)

[hypochondriathings]

In Bio 12, we have a unit that's dedicated to cancer, the different types of cancers, and the symptoms of it. So far we've only have one class of it, but I know there's a couple more to follow. The whole time last class though, I had an anxiety attack, as my teacher showed us a whole bunch of photos of tumors. I was starting to find that my hypcondria was becoming easier to deal with, but it was a huge trigger for me. Today, I've been so paranoid of every ache, pain, and bump on me. Any advice?

Sorry to hear you’re in such a tricky situation, especially since you can’t exactly just get up and leave.

I don’t know what kind of person your teacher is and if you have a good relationship with them, but if you do, talking to them would probably the best way to go in that situation. Maybe you can offer to do some work on a different topic.

If that doesn’t work out, I guess your other option is to get an actual medical certificate stating that you can’t attend that class. I have no experience on how easy it is to get those from e.g therapists though, and I suspect it might vary depending on what country you live in. Or maybe you can get excused by your parents, I don’t know how old you are.

But even with those last options, I don’t think there’s a way around talking to your teacher. Explain to them what problems attending that class causes for you. If they aren’t understanding, you can still seek other options.

[hypochondriathings]

The best idea I've had this horrible week is to search the hypochondriac tag on tumblr. It has been a hard week, first me worrying about appendicitis, then brain tumors, which quickly turned to me worrying about breast cancer, because why not, besides having to go to school and prepare for my finals, and work. All the stress has made me very anxious, and there's no one I can talk to about it, they'd get tired about my concerns, so my brain is just going crazy, but I'm happy I found this blog :)

See, these messages are the reason why I’m trying to make time to work on this blog again. I’m sorry I haven’t done much for such a long time, I’ll do my best to keep working on it.

[hypochondriathings]

I’ll be answering all the messages I have not answered yet in the coming days, some of which are months old, because I think that they might still be helpful to some people reading them. If you see your message published but do not want other people to read it anymore, let me know.

Also I changed the tag for posts that contain symptoms or describtions of illnesses to “illness tw” because it’s easier to blacklist.

[hypochondriathings]

This will sound odd, don't know whether it's hypochondria or not. I have a bit of a chesty cough and in pe today I felt really fsint. I can't tell if today I 'scived' and over exaggerated my symptoms, or whether they were real. Is this hypochondria??

I don’t really have a good answer for you here I’m afraid. For me the thing is that I’ve just always known I’ve got hypochondria. Like, there wasn’t even a question.

To me you situation sounds a bit liked you were just somewhat worried about a health issue. Which is perfectly normal, from time to time everyone might panic about somthing, it doesn’t automatically make you a hypochondriac. Hypochondria is more a thing occuring over a prolonged period of time.

[hypochondriathings]

I wish you were still active. Reading these old posts helped me so much sometimes. My Hypochondria has calmed down some, but comes back every now and then. I wish you would come back! I hope you're doing well!

I'm glad they helped you!

My life and my head have been messy; though that is no excuse for abandoning this blog for so long, and I realise now how long it has been. Thank you for your kind message, it reminded me why I started this in the first place. I shall try my best to get back on track again, now that I'm starting to sort out other stuff, too.

I'm feel very very sorry for neglecting everyone for so long! I will do my best to change that.

[hypochondriathings]

I have a horrible guilt problem. I frequently make doctors appointments and then a few hours later call back and cancel because I'm afraid that I am wasting their time. I think it comes from my family having a strong "walk it off" mentality. They only go of they are dying. Any time I went "running to the doctor" my parents would give me shit for it. Now I'm reluctant to go even if I'm actually very sick. Anyway. Saw that anon and thought of this.

I have a similar problem in my family, since my mum is a nurse, she tends to not take mental health issues seriously (only visible injuries). When I’m worried about symptoms, she brushes it off as minor problems that are of no concern, even though I am very worried.

But we shouldn’t have to feel guilty. It’s not our fault. We did not choose to have hypochondria. And I’m really sick of people assuming that it’s possible to differenciate between “real” and “fake” symptoms.

The anon this ask is refering to: x

[hypochondriathings]

Story: 18 months ago I found a small lump on my testicle, I was 15 at the time. I (finally) went to the doctors last month, A WHOLE 17 MONTHS LATER, after several panic attacks and one suicide attempt, he's given me an ultrasound test just to settle my nerves; but he said I was perfectly fine and the lump was just some cartridge. It's scary what our minds do to us. Remember: if you find something that worries you, tell your doctor. The sooner it is found (if anything) the easier treatable it is!

That’s very good advice! And as I’ve said answering another message, if you can, find a doctor you trust. It’s much easier to tell them things if you get along with them.

[hypochondriathings]

I'm very sorry it's taken me so long to answer this message (an all other messages I've gotten, for that matter).

Thank you for your kind words. I'm glad this blog is of help to you.

To be honest with you, I think it might be a good idea for you to see a therapist. If you keep having those problems, especially considering the fact that you are experiecing severe panic attacks, professional help is probably a wise option for you. I am aware that it's not that easy to find the courage to talk to a therapist, but it might really be worth a try.

And I've had the problems of not wanting to talk to my GP anymore too, but I have to say that I was lucky enough to find a GP I trust and who listens to my problems. If you have the option of going to a different GP, I encourage you to try it out.

[hypochondriathings]

If this makes anyone feel better here: all the diseases i thought i had in the last two months: Black Plague, Septicaemia, Meningitis, Breast Cancer, Brain Lesions, Alzheimers (I'm a teenage girl), Retinal Detachment (I have floaters), ALS , RLS, Rabies, Parasitic Meningitis, MS (once my leg twitched) Oral Cancer, Epilepsy (never had a seizure), low blood pressure, diabetes, melanoma and high blood pressure. So yeah, we've all been through it don't worry we're in this together :D x

[hypochondriathings]

Any suggestions on how to ask my doctor if I can get a CAT scan done on me without him denying my request? I feel that once I get a CAT scan and (hopefully) everything comes back normal, I become one step closer to beating my anxiety.

I suppose it depends on which country you live in and if you have health insurance, and what kind of tests it pays for. If you are really keen on having a CAT scan done, I guess you could pretend to have headaches? I got a CAT scan done when I had migraines and my doctor wanted to make sure they weren’t caused by anything unusual. I’m not sure if that’s a good idea though. It’s an expensive test, and I guess it’s only done when necessary. And you can of course not be sure that it will help you. Maybe one of my followers has a good idea?

[hypochondriathings]

An apology

I am very sorry that I haven't been there for you in the last few weeks. There have been a few changes in my personal life that required a lot of my time. Nevertheless, I should have informed all of you about me not being here for a while, which I didn't do, and for that I am sorry. I've got most things sorted out by now though, so normal blogging will continue soon.

[hypochondriathings]

Thanks for having this blog. Being worried about health is one of the most debilitating things. Tomorrow I'm going to check what the warm feeling in my calf is (scared of blood clots). I HAVE to check it, just like I HAD to check the mole, my back pain, my blood sugar, my liver values etc etc. I spend so much money on docs and tests :-( and feel so guilty about it. About not buying my loved ones presents instead, or saving for a trip etc. Do you feel guilty sometimes? How do you deal with it?

I often feel guilty when I bother my friends or family with my problems, like I’m wasting their resources. Or when I see my doctor and it turns out I’m healthy and wasted his time. I know that I shouldn’t feel this way, because doctors are there to help you and it’s better to see a doctor an be healthy than to be sick and not get it checked because you’re afraid of wasting someones time. Luckily, I have the privilege of living in a country where I don’t need to pay tests or doctors directly, and I can imagine that it’s hard for you if you need to pay for everything. After all, you don’t choose to feel that way, and one can’t always distinguish between ‘real’ symptoms and ‘imagined’ ones.

[hypochondriathings]

Hello um I'm not very smart and I don't know lots of things so i have a question about hypochondria, would you say you ever, like project this onto others, like being worried about their symptoms and health? (Sorry if that sounds dumb, I just don't want to sound ignorant ig)

That doesn't sound dumb at all, it's a perfectly reasonable question! I've had what you described quite often, especially with people who are very dear to me. In fact, I've made a post about that before: http://hypochondriathings.tumblr.com/post/25711204253

Don't be afraid to tell me stuff, even if you think it sounds dumb! And tell me if I ever come across as arrogant, because that is certainly not my intention.

[hypochondriathings]

Submitted by crazykatie90

[hypochondriathings]

firstly thanks for having this blog its amazing and secondly i have this small hard lump on my head on my parietal bone and it sometimes clicks if i press to hard and i can't tell if it's growing or not and half of google is saying it's a harmless cyst and the other half is saying its cancer and i'm really scared and i feel like im staring death in the face and 'its real this time' and the lump is like an almond and im really scared

I worried about something like that for a long time as well, until I realised that my skull just seems to have a really weird shape. I guess if you’re worried you might get it checked, just to be on the safe side.