Health Anxiety
What is health anxiety?
It is often referred to as hypochondria, and this was a word used to describe me a lot in my late teens.
Health anxiety is essentially a constant worry about your health, and that something is wrong with you, that every random pain is something serious, and you can’t stop worrying until you are told there’s nothing wrong, you then feel calm (until the next ailment comes along and causes you to panic again)
I didn’t know health anxiety was an actual thing for the longest time, and now I know about it, I feel a sense of relief that I’m not just an ‘attention seeker’.
I do have to stress, that for me, being called a hypochondriac was always so hurtful and made me feel so dismissed, and my feelings where never validated, and whenever an ailment actually turned out to be something, I got a sense of euphoria, like a sort of ‘I told you so’ moment, quickly followed by panic that this now meant every time I felt anything slightly off with my body, it was worst case scenario.
You feel unwell, are told it’s anxiety, then you worry because you are 100% convinced it’s something more. Constantly taking trips to the doctors, for them to dismiss me and not even try and see if it is anything, it’s humiliating, and dehumanising, at least to me it is anyway.
I can’t even count how many times I have been sat in tears in the doctors office, terrified that they’ve missed something and that I’m going to die from this rare illness that I have (which I most definitely don’t have), but in the moment it is almost impossible to convince yourself that you’re okay, and nothing comforts it quiet like a clear blood test and a reassurance from medical professionals.
Seeing people online talk about anxiety being worrying over a text message and a fluttery feeling in your heart, you start to think, well surely this isn’t anxiety what I’m feeling, because my symptoms are so different, and the truth is, anxiety can manifest itself into 100,000’s of different symptoms, and some symptoms won’t even be documented as symptoms, because anxiety is unique, it can manifest into any feeling, a feeling you’ve never even thought of before, and once you feel, you panic, which feeds it, then you feel it more intensely, and it turns into a cycle.
I’m going to list some ‘uncommon’ symptoms of anxiety below, I say uncommon, not meaning rare experiences, but more in a sense of they aren’t well talked about, but are in fact, very common.
I don’t remember the exact time I started panicking about my health, but I do remember my mum calling my melodramatic, and a hypochondriac throughout my teenage years. It wasn’t so much that I was always unwell, it was more aimed towards how I dealt with being unwell, which was… well, not great.
Now I know that is mostly due to being autistic too.
(On a quick side note, to any one reading this who experiences menstruation, anxiety can be super heightened around this time, as your body is producing more hormones, and you are on alert, causing more intense cramps, more frequent bowel movements, and more headaches, and around this time you can experience the list of symptoms below more frequently.)
I want you to know that you are valid, if you feel like something is genuinely wrong then always seek professional help/medical advice.
You are not a burden, or an attention seeker, Health Anxiety is a serious mental illness and can be absolutely devastating to cope with and you are so worthy of love, treatment and validation.
If you know someone who perhaps suffers with this, please exercise patience with them, they are not doing this on purpose and they are not faking any illness, they are genuinely experience very real symptoms with physical effects, it is exhausting, they are scared, validate their feelings, ask them what you can do to help and be patient.
Some ‘Uncommon’ Symptoms;
– Dizziness (here is a list of the different types of dizziness https://www.anxietycentre.com/anxiety-symptoms/dizziness.shtml
– Dry Mouth
– Confusion
– Heavy limbs
– Tingling in parts of body (including legs, arms, head, ears, fingers)
– Hot or Itchy ears
– Black spots in eyes (black spots moving)
– Heightened senses (sensitivity to light and noise)
– A feeling of something being just ‘not right’ with how you feel with the inability to explain what
– Tense muscles
– Heavy limbs
– Feeling weak
– Constipation/ Diarrhoea
– Swollen glands
– Sore tongue
– Headache
– Shooting pain in head (often described as elastic band being snapped)
– Fuzzy eyes (loose focus and blurred vision)
– Constant urination, especially at night
– Insomnia
– Heart palpitations/ Shooting pain in heart
– Dull pain in left arm
– Heart attack like symptoms
– Excessive sweating
– Fainting
– Tightness/Pain in abdominal area
– Body trembling
– Skin sensations such as burning, itching, tight, numb areas
– Falling/Dropping sensation when you close your eyes, most common when trying to sleep
– Mouth/ Throat tightening sensation
– Urge to clear throat
– Tight ribs
– Metallic taste in mouth
– Slurred Speech
– Numbness in one side of face
– Mouth Ulcers
– Feeling like your tongue is swollen
– Flu like symptoms
– If you have a fear of getting a certain illness, your body/mind will manifest the symptoms that are linked to said illness.
– Hair Loss
Here is a website I highly recommend, it has so many symptoms of anxiety listed and might help put you at ease if you are experiencing any of them during a health anxiety episode.
https://www.anxietycentre.com/anxiety-symptoms.shtml#body
I hope this was helpful to anyone who is currently worried about their health, to see that there are so many things anxiety can do to you, I hope you can find comfort in this post, and you feel less alone, validated and hopeful.
Have a super good day!
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