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I'm currently enjoying a book called It's All In Your Head by an Irish neurologist called Suzanne O'Sullivan - review at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/

I'm currently enjoying a book called It's All In Your Head by an Irish neurologist called Suzanne O'Sullivan - review at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/07/all-in-your-head-review-o-sullivan-suzanne-osullivan https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/07/all-in-your-he.... Summaries of some of the clinical stories themselves are at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/may/16/you-think-im-mad-the-truth-about-psychosomatic-illness https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/may/16/you-think-im... It's mind boggling (no pun intended) how far psychosomatic illness can go, even as far as resulting in blindness, seizures, and paralysis. I was never familiar with the idea of repressed memories and psychological trauma causing physical illness before and initially dismissed it as arm-wavey pseudoscience, but the amount of evidence is striking even if our level of understanding is poor. This also explains why so many people with undiagnosable pain disorders seem to get referred to psychiatrists here in the UK - people misinterpret this as doctors thinking their illness is all imaginary, it's not, but the cause of it often well can be.

overcast 10y ago
I'm going to have to check this out. While not affecting my health currently, I definitely worry too much about the outcome of just about everything. Always glass half empty view of things, and I need to change it.
- Quarrelsome 10y ago
  I recommend trying to be at peace with the worst case scenario. I.E. I used to worry about people stealing my things while I was asleep but then thought through how I would handle all my things being stolen and how hard it would be for someone to steal all my stuff (i.e. they can't take it all). Once I realised I only needed to replace a few key items which were quite affordable and relatively easy I stopped worrying about it. Not sure if that works for everything but I'd figure the uncertainty is often why we worry. Realising that even in the worst case people will be able to muddle along can be a weight off one's mind.
  - Jemmeh 10y ago
    I do this too. "Okay, the worst thing that can happen is XYZ. What would I do if that happened? I'd do ABC. Okay, I know how to handle it. Moving on."
- Diederich 10y ago
  Stoicism has been useful for me: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stoicism/wiki/faq https://www.reddit.com/r/Stoicism/wiki/faq
  - href 10y ago
    For me it was Zen, which I heard is in some ways quite similar to Stoicism. A good start is Alan Watts' "The Way of Zen": https://www.amazon.com/Way-Zen-Alan-W-Watts/dp/0375705104 https://www.amazon.com/Way-Zen-Alan-W-Watts/dp/0375705104
    - hnjm0101 10y ago
      I dunno, maybe I've completely missed the point in his writing, but I just tried reading "The Wisdom of Insecurity" and it seemed like almost complete nonsense to me. There were definitely a few passages that were very insightful, but the other 90% (at least to me) was incoherent rambling.
      - href 10y ago
        I didn't mean to recommend Alan Watts in general, though I generally like him. I just think Zen can be a bit hard to get into without some introduction and I consider Watts' decent.
cesarbs 10y ago
> It's mind boggling (no pun intended) how far psychosomatic illness can go, even as far as resulting in blindness, seizures, and paralysis. While I don't have physical symptoms as severe as those you listed, that's pretty much how my health anxiety manifests. I don't just have obsessive thoughts over being sick. I actually feel things. And my anxiety is not thoughts -> symptoms, it's the other way around. I start having a bunch of symptoms, give it some time hoping they will go away, but they don't. So I can't help but think something is seriously wrong. There are instances where I've dealt with a set of symptoms for a whole year. A few examples: - When I'm anxious over a brain aneurysm or brain tumor, it's because I started having visual distortions, tingling, my mouth won't widen on one side when I smile, etc. - I was once worried about carotid artery dissection, because I could hear my pulse in one ear and it would stop when I pressed against my carotid on the same side (a telltale sign of CAD). MRIs in the ER revealed nothing. - My heart acts up with PVCs every now and then, and they are so unpleasant that it's nearly impossible not to think I have a serious heart condition. PVCs can be common when people are really anxious or stressed out, but in my case they just come about in my most serene moments it seems. - I start worrying about colon cancer whenever I get alternate bouts of diarrhea and constipation, coupled with frequent abdominal cramps. This particular anxiety gets to the point where I see blood when inspecting my output in the toilet, only for it to disappear when I blink. Mind you, it's not "hm I think that tiny spec might be blood". I actually see streaks of blood when I first look at it. - At some point last year I started having sudden weakness in my right arm. I couldn't hold parts of it flexed, and things just seemed heavier. I was sure I had a degenerative disorder of some sort. But then it just went away after several weeks. I could go on and on and on. It's horrible. Friends and family don't understand me, no matter how much I try to explain to them that I'm not just thinking about being sick (I'm actually trying hard NOT to think about it), but I'm really feeling a whole bunch of stuff. They always revert to "stop thinking about it and it will go away". So frustrating.
- DenisM 10y ago
  Sorry about your plight, man. How do you cope?
  - cesarbs 10y ago

overcast 10y ago

I'm going to have to check this out. While not affecting my health currently, I definitely worry too much about the outcome of just about everything. Always glass half empty view of things, and I need to change it.

Quarrelsome 10y ago
I recommend trying to be at peace with the worst case scenario. I.E. I used to worry about people stealing my things while I was asleep but then thought through how I would handle all my things being stolen and how hard it would be for someone to steal all my stuff (i.e. they can't take it all). Once I realised I only needed to replace a few key items which were quite affordable and relatively easy I stopped worrying about it. Not sure if that works for everything but I'd figure the uncertainty is often why we worry. Realising that even in the worst case people will be able to muddle along can be a weight off one's mind.
- Jemmeh 10y ago
  I do this too. "Okay, the worst thing that can happen is XYZ. What would I do if that happened? I'd do ABC. Okay, I know how to handle it. Moving on."
Diederich 10y ago
Stoicism has been useful for me: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stoicism/wiki/faq https://www.reddit.com/r/Stoicism/wiki/faq
- href 10y ago
  For me it was Zen, which I heard is in some ways quite similar to Stoicism. A good start is Alan Watts' "The Way of Zen": https://www.amazon.com/Way-Zen-Alan-W-Watts/dp/0375705104 https://www.amazon.com/Way-Zen-Alan-W-Watts/dp/0375705104
  - hnjm0101 10y ago
    I dunno, maybe I've completely missed the point in his writing, but I just tried reading "The Wisdom of Insecurity" and it seemed like almost complete nonsense to me. There were definitely a few passages that were very insightful, but the other 90% (at least to me) was incoherent rambling.
    - href 10y ago
      I didn't mean to recommend Alan Watts in general, though I generally like him. I just think Zen can be a bit hard to get into without some introduction and I consider Watts' decent.

cesarbs 10y ago

> It's mind boggling (no pun intended) how far psychosomatic illness can go, even as far as resulting in blindness, seizures, and paralysis. While I don't have physical symptoms as severe as those you listed, that's pretty much how my health anxiety manifests. I don't just have obsessive thoughts over being sick. I actually feel things. And my anxiety is not thoughts -> symptoms, it's the other way around. I start having a bunch of symptoms, give it some time hoping they will go away, but they don't. So I can't help but think something is seriously wrong. There are instances where I've dealt with a set of symptoms for a whole year. A few examples: - When I'm anxious over a brain aneurysm or brain tumor, it's because I started having visual distortions, tingling, my mouth won't widen on one side when I smile, etc. - I was once worried about carotid artery dissection, because I could hear my pulse in one ear and it would stop when I pressed against my carotid on the same side (a telltale sign of CAD). MRIs in the ER revealed nothing. - My heart acts up with PVCs every now and then, and they are so unpleasant that it's nearly impossible not to think I have a serious heart condition. PVCs can be common when people are really anxious or stressed out, but in my case they just come about in my most serene moments it seems. - I start worrying about colon cancer whenever I get alternate bouts of diarrhea and constipation, coupled with frequent abdominal cramps. This particular anxiety gets to the point where I see blood when inspecting my output in the toilet, only for it to disappear when I blink. Mind you, it's not "hm I think that tiny spec might be blood". I actually see streaks of blood when I first look at it. - At some point last year I started having sudden weakness in my right arm. I couldn't hold parts of it flexed, and things just seemed heavier. I was sure I had a degenerative disorder of some sort. But then it just went away after several weeks. I could go on and on and on. It's horrible. Friends and family don't understand me, no matter how much I try to explain to them that I'm not just thinking about being sick (I'm actually trying hard NOT to think about it), but I'm really feeling a whole bunch of stuff. They always revert to "stop thinking about it and it will go away". So frustrating.

DenisM 10y ago
Sorry about your plight, man. How do you cope?
- cesarbs 10y ago