5 ms·

Yeah, it can be hard, I know for sure. Real anxiety with potent physical symptoms is very much not "all in our heads" Anxiety can be debilitating when it stri

by vanniv 7y ago

Yeah, it can be hard, I know for sure. Real anxiety with potent physical symptoms is very much not "all in our heads" Anxiety can be debilitating when it strikes. On top, it can create these crushing feedback loops. I mentioned above the common-ish version in severe agoraphobia -- where fear of having an anxiety attack becomes powerful enough to cause them all by itself. That is the usual root cause of those stories you occasionally hear about people who lock themselves away for 10+ years, never going outside or being with anyone, except maybe one or two "safe people" It sounds like you ended up like me with a version where the feedback loop is anxiety -> palpitations -> health-anxiety -> major panic -> health panic. I have read hundreds of detailed descriptions of the symptoms of all manner of serious diseases over they years, looking for the clue that I might not be dying. Not because I "really thought" that I was, but because I was having self-perpetuating anxiety over it. It's not the same as hypochondria, because I don't really rationally think that I have the condition in question, I just persistently fear that I do. It's nice to talk to someone who understands. I'm glad you are coping OK for the moment. I am too. We will make it, somehow.

cableshaft 7y ago
I don't think it's being a hypochondriac if you have actual symptoms that people go see the doctor for. If they could point to a test and go "Look, there's no way you're going to have a heart attack in the next two years, your X level is too low", then I'd be perfectly fine. It doesn't seem like there's a good test for that though. Funny thing was, for the longest time I always thought "I'm pretty damn healthy, except for the allergies and asthma." Never really worried about my health much, except a little when I got a bad case of bronchitis. Those thoughts and feelings suddenly stopped right around when I turned 30 and started getting combinations of minor symptoms just about everywhere on my body off and one all the time. Probably also that's when I started knowing people that died really young and suddenly (or had close calls) from various things like sleep apnea, heart attacks, leg clots, aneurisms, etc. Seriously, video/board game industry has had quite a few of these young but sudden deaths lately, including some people I knew personally. When you have symptoms that match those things, it's hard not to feel like it's better to be safe than sorry.

by vanniv 7y ago

cableshaft 7y ago

I don't think it's being a hypochondriac if you have actual symptoms that people go see the doctor for. If they could point to a test and go "Look, there's no way you're going to have a heart attack in the next two years, your X level is too low", then I'd be perfectly fine. It doesn't seem like there's a good test for that though. Funny thing was, for the longest time I always thought "I'm pretty damn healthy, except for the allergies and asthma." Never really worried about my health much, except a little when I got a bad case of bronchitis. Those thoughts and feelings suddenly stopped right around when I turned 30 and started getting combinations of minor symptoms just about everywhere on my body off and one all the time. Probably also that's when I started knowing people that died really young and suddenly (or had close calls) from various things like sleep apnea, heart attacks, leg clots, aneurisms, etc. Seriously, video/board game industry has had quite a few of these young but sudden deaths lately, including some people I knew personally. When you have symptoms that match those things, it's hard not to feel like it's better to be safe than sorry.