Everyone has their ups and downs in life. Whether it’s your body or your mind, normalize it to have a sickness. You can heal from sickness. However, it becomes problematic when people exaggerate their illness and its signs. A common theme in people’s stories is that health anxiety is ruining their life. Let us read below some real-life stories of people with health anxiety and their strength in overcoming it. In this article, we will discuss some stories of real people with health anxiety and how they overcome it. In the end, we have some tips to cope with health anxiety.  

What My Anxiety Looked Like

Hi, my name is Lina and I am 25 years old. I am willingly sharing my story and the healing journey which I went through. So, I was quite anxious about my health since I was a teenager. Also, I used to worry about the health of my close ones too such as my parents. Whenever I got sick, I used to Google every symptom. I felt immense pressure and anxiety that what if I get some terminal illness. I use to get assurance from others again and again that “will it be alright?”, “nothing wrong right?” People in my circle were getting annoyed by me now. Once I had a skin allergy and I asked every doctor in my social circle to check the reports if nothing is wrong. It might be seen over consciousness, but I could not help myself. Assurance from others helped me to keep my cool to some extent but sometimes even assurance could not help me. At that time I knew it was anxiety but I did not particularly know about health anxiety.

When I Decided to Get Help

My anxiety heightened when I once had a urinary tract infection (UTI) and it was severe I got a checkup. The doctor told me that it can happen due to humidity but I was so scared that what if it is a sexually transmitted disease (STI). My entire existence became terrible. I got my tests done and my boyfriend’s test as well. Besides the doctor’s assurance, I used to Google my signs and compared mine with them. I used to think about it all the time and discuss it with everyone I meet. It was disturbing. At that time my partner suggested I get some help as my fear was bothering my loved ones. My health anxiety was ruining my life. So I decided to get help for my health anxiety. I searched some articles on the internet to look for health anxiety. It matched with alike symptoms I was having, such as I was constantly worrying about worse consequences like death and I was even doubting medical reports that they are false. I then looked for a nearby clinic to get help and booked my session.

My Healing Journey

In the first session, I was very self-conscious and nervous that am I crazy or how the therapist will react if I tell him my inner fears. I had heightened symptoms of anxiety while the therapist interviewed me. I was afraid that what therapist will not be able to understand my problem. But he was compassionate to emphasize my problem. We discussed how my anxiety gets triggered like I was sick and then became over conscious and sought assurance from everybody. And how I became caught in the cycle of worry. After a few sessions, I was at ease with the therapist. He was offering me cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). After all the fear was in my mind. We explored together my fears and looked at things with different perspectives now. My therapist gave me one piece of advice which I will always remember in my life. He said that “Worrying does no good. Whatever is going to happen, will happen, no matter what”. We worked on my strength as a person and I apprehended that life is too precious to be wasted in fears. I realized that I was ruining my life myself because of health anxiety. As my worry was making me vulnerable and weak. My life is now much simpler since I stopped worrying, stressing, and obsessing over my health all the time. It is not like I do not worry at all. But, my anxiety is not suffocating that it once was. Unlike before, it is no longer the majority of my day. My life has significantly improved as a result. In addition to enhancing my health, it has altered the way I thought and helped me to have a lot more positive mindset on other elements of my life.

Conclusion

The therapy made such a huge amount of difference in my life and the lives of my family. I would strongly advise you to seek treatment. Even if you are unsure whether therapy will benefit you or if you feel in any way overly embarrassed about what people may think of you. I assure you that you will only gain while losing nothing. We know that it is a difficult phase. After all, everyone fears mortality. But ponder, are we forgetting to live today by fearing about the future? Let’s not waste the moment we have now and live it to the fullest. Here are some tips to help you with your health anxiety.

1. Be aware of your feelings and acknowledge them. Suppressing your feelings is never a good idea. Feelings can be good or bad. They indicate your state of mood. Accept yourself.
2. Avoid reading health news. Do not expose yourself to additional and irrelevant information about health. Consult your doctor as they are an authentic source of information.
3. Do not Google your symptoms. Although the internet is a convenient facility everything present on google is not authentic. However, there are many aspects of an illness that only a medical expert knows.
4. Love yourself. Simply, eat well, sleep well, maintain good health, and enjoy the simple things in life.

You can read “Hypochondria (Illness Anxiety Disorder)” under the section on body and aches at Epsychonline. To help learn about health anxiety and how to overcome it. Further, you can enroll in the “Chronic Pain” or “Low Self-Esteem” courses on our website. Research has shown that self-esteem serves as a protective factor against health anxiety so building self-esteem will help you to reduce your health anxiety symptoms. Further, people with chronic pain frequently experience results that are complicated by health anxiety. The mentioned courses will help you to manage your negative thinking when you get any disease. We hope this article was helpful to you. Sign up now for more learning.