Health Anxiety Chat
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ส.ค. 2024
- This month Lauren and I tackle the topic of health anxiety after many of you asked about this. Is health anxiety officially an anxiety disorder? Is it OCD? Does that even matter? Join us as we take a look at this all-too-common problem of being crippled by excessive worry, rumination, fear and anxiety about health related issues.
Find Lauren on Instagram:
/ theobsessivemind
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🎵 Music Used on My Podcast: AfterGlow by Ben Drake (with permission)
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--
📣 GET MY DAILY ANXIETY RECOVERY EMAIL NEWSLETTER/PODCAST
theanxiousmorn...
📚 MY BOOKS:
theanxioustrut...
🔗 ALL MY SOCIAL MEDIA AND OTHER LINKS:
theanxioustrut...
💜 SUPPORT MY WORK BY BUYING MY BOOKS OR MERCHANDISE, OR MAKE A DONATION:
theanxioustrut...
ℹ️ WHO AM I?
theanxioustrut...
❓ WANT TO ASK ME A QUESTION?
theanxioustrut...
🎵 Music Used on My Podcast: AfterGlow by Ben Drake (with permission)
bendrakemusic.com
Health anxiety is brutal - the stoic philosophy has helped me in both health anxiety and agoraphobia. Focus on what we can can control.
There are strong stoicism threads woven throughout cognitive behavioral approaches to anxiety. You find them especially in more current therapies like ACT. You'll also find some direct connections to principles of Buddhism and even Taoism when you look for them. I'm a huge fan of stoic philosophy so thanks for this comment. I appreciate it!
Uncertainty intolerance disorder, that is the best description of my issues. Health anxiety, agoraphobia, emetophobia, social phobias, all of it. I did actually get cancer right at the beginning of this pandemic. I was the one who found it and the dr said it is important to listen to my self as they missed it. Turns out it was a 1.1 mm spot that metastasized. I told her that I can't trust myself because I know how my brain works. Between the pandemic and the cancer treatment I have regressed in my recovery so much. Not back to square one, but certainly back a shit ton of squares lol
I wish you get well, honestly your fears are rational, prayers for your health 🙏💜
@@sonjasonja5854 I actually seem to be cancer free for now and I've managed all the testing and treatments much better than I thought I would. It's amazing how much more we're capable of than we believe
@@joleecleary6274 I am happy to hear that 🍀🌷stay well. It is indeed amazing how strength is part of us and always has been, even in times when we are fragile and lost. Again so happy for you.
Hi Jolee. That is NOT a fun ride to be on. I see that you mentioned that it looks like you're cancer free now which is great news. I'm happy to hear that things seem to be working out for you. Acknowledge that this has been a difficult experience. That's real fear based on a real threat, then all the emotions and thoughts that come with it. Be as kind to yourself as you can while you go back over all those squares. And I LOVE that you refuse to declare "square one".
I can’t wait for this! Health anxiety is such a problem!!
Wow this was a great talk to listen to! Thank you both so much as always I've learned a lot ❤️
What about completely avoiding doctor. I just don't go, even when I should. I'm petrified of what could be wrong with me.
The general principle is always this. Find the thing you do (or don't do) in an effort to alleviate your anxiety and fear. Then stop (or start) doing that thing. Or more accurately those things (plural). A little at a time. One by one.
I hate going to the doctors. I always fear the worst.
I have health anxiety. But i do not google my symptoms cos i am scared of it. I do not like seeing the doctor cos i am petrified of them. Does that not sound logical?
That sounds very common. I hear this exact thing all the time. So what else do you DO when you are triggered about your health? How do you respond? It's not always doctors and Googling. Sometimes its scanning your body or always talking about your health or asking others if you look OK, or asking them to reassure you that you're OK. What does your trigger response look like?
Health anxiety but with fear of doctors fear of being ill, even the suggestion and spiral time. Don't like it at all the intense worry but paralysis of action due to fear. Lots of googling, supplements panic
Health anxiety can be tricky because worry about health issues that may not actually exist (especially if you have no evidence and only internally generated worry) will make you think that you need some kind of medically based action to protect or save yourself. So you worry, but you won't take that action. But consider that worry about your health is not by itself a reason to take action about your health. Do you have to take action? Is something actually going on?
@@TheAnxiousTruth I have to go get my bloods done drs request so panic central!
The economics analogy Lauren made was so interesting but I'm not sure if I get it completely, mostly because maths isn't my strongest area haha. Would be nice to see her do a more in depth video or post on it? ❤️❤️
Essentially the harder you work to stop the fear, make it go away, or gain 100% certainty about your health, the less benefit you get from that work. When you work to attain total certainty, you wind up getting a negative return because that work winds up making things worse over time, not better.
@@TheAnxiousTruth ahh thank you for simplifying it for me :) I understand now
I now feel even worse...worse than I've felt in my entire life. I can't stand this ironic effect. I do everything out of the goodness of my heart to make myself feel better by watching these videos and now I feel doomed to die of...well I honestly don't want to say.....as I hate the subject. Honestly pain suffering torture leads to more it .....I should have had my amygdala fear response taken away from me years ago. I should have been conditioned to never feel fear...never feel terror. Oh help! Please help someone! I can't live with this. I can't cope.
One suggestion in terms of coping would be to say the word(s) you are afraid to say. It indicates a state of hyper-avoidance where you are trying with all your might to not be triggered into health related fear, then when ANYTHING comes up along those lines you spiral because you are thinking and feeling things again. If you recognize the paradoxical effect, you have a leg up here. It tells you that avoiding and trying so hard to feel better and not have thoughts and feelings is part of the problem, which points you at where the solution might lie. Have you seen this episode:
th-cam.com/video/1xNp1ZT-I9I/w-d-xo.html
Does anyone else get no relief from Xanax and Busiprone at all?
Lauren seems to be making light of health anxiety. There’s nothing funny about it. We know what HA is, we’d like some help in how to treat it.
The entire video is about how to approach health anxiety. Calling it out for its irrationality is part of that. I know that fear FEELS really important, but we have to accept the fact that it is not, or there is no progress. That's the first step.