Stress Center Peer Support

I have gone through this session many times, I have done the relaxation tapes and yet I continue to obsess over my body symptoms. Every little thing is a symptom of some fatal disease. Right now, I am obsessing over chest pain. I've had the pain for a few days now and it comes and goes (usually comes on strong for a few minutes and goes away for a few minutes and returns). I am 35, female, have low blood pressure, low cholesterol so beyond excessive stress cannot logically see why it would be a heart attack but then I ask myself if I should get it checked out. What if I am one of those people who assume it can't be a heart attack and dies because you didn't get to a hospital. I cannot stop thinking this way and it is driving me crazy. This has happened like 3 other times before in the last 10 years. I end up going to the hospital to reassure myself. What do I do? I am at work at the moment and drinking chamomile tea, doing my very best to stay calm but not much seems to be working...

Well, just goes to show panic is an amazing thing and so is the power of thought. Amazing how my rational self 100% knew that it was panic, but yet found it difficult to convince my emotional self otherwise. I did manage to talk myself down on my own, convince myself I was not having a heart attack (it took a few long hours but did it nonetheless) despite the continuing chest pain (it has continued but after relaxing it has dissipated a bit, sure in a few days it will be gone). I am proud of myself for that. It is frustrating to feel myself back to a place I felt I had left but now I am combining this program with psychotherapy so hoping that it can stick this time around. I need to learn to concentrate on the positive and not on some imagined future. This I know but find it incredibly difficult. Any tips on how to shift your thoughts? I think later sessions concentrate on obsessive thoughts. Looking forward to getting there.

Thanks for listening.