hypocondria - PLEASE HELP!!!

cosmogirl · Post by **cosmogirl** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 8:59 am

I have a really hard time not obsessing about my health. I get dizzy and off from my sinus and allergies clogging my inner ear. It freaks me out and lately I have been doing feeling like i am going to gag I don't gag but I feel like I am going to. Please someone give me some reassurance and suggestions to help.

daughterofsarah · Post by **daughterofsarah** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 9:12 am

Hi cosmogirl! First, you are not alone in this battle....the last year of my life has been full of obsessions about various health issues. This may or may not help you...but dizziness can also be caused by anxiety. A good way to prevent that is to make sure you are breathing correctly. Do you have the program?
If you are experiencing new symptoms, it can't hurt to visit your dr. to help put your fears aside. I have experienced the gagginess and stomach issues too...again, likely my anxiety. Unfortunately, dizziness may cause you to feel some nausea as well.

Kumiko · Post by **Kumiko** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 10:36 am

Cosmogirl, I am in the same boat as you. I get the positional vertigo from my ears and my allergy issues affect my equilibrium and everything. I also have nausea from the allergy drainage and from using my nasal spray. I understand how the sudden room spin sensation can throw you off and send you into an anxious state in less than 2 seconds but you have to identify it and accept that it is what it is. I have to constantly give myself reassurance and repeat what the Dr's have said and just relax and breathe through the uneasy feeling. I take my medicine in the morning but sometimes it just does not work. I was out talking to a neighbor last night and felt a little breathless and off in the head but I assured myself it is the allergy and I will go in the house and lay down. Everytime I looked down I felt funny in the head. I've been to ENT docs, who NEVER see anything wrong in my ears and my regular family Doc saw some fluid build up but unfortunately I cannot take decongestants because of an irregular heart rhythm so I just have to work on mentally getting myself in check, using alternatives to help myself with the allergies (neti-pot) and relaxing. You will be fine. Since anxiety had taken over my life I have become more of a hypochondriac and seem more sensitive to every feeling but through the help of the program, my therapist and working on constant positive thinking and self encouragement I am able to overcome this! It is still an ongoing learning process but I am much better. I just have to be cognizant of when I go out and the allergens and stay on top of my allergies with what I am prescribed.
Hope you are feeling better.

cosmogirl · Post by **cosmogirl** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 4:46 am

thank you both for your responses.kumiko you and i are alot alike. I can't take any decongestants either for the dame reason i get palpatations. I acually ended up in the hospital with them because of the meds. I am worse right now with my anxiety and stuff because I am very stressed right now we are moving and everything is changing. I find that i have a hardre time with change now. I do have the program and i am going through it again. I am very impatient and i rush through it too much but i feel like i have no time to do it the way i should. I am glad to hear from others that have the same issues though. It is very reassuring. I have been taking alphapha for my allergies and sinus. They help some but i think i might try to talk to my doctor about going on allegra again. Does anyone wake up anxious and how do you cope with that. I have been waking up feeling like my heart is racing and i am reeling from the inside out. Does this happen to anyone else?

Celeste1 · Post by **Celeste1** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 10:59 am

Hey Cosmogirl, I know exactly how you feel! A lot of us on this site can relate to health anxiety. That was the reason I signed up as a member to this site as a matter of fact! It took me some time (and Lexapro) to realize that I am just overly sensitive to my bodily functions and feelings. I feel a twinge a pain in my upper right abdomen and I think I have liver cancer. Other times I feel pressure or a sharp pain on one side of my head and I'll convince myself that I have a tumor. A few months ago I found a lump in my breast (I'm 31 years old) and I got so obsessed about breast cancer. I went to my doctor and she did a breast ultrasound and said it was a cyst and diagnosed me with fibrocystic breast disease. I'm still not convinced that it's fibrocystic; especially since she said that we'll ultrasound my breasts again to make sure the lump is not growing! What?!!? That's pretty scary to hear! Just tell me it's not cancer and I'll be alright!!! We all have moments of fear about our health. People like us just take it to the extreme. Are you on medication? I noticed once I started taking Lexapro, the obsessions about my health decreased. I also have been seeing a therapist. It takes time but it's up to us to learn the steps and process to overcome it. I'm sure your dizziness is just part of your allergies and/or anxiety. If that's not convincing enough, see the doctor and let him/her reassure you. There's only so much we can control... Good luck!

'

Kumiko · Post by **Kumiko** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 12:10 pm

Cosmo, OMG I used to wake up a lot with anxiety and I'd be on the way to the hospital. That was when my anxiety was the worst now I wake up every now and then with anxiety and the feeling that my heart is in tachycardia or something! Wat I do now is try to calm myself down by taking deep breaths and take a full xanax which is .5mg and it works. I turn on nick at night and write what I am feeling in my journal and the wrtiing helps me identify my feelings and I tell myself what it is and it disipates! I used to walk around and that would help me feel better but now when I get out the bed to walk around it makes things worse! I try to get my husband and have him talk to me until I calm down. Man, isn't sureal what anxiety puts you through? It is weird as Celeste1 put it that we become overly sensitive to this anxiety. Things used to do before anxiety I can't anymore and it ticks me off. An example is even though I have palpitations every now and then I would drink caffinated coffee. I love Jamaican Blue Mountain but anyways now I barely drink decaf. I used to never think about or feel palpitations after a good cup of java now I feel more heart hiccups than I care too. Can't wait to no longer have this condition and go back to "normal" I mean be my better self.

Charlie Brown · Post by **Charlie Brown** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 12:55 pm

Cosmogirl,

I am sorry to hear about your and everyone's situations.

Last year and the first quarter of this year I endured tons and tons of health related anxiety. It started with worrying about my throat after a choking accident in a restaurant to a diabetes scare to costochondritis (inflammation of the chest area which feels like a heart attack but actually is not) to asthma getting chronic (now I don't know if it was all asthma or anxiety) to nocturnal chokings which revealed I have larynx reflux

.

I drastically altered my diet so I avoided (and continue) to avoid diabetes. I lost 45 lbs and am not diabetic. (Dad was Type II and I vowed years ago never to become diabetic.) I finally accepted my dr, cardiologist and ER personnel that my heart is fine and the chest pains were in fact due to costochondritis. I haven't had any nocturnal chokings in a year (thank God) as the reflux has stabilized due to medication and working with my ENT. The asthma, as proved by pulmonary tests and self-realization, is mild and I am not in danger of dying from it because it is mild.

Starting in November 2006 to April this year I went for cognitive behaviorial therapy (CBT) and I cannot begin to say how much help this was. I got my life back. The anxiety dropped like an bad stock

. I just finished compiling all the lessons here.

Best regards.

bjmom · Post by **bjmom** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 1:06 pm

Charlie Brown, I dont guess I am smart enough to figure out how to mail you privately. So can you send me the files?

Charlie Brown · Post by **Charlie Brown** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 1:14 pm

bjmom,

What is your email address?

Rose M. Wroge · Post by **Rose M. Wroge** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 1:29 pm

Charlie Brown, please send me info. Thanx! Rose at rosewroge@yahoo.com