hypocondriacs....READ THIS!

Michelle4444 · Post by **Michelle4444** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 1:40 pm

Okay one more thing..I just saw an ad on tv for Web Md...I promptly gave the tv the finger!

That's all.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 7:01 am

Cranberry: You are fabulous. I sure enjoy your posts. I am sure you know how talented you are!
Keep at it. You make my day!
Thanks.
Cornflower (Mary Jane)

muffin2sweet · Post by **muffin2sweet** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 5:25 am

Hi guys,
Thanks for replying. Sorry it's taken so long to get back. I'm doing much better. I haven't been to the ER in months. I have been praying more about it and not letting the devil win. I still have scares, but I try to just work through them.
I still have insomnia off and on. I will go 2 weeks of sleeping fine, then 2 weeks of being up all night. I know I will get better. I'm on week 10, had to start over. Anyhow, thanks guys.
Brandi

attsila · Post by **attsila** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 6:59 am

It has been a while since I posted but I too suffer from Googleitis I get a symptom and start running to the search engine and discovering symptoms left and right. Lately I have been having problems with stomach aches and nausea so like the worrier I am , I look it up. One thing mentioned was cancer andother was liver disease (which I am afraid of because it has run rampant in my family) I see one of the symptoms is dark and black stools. Mine was this morning, but I don't remember what my ppoo looks like regularly. So I am freaking out. When in reality I probably have an ulcer from this job I have and from being a single parent and going to school. I started thinking about sickness and death the other night in school because everytime i sang that day it would hurt in my neck and throat, and next thing I know I have tightness and pain in my throat and my heart racing. Full blown panic attack all in the middle of class. If there is one consolation I wouldn't let myself run to the restroom, or even let on I was having one. I belly breathed and instead of telling myself not to think about it I told myself to not think about how I was going to spend the weekend. It went away and I was able to drive the 30 minutes home. So if anything that is a success story. However I went home and had to look it up afterall I know better then the doctor. well I get myself all freaked out and won't go to the doctor all because I am afraid it will be nothing and I will feel stupid. I have had numerous cancers, heart attacks strokes, rabies(yes I even talked myself in to believing I had rabies)MS, Lupus, kidney failure and other illnessed in the past 10 months,and have xcome back to life from dying more times then carters got peanuts. What is bad is that I had legitimate problems during this time and I often wonder how much they were caused by my excessive worrying. I have Mitrovalve, and wonder that if I ever have a real attack if I will know because I am contstantly in a state of worry. MY brothers mom had leukemia for years before they discovered it. She was full of life and never went to the doc till her friend talked her into it one day. The dic noticed stuff on her bloodwork and ran some tests.....When they came back he told her she was in the last stage and had weeks to live.....she never showed signs of being ill yet died in 1 weeks time......I need to take care of myself for my kids sake but I need to work on being blissfully ignorant. I think we all do actually. I do have to say though this site and threads like these are my sanity these days.

sleeplessMom · Post by **sleeplessMom** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:26 am

attsila, Good for you for breathing through your panic attack and not running! You should pat yourself on the back. For me too, that throat closing, choked-up feeling is one of the first signs of anxiety, and I have learned to use even a slight tightness in my throat as a sign I need to breathe and relax and change my thinking.
formerly SleeplessMom

Untouchable · Post by **Untouchable** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 2:57 pm

I obsess over physical illness somewhat, but what I really have a problem with is mental illness. My mom is bipolar and was admitted to a mental hospital when I was 5. I feel like there is a ticking timebomb inside of me and my time is getting shorter. I'm not sure how old she was when she had her breakdown, but I know she was close to 30 and I'm 28. So I feel like I'm living on borrowed time. My husband says if I keep asking him if he thinks I'm crazy that I will convince myself that I am. I am constantly asking people "does an insane person know that they are insane" because I'm afraid that I may already be and not know it. When I was a teenager I used to read these books written by a teacher of emotionally handicapped children. Every time I read about a mental illness and it's symptoms I would become convinced that was what was wrong with me. How do I convince myself that I am not crazy? What if I really am? How can anyone know for sure the state of another persons mind?

attsila · Post by **attsila** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 3:16 pm

You aren't crazy and you aren't Mentally ill It is just part of the process....Heck googling my own illness got old so I have been googling my problems with my truck in the past few days and have convinced myself there is something catastrophically wrong with it.....I just bought the truck should be happy but because it is a 96 jimmy and someone told me the safety stats and recalls were really bad in them I have been convinced that it is going to flip any minute. I spent a great deal of the last year worrying about myself and illnesses and dying and I got sobering news today because my son is sick and has been losing weight and the doctor found a knot that he wants to have further looked at. All of a sudden all my worrying went out the window. Now hopefully he is fine but I couldn't help but think that what if I spent all the energy I had in the pst year googling symptoms and being afraid, if I had used even an ounce of it to be a better mom.......Like I said hopefully he will get better and it will turn out to be nothing but it sure made me wonder. You are fine. Thank God for the hear and now and just enjoy your life in this moment. As long as you have that and take life a moment at a time what more do you really need right?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 4:28 pm

Hello Untouchable!
I think you are fine. I don't think you will get your mom's mental illness. I really don't.
But I hear you!!
My mom was mentally ill. I think it started as
neglected depression. Way back then people didn't go to doctors and get diagnosed. They hid it. But my Mom began to hear voices and she
could rage all night. She didn't know that she was ill. In fact she would have denied it with her whole being.
I spent many many years in fear that I would get what my Mom had. Too many to even tell you
how many years.
Untouchable, I am 78 now and I'm still functioning. Yes I've had a lot of anxiety at times. And I've had panic attacks.
But I live alone and handle all my affairs. I don't have any of the symptoms that my Mom had.
And I never had to walk in her shoes. I never went through any of the problems that my Mom lived thru'.
I had my own set of problems in life.
Just as your life is different from your Mom's.
I think that if you work this program and heed what the others are posting and listen to the relaxation tape that you'll begin to see that
you are a completely different individual than your Mom and your fear will lessen so much.
I don't know if I could have gotten rid of that fear that I had that I would have the disease that my Mom had if I'd had this program back then. Who knows. But I don't have that fear now.
I guess the fears that I have now is that my middle-age children will be like me and have the same anxieties and fears. But I just look around me and read these posts and realize that
my children have a lot of places these days to turn for help.
Thank you for posting. And I just hope that you feel a lot better real soon.
I truly don't think you need to worry about getting your Mom's mental illness. But I've been there. Time will help you.
I wish you blessings.
Cornflower (Mary Jane)

Michelle4444 · Post by **Michelle4444** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 8:03 pm

OH Gosh Attlisa- I have to say that your post has put me into a tailspin. I read your post and in the begining I was, and do, encourage you to remember that Dr. Fisher said in tape 2 that we take one symptom and convince ourselves that we have the desease.

What put me into a spin was your story about you brother's mom, please people have been good about not putting up scary specifics up on the board or at least without a warning (don't read this if it's going to give you ideas, etc.) To be brief, I have a blood clot in my leg and I, after worring about the clot, fell into panic attacks which lead to anxiety, was perscribed Xanex, and after worring so much asked my Dr. what was the very worst thing that could have caused this (they can't get a clean blood draw for at least two more months - i'm on Cumidin) She said at the worst it could be Lukemia or lupis, I went crazy, lost sleep, stopped eating, then finally ordered the program.

It's taken me several weeks and dozens of reasurances from Dr.'s that I'm okay and have no symptoms of Lukemia or Lupis...and your story just blew me away.

Please be careful of the stories. I hope I don't offend you I don't mean to, i'm just mad at myself that I've let these old thoughts creap back into my mind.

Untouchable · Post by **Untouchable** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 1:28 pm

Mary jane--Thank you so much for your words of encouragement! I am already feeling relief just knowing that other people have had these same kind of fears and that they're ok. I will be o.k. too. I don't want to live my life being afraid of something that will probably never happen and I really don't want to make myself crazy by worrying about it.