Hey everyone, I'm reaching out to see if anyone has been down this exact path and managed to break out of the cycle. (M,29)

​For a while now, I’ve been dealing with terrifying Ha focused on lung caNr. Even though I have completed multiple medical evaluations—including cardiac workups and clear lung exams that confirmed normal function—my brain completely refuses to accept the clean results.

All of this started after quiting nicotine (vape,smoke)

​Instead of trusting the doctors, I fell into a non-stop checking spiral:

Searching on Google constantly, reading forums, and feeding every micro-sensation or hypothetical scenario into AI models over and over to see if there's any small chance the doctors missed something.

Feeling lung tmtightns even when I'm occupied with other tasks. It feels like my nervous system is constantly running a background program monitoring and making me freak out about everything.

My doctor prescribed Citafort (escitalopram) I've started taking it, but as I wait for it to fully kick in, the health anxiety and sleep exhaustion are still making it hard to relax.

​It’s exhausting to know logically health profesionals say in ok while my anxiety insists on searching for unprovable "what ifs.

​If you’ve dealt with severe HA compulsive symptom-searching:

​Did starting Citafort (or another SSRI) initially heighten your body awareness before it started helping?

​How did you break the habit of constantly Googling or asking ai

​What helped you finally trust your clean exam results and let the physical chest tighnss to go away.

How do parents deal with the anxiety of their kids getting gastro/stomach bug? It’s something I struggle with a lot and did have a round of it go around my house a few months ago which unfortunately intensified my Emetophobia

For example, I have some four white painless bumps on the gums which are there for three months without any change for now, I visited six different dental doctors who don't know what those are, but they're not concerned, but I'm terrified that it could be gum malignancy to the point that it's affecting my every day life. What was your longest worry and how did it ended? Would like to hear some positive stories!

My health anxiety has definitely ramped up over the last couple of years. It is repeatedly getting worse and worse every year and I feel like I'm going crazy? I have met with my counselor and cannot seem to find anything that is helping. Does anyone have any solutions, suggestions, or small things that they have found has helped them in their journey?

Ive dealt with anxiety and occasional panic attacks before, but they were manageable. Then in March, I had the worst panic attack I’ve ever had while driving. Since then, every attack feels harder to recover from, and now I’m afraid to drive alone.
It’s gotten to the point where even thinking about getting in a car makes me panic. I’ve also had panic attacks at home alone, so now I’m afraid to be alone in the house too. I’ve been sleeping during the day while my parents are at work because I’m afraid of having another attack alone.
I’ve been on mirtazapine 30mg for 5 months and Effexor, 37.5mg for 2 months and 75mg for the past month. I haven’t felt worse on them, but I also haven’t felt much better.
After talking to my mom I messaged my doctor about how bad things have gotten an inquired about maybe adding a mood stabilizer or something else, my doctor responded with I will refer you to psychiatry. So that like topped it off for me. A friend suggested I get evaluated for bipolar because my grandmother was diagnosed later in life, but my mom is not bipolar. I’m naturally very bubbly, talkative, and outgoing, but I also have ADHD, so I’m not sure what’s what. My friend also suggested that I take omega-3 with DHA/EPA.
I’ve read that antidepressants can worsen bipolar symptoms, but I haven’t noticed that happening—I just haven’t improved.

I’m spiralling so bad at the moment and It’s impossible to do anything, I can’t speak or tell anyone about what I’m going through so I just keep crying. I’m afraid to sleep and this is affecting me so bad that I’m having THOSE kind of bad thoughts

I need to turn life off for a moment and go live in a body that doesn’t have anxiety or whatever thing is causing my anxiety i am so mad i have this I just want to live life without constant feelings of doom

Please help me what do i do?? What will make it better I can’t live this way I’m so afraid I feel frozen I’m dissociated all of the time since the flare up started how do I tell somebody omg I am stuck

I posted here about my CT head scan the other day and I was ecstatic that it came back clear but now I’m terrified again. I made the mistake of looking online and seeing cases of people having stuff missed on CT scans. I’m really afraid, I thought I could finally put my mind to rest after two months of freaking out about this but clearly not. I’ve had this same mild head unpleasant feeling on and off for over five years, I’m 18 and I feel like if it was what I’m freaked out about I’d have many more symptoms by now and I keep telling myself that what I was freaked out about is pretty rare in people my age but I just can’t calm down about it. I have this pit in my stomach again, I feel insanely anxious, I’m so tired of this. The head unpleasant feeling isn’t even the main thing that I’m tired of, it’s the anxiety it gives me every time I get it if that makes sense. I’m so sick of this

My health anxiety fixated on my own mind and it is the worst feedback loop ever. Because everytime I get anxious my brain uses it as proof that my brain is broken and that I will be stuck in this loop forever.

I have been having negative thoughts and can't shake them off, went to councelling and all but still would love to hear real people experience

What was the outcome for you, how did you calm yourself down

does anyone have any tips on managing white coat syndrome at the dr? specifically lowering your BP. I get so nervous that it reads high and I’m pregnant now so it’s just making me more anxious lol

all this high anxiety is giving me side effects like weakness on one side (not a tmor or anything, i went to the ER), headaches all the fun stuff and anxiety attacks. i live in constant fear i have some neuro issue and its taking me away from the things i love, like going out and talking to my friends

I find when a particular h.a issue arises i come and post about it almost like a way of coping...do you?

I have two kids and I would die for both of them without hesitation. But since two months, health anxiety got me so badly, I am crying multiple times a day, as I cannot stand the fact to leave them becauae of some deadly disease. I cannot enjoy life anymore, I cannot function the way I did. I need to leave the room not to cry in front of them. How do you manage this with Kids? Any help is appreciated

It seems I'm putting together that I am using sadness and my nostalgic wiring to get sad, cry and it gives an odd happiness but sadness at the same time...do you?

Does anyone notice if health anxiety cause your immune system to be weaker? How did you put your life under control? For me personally I already got sick once because of so much stress and anxiety, because of fear of getting some terminal illness? Can anyone relate to this?

Right! What is the most irrational health fear we have all had.
I’ll start - away in Tenerife Jan this year. We went the zoo, and my husband decided it would be cool to see the bats. I step inside the cave and barely move. Seen them hanging upside down and grabbed our daughter and ran for my life. I “literally” spent the next 2 weeks of our holiday terrified that by some crazy chance a bat dropped saliva on me or bit me somehow and gave me R***** 🫩
I even felt like I was developing symptoms, I wasn’t!!!
Completely ruined my holiday and I couldn’t wait to leave, I really only settled once I was back home in the UK.
Health anxiety is the devil.

Essentially, I don't know how to help myself, because whenever my HA spikes, I'm not even imagining symptoms, or dying, or anything like that. I'm imagining what it would FEEL like to receive a diagnosis for a symptom I ignored and then feeling that fear of whatever the condition would cause. Moreover, I dread symptoms coming back mainly because it would cause more dread. I'm truly just afraid of my own thoughts. This makes my life a living hell since even when I go to a doctor and the test results are clean, I don't even receive the temporary relief from the reassurance, but rather I'm like what am I gonna feel if it turns out the tests missed something and I wasn't diligent enough in advocating for my own health? How afraid and disappointed will I feel? Which kind of makes me more afraid. I'm sorry if this doesn't make sense.

I don’t think I’ve ever shaken more than I did in the two hours between having the scan done and getting the results, I’m insanely happy about this!!! I’ve had super bad anxiety about brain tumours for the past three months and this is a GARGANTUAN weight off of my chest!

Or is it negative to your mental health progress, akin to reassurances?

I have had health anxiety for as long as I could remember. But the past year it’s been detrimental. I had to spend two weeks in a mental hospital and for a while I got better. But then I deteriorated again. I start a new job Tuesday and I’m so nervous I won’t be able to do it because of my health anxiety and fear of passing out. Does anyone have some words of encouragement regarding working with health anxiety?

I am stressed because I have been avoiding the doctors for years and now I need to go in to get my Tdap vaccine (already stressful enough for me). The last time I had a proper checkup was when I was 4. Can you guys provide me some insight as to what I should be expecting to experience? For context, I’m a 16 year old female and I live in Canada. I’m 5’6, white, and about 145 pounds. No outstanding problems and in the past I’ve just been to the walk-in clinic when absolutely necessary. I’m occasionally a bit fatigued and have always had a screwed up neck that causes headaches. I am hyper mobile (told to me by my physio) and have a screwed up wrist from an old injury. What’s listed above are more long standing issues that are manageable but I don’t have anything concerning going on. I have never had labs done and have gotten all my vaccines other than the Tdap that I would be getting at that appointment. Thank you everyone and please don’t sugar coat because I need to know the truth of what I’m getting into. Please let me know if you have other questions that could give you a better sense of what would realistically need to be done.

Because of health anxiety I always ask a lot of questions, especially when discussing results. Sometimes I even ask the same question twice, just in different words, to get the reassuring answer I want again, to make sure it is REALLY ok. A lot of doctors deal with it patiently, but some get annoyed or impatient when they notice they cannot really reassure you 100%.

Have you experienced this as well and how do you deal with it? Do you ask the questions you still have anyway? Do you feel bad because you feel like a difficult patient? I never know how to behave if I notice it. On the one hand, I still have questions, on the other hand, I feel ashamed of ...being like this.