Hypochondria

[juliwuli]

im a hypochondriac, now ive stopped drinking i'm worse than ever, i was pretty bad when drinking but of course drinking used to put me in the 'dont care about anything' mode alot so it was more manageable, now though i'm really bad, this all started 6 years ago when i had an operation to donate a kidney, now i worry constantly about my one remaining kidney, im worried about breast cancer, bowel cancer, heart disease, kidney failure (number one worry) and any headache or twinge makes me worry myself stupid,
When i donated the kidney i had to have an awful lot of health checks, a full MOT the doctors said, and a junior doctor said he thought there was something wrong with my aorta, there followed more tests after that and it turned out there was nothing wrong at all, the transplant co-ordinator said the doc should not have said anything ike that at all to me, i think this was the catalyst for my hypochondria,
I would like to ask if anyone else suffers with this, i know i'm going t have to get my backside to the doctors and get some anxiety meds, but ive been putting that off because i dont want to get addicted to them and get bad withdrawal from them,
well anyway i feel a bit better getting it written down, thanks for reading

[BarefootBlues]

Hi there!
I too have a tendency towards hypochondria or health anxiety. I drank to block out a lot of symptoms. Seems strange to me now that I was so concerned about health issues yet I would drink a bottle of wine a night. Like that was almost healthy.
Anyway, I had a bit of a breakdown from the anxiety a year ago and started on meds. Since I am so hypersensitive to everything, meds dont work for me very well. I can take ativan, but that has its drawbacks.
I've been seeing a therapist which has helped a lot. I definitely recommend trying CBT, cognitive behavior therapy. It will help you challenge and then overcome irrational thoughts you may be having about health issues.
Good luck!