People with health anxiety, tell your story.

When I was in high school and college, I kept reading about deadly diseases and then imagining that I had those diseases. I would compulsively check for symptoms and read everything I could about the illnesses, thinking that I needed to prepare myself and be vigilant. I annoyed several doctors by repeatedly seeking treatment/diagnosis for illnesses that I did not have. (But I don't feel too bad about that since they got paid, after all.) The list of diseases I thought I had includes smallpox, meningitis, various heart ailments, skin cancer, penile cancer, and vCJD (the human form of "mad cow disease"). That last one was the worst one, the one that finally caused such a crisis that I dropped out of college. I never really had OCD-specific therapy, but my therapists were well-informed about OCD and told me the right things — that trying to argue against the thoughts would make them stronger, that the key was to accept uncertainty, etc. Medication helped a lot. And eventually, my continued failure to die from any of these diseases made me start to really accept that I had been wrong about all of them. My brain just kind of let that theme go ... and moved on to others -_- Interestingly, because I monitored my heart rate so compulsively for several years, I developed the ability to feel my pulse moving through my whole body just by sitting very still. It's kind of a neat trick.

Hi! I dealt with such horrific health ocd and my main obsession was being deathly allergic to things. My hands were cracked and bleeding from all the washing and I probably lost a bit of weight from eating the same safety foods everyday and I couldn’t try anything new without having a panic attack. I thought that it would never end I mean I was scared every second of the day and was convinced I’d have anaphylaxis even to things I’ve eaten before. Exposure is the best thing to do trust me, its beyond terrifying but it’s so worth it I mean I’m not fully recovered I’m still terrified of taking medication and I’m scared of stuff like sea food but it’s so much better than it was. Start with small exposures and work ur way up. My health anxiety was so so bad and I promise you it gets so much better even if ur not fully recovered. There’s always hope 🩷

You will be ok!! I have health anxiety too ❤️❤️❤️ and because of my OCD I obsess all the time. I’ve gotten a lot better and so will you.

I used to struggle with this badly it’s still a thought now , but now I just eat and I’ll have the thought then it’ll go away and I won’t even think twice about it after. but just know that if you’ve been to doctor appts or have had blood drawn they’d notify you of allergies!

I am struggling with it too, not so much eating but i constantly think that I have a blood clot or am having a stroke. I assess any odd feelings I have in my body and convince myself that I am dying a lot. Lately Ive been trying to meditate (there are really good videos on YouTube) and also listening to solfeggios frequencies has been helping me.

Mine started in 2019 after I found a lump. I was googling and fell into a depression despite the lump being benign. The lump is still there but I do start to get anxiety over it from time to time. Any sort of odd sensation in my body, I start to worry it’s cancer - bowel, cervical, stomach, ovarian, lung, throat, skin. You name it. The anxiety shifted towards my baby son and got worse. I worry about his health constantly and randomly feel sad as if there is something wrong with him, and get triggered by, fixate and compulsively examine his skin and any and all marks I see on it.