- Date posted
- 6y
- Date posted
- 6y
I have this fear too. I’m constantly monitoring my symptoms by testing my heart rate and blood pressure. The fact that I get panic attacks makes it a lot worse. Exposures definitely help. Some of the exposures I’ve done include reading about heart attacks, reading stories about non fatal heart attacks, reading stories about fatal heart attacks, writing “I might have a heart attack,” doing activities that make my heart race without a heart monitor on (running up the stairs, etc. ), watching videos of heart attacks, reading the symptoms of heart attacks, telling people I might have a heart attack, etc. Hope this helped
- Date posted
- 6y
ERP!!
- Date posted
- 6y
@Hlr is absolutely right. I suffer from this fear as well, and the only thing that has helped me calm it down quite a lot (mind you, this was probably one of my biggest obsessions) is exposure. Reading heart attack stories / news on cardiovascular disease and try not to resist the anxiety that comes up, as well as watching videos of people having heart attacks and suddenly dying (yes, it was hard as HELL!). It paid off in the end. I’m not over it 100%, but I must say, it’s way better than before.
- Date posted
- 6y
Thank you for the advice
Related posts
- Date posted
- 24w
I went to internal medicine today, and i'm not perfectly healthy, My liver is a little bit fat, I have to lose weight so thats okay, also I have gallsand, which is not gallstone yet but it can become that if its not treated. Now im like these arent big problems but when i heard these I started to overthink and think about the worse that I will have gallstones cause the doctor said I have it cause it runs in my family(my mother/grandmother and uncle had it) and I just think that it wont go away, and even if i doesn I will be worried all year if it came back. Im just so afraid. Also they said I should go get a blood check, but I said i will hesitate now cause last time i almost fainted and felt horrible the whole day, and now i hear from people i know that they went and they felt sick and vomited there. But the overthinking comes from me thinking if these little symptoms I experienced which I thought its because of anxiety, was because of health issues then the other symptoms I experience sometimes (headache and lightheadedness) are there cause of another health issue, and im worrying about my health, im afraid of death, i keep imagining myself if they tell me that i have terminal illness or something really bad and i dont know how to handle it. Now i feel nausea and i would say its because of stress but i keep thinking that its because of the health issues I have...I don't know how to handle this fear, if you ask others or therapists, they will say "yeah everyone is afraid of death and suffering" or "Try to think about something else" and i wont pay for advices like this...
- Date posted
- 20w
Hi everyone! ‼️HEALTH ANXIETY TRIGGER WARNING ‼️Just saw a post on TikTok that was along the lies of “it’s not your anxiety” and then they had mentioned they had a extremely serious cardiac event. This made me spiral lol. I struggle with a fear of cardiac events so much. I’ve had a couple cardiac tests and have been normal. Seen multiple cardiologists and they’ve said I’m normal. That being said, does anyone else struggle with this? Feeling kinda defeated and stuck lol
- Date posted
- 18w
So I do my best to abstain from checking my heart rate but sometimes I think about it and I can feel it beating in my chest. It’s not abnormal or anything but I notice it and it’s all I can think about. It’s usually the trigger or start to my anxiety spiral. How can I mitigate that? If I’m busy doing something I don’t notice it unless the thought comes along and says “hmm ur moving very quickly I bet ur heart rate is fast” I have zero symptoms of anything wrong. It’s a mental obsession followed by an urge to check it and if I don’t I feel anxious but if I do I’m still a little anxious especially if it’s faster than I think it should be. This is some sorta trap that I can’t seem to break
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