- 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
It started when I became an adult, and started receiving my mental health diagnosis. I hyper fixated on each and every action I did and how it could be related to my diagnosis’s. It then lead to fixation to my physical health — making appointments and seeing every specialist I can to rule out every possibility. I currently have been suffering with obstructive sleep. I woke up the past few days with severe pain from the lack of sleep whilst believing I was oversleeping. Luckily my fit watch tracks my sleep cycle and it turns out I am not receiving any sleep. I had an extreme panic attack — bursting into tears on the phone with my mom wondering what this case might be. She told me it could be sleep apnea and that a simple sleep study could figure this out. However, knowing my family history I made appointments to every specialist I can to make sure it is nothing serious. The unknown of health can be scary to me. Watching my mother suffer with her physical health chronically since I was a child lead me to be very conscious and aware of how my body is functioning. This morning was one of the worst moments of physical pain. I should just take one step at a time with the sleep doctor instead of taking measures to see every specialist that could pertain with this issue. However, that is very hard to me. I don’t want to ever wake up in the pain I was this morning. Does anyone else suffer with health-related OCD? And if so, how do you find a sense of ease during moments like I expressed?
- Date posted
- 15w
Has anyone ever had an intrusive thought of thinking you’ve might’ve swallowed something dangerous and you can’t trust your own mind? And you feel like you need to go in to get checked out? Any advice or reassurance?
- Date posted
- 9w
I am trying to see if there are others like me. For the past 12 years, I’ve had crippling Anxiety that leads to intense panic attacks. I’ve been in and out of Ambulances and ER rooms and have called 911 several times. The panic is that intense. I can be just driving down the road and out of no where, BOOM! Hit by the anxiety bus. Most of the time it leads to me panicking, thinking I’m going to die or something is fatally wrong with me. The fear is so intense that I can only find a fraction of calmness by consistently checking my blood pressure, putting on a pulsometer and even checking my blood sugar until it passes. I’m not even a diabetic. I’m always having intrusive thoughts that doctors can’t even fix me. I’ve never met anyone else like me. I feel so scared sometimes that I’m going to loose my mind and that I’m going crazy and will end up in a straight jacket. Then I get another attack just thinking about that as well. Starting new medications freak me out too. If I experience ANY minor side effect, I immediately panic and freak out. I’m being so held back by this . This is a constant obsession that I can’t shake. It’s like I walk hand in hand with Anxiety and panic. Anyone else ever had these issues?
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