Health OCD: I suffer with health OCD. I’m constantly worried about getting sick and I always convince myself that the smallest hint of something could be cancer. That being said, when something really does go wrong, I completely spiral. Something has gone wrong: I have had an irregular period and intense abdomen pain for over a month. I went to various OBGYNs who failed to diagnose me with anything. I felt like either the doctors were wrong or I was blowing it out of proportion, but my gut told me I needed to figure it out because of how bad the pain was. Yesterday morning I went to a new obgyn who told me I probably had a pelvic infection. He was angered that no one has diagnosed me and I’d gone over a month with it. He put me on antibiotics and asked me to take them immediately. I am waiting on test results. My biggest fear is infertility. I’m terrified that I will either be diagnosed with cancer or that the infection has made me infertile. I can’t stop googling and reading about how pelvic infections can cause infertility. My obsessions are out of control and my fiancé doesn’t know how to react to my panic attacks. I feel very alone and would appreciate some advice on how to handle this. Thank you

I’ve struggled with health anxiety for about 11 years, and it’s been horrible the last 3 years. Health related stuff wasn’t my first theme though. It started out with contamination OCD and magical thinking, and then I was diagnosed in 2015 after being hospitalized. Throughout the last 5 years or so, I’ve been hospitalized a few times for debilitating health anxiety OCD, been on countless meds and struggled to find an OCD specialist. I just want this nightmare to be over. I’ve been convinced of having breast cancer, lymphoma, bladder cancer, brain tumors, ovarian cancer, skin cancer, cervical cancer, and many other health issues. I’ve been to the doctors multiple times, I’ve demanded tests, I’ve compulsively gone to the ER and urgent care to “check” for reassurance, I’ve been convinced that doctors aren’t looking good enough or are lying to me. I do a lot of body scanning, and reading and rereading doctors note for reassurance. I also call the doctors office a lot. Again, I just need this to end but I don’t know what to do because I am so burned out.

7 years ago I was a raging drug addict. I took any and all kinds of drugs without second thought of consequences. When I had my first child it’s like a switch flipped in my brain. Within her first 6 months of life I had over 12 visits to the ER. I was (still am) constantly afraid of developing a life threatening disease / illness or having a sudden health event (stroke / heart attack / heart failure / brain tumor / cancer ) develop. I’ve seen over 10 Specialist from autoimmune, heart, eyes, neurology , stomach , skin, etc. I’ve got a seemingly well bill of health but I become so hyper aware of every small change within my body. It’s. Constant state of fear and anxiety. Headache = likely tumor / aneurysm , small pain in chest or arm = heart problems , mild cold = covid or some rare disease , etc. Lately, my heart has been my fixation. I was having tachycardia going to the ER 2x a week. EKGs normal, 24hr monitor normal, X-RAY normal. Shortly after I notice my resting heart rate went down as low as 50bpm. I looked through my history over the months and that seems pretty normal for me I just hadn’t noticed before. Now I’ve been worried about my heart for weeks even tho my dr says I’m okay. It’s exhausting to be afraid of sickness and death 24/7. When I get focused on these thoughts it pulls me away from my kids and husband and daily tasks. I either full blown panic or shut down in fear. Anyone else relate? What helps you? I don’t want to rely on medications as I have so many adverse reactions to the 10+ I’ve tried! - oh year here’s another one - I’m afraid of allergic reactions as well I CONSTANTLY fear I will have an allergic reaction to medications / foods or over dose on things like Tylenol and Ibuprofen or mix meds and have reactions.

Sorry to be TMI - I haven’t been on this app in a while but I’m genuinely so scared. I have struggled with health ocd for a while now but I’ve had a few months without any worry? But I started stressing a few weeks ago about a lot of stuff in my life , I’ve struggled with vaginismis etc from stress so this isn’t the first vaginal issue I’ve had - but anyway- I have had some symptoms of UTI , I’ve had itching, burning pee, vaginal pain etc and urgency - I have been to the emergency hospital in panic and been on 2 different antibiotics - I did a urine test in the doctors and everything is fine? I still have some symptoms and I can’t stop panicking I have cervical cancer or something ? Has anyone had similar physical symptoms like this from health ocd ?