- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
I’ve also struggled with health anxiety and OCD related to health. Here are some ideas: 1. Understand that no one is truly certain about their health. Not even if a doctor has just declared them super healthy. Most people walk around with a feeling of certainty about their health, but that feeling is based on probability, not certainty. (“the headache I had yesterday was probably from skipping my afternoon coffee,” “I probably don’t have cancer since I don’t have any symptoms,” etc.) 2. Now that you know that people can be uncertain and still feel safe with their health, make it a goal to accept uncertainty. Promise yourself that you’ll work toward that goal. 3. Work with an ERP therapist if you can. Things you might do in therapy that you can also do on your own if needed: A) differentiate between reasonable health actions (e.g. going to the doctor once a year, disinfecting a cut once before putting on a bandaid, etc.) vs. compulsions (e.g. googling symptoms, asking for reassurance from family members or friends, taking your temperature repeatedly) B) develop response prevention messages for when you get the urge to do compulsions (e.g. “it might be serious, or it might be nothing. I don’t need to figure it out right now”) C) do exposures so that you can practice sitting with the anxiety without doing compulsions. These could include reading articles about people whose mild symptoms turned out to be serious, writing and reading a script about becoming ill, or engaging in a behavior your OCD deems unsafe (like going an hour without drinking water or only wearing one face mask when you go out) Health stuff is really hard to deal with because OCD can make it feel like you don’t have the ability to figure out if something is a serious symptom or if it’s all in your head. The only way to get a better radar for that is to treat your OCD, which involves taking what will feel like risks. The truth is that your OCD isn’t really protecting your physical health, it’s just giving you things to do to make it feel like you’re in control. The more you can accept the uncertainty, the closer you will be to better mental health and well-being. I hope that helps. Best of luck!
Wow thank you so much for this. It was very thoughtful and much appreciated! The more that I hear from others the stronger I feel in terms of not giving into the compulsions and managing my OCD. It can feel very lonely at times. Thank you so much
@Bri007 It’s a very isolating disorder! I’m so glad you’re reaching out for support and feeling stronger in resisting compulsions. You’ve got this!! :)
@Orange-Colored_Glasses I just want to say I’ve been struggling with health anxiety and somatic OCD the past few days, so i searched for a thread. Your comment helped me frame what is “reasonable” va compulsive. I bookmarked it for the future when my OCD makes me question if I need to worry. Thank you!
Thank you. It really means a lot! Just started therapy again after almost a year and a half without. I have a 1-year-old daughter now so the motivation and circumstances are much different than they've been in the past. I've also seen an increase in my OCD since having her And I don't want her growing up seeing me struggle as bad as I am.
That’s awesome that you went back to therapy. I’m sure that parenting a baby is incredibly stressful and thus a trigger for increased OCD symptoms. Be gentle with yourself! Your daughter might “meet” your OCD at some point, and that’s ok - she’ll learn that it’s ok to be scared sometimes, that no one is perfect, and that her parent is super strong and awesome!
Thank you! It really is a motivator to make sure that I'm more managed in terms of my anxiety for her. Your words mean a lot.
I am so sorry but know that you are not alone.
I have really been working on separating the emotional reaction to the habitual response in my mind that sets off false threats for every little thing that comes up for myself.
It takes time but it's worth noting when certain fears pop up whether due to Sensations or things you see or feel in regards to your body.
I need help stopping my compulsive thoughts and worrying
I have gotten maybe about 8 EKG’s within the lest 2 years? I’ve also gotten an echo done, and I got a heart monitor to track my heart over the course of maybe 2 weeks, back last year. Even though I have been to the emergency room so many times because of panic attacks that I thought were heart attacks, and went with a Cardiologist I still obsess and worry. I always think that I am going to develop some kind of heart problem after getting the tests done. Like if they’re just suddenly going to appear/my heart will suddenly have an issue. I especially get nervous when the pain is in the center of my chest + I get a tight feeling like I have pressure on my chest and can’t breathe completely. Please someone share their experience of how they controlled their health anxiety, especially if it’s related to this.
For the past three years I've smoked marijuana nearly everyday. It helped with my anxiety and quieting my brain and helped me sleep. Recently, it began to make me feel more anxious, i would wake up nauseous and even threw up a couple of times which really triggered some health anxiety. I decided to quit because of this and i'm almost 2 weeks out from the last time I smoked. My body is slowly recovering but my brain just doesn't seem to quit it. I went to my GP a couple of weeks ago for a routine checkup and everything came back normal in my blood work and exam, yet that hasn't stopped me from completely obsessing over my health and feeling like (in my mind, not my body) i'm seriously ill- which is giving me extreme anxiety. Because of my reoccurring stomach issues my GP referred me to a GI who I had an appointment with yesterday. He was very unimpressed by everything I said and seemed like everything is pointing to IBS-which is not serious and something my mother also deals with. He ordered some extra tests to make sure I wasn't dealing with inflammation and he said he was very confident that my internal vital organs were a completely fine. I'm still waiting on those test results and his confidence should I have made me feel better but i'm still freaking out. Everybody in my life is tired of hearing about it and I just don't know what to do anymore. I feel like i'm pushing people away. I feel good and like myself when I'm distracted and doing something fun, but mornings and nights and when i'm doing something mundane it's the worst. I feel like I can feel all of these pains and sensations but I have no idea if it's real. I've even started asking Chatgpt for constant reassurance and constantly googling my symptoms. I'm in a horrible loop. I should mention that on top of quitting weed, I also just graduated college, moved back home and my boyfriend and I started the longest period of long distance we've ever had to do so i'm just not feeling like myself at all. My psychiatrist just put me on Zoloft (my vomiting and intense anxiety coincided with when i began taking Prozac again so she wanted me to try something else) I'm only on day 3 of the meds but nausea and insomnia are the two side effects im dealing with right now which is just making my anxiety so much worse before the meds have even kicked in. Does anyone have advice on how to break this cycle of constant checking-i feel like taking a deep breath has even turned into a compulsion.
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