I wanted to share this with someone because I am quite proud of myself.

My mother never vaccinated me when I was younger and by some sheer miracle I didn’t catch any horrible illnesses. I have had a really great immune system for all of my life. I’m moving to university in September and there’s a greater risk of certain nasty illnesses, so I made the decision to book in all of my vaccinations with the GP to prepare for moving to university.

I am not a fan of needles and anything medical related at all, so this is really big for me.

Today I had my first set of vaccinations and it was really terrifying, but the nurse was really nice and she explained everything to me and didn’t make me feel embarrassed for crying a little. The first one was so terrifying but it was over really quickly and I was just quite shocked at how brief it was. The other two were in my opposite arm and although it was scary, I am proud of myself for getting through it!

I think the anticipation really terrified me, but I am glad to be taking steps to stay healthy. I was so nervous about having a reaction or bad symptoms but all that happened is I felt tired so I had a sandwich and a nap when I got home.

I’m really quite proud of myself for this one, and I have another vaccination next week which I think might not be as terrifying as this one. I hope not anyway.

What are your experiences with overcoming fear?

I'm in a loop where Everytime my wife gets a head-ach I automatically start thinking bacterial meng. I know logic doesn't work with ha, but is there anything besides the obvious I can do to help myself?

I have had general anxiety for most of my life, but not health anxiety. It was triggered for me after a fainting episode sent me to the ER. I now have developed extreme anxiety of it happening again, especially in public. I exercise and wear a smartwatch 24/7. Since this occurred, I find myself constantly looking at the data and obsessing over it. Good readings reassure me but bad ones make me spiral. Is it better to not use these tracker things?

This weekend I flew from the Canadian west coast back to England and let me tell you, jet lag triggered one of my worst episodes of HA. On top of that I also got my period (the beauty of being a woman) at the same time and a simple feeling tired, confused and fatigued ended up in me booking a a private blo0d test spending 200£ just to make sure nothing is going on.

I'm trying to stop feeling shameful and stupid for doing so because I know once the results are back, it will help massively.
especially for women, every time I get close to my period it's like the HA cycle starts again and I forget about what I thought last month when everything turned out to only be hormones.

How do you deal with wanting medical reassurance and, if you ever did this, booking last minute exams to easy the anxiety? Also how do you not get affected by what people around you might be feeling?

I’ve been suffering from health anxiety for about a year, but it’s honestly ramped up these past three months. Every single day I am convinced that something is wrong with me and I’m going to die. What scares me the most is my mortality, and I’m so aware of every little sensation in my body. It’s gotten so bad that even when I’m out with friends or I’m invited out to do something fun, all I can think about is my health, my heart, my brain, the asymmetry in my body. I haven’t really ever spoken to anybody about how much it is affecting me. I’m so afraid to not be taken seriously my doctors but I’m also afraid to find out that something is actually wrong with me. I know many of you feel the same way as well and that brings a little comfort. I just don’t wanna feel like this for the rest of my life, I’m only 16 and this is already burdening me so much. Every night is filled with anxiety and every morning as well.

How is it that you guys cope? Is it worth it to see a professional? (That may sound stupid.) I usually calm down after crying and realizing I sound crazy ti the average person.

For some context, I had an extremely traumatic medical experience in 2023. It was something that I thought was nothing and turned out to be…oh god I can’t even go into it but it was so awful.

Ever since then, I’ve been having PTSD/Anxiety episodes. When I don’t have health anxiety, life is amazing. I am so full of joy and energy and love. I am passionate about my life and life in general. Like a sense of fundamental wellbeing and connectedness.

However, when I have something minor health wise going on with me, and despite all logical arguments/evidence/opinions to the contrary etc. - once the mind ‘decides’ “oh this could be that” it’s all over. It’s like I’m right back in that hospital. This feeling of….dread washes over me and completely steals all my joy and passion for life. I just stop caring. It’s like I want to curl up in a ball and hide and just cry and cry. It’s more than just anxiety, it’s like my fundamental life force/energy is occluded. It’s such mental exhaustion that my brain turns to mush, can’t remember a damn thing. Almost like I’m in a daze. The PTSD is just insane.

And then when the health thing is over - it’s over. It’s like I snap back to reality and go on with my life.

What are other people’s experience with medical trauma, PTSD, and having it manifest as health anxiety? Is this feeling familiar to anyone? How do you cope?

I fucking hate how health anxiety gives you actual symptoms it’s so hard to differentiate. A huge issue for me is all the bowel issues I get brain and gut are so connected and I feel like i haven’t had peace from fucked up bowels for the past 9 months which then of course gives me horrible anxiety and it’s a nightmarish cycle. It’s so frustrating how much ha can make you feel like your crazy

I’ve been struggling with anxiety and panic attacks and it’s become worse after I got pregnant through IVF. It’s mainly health anxiety now. I’m 15 weeks now and going through a lot of health anxiety, fear of dying and panic attacks. I’m seeing a therapist but currently most of my thoughts are that I cannot get through this without medications or I’m not strong enough to get through this. Need insight on what psychology tools/ activity/ exercise helped you get through this loop, break the cycle and get better? I’m willing to try anything

Every time im having a bad anxiety day I used to reasurrace seek to my partner, but its been stressing her out so bad. Not to mention the anxiety has also made me more irritable. So now when I feel myself starting to spiral because the unexplained symptoms start, I make her leave my presence. Im hardly around her anymore. I dont socialize anymore because im so in my head over the thoughts of the disease I think I have that I am not even here anymore. I feel like everyone I love cant stand me. I have been trying different SSRIs. I was sure that fluvoxamine was the one that would work, but the medicine hasnt done anything to lower my anxiety or stop the symptoms or make the "I'm dying" thoughts feel less scary. Im at a loss.

I have developed severe health anxiety over the last year of my life and it has reached a point where it is so debilitating I feel like I need to be hospitalised or something to this effect. The last month I have convinced myself of multiple deadly illnesses (you know the one), I feel like im being tortured by compulsions to poke and prod myself all over every single day. I am coming down from a panic attack triggered by what is likely to be muscle tissue above my breast but my brain has convinced is something else. This disease has ruined my relationship with my family, my friends, my doctors, and most importantly myself!!! I feel like I can no longer trust my brain, I can't be alone, I struggle to eat and to sleep and to get through each day. My mother has begged me to go to the doctors (I have multiple times for anxiety I have tried SSRIs and attended counselling) instead of going to work where I even implicate my coworkers into my latest worry. I know I am not alone, but I feel incredibly alone in this everyday. My mother told me she feels like I enjoy being this way- I most certainly don't, I feel like I am living in absolute terror. The irony is that if I -god forbid- was to be diagnosed with something, I would be less terrified than I am now which makes me feel terrible. I know people around me that are ill that are so incredibly strong and live their lives and plan for their futures and here I am- young and healthy. I feel such a strong self-loathing and so embarrassed to go to the doctors tomorrow, and yet still terrified they will find something wrong!!

Repetitive intrusive thoughts, rumination, and behavioral compulsions (like searching symptoms online) are all OCD traits.

If this is a form of OCD, then "exposure therapy" is the gold standard treatment. But how would that work exactly?

came in here looking to find solace from my fear of N. Fowleri, just to find out it’s not only me and is actually super common to be s-cared of in this subreddit!! but over the last 3 days of dwelling on my fear, i think this might help some people.

you were more likely to choke on your breakfast this morning and pass on than you would be to contract this.
it is statistically more likely to pass on from your roof caving in on you
you’re statistically more likely to pass on from unexplained death, nothing being wrong with you at all, just passing.
you’re more likely to contract an infection from the makeup you wear everyday and then dying from that infection than you are to get this
you’re more likely to slip and fall in the shower and die than get this
you’re more likely to have your necklace choke you and kill you in your sleep than contract this.
you were more likely to die ON THE DRIVE TO whatever lake/river you swam in.

now, all of these seem ridiculous right?.. well they’re more likely to occur than you ever having brain eating amoeba.

if the “it moving up north” also got you, this is what i found:

even though heat is causing N. Fowleri to be found in northern states, as far as Minnesota,
this means… basically nothing.
just means it’s been found in waters.
once you swim in contaminated waters, even getting it up your nose multiple times, the chances of you contracting it are still nearly 0, as it’s extremely unlikely for it to do all of the things it needs to do to get up there and do what it does best. just getting it up your nose still doesn’t equal death.
also, if you’re in new jersey like me, it’s never even been found in the water here. None of them get hot enough or stay hot enough for long enough for them to exist.
also, if you’re close by to NY or NJ. think of all the people that go diving and swimming in the hudson and are fine. (if you’re not nearby.. the hudson is notoriously known for being the GROSSEST. river oat by locals.)

keep swimming, be careful so you don’t get a weeks worth of debilitating anxiety, but keep swimming, because you’re more likely to trip on the sidewalk, fall, and die, than you are to have a brain eating amoeba.

Curious your starting age and current age?

O cd started around elementary school, a couple incidents started my ha journey around 14... currently mid 40s

but what if im right? or is the idea that i should accept suffering and death as natural processes?

I’ve posted in here once or twice and usually browse to feel extremely normalized by you all. It’s been helpful to not feel so alone. I have medical trauma from watching someone I love pass away that has made my HA exponentially worse and I feel like I can’t catch a break. I’ve barely dealt with my trauma, and now am being forced to face/wait for results from blood tests and imaging for my own health stuff, and blood tests and answers for my toddler. It’s so much and I just don’t know how much more I can take. I already lost the most important person in the world to me and now brain has me convinced that I’m next or my toddler is. And the thing is that this is all real stuff that the drs are wanting to evaluate so im just beyond tired emotionally. I feel spent, on edge, unable to relax, on pins and needles constantly, jumping out of my skin whenever the phone rings…i feel like im constantly “waiting” for my world to be flipped upside down again. I’m in EMDR and medicated but idk how im supposed to heal when im facing real life things that trigger me beyond belief. Bloodwork, imaging, and hospitals are my biggest triggers. Can anyone relate to this at all? I can’t differentiate between reality and what “feels” like a gut feeling anymore. Im just constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop and im so exhausted.

I post this in some hopes that maybe I'm not fully alone on this. Apologies if it's talked about enough already, but I am relatively new to this type of anxiety in life and could really use some additional perspective.

I've dealt with a few different sensations the past year or so that I was able to quiet and move on from. I've had one that I've been stuck on for about a year now, and tonight I lost the mental battle worse than I ever have.

I am now stuck in a loop of fixating on one spot that I feel there is a real sensation going on. I poke and prod myself a lot during the day, and even got to the point I took it to the doctor. Tests came back clear, but six months later and I'm back where I started. It's like my brain creates a diagnosis for a worst case scenario immediately, and it sends me into this spiral of what-ifs and legitimately begins to mourn myself. It's like I can accept and recognize that I am over estimating my odds of something at my age (30M), but my brain can never push out the possibility.

It’s not the kind of thing that I’m able to hide either but the last thing I want is to be stuck in the waiting room too close to our dinner reservations.

Ive found personally that waiting until a "sympto-m" goes away is at the top of the issues with h.a. Are we in agreement?

i have severe health anxiety regarding long covid and me/cfs. my partner may or may not be sick - he has chronic sinus issues, so that doesnt help. we are also in the awful aqi area of the us. we are supposed to go out tonight with his family, but i'm nervous to go out. i spent the night at his place yesterday and we had a great time. it's exhausting and frustrating having to navigate literally just being happy and connected with health anxiety. do you guys have any recommendations? how do you stay connected if someone may or may not be sick?

What is the most ridiculous w0rry you have?

For me every time a loved one has a head -ac he or neck p ain I think mening- itis

I am super fearful of going to the doctor now because of health anxiety. I’m anxious of all the “what ifs”. It consumes me all the time. I feel like I’m actually going insane, and I wish that I could be normal and not worry about these things.

Is there any way of overcoming this fear? I’m mostly anxious about the dentist, because of a few unpleasant experiences where I convinced myself that there was something wrong but there wasn’t. I’m also 19 so I know that’s unlikely, but I can’t logically convince myself for some reason.

Any tips would be very greatly appreciated 🫶

So I’ve been having this one issue for about a month now and my first inclination is to go to the worst case scenario so I’ve avoided it for about a month. I’m now at the point where I have to make an appointment with the doctor because I can’t avoid it, but I don’t know how to not spiral or let my thoughts go out of control because I need some semblance of normal. Usually, I use Google, but I don’t know how to fight the urge to not do that because I know it’s not good for me, but I hate sitting in the unknown. Any suggestions on how to resist the urge?