How many "illnesses" have you self-diagnosed in past several years?

qwerty4 said:

- skin cancer (many, many times)
- heart disease
- ms
- colon cancer
- sinus cancer
- aneurysm
- soft tissue sarcoma (every time I feel a lump somewhere)
- stomach cancer
- bone cancer
- lung cancer
- lymphoma
- brain eating amoebe (I live in the Netherlands, where ZERO people have died of a brain eating amoebe)
- brain tumor

So this list is embarrassingly long! Turns out I didn't have any of them, although my current worry is still stuck at 'brain tumor' (didn't get my dose of doctor's reassurance yet for that one)

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matisworried said:

i'm not kidding. this is exactly what kicked off my "official" battle with health anxiety as well. i remember being worried about death and dying since i was really little... like, single digits... and i even remember being afraid of getting diseases when i was younger (my laughable STD fears prior to even holding a girl's hand) but it wasn't until i saw tom green's cancer special on MTV that i had my first "run to the doctor, don't forget about me after i'm gone" HA event. who woulda thunk some bizarre canadian public access show host would have triggered this in not one but two people....

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matisworried said:

i'm not kidding. this is exactly what kicked off my "official" battle with health anxiety as well. i remember being worried about death and dying since i was really little... like, single digits... and i even remember being afraid of getting diseases when i was younger (my laughable STD fears prior to even holding a girl's hand) but it wasn't until i saw tom green's cancer special on MTV that i had my first "run to the doctor, don't forget about me after i'm gone" HA event. who woulda thunk some bizarre canadian public access show host would have triggered this in not one but two people....

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bin_tenn said:

Well, this should be fun:

* Lung cancer
* Melanoma
* Basal cell carcinoma
* Squamous cell carcinoma
* Leukemia
* Lymphoma (1)
* Soft tissue sarcoma (1)
* Heart attack
* Heart failure
* Atrial fibrillation (2)
* Brain tumor (3)
* Oral cancer
* Sleep apnea
* Testicular cancer (4)

1) I actually have several lipomas in various places. Before I knew about lipomas, I thought they were caused by lymphoma and / or soft tissue sarcoma. I showed them to my doctor at my physical in 2015, and he asked a handful of questions. Based on my answers, he said they're fine, to leave them alone. They're still fine, no issues with them, since they are just benign lipomas.

2) I worried about a-fib for a little while. Then I actually had an episode of a-fib in late 2016. Followup testing with the cardiologist indicated that it was not an issue with my heart, but was caused by a "perfect storm" of other things. I woke up around 1am one morning with terrible reflux, with acid pooled in my throat. Of course that scared me because I was choking on it. The sudden anxiety and the subsequent violent coughing fit just happened to throw my heart rhythm off, and it couldn't correct itself. After about 12 hours in the hospital for monitoring, it corrected itself and I've not had any issues since. And quite frankly, it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. That put a lot of things into perspective.

3) My brain tumor anxiety was the first fear I had that really set off my health anxiety, starting around 2012. I had frequent headaches at the time, and I did a "harmless" Google search. What do you know, brain tumor showed up, and I spiraled - and here I am. LoL! Turns out it was just due to consuming way too much caffeine, hardly drinking water, and not sleeping properly. Changing those things resulted in significantly less headaches, and I haven't worried about brain tumor since then - even when I do get an occasional (tension) headache.

4) This was actually my very first health scare, though I didn't realize it at the time. As they say, hindsight is 20/20! In 2000, when I was 13 years old, I was watching the Tom Green show (do you remember him?! ). He had been diagnosed with testicular cancer, and I recall self-checking many times, convinced that I would have it as well. That didn't last very long, but looking back I believe that was my first real sign of health anxiety.

Those things (aside from number 4) were triggered by "real" symptoms, but the problem was that I didn't understand how my own "symptoms" differed from the diseases I worried about. They were all assumptions due to Google-induced anxiety. Everything else on my list was due strictly to anxiety and how quickly my mind can run away with irrational, worst-case thoughts in an instant.

My only remaining health anxiety is related to heart health, but even that is significantly less frequent than it was in recent years. I do still occasionally wonder if my heart is failing. However, I don't spend much of my time worrying anymore. I'm generally very happy and feel well, only noticing intrusive thoughts from time to time. Funny how anxiety works, huh? It's also interesting to see how common some of our fears are, how many people share the same health worries. And some of them are the opposite, quite rare.

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Tryingtoheal said:

Diabetes. And I really got pre diabetic with all the anxiety
MS.
Uric acid
Pregnancies

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Dch said:

This is my list:

- skin cancer
- lung cancer
- retinal detachment
- glaucoma
- undefined neurological disease (lightheadedness + mild headache, but I could not make a precise "diagnosis" because starting from that time I stopped googling my medical symptoms)
- diabetes
- and the last obsession: some ear symptoms followed by anxiety

Well, I am not proud of this list...

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SB2017 said:

Oral cancer
Tonsil cancer
Lymphoma
Brain cancer
MS
ALS
Stroke
Heart attack
Sepsis
Colon cancer
Intestinal cancer
Stomach cancer
Esophageal cancer
Skin cancer
Leukemia
Breast cancer
Ovarian cancer
Vaginal cancer
Uterine cancer
Cervical cancer
Nasopharyngeal cancer
Tumor in my ear
Salivary gland cancer

I’m sure I’m missing some! My fear is definitely cancer...

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Kingdoey said:

My main thing is cancer. Since my Dad passed from bowel cancer I have regularly convinced myself I have cancer.
Think I have it under control now. Any new symptoms if not resolved in two weeks I go see a doc and take their professional word. Also very rarely google. That in itself is Health Anxiety!

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