Constantly in Fear (Help!)

[Aria2019]

Hello,

I have been having a very bad episode with my health anxiety for the past months now and nothing I do is helpful. I am deadly afraid of getting an STD, I have got a screening and they all came back negative and that gave peace of mind for a couple of days. And then the doubt set in again. I am afraid that there is something that the doctors miss something. I am in constant fear and I do not know what to do anymore, I have been to the hospital and call my GP more times than I will like to count. Therapy does not seem to help either. I have had health anxiety attacks almost all of my life, but nothing as bad as this one. I am so afraid that I will never recover from my health anxiety and that it will ruin my life.

 

[triceps]

Hi and welcome Aria. I'm assuming you've gone through similar bouts over different disease fears that you've been able to process with time until the next fear crops up. With STD's the testing is very accurate as far as their presence or lack of. It's more clear cut than many of the other diseases you've probably been tested for in the past. So please, these are test results you can believe in if you can.

 

[Aria2019]

Hi and welcome Aria. I'm assuming you've gone through similar bouts over different disease fears that you've been able to process with time until the next fear crops up. With STD's the testing is very accurate as far as their presence or lack of. It's more clear cut than many of the other diseases you've probably been tested for in the past. So please, these are test results you can believe in if you can.

Hi, thank you for getting back to me. There is always some illness that I focus on, always something new and this time around STD is my obsessions. I just have a hard time believing anything my GP says to me because I am constantly thinking that they might have missed something. I just need to get it into my head that I am fine.

 

[qtsam11]

Have you tried meds?

 

[Aria2019]

Have you tried meds?

I have not, but I have been considering it a lot lately. The problem is I am afraid that the side effects, might make things worse.

 

[RobbyH]

I went nearly 40 years with health anxiety without doing anything about it - finally broke down and got meds. Has made a world of difference.

 

[soliloquy]

I went nearly 40 years with health anxiety without doing anything about it - finally broke down and got meds. Has made a world of difference.

Not that I'm using you as my pharmacist, I promise, but I didn't know there were meds specifically meant to treat Health Anxiety. What were you given? Or do you just mean the regular antianxiety meds were helpful in dealing with your Health Anxiety?

 

[RobbyH]

I started on Lexapro and am slowly transitioning to Prozac due to some side effecs that I didn't like. They are not for jsut health anxiety but anxiety in general

 

[triceps]

Not that I'm using you as my pharmacist, I promise, but I didn't know there were meds specifically meant to treat Health Anxiety. What were you given? Or do you just mean the regular antianxiety meds were helpful in dealing with your Health Anxiety?

Hi soliloguy. Anxiety disorders create unusually high anxiety that effect people in different ways. I have GAD and am on lexapro and klonopin. My anxiety makes me afraid of just about anything, not specifically health related. People with OCD deal with their anxiety by needing rituals to feel more comfortable. Hoarders feel more comfortable by not throwing anything out. Health anxiety drives folks to need to believe that they have a serious physical or mental disease. But the root of all of the anxiety disorders is obviously anxiety and successful treatment of the anxiety improves the symptoms of all of them. Any specialized therapy and/or anti-anxiety medication should help folks with any of the disorders.