Does being sick make your anxiety flare? (not health anxiety)

[Tigerfloat]

I haven't been on here in a while as I've started therapy a few months ago and while things are by no means perfect and I still overthink stuff and question myself costantly, I've reached a point where I can mostly manage daily life. However, I was sick with a stomach bug these past few days and my anxiety spiked, I started overthinking again stuff I had 'archived' and doubled down on current worries.
I'm putting it down to the increased loss of control sickness entails and the inability to think straight due to fever, headhache and nausea.
As things are slowly getting back to normal, I can rationalize things much better now.

Has this ever happened to you?

 

[Cuchculan]

I'm like a big baby when sick. Not a good patient at all. My anxiety would spike. Only with various forms of illnesses. One was always throwing up. Even though I had not done that in over 20 years. This year I was very sick a number of times. Throwing up happened a lot. I handled better than I thought I would. Had no choice really. But I hated every moment of it.

 

[Tigerfloat]

I'm also emetophobic so having a stomach bug was not easy. I deal with other stuff much better, but this really knocked me down.

 

[Georgiia]

Yes! I had a bug and a nasty eater infection over 3 weeks ago and I’m still a mess

 

[E.B]

It causes me health anxiety. I used to think i was alone with dealing with health anxiety during a cold/flu.

 

[bin_tenn]

I'm also emetophobic so having a stomach bug was not easy. I deal with other stuff much better, but this really knocked me down.

Emetophobic here as well. My cousin is, too. A couple people in my household had a stomach bug almost a month ago. I ended up with it as well. However, my fiancee had some medication for the nausea (Zofran) from her doc. Once she felt better and I started feeling sick, I took a few Zofran over the course of about 24hrs and luckily avoided any vomiting. Still had the fever, chills, body aches and feeling like crap for 24hrs though.

 

[Hurt&Hopeful]

Definitely makes my anxiety spike! Especially a stomach bug. Your whole body chemistry is off when you have that, so it's normal. I also can't keep meds down, so that plays a part. It usually gets better for me after a week or so.

So good to hear that you are doing better in general with therapy! Don't let this little bump in the road discourage you - it will get better.

 

[Marnie]

I recently had bronchitis - recovered from that and now have a virus? fever, upset stomach,
general feeling awful. Anyone else here?

 

[Georgiia]

My boyfriend and aunt have similar symptoms. Fever, aching joints, cough, dizzy, sickness & diarrhoea. They’re really poorly!

 

[FinneousRex]

You are preaching to the choir my friend. I ALWAYS am a miserable, paranoidly anxious, panicky mess when I am sick. I do think it has to do with loss of control. Personally, I also deal with feeling “guilty” for being sick and the “what if’s” like “what if I get so sick I have to go the hospital, and I have no insurance, and my family is gonna freak out and think I’m dying, then I’m gonna freak out more, then have to miss work, then lose my job, then go homeless and eat trash” ...... well the last two were a LITTLE dramatic (; but, in short, YES I deal with it, too. NO nothing makes me feel better besides, well, feeling better, BUT my best advice is, I PROMISE you after a week or so of you feeling 100% better (not 80%, 100%) your mind will forget about the anxiety. It’s only cause you’re in the moment that it’s so scary. Stay strong and feel better!!

 

[Glassgirlw]

I absolutely struggle more with anxiety when I’m sick. Right now I have Influenza B. My rational mind knows that it lasts 7-10 days for just the initial flu symptoms. Cough and fatigue can last much longer than that. I’m on day 7, so anxiety brain tells me that the cough I still have isn’t productive enough and is probably now bronchitis, and the sinus pressure is a sinus infection, but I don’t want to go back to doc and risk being exposed to something else while immune system is down. So I just keep telling myself my fever is gone and I just need to keep pumping fluids and rest and I will recover fully. It’s not easy though. Last night I was in a high state of anxiety for about 4 hours and couldn’t fall asleep till after 2 am. Anxiety is awful. I think being sick makes us hyper aware of every little thing we’re feeling.