GAD - Health Anxiety

[meganmary09]

I’m new here - hoping this will help with my GAD since being diagnosed about 6 months ago.
Over this past summer, I ended up developing anxiety so bad and legitimately thought I was dying. It took me months to figure out my triggers and why it was happening but I believe I now know why. 3 years ago my father had a heart attack and we almost lost him. A year later my grandfather, sister in law and aunt all passed within 3 months from Cancer. One year later my Mother In Law passed unexpectedly from a blood clot and a few other underlying health problems.
Now I suffer, what seems like constantly, worrying about my own health - mostly always related to my heart.
Sometimes I think I trick myself into thinking I’m having chest pains, shortness of breath, arm pain, etc. all related to my heart. Sometimes it’s like it’s all day anxiety and my only relief from it is sleeping.

Any ideas how to cope with this?

 

[guitarman65]

Welcome meganmary, ive been a sufferer for almost 40 yrs, and some in here longer than I. I am not too different from you. The loss of your family members had to have been a VERY hard thing to deal with, my condolences. Do u see a dr regularly? Are u currently taking and medication or having any therapy? This anxiety is almost unbearable some days for us. Anything we can find to at least help us deal with it is a bonus. We are here to help if we can, we all usually have been, or are dealing with very similar issues as each other. Sometimes just to hear someone else is dealing with the same things helps, and we can get good ideas on here from people with more experience in coping with it.

 

[dtown710]

Hello! I'm new here too. In my experience it's not uncommon for anxiety to create whatever symptoms I'm currently afraid of. Also the more I fixate on it, the worse the symptoms get. If you are really worried you could schedule a doctors appointment and tell them about your worries. And if the doctor says everything is fine you should trust them. Also maybe eating healthy and exercising if you don't already would give you some assurance that your heart is healthy. I'm sorry to hear about your family members passing. I hope everything gets better for you!!