How do you tell the difference between real or anxiety-induced symptoms?

[Buzzard78]

Hi there.

I have health anxiety problems since August, when I believed that a constant headache was brain tumour - turned out to be nothing than anxiety and the headaches quickly disappeared when I got myself a private MRI scan.

The problem, now, is that I am hyper aware of my body.

I had a problem with breathing, when I started to think too much about it.

I got myself an exercise bike and somehow managed to pull something in my ribs - I made the mistake of reading that a pain in your side could be lung cancer. I phoned my GP and he diagnosed it as my sudden bout of exercising (though I am still not sure how a bike could cause rib issues).

I now have a problem with a bit of stomach ache - it is not always there but it is noticeable, for someone that never usually gets them.

I am also aware that my stomach is making some really odd noises - I can hear it gurgling away at night and I am burping more, generally.

I had some cake this afternoon and now it has given me indigestion - now feels like the cake is stuck in my oesophagus and when I swallow, I can sort of feeling a clicking.

Of course, my mind is now racing about this being something like oesophagaus, stomach, bowel cancer.

Ultimately, I don't trust myself to know what normal sensations are, now.

It could be cancer, but it would seem a weird co-incidence to get it at the moment - however, I am frightened of ignoring something that could be an issue.

It would be great for any advice on how to start telling the difference between actual and imagined symptoms.

Is it possible that my symptoms are real and that they are caused by anxiety itself?

 

[Cuchculan]

My way to always view something like this, if you had a serious illness the symptoms would always be there and would probably be really bad. With anxiety symptoms they can vanish for days, some times weeks. A real illness wouldn't do that. But with anxiety you will think you might have something a few times. Or the illness might change. But we always get a break from anxiety symptoms. Even if only for a day or two. We still get that break from them. That would not happen with a serious illness.

 

[bin_tenn]

As I always say, believe it or not, the body does indeed know when something is genuinely wrong, and it will send signals that are easily distinguished from the threats incorrectly perceived by anxiety. I know from experience.

Long story short, I have heart health anxiety and I always feel convinced that my heart is going to give out. But the one time I had a legitimate cardiac issue (atrial fibrillation, August 2016) there was no question about it. My first thought was not "should I post about it on the forum?" My first thought was "call 911". I did, and they confirmed afib.

Ever since then, I have realized that the body can and will alert you when something is actually wrong. There's no question about it. And as Cuch said above, anxiety induced symptoms tend to wax and wane, whereas genuine physical ailments are generally more likely to be persistent and even worsening over time.

 

[iwakami]

I also went through all those symptoms. In my case, they were not persistent; they would come and go. Also, the symptoms would change or morph from one self-diagnosis into another. So i build my confidence and recovery on that. It's not possible to be something serious, given those two facts, and also with the medical tests i went through. That's my view on my condition

 

[Gooze17]

I've spent 10s of thousands of dollars seeking out medical diagnoses. Sometimes I would insist the doctors were wrong. Currently in that mode actually. What works for me is reading or some other way to stay busy. Something to distract my mind. And trying (often failing) to stay off symptom checkers