Health Anxiety Community Share

For this blog post I engaged your help, asking you to share with me some of your biggest health anxiety fears or specific things that health anxiety has made you do that may have left you feeling self-conscious.

If there is just one thing I know, after years of living with severe health anxiety myself, it is that we tend to do and fear things that are completely illogical, yet we can’t help it when acting directly out of fear.

Another thing I have learned too, is that seeing how you are feeling, written down in words by other people, can be truly life-changing when you are in the midst of health anxiety hell, desperate for a lifeline.

We know Google and Reddit are a complete gamble and often leave us worse off than before.

This is why I share the things that I do and what inspired me for this post.

When I was fortunate enough to stumble upon one other person sharing feelings and fears that I thought had to just be my own, well it was immediate, sweet relief that no one can understand unless they suffer with health anxiety themself.

I share tips in other blog posts and on my podcast, but today I wanted it to be about pure comfort and validation so here you are.

If you shared with me, thank you so much and if I haven’t yet responded to your email, please bear with me!

Save this and open it up every time that Googling urge takes over.

I also highly recommend my A to Z Encyclopedia as your new Google, but without the terror that comes with Googling! You will find everything in here!

Unlock a special coupon for my books at the end of this post 🙂

Okay, without further ado, and in no particular order, here are some ways health anxiety affects so many of us.

“Convinced about something wrong my eyes for so long that I couldn’t stop being aware of the bridge of my nose in my vision. Eventually I got given a prescription for glasses, probably in part because it was a sale but also the optometrist probably thought I was a bit crazy (not wrong…) So I ended up wearing these glasses with practically zero strength for months until this fear passed and I’ve never had to wear the glasses since and a several years and eye tests later confirms I never needed them, physically at least.” – Anonymous

“I will waste so much food if I’m convinced it hasn’t been cooked properly or it might be off. There was a news story at Christmas about a very specific type of cheese being recalled due to a couple of ecoli cases. Haven’t eaten any cheese since. And I’m hit or miss on being willing to have sea food despite loving it.” – Anonymous

“Almost bailed on a flight to Prague while queueing to cross the runway to get on the plane due to a long running fear about a stomach or bladder issue. Luckily I didn’t and ended up having one of my best ever trips.” – Anonymous

“My oddest symptoms have been vibrations in my head when i’m trying to sleep, as well as this weird crunching sound/feeling in my head when i try to sleep sometimes as well, by far my worst symptoms because they affect my sleep so much :/” – Jeff

“Here in the South (Mississippi) we just went through an ice storm and been stuck in the house for a week. As the week went on without my routine intact I felt my anxiety growing and health anxiety is so real. You stated in your email that you use to feel your lymph nodes so often that you bruised and irritated your skin, just this week alone I have convinced myself that I was dying because I was constantly rubbing my neck and thinking something was stuck in my throat. Full blown panic ensued! Reading your email helped reassure me that I am dealing with my health anxiety and not needing to plan a funeral. Wow, that sounds so crazy to type! I have lived with anxiety as a companion for so long sometimes I forget how to reel myself in, so thank you for your newsletter and IG! You truly are helping so many overcome and understand living with anxiety!” – Misty

“Definitely not eating foods or being scared to do things like drink a new tea because i’m afraid i suddenly developed an allergy.” – Hannah

“Health anxiety drives me crazy sometimes and of course is also OCD related. Makes me check my sensations every single day, I also developed a chronic pain that drives me crazy, I feel like I will day every single day, especially in the morning. Also I’ve noticed that when I feel happy or I do what I like my pain disappears. A good example is when I was at the club and for 5-6 hours I didn’t noticed any single pain in my body. Now I’m trying to make my brain forget some things and create a new brain. Of course my health anxiety also make me really fearful of the doctors, even if last year I visited 9 of different doctors that assured me that is nothing wrong with the part of I am afraid.” – Irina

“From a (rarely) rainy Southern California. Dang, where do I begin?

-checking my heart over and over using the heart checker app on my Apple Watch
-using a pulse oximeter to see how much oxygen I was getting
-always having water on hand to drink when I start feeling nervous
-checking my smile in the mirror to make sure one side of my face wasn’t drooping
-cleverly learned how to ask other people if they’ve experienced a certain symptom (that I was secretly experiencing in the moment) if they said yes, it would make me feel a little better but if they said no, it would get worse for me
-finding ways to ask multiple doctors the same question bc I feared or doubted one of them gave me correct information or they missed something.
-while in the store, I would touch clothing fabric as I walked by for sensory and to “try” and distract myself from whatever fear I was experiencing in the moment-usually the fear was fainting.

I know I’ve done so many other things over the years and I’m sure I’ll think of more as soon as I hit send. Thanks for including me. I’ve seriously never in my life felt so understood before finding your page. I’ve felt way less alone. Thank you for being brave to share your story. Like you said most of us live in shame from this stuff and it’s humiliating to say out loud to others that are lucky enough to not suffer from it.” – Kayla

“So there are thousands of these in my case, but of course i’ll only tell you one of them.
From minute to minute I check and move my fingers in case “they don’t get stuck and remain like that forever” because for some reason i always feel them “tense”.” – Lavinia

“I’m currently suffering with health anxiety in that I think one side of my rib cage area is larger than my right side. Feels weird under my left arm too so my anxiety is through the roof. I lost mum to gastric cancer 3 years ago and it’s constantly there I could have or get it. I should know Google is not my friend and try to remember that. Every twinge I have or even thinking my breathing isn’t the same as normally. I’m sure my husband thinks I’m mad.” – Christine

“The fear of strokes haunted me during my most anxious moments. I would rush to the mirror or open my phone’s camera to check for any signs of drooping on one side of my face. When I could not visually check, I picked up the habit of running my finger across my lips to ensure they were straight and not drooping. I would read anything in sight to make sure I could still understand it and read things out loud as well to try to hear if I was slurring. Another fear I grappled with was blood clots, leading to a routine check of my legs and arms for any redness or blueish hues. Unfortunately, the constant touching of my skin always just made it red and irritated which created a cycle of anxiety. I also purchased a pulse oximeter and blood pressure monitor that I used daily. While I’ve become less anxious over time, the fear of sudden severe allergic reactions, especially to common allergens like nuts is still a hard one for me. During my darkest moments your content truly made me feel understood, and helped me feel like I wasn’t going insane or loosing my mind. I had no idea anxiety could possibly yield some of the symptoms I was having. The weird dropping/elevator sensation was a big one for me, and it was so uncommonly talked about alongside all my other symptoms that I just thought I must doomed with some random deathly illness. Thank you for being able to be that person for me, and I appreciate your continued effort to help others, raise awareness, and create such a good community.” – Kaley

“Feelings of dizziness like I was living in a completely haze and felt unsteady. I would wake up in the morning, get up to go to the bathroom and be hyper focused on “do I feel dizzy today” and inevitably I always did. Being in a hot shower was the only thing that helped me. After a while I started doing yoga to prove to my brain that I was indeed steady on my feet and strong.

I was terrified of food allergies and for a while I stuck to only a list of a few “safe foods” any time I tried something new I would feel panic until I knew I was safe. I hardly ever ate out because I wasn’t able to see every ingredient in prepared dishes. I often felt like my tongue was swelling even though it wasn’t. It would feel too big for my mouth.

I experienced lightheadedness and head rushes. Tingling in my tongue, tingling in my fingers, tingling in my head.

I would get icy cold sensations all down my back And in my head. I experienced the chills where I would get so cold and shake/tremor as if I had a bad fever. I experienced body aches that no medicine could soothe.

I remember times when I would be hyper focused on my breath and obsessively worry if I was breathing properly and getting enough oxygen. I brought a pulsox with me everywhere and a blood pressure cuff.

In my worst moments of panic, my chest would get very hot and I would feel a rush of adrenaline like a surge of energy though my body and I would be so sure that I was going to lose consciousness. I felt like I was losing control of my body and going to pass out. These were the scariest times.

There were so many diseases that I thought I had but all of my health checks came out great!” – Christina

“At the moment I have this crawling insect sensation in my face, around cheeks and nose. That was my latest symptom. I also have twitching and vibration thing before, they do come back sometimes. When they’re there and longer, that was the time I began to feel anxious. Health anxiety sucks!” – George

“Oh boy, where do I start?! Not sure if this is what you mean, but: The eating thing is a bit of work for me: I’m not anxious so much about suddenly developing an allergy as I am about getting poisoned by something.. I’m always paranoid about meat not being cooked correctly, (Ecoli), or chemicals from cookware leeching into everything, or pesticides not washing off, (and yes, I know a good way to remedy this would be to upgrade to nontoxic cookware or only buying organic, but some things can’t always be helped), and lately I have avoided salt altogether because I do genuinely believe it screws up blood pressure, and now I’m scared of blood sugar spiking too much on top of it, so bye bye carbs. Every time I eat eggs, I can just picture my arteries getting clogged, and every time I get a heart palpitation, I take it as “proof”. Overall – I see all food as an enemy, rather than medicine, and it’s not a happy way to live. I can’t enjoy anything. Deprive myself of a lot of things. And now anxious about becoming undernourished.. It sucks.

Before that, (years ago), I fainted in the shower once when the room got a little too hot/steamy, and for the LONGEST time afterwards, I could not step foot inside the tub again. I would literally stand outside and crane my neck/head into the water just so I could get it wet, then stand or sit outside while shampooing, then craning inside again to rinse. Then one limb at a time for soap. It was the most ridiculous thing, but I genuinely could not take a real shower for so long because I would start to panic and think I was going to faint again.

Whew. I got over the shower thing, but the heat thing still affects me. Especially in Summer. I’m always scared of getting overheated and fainting, so I try to avoid going out at all. Getting into a hot vehicle makes me almost burst into tears.” – GM

“The dizziness and blurred vision makes me super anxious. It’s pretty constant and makes me fear ms. Even with a clear mri. Periods intensify my symptoms. Currently 2 years post covid with pots pretty much homebound.” – Shelby

“I have weird heart health anxiety! So i am constantly checking my pulse. I am 27 and in great health, have no family history of heart issues and I’m terrified I’m having a heart attack all the time from the constant chest pain and tightness. Heart has also been checked a thousand times. It’s the worst.” – Miranda

“Wow I’ve done some what I now see as crazy stuff in the past from measuring my calves a thighs continuously to check for muscle waste !! To getting nights sweats a thinking I had blood cancer or something (after googling night sweats) I even had a blood test but didn’t believe it. So I then donated blood as I thought if I had anything serious it would show up. I can laugh about it all now but at the time it was time consuming and debilitating. I’m not near as bad now but have the occasional wobble suppose it will never fully go.” – Val

“Putting my hand on my chest to feel my heart beat, checking my pulse and blood pressure thinking I’m having a heart attack.

Canceling plans or calling off work in fear I’m gunna fall over and pass out while feeling like I’m on a boat.

Using a cart every store I go to just to feel stable.

Stand in the freezer at work or ice cold shower.

Showering multiple times a day to calm me.” – Jenna

“Anxiety is all new to me. I’ve been fearing illness lately. Everything i feel different about my body i think there is something wrong with me. Sometimes i forget how it is to feel “normal” and try to go on with my day but I’m always focusing on me and what’s wrong.” – Stephanie

“My biggest fear is any type of cancer. Right now I am fixated on skin cancer as I had a little sore bump on my scalp. I went to my dermatologist to have her check it out. She had no concerns at all. Didn’t even feel it needed to be removed. But I have convinced myself that it is cancer. I really hate feeling this way. In a week or so this will pass, but will be replaced by some other health catastrophe. I don’t know if this cycle will ever change.” – Candi

“A couple habits that I formed and still have to work on is I always have to eat a meal or a snack before leaving the house because I have blood sugar fears. And then I carry water around everywhere with me. And one last one is alcohol I find it hard to be in social settings without it because one it helps me be more social and two it stops my brain from focusing on all my health fears out in public. I’m not proud of this one.. but I hope if you see this you’ll share the last one if you can. I feel like more people do this but may feel to embarrassed to share. And I just don’t want any one to feel alone. Thank you for all you do. You’ve made me validated in so aspects of my health anxiety! You’re awesome.” – Kimmie

“Mine is very common…I feel my neck for my pulse sometimes if I feel like my heart is racing. Which it isn’t. My pulse runs around 55/min. But…I have Afib so I worry constantly about my heart.” – Susan

“Anxiety makes me do so many weird things. I catch myself taking pictures of my hands alot because i have perceived weakness and pain which makes me feel like my hand is atrophied. I also look at other peoples hands and the way they walk due to mnd fears. I google constantly even in social situations. I also am constantly checking lymph nodes and my face due to fear of bells palsy. Health anxiety makes me feel like crap everyday.” – Jackie

I am so incredibly sorry that so many of you go through this. While our experiences may be different, the fear is the same and it is all consuming.

If you’d like to read more of my personal health anxiety stories, fears and all the weird things I did, as well as everything that helped me to finally get it under control then check out my latest book, Health Anxiety is Ruining my Life.

Or get my health anxiety bundle that includes the A to Z and this book.

I appreciate your vulnerability in sharing some of your deepest health anxiety fears with me.

Please know that you are not alone, I hope this proves that to you.

Sending you so much love and I am grateful that we are all here together,

Tam x