Have any of you dealt with health anxiety before? im guessing some have, seeing as this is a health board lol..

I think ive always had a worrying side of me, but just the past 2 years it really got out of control.. I developed panic disorder for a while and was a total nervous wreck for many months.. but with some therapy and lifestyle changes ive pulled myself out of that whole and now almost never have a panic attack and if I do i know how to deal with it..

BUT, I have developed some bad health / sexual anxiety.. because I had some prostatities/erection problems for a while and its made me so inwardly focused, its like my brain is constantly scanning my body for problems and especially sexual problems..

Its frustrating because even though I know my fears are irrational, they seem to have some power over me.. its like they are repetitive and I find myself battling with them trying to reason my way out of them which doesnt seem to work very well..

I think the problem is I have way too much free time on my hands and ive just got in the habit of looking for problems..

Im thinking of doing some charity work a few days a week to get my mind focused OUTWARD.. on other people instead of myself, and just trying to stay busy in general...

Any suggestions?

Stop worrying. Your fears only have as much power as you give them. You're on the right track - occupy yourself.....hobbies, charity work, whatever grabs you...

Reiki would help as would any of the relaxing therapies which appeal.

You may be right, in that you have too much time on your hands. It is one reason I have more than one job, and have for virtually all of my life.

Anxiety can also be a symptom of inflammation, and/or lack of omega three fatty acids. If you already have that covered then try to focus on something else, as you already mentioned.

It is a fine line between obsessing about a health problem and constructive research. I have to walk that line also, and am not always sure where I am at.

I suppose if we are at a point where we are not really living our life any more, we need to pull back some.

Dan

They say that the two things which take away from enjoying our precious lives is worrying about things that MAY happen in the future, and often never do. Also, living in the past, feeling repeated resentments, etc. about things that are history, and can't be changed.

__________________
"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~Immanual Kant~

NatMedTalk and Beyond

That's a great idea!!
Okay, so my suggestions taken from https://www.volunteerlosangeles.com/


BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER LOS ANGELES AND THE INLAND EMPIRE,
800 S. Figueroa St. Suite 620, Los Angeles 90017
Tel: 213-481-3611
https://www.bigbrothersbigsisterslaie.org
　
Serves boys and girls 7 to 14 years of age in the greater L.A. area. Provides these children with a positive role model who is referred to as a Big Brother or Big Sister. Bigs and Littles share one-to-one friendships, meeting twice a month for approx. 4-5 hours a meeting. Fly a kite, wash your car, go to a ballgame, visit the museum or just hang out and talk. You can introduce a child to a whole new universe and all you have to do is have fun! Bigs must be 18 years or older and have a reliable form of transportation.

OR

BRAILLE INSTITUTE
741 North Vermont Ave., Los Angeles CA 20029
Tel: 323-663-1111
https://www.brailleinstitute.org
　
Mission is to help visually impaired and blind people become as independent as possible. Volunteers serve as teachers and discussion group leaders, classroom assistants in creative arts, readers, recorders and clerical work. Volunteers are asked to commit to two hours per week between Monday-Friday, 8:30-5. Free secure parking is provided.

__________________

The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease
~Voltaire~

Looks like some good charities.. I did something the other day, helping to feed homeless people and give out presents to there kids

Was feeling really good eralier this week but some more health conerns came back.. For some reason my hyper awareness of body came back and I started focusing on swallowing? and like swallowing every 10 seconds, just like OCD crazyness.

Then just this morning, I do martial arts, and this guy did a take down really slowly but put some pressure on my bladder area, and my brain started thinking that it caused some damage to my bladder or nerves down there.. so annoying..

I just want to stop worrying.. most of my health anxiety these days revolves around thinking ive injrued my body from simple things, I dont think I have a serious illness or anything. Its like I feel my body is so vulnerable and weak and just getting hit somewhere or even pressing something I start thinking that serious damage has been done. I especially worry about injuring/compressing nerves? I think I learned way too much about nerves etc, from my prostate/pelvic floor problems, and now I think everytime I get hit somehwere, especially anywhere near my pelvic I think ive compressed or crushed a nerve and its gonna damage my sexual/urinary functioning..

totally crazy .. it sucks though, because I know its not rational, yet it still haunts my mind and really has a big effect on my life and relationships.. most of my family/friends now think of me as a total hypochondriac.. and I think it may have led to my long time girlfriend breaking up with me recently

Moxsum, it's very good that you've spent some time helping others, always feels good along with occupying time.

I personally don't think it's that weird or freaky to be concerned about injuries, especially in the martial arts...no kid's play there. I give you credit for caring for your body, and thinking about possible injury, your body and mind depend on ONLY YOU for that! Better than those who say they're gonna win, and push as hard as possible, regardless of harm to themselves.

Sorry to hear about the break-up, but don't lay all the responsibility on yourself, okay?

Moxsum, here is something you might try for your problem. I heard that this idea I believe came from the French but I saw it also in a book of wise sayings and it might have also been expressed by Andrew Salter in a book about psychology back in the sixties. The bottom line is: If one has a bad habit, to get rid of it they should practice doing that habit when it is inconvenient or when they don't want to. Hope it helps.

hmm.. good work bigal! But honestly, hypochondira is always inconvenient lol!

Yea for a while I had the typical concerns that something was wrong with my body etc. or that I had an illness or something..

Thats all gone now I really dont believe theres anything wrong with me.. im quite healthy...

BUT, I think all the anxiety problems/prostate issues I had earlier this year sort of shocked me.. I never had any problems in my whole life, and then suddenly had a real health issue I had to tackle with.. I think it hurt my young mans sense of invincibility and ive gone too far the other way.. Now I think my body is like super fragile or something, and just getting hit somewhere or pressed is gonne cause permanent damage.. it also doesnt help that I learned a huge amount about anatomy / different orgrans, nerves, muscles etc. Now anytime I get hit anywhere on my body I know exactly whats there and what "could" have been injured..

Like this morning.. I was kneeling down to get a book and i sliiped a bit and hit the side of my jaw on the table, not even very hard.. but then I remembered thats where your salivary glans are, and what if it became injured? and how important salivation is for your digestion/health.. etc.. just goin down the rabbit hole..

Im slowly trying to get over it though. One thing thats helps is trying to avoid looking anything up on google. Like if I have a fear, just deal with it and move on, but if I decide to look up on google like "salivary gland injury" etc. then start reading about it, it almost always makes it worse.. I think the health anxiety is just a habit.. just gotta slowly break it!

I have an anxiety issues where I keep scratching my scalp which causes scalp problems. >.< It does help to keep busy. Thankfully, college keeps me busy. I'm also really obsessed with my skin ever since the severe acne I had a year or so ago. I get anxious if I break out because I think that my face is going to get really bad again. Try to drink some calming tea and maybe take a yoga class or something. Definitely take walks and keep trying to find productive things to do. If you have a lot of free time then take up a hobby. You could learn an instrument or read a novel or something. There are so many things you can do to calm your brain. Getting adequate sleep is essential for a person who has anxiety problems of any kind. Make sure you go to sleep early though. It DOES make a difference how early you get to sleep. You could sleep 8 hours and not feel that great because you went to bed really late. I feel that my anxiety diminishes greatly if I sleep by 10 pm or 11 at the latest. I had been going to bed at 2 am and my anxiety was really bad, and I just kept scratching my scalp for no reason at all.

Hey flower,

Your experience sounds very similar to mine.. only we obsess about different things.. but both health related, recurring anxiety.. and I know how you feel when you had a problem once, and you fear it coming back full force.. that seems to be what drives my/our anxiety.

Ive definitely noticed the sleeping thing too, was actually thinking about it earlier today.. When I havent slept well or didnt get enough sleep my ability to handle stress is dramatically lowered.. its very noticeable.. and when I have slept really well, feel good little things dont bother me as much.. its interesting.. I tend to stay up kind of late myself but ive been working on getting to bed earlier.. its tough though after years of staying up late.. Ideally I would sleep from 10-6:30 everyday.. where as now its kind of random but 12-1-2ish depending..

If most of your time spent worrying/obcessing tends to be in the evening, you might try reading a good mystery
or some other subject [besides health] you find interesting.
Personally, I like a great "Who Done It" to keep my mind off worrying things.

__________________
May you always have..Love to Share, Health to Spare, and Friends that Care!

We have been so brainwashed by the medical community to believe that anxiety disorder is all in our heads, psychological, but it just is not true. It is promoted that way to sell us antidepressants and other meds. As time has gone by we have recognized that these disorders are a real imbalance.. and hence a real disease, not just all in our heads. There is a imbalance in the sytem.

Like any other symptom anxiety is generally an imbalance in a biochemical function. It can be brought on by increasing toxicity levels, heavy metal poisoning, drug use, malnutrition, shock and stress, either from a psychological or physical origin.

This is not to say that all anxiety is caused by the above. There can be purely psycological components also as a cause but if you work to rectify such cause and a change does not come about you better start looking in other areas. Generally the cause is shock or stress from situational

There is a biochemical imbalance associated with all anxiety or mental disorder. Drugs mask the symptoms and do not correct the situation. Even in situational depression or anxiety (grief, anger, loss of job, fear) creates a biochemical imbalance, but it is the chemical imbalance that causes the symptom, it is the emotion. If behavior modification does not work another treatment protocol needs to be found.

Classical homoepathy can be very good for restoring balance to the system and when you are done you are cured of the symptoms and no supplements are needed.

You could choose to go the supplement route and take things like bacoba, L-theainine, valerian, B vitamins, hops, 5-htp, sam-e, there are quite a few products out there. They may or may not work to effect a cure but they may alleviate symptoms. . Sometimes adding a supplement into a deficinet metabolic pathway can lead to a rebalancing and a cure... but most often the supplement is not exactly what you need and the effects are only palliative, in other words, if you stop taking it the symptom comes back.

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"The nurse should be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full of faith, - receptive to Truth and Love" Mary Baker Eddy
Visit www.HealthSalon.org

Hey arrow.. I tend to agree with you.. esp. more lately. Often times its not just simply things in your life that are concerning you, we all have those.. theres more to it.

Once again though, this is where lifestyle is the key. Eating the wrong foods can cause anxiety.. etc.

I follow the Ayurvedic perspective.. basically if your anxious you need nourishing warm foods.. like warm soups, sweet foods (not candy), etc.. the last thing you need is cold/airy foods like salads, etc. or foods that cause gas, too many beans etc.

I have a close psychologist friend. He's not an MD, so he does not dole out drugs. He mostly works with children, but also helps people with relationship problems and drug abuse (alcohol and recreational).

His top most recommendation is nearly always vitamin B complex for anxiety. Also extra niacin (adults only), which is a statin replacement, but also helps anxiety. Magnesium is one of his recommendations as well. Other than that, he doesn't recommend any other supplement, as he is not well versed in such things.

So, is it possible that something you are taking may be depleting your B vitamins? Smoking, alcohol, lack of intestinal flora, stress (of course), processed food (lack nutrients)? B vitamins work as a complex. That's why it is important to take them as a complex. Bee pollen is an excellent source the B vitamins.

You may also be deficient in magnesium, or you may not be taking a well absorbed magnesium. You should consider magnesium malate or magnesium citrate. Caffeine is something to look out for too. Things that weaken the adrenals should be avoided.

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- Jim
https://www.natmedtalk.com/blog.php?u=529