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Health anxiety - TRIGGER WARNING!!!

Autismman

I’m sure this has been spoken about more than once but I’m suffering badly at the moment. My mother died from cancer just over three years ago and it was traumatic to witness. Not just her quick decline but the emotions and feelings that went with finding out the bad news it had returned again. It’s a huge burden to carry around these memories and seeing my sisters heart break beyond repair was just horrific. I am scared I’ll get the same awful disease but more scared of how others will react and cope themselves. I know I’m catastrophic thinking but it’s very easy for me to convince myself of something bad approaching. I’ve got a test tomorrow and I dread tests, as much as I would like to know if something is wrong I’d also like to burry my head in the sand. Last time I had a blood test I was looking at the nurses face looking for some sort of signal or sign that she knew something was wrong. And now I don’t even want to be in the same room when they do the test! It’s extremely anxiety provoking and out of my routine so it’s even more stressful. Any advice on how you may cope with this would be helpful, I also just needed to get my thoughts out, thanks 

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  • Autismman said:
    I am scared I’ll get the same awful disease but more scared of how others will react and cope themselves.

    My way of approaching this would be to treat it as a potential problem and set out to understand it, work to mitigate the chances of it happening, plan what to do in any scenario I can think of and hope for the best.

    By taking the possible precautions, knowing what it could involve and having all the planning in place I would feel I have done everything in my power to be prepared so I can park that fear unti the next time I do a test.

    I have a family history of cancer and get tested annualy for it but keep very fit, don't get too lean (so I have some reserves if I fall ill), have insurance in place that covers the private hospitals that offer the best cancer care, have my will prepared and have worked through about a dozen different scenarios that I can envisage as being possible so I know what I'll do in each.

    I'll revisit this once a year when I do my health checkup and check it is all up to date but other than that I ignore it.

    I find taking that control steals the power cancer has to scare me. I've seen people waste away and die in front of me from it and I know the worst it can do, but I'm doing all I reasonably can do to fight it and am ready if the grim reaper comes calling with advance warning.

    Autismman said:
    now I don’t even want to be in the same room when they do the test!

    By mentally framing this as an active fight against cancer I find it helps me. A combative approach helps overcome the fear as I will refuse to go gently into that good night ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_not_go_gentle_into_that_good_night ).

    Therapy helped me overcome my fear of death too. Seeing it as a natural part of life, like birth, is a powerful thing.

  • in reply to Iain

    Thank you for your time in presenting the best ways you know to deal with such an issue. My anxiety has lessened today and I am slowly feeling better mentally. This whole episode just put me back into another reality for a while. I am able to convince myself to a degree where I literally will start trying to mentally prepare for the worst. 

  • in reply to Autismman
    Autismman said:
    I am able to convince myself to a degree where I literally will start trying to mentally prepare for the worst. 

    I would recommend understanding what the worst would look like, realise there is still some positives you can find in the situation and frame it in the context that everyone dies at some point so you will at least have advance warning so you can prepare.

    Work out what is the most probable situation and prepare for that but understand what the worst case is and give it a little consideration, but don't dwell there. That is a dark place to be and it is best kept away from your daily thoughts.

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  • in reply to Autismman
    Autismman said:
    I am able to convince myself to a degree where I literally will start trying to mentally prepare for the worst. 

    I would recommend understanding what the worst would look like, realise there is still some positives you can find in the situation and frame it in the context that everyone dies at some point so you will at least have advance warning so you can prepare.

    Work out what is the most probable situation and prepare for that but understand what the worst case is and give it a little consideration, but don't dwell there. That is a dark place to be and it is best kept away from your daily thoughts.

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