Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[rebelyell]

I am having my first talking therapy session tonight and am pining all my hopes on it being the answer.   Have had an absolutely dreadful weekend of panic attacks and am allowing health anxiety to completely overtake me.   Would you believe I have now resorted to worrying about the state of my nails - several have long ridges and one now has a bit of a groove along the middle length.  So have googled and am now panicking that it is a sign of some sinister disease, possible respiratory as I felt breathless yesterday.    My logical mind knows it is probably nothing, but I just can't seem to stop myself.

Would visit GP but feel silly, also not sure that it will help as I will then find something else to worry about...

Stern words or somebody with a health anxiety success story please!!

[honeybun]

Oh heck, if we don't have something concrete then we find something else to stress about.

I too have the nail thing.....it's an age thing according to my GP and nothing more. I asked the last time I was there.  .  And she did laugh a bit...

It's so hard not to blow things out of proportion, I do it too,so I sympathise.

Hopefully your appointment tonight will be the first step to taking back control.
Try and keep busy, it's about the only answer for me.

Honeybun
X

[CLKD]

There are health conditions which affect the formation of the nail bed and makes the nail crackles. 

Having someone to listen to your worries should get them out of your head and into the air.  You may need to do homework  1 therapist I had was really strict 

Hopefully she/he will allow you to vent and get it out of your system.  It helped me enormously!

[BrightLight]

Hi RebelYell (that's a good powerful name to start with )

I have been there (even the nail worry) and I am sort of back in the driving seat, so a semi success story.   All of us are different, so the reasons behind the choice to worry about health are all different.  However the basics of how worry is a destructive and pointless habit are the same and the techniques to manage mind over matter are really very effective.

I don't know whether you chose the therapy and therapist to specifically tackle this issue, either way, I have every confidence you will make progress with support.  I had some CBT which really helped but then I started counselling as I knew there were root causes as to why I resort to health worries when under chronic stress.  So basically I have had to unpack things a bit, but that might not be necessary.

Either way, I believe the approach given to me has worked to help reduce the level of worry and manage it better.  I was getting in such a state I could not think straight.  When we are anxious we literally cannot be rational, it's a brain/biological thing - we start using our 'animal' brain.  Underneath all fears is often the fear of death and uncertainty - things out of our control and the starting point to regaining a sense of control is to decide what you can do about your worry and whether you need to worry in the first place.  Often the worry is the thing out of control, not the health issue.  It IS possible to tame worry, contain it and use it positively to solve problems.

I know all that seems obvious but when in an anxious state it isn't easy - the counsellor will help, I am sure.  Slow down your thinking and help you get back in the driving seat.

Things I tend to ask myself now with a health anxiety is 1) is it unusual for me 2)is it ongoing 3)is it serious enough.  Then I can start to slow things down and make rational decisions about what action, if any needs taking.  Basically not to panic and catastophise.

After that comes the worry of investigations, going to the doctor etc............but with a slower mind, the whole process loses a lot of fear.

Wishing you well with your appointment and well done for tackling this head on, it's exhausting and good to get more skilled at taming it

[Kathleen]

Hello rebelyell.

I do sympathise as the anxiety that comes along at this stage in our lives is so difficult to deal with.

I also have nail ridges and even though I keep my nails very short they often split down the ridge and catch on clothes etc.

I think talking to someone is a good idea and will help to relieve the emotional pressure all these irrational worries can cause.

Wishing you well and take care.

K.

[Hurdity]

I like your asking yourself those Qs Brightlight but I find the most difficult thing to work out is "is it serious enough?".  I tend always to answer no and rarely go to the doc and also because of the reception I've had with various things I've plucked up the courage to go about - without feeling silly - and then thinking I've wasted their time because they make me feel as though I shouldn't have gone with vague but bothersome symptoms!

Hurdity x

[BrightLight]

I like your asking yourself those Qs Brightlight but I find the most difficult thing to work out is "is it serious enough?".  I tend always to answer no and rarely go to the doc and also because of the reception I've had with various things I've plucked up the courage to go about - without feeling silly - and then thinking I've wasted their time because they make me feel as though I shouldn't have gone with vague but bothersome symptoms!

Hurdity x

Well, yes, this question is tricky. In the context of panic and high anxiety, it provides a pause.  Catastophic thinking can make you think your bleeding is really severe and asking the question gets you to think again, slow down and assess more effectively.  After that the question does get more difficult, then I use the waiting and time question, is it getting worse, repeating a pattern.  If it is something sudden and alarming, then it's easier.

Generally if all answers are a yes, I go and seek help.

[honeybun]

Was your counselling available on the NHS Brightlight.

I hope you don't mind me asking.

I was referred for CBT but just did not click with the very young man who to my mind had not got a clue when faced with a tearful middle aged woman.
He kept giving me leaflets to fill the gaps when he hadn't a clue what to say. I went three times and gave up.

Honeybun
X

[BrightLight]

Was your counselling available on the NHS Brightlight.

I hope you don't mind me asking.

I was referred for CBT but just did not click with the very young man who to my mind had not got a clue when faced with a tearful middle aged woman.
He kept giving me leaflets to fill the gaps when he hadn't a clue what to say. I went three times and gave up.

Honeybun
X

Hi Honeybun
Yes, the CBT was through the NHS and yes, there was a little bit of a sense of handouts being used to convey things - I think the course was only 6 weeks.  I found a website address on the bottom of my handouts and printed lots of useful information on all sorts of challenging situations.  So very much self help really.

http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/resources/infopax.cfm?Info_ID=53

When I decided I needed further help with things I got back in touch with the NHS wellbeing service and they said I didn't qualify for further NHS help. I am paying for my ongoing counselling privately, although she is an NHS clinician.

[honeybun]

 

I didn't think it would be available on the NHS.


Honeybun
X

[BrightLight]

 

I didn't think it would be available on the NHS.


Honeybun
X

   Nope, only the basic level of help. It's expensive too, but I try and see it as an investment.  Less clothes shopping which isn't a bad thing, because my weight is all over the place (carrying water!!)

[rebelyell]

BrightLight - your response has really helped put things in perspective so thanks.  I am going to a private psychotherapist tonight as I am still waiting for NHS appt and don't have much faith that it will happen soon.  It is wildly expensive at £70 an hour but I will cut down on pretty much any thing to pay. 

Thanks for all the support, will let you know how it goes. Xx

[CLKD]

£70.00 an hour.  I was paying that in the 1990s! and often didn't get the full hour as the Psychologist realised she couldn't help me  - the sessions would start later and she would leave earlier ………