Extreme hypochondria...?!
Question: there are so many times i thought i was dying..so many times i thought i had cancer. the most was for a duration of 6 months where i was convinced i was dying. i find going to the doctors and saying "i think i have cancer" so humiliating. or i'm scared if i tell them my symptoms they'll give that concerned expression.
this started when i was 12. i'm 19 now. will i always be like this? is there anything i can actually do about hypochondria?
Answers: there are so many times i thought i was dying..so many times i thought i had cancer. the most was for a duration of 6 months where i was convinced i was dying. i find going to the doctors and saying "i think i have cancer" so humiliating. or i'm scared if i tell them my symptoms they'll give that concerned expression.
this started when i was 12. i'm 19 now. will i always be like this? is there anything i can actually do about hypochondria?
This sounds like a horrible thing to go through. Plenty of people with diseases like cancer would give anything to have that worry off their backs, and here you are healthy, worrying too.
It's crazy huh?
You might find help from medicine that is meant to help with psychosis (detachment from reality) OR for racing thoughts and anxiety (where your mind wanders almost always to the negative).
This isn't a question for a cancer doctor, since you don't have it. You need a psychiatrist to help you deal with the illusion of having a disease that isn't there.
It could be a trust issue with doctors or others in a similar position of power due to having more information than you. You would need to talk this through with a therapist...did someone really misjudge a situation before in your life, creating a huge mess you had to live through or fix...or did someone you know have cancer and they were misdiagnosed as healthy? If so, then your concerns are valid, even if they are disfunctional in your life.
It could also be a sort of obsessive compulsive thing...where no matter how many checks you do, no matter how many test results you get back, you are convinced that you missed something and that you really are sick...much like another with OCD can wash their hands a hundred times and be convinced that their hands are still dirty. So you might approach it that way. Again, this can be helped with meds, and also special therapy techniques.
You can also work with a counselor to help you figure out why you do this...maybe it is an unmet need for attention (I say that respectfully) where you think that having something dramatically wrong with your life is the only way that people will respond to you or want to help you through things. With help, you can learn to realize that whatever "normal" problems you have, they are reason enough to ask for and get help from others. You don't have to manufacture a drama for people to care about you.
Whatever happens, you will be happier when you are able to walk in the truth, no matter what it is. Sometimes you just have to keep cramming in those positive true thoughts to replace the negative untrue ones...you might consider it a healthy form of brainwashing to reprogram your brain to believe what's really true, and to put more faith in your clean bill of health than to worry about the disease you don't have.
One of the most positive and realistic thoughts you can train yourself to focus on is that most doctors catch most diseases with most tests. So if you are reasonably proactive in taking care of yourself and going to the doctor, you can usually trust a competent doctor to help you.
What is really scary is that eventually if you keep going to doctors convinced you have cancer, is that someday you might actually have cancer, and you won't get taken seriously...or you will get so exhausted of this that you actually abandon your own thought patterns, quit taking care of yourself, and if something does happen to you, you won't know it yourself. The healthy balance is...live right, get your checkups, do your monthly breast self-exams or whatever, and then go on with your life based on what is really going on with your body.
Sounds like Munchausens syndrome. where people fake diseases or medical problems in order to draw attention to themselves. See a therapist.
Have you seen a counselor? Are you sure it's hypochondria?
I felt like a hypochondriac, but it turns out I had undiagnosed apnea. I was sleep deprived to the point that it was affecting my lungs, heart and depression. I had to hyper-focus to cope and thought I had ADD. Turns out it's not in my head, it's in my mouth! I have structural abnormalities that cause my apnea.
A good counselor can help you distinguish between needing to feel sick and just not having found the answers yet.
having this problem is usually indicative of depression, and can be a part of anxiety too. I've been struggling with a similar thing since I was 16, and I've been diagnosed with Panic Disorder and depression. I'm taking an antidepressant and am in group and individual counseling. Do you have a traumatic past at all? It might have something to do with it. Either way, I recommend going to see a psychiatrist and a therapist, both of which can help you tremendously. Just a few months ago I was always freaking out thinking I was having a heart attack, but I'm almost 100 percent over that now, and it's because I worked with both a psychiatrist and therapist. I hope it gets better for you!