I think I have hypochondria. How do I deal with it without medication?!
Question: I think I have hypochondria. How do I deal with it without medication?
Every little pain scares me, especially chest pain. When ever I feel chest pain, I have to feel my heart (for about 5 seconds) to see if it's still beating. I can't live like this all the time. When I have kids, i don't want their friends to embarrass them saying they have a crazy mother.
Answers:
I can only relate my personal experience - YMMV. But the number one thing you should do about your chest pain is take soda out of your diet completely.
I'm far older than you - so my advice may not apply - but I noticed decrease in chest pain three or four days after quiting soda and a two months later my chest pains were a memory.
If you were about to have a heart attack you wouldn't be that likely to feel chest main. You'd feel weakness and pain in your arms. Chest pain is more likely to be related to heart burn - which is a buzzword for your stomach giving you pain.
Regarding your hypochondria. Write all your complaints down - recording your symptoms in detail. When you find yourself mulling over and over your symptoms remind yourself that you've already written them down and that you have allocated time to write out new symptoms - and to move on. Make your diary useful - so a physician can make sense out of it - and so you can convince yourself to move on and do other stuff aside from worry. Make a note of what foods you're eating and look for patterns.
Another tip. Instead of thinking to yourself "Oh my chest pain - oh my skin ...." Think of things in the positive such as: I have chest pain but I just went to hours with no pain at all. That is - record the good times as well as bad.