[DISCORD] CLICK HERE To find a support system in our growing health anxiety community.

Welcome to r/HealthAnxiety. Check out our community user flairs, and attach one to your username!

Use this megathread for vents, rants, worries, fixations, DAEs, finding support/advice, finding reassurance, symptom focused content, or the like. If you are mainly focused on your physical symptoms, this would be the thread to use. You may also be redirected here if you choose not to follow rule #3 regarding post titles, if it is categorized as one of the post types above, or if the content is too detailed. Remember this is not a place to give or ask for medical/pharmaceutical/veterinary advice, or promote/sell alternative medicines/therapies/products/subscriptions. Please focus on "Health Anxiety" which is defined here. Please avoid displacing others who are looking for support regarding their health anxiety by using other appropriate subreddits for things that are non-HA related ( r/Anxiety, r/depression, r/AskDocs, r/socialanxiety, r/mentalhealth ). Take the time to comment on each other's entries to show some support while we traverse through HA together.

Only post a standalone thread if it mainly includes the mental aspect of Health Anxiety. Everything else goes in this thread. This megathread is used to prevent any unnecessary distress on somebody who is not mentally prepared to engage with the above content (Imagine scrolling down on your main general feed to relax, but bump into something distressing instead). HA is very unique in which it is very easy for someone to read something/experiences and then come out thinking you may have something after reading it. This is why we take these precautions and use a megathread as navigating through social media is one of the many challenges that our community members face on a daily basis. We are here to accommodate everyone at various stages of their HA. To address visibility concerns the thread is sorted by "New", so that it acts as its own reddit feed. An example of a post would be redirected here:

• "Does anyone else feel like this?" + "Insert Symptoms" -> Use this megathread

Although not required we do encourage the use of: 1) A trigger warning header (TW) which gives warning to redditors of what the comment will be discussing about, and/or 2) Spoiler text which blocks out any details that redditors may accidentally read >!and find distressing.!< You can apply this via two methods:

• a) Desktop: highlight the word/sentence/paragraph and click on the "Diamond exclamation point" icon to apply spoiler text
• b) Mobile: Surround your text with the following symbols like so:

​

>!spoiler text goes here!<

𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬:

• CALM APP offers meditations, and other guided mental health activities.
• STOP GOOGLING SYMPTOMS with the FOREST APP
• Medito App offers mindful guided meditations: Also has breathing exercises, walking meditations, mantra meditations and sessions to help you deal with stress, anxiety, pain and low-mood (100% free, no ads, no sign-up required)
• Check out ASMR. Here's an intro video that explains ASMR for anyone unfamiliar, by Gibi ASMR. If you like it, there's tons more!
• Breathwrk Breathing Exercises app on the App Store
• Sanvello app for anxiety & depression on the App Store
• Anxiety and Depression Association of America is a great resource.
• Freedom From Fear's mission is to positively impact the lives of all those affected by anxiety, depression, and related disorders through advocacy, education, research, and community support. 
• r/HealthAnxiety's "Daily Mental Health Activity" calendar located on the sidebar (for desktop) or in the about section under the rules (for mobile).
• r/HealthAnxiety's Rabbit Holes: 1) Advice and Empowerment 2) Memes & 3) Resources
• Our Wiki has more resources here.

^(UPDATE: The thread is now monthly to accommodate redditors who would post 1-2 hours before the thread would refresh (and basically not get any engagement). Now instead of that happening 4 times a month it will only happen once a month. The thread refreshes on 1st day of each month. To avoid the spam rule, please post as usual as if it was a daily thread.)

The megathread for vents, rants, worries, fixations, DAEs, finding support/advice, finding reassurance, symptom focused content, or the like is located here : http://reddit.com/r/healthanxiety/about/sticky Thank you for using the above thread for the above content as some users may experience distress if they were to unexpectedly read content that they were not mentally prepared to engage with or are just trying to take a breather from.

The average person has 50,000 thoughts per day according to the Cleveland Clinic. Of those thoughts: 95 percent repeat each day and on average, 80 percent of repeated thoughts are negative.

This means that on average, only 20% of our thoughts are positive per day and they are competing for our attention with the other 80%. This 80% has megaphones but you know what, we are not helpless.

• We can help the 20% of our positive thoughts shine brighter and dominate these negative thoughts. This is where "marinating in the positive" and contributing to the daily positivity thread in any way you can comes into play. Attitude is a choice.

Let's fill this thread with some positivity from our daily lives and remind ourselves that positive things are happening while we battle the negative thoughts of health anxiety. Some examples of things you can post include:

• Examples of positive self talk that you use for yourself (which will give others ideas that they can use for themselves regarding positive self talk).
• Ordinary things you are grateful for (ex: your car started today or there is water to drink).
• Small goals & victories you have accomplished.
• Something you witnessed that made you smile, or something you did to make someone else smile.
• Blessings, gratitude, and other positive observations in your life.
• Accomplishments of self-care.
• Something you created today (crafts, art, a meal...).
• Find accountability buddies and report your self progress for some type of challenge.
• Declaration of choosing a predominantly positive attitude in regards to HA or other aspects of life.
• Examples of mental imagery you use for yourself to prepare for situations and/or recover from errors.
• Declaration of acknowledgement and/or acceptance of certain things in your life (ex: emotions, health anxiety, etc).
• Declaration of using a negative experience as a stepping stone in life to improve and get closer to your goals rather than let it interfere with your progress.
• Declaration of living life in the "here and now", without regard to either the past or anticipated future events.
• Declaration of ditching perfectionism and choosing to strive for excellence instead for something in your life (ex: "being perfect" vs "being good enough").

REGARDING "journey updates" standalone post: Some of you may have been redirected here if you are providing an update on your progress via a standalone post. If you would like your standalone post to be approved, please resubmit the "update post" with advice in the text body (such as detailing how you got there, or what motivated you to get to where you are now, etc). This is so redditors can gain something from your post without feeling bad that they are not where you are currently at on their own journey. The reason we do this is that Reddit is another form of social media where many can fall victim to the social comparison trap. We do not want people to feel inadequate by comparing themselves to someone else's health anxiety management journey. This is why we ask redditors to include advice in their progress updates if they want it to be a standalone thread. This way people can gain information for their health anxiety management roadmaps from your post. Feel free to resubmit your post with advice added on if you want it to be a standalone post. Thank you for your cooperation.

Regarding memes: Please post them here as a link and please provide a description so people know what they are clicking on. Like everything on social media something that is seen funny by one person can be triggering for another person. Please keep your subreddit members safe by providing a brief description of the meme you are sharing.

I've had severe HA since having a stillbirth in 2021. It started because I was having terrible neurological symptoms after the stillbirth. I was completely convinced I was going to die. With A TON of work in therapy, I am much better but am still struggling with the fact that I could get some disease and just die way too young. How do you cope with this? It's like a terrifying question I just can't figure out how to answer.

Seriously, I will be freaking out over something, thinking the worst, and then I click on one of these articles typically named “[health issue] Nemours (for kids)”, and something about their soothing tone and their uplifting comments about how it’s going to be alright if you do end up having what this is, it gives me so much hope to cling to. Even some of their most scary health issues they talk about, they always include something hopeful somewhere, whether it be “the odds are in your favor that you’ll be fine” or “there’s a good chance you don’t have this”. Nemours’ articles, specifically the ones for kids, actually feel like they are trying to calm you down and connect you with some rationality, rather than making every tiny symptom into an urgent situation so they can sell you a product or keep your attention. I’ll never encourage googling symptoms, because that will usually always make situations worse, but if you are like me and you end up googling anyway, I recommend forums and Nemours articles because they typically aim to quell fears with an empathetic tone rather than escalate them.

I had health anxiety as my daily norm, and the worst thing about it was that i started some kind of loop. I would worry about my heart, and then I'd get heart palpiations, and sometimes (when at its worst) something that felt like irregular heartbeats. I would then worry about having heart problems and heart attacks. I was put on a medication (anti-histamine), to ease these heartbeats so that I would be abled to sleep, as I would have palpitations for multiple hours before somehow falling asleep.

When I first came in to meet my psychologist I had a plan set up, filled with things that I did not believe in first; Imaginary Exposure, Physical exposure - and the difference between watching and observing.

If you are not abled to meet a psychologist, I would recommend reading into these and learning how to do different exercises surrounding them. I'm going to give a brief description of these words and my exercises, but I would also like to start by saying that I am in no way an expert, and will only be writing from my experiences.

1. Watching vs observing

This is something that everyone with health anxiety does, and it is also something that increases symtoms. I still struggle with this a bit, and it is the last thing holding me back. I started getting heart palpitations for the first time in almost two months last week by wathcing a video by Dr. Mike, where he started speaking about heart problems, at the same time as I was doing an exercise that had my pulse up. This made me go from a state of observing any potential symtoms I would have in my heart (like most people do), to watching for a symtom, which is the worst thing you can do.

My exericise here was to lie for a minute and focus only on breathing, then one minute on a symtom I've been struggling with, to then focus on something in my room. This should be done in silence, and the first two parts has to be done with your eyes closed. When breathing, you should try your hardest, not to hyperfocus on a symtom.

I did two sets of four reps of this every day.

Imaginary exposing.

This is where the biggest difference happened. Your objective is to make a chart, and then write down the worst possible scenario, for me it was to get sarcoma, being unable to be cured, and slowly fading away from life, leaving my parents behind in tears, and missing the future I had in front of me. I would then spend 10-20 minutes making a story in my head of this happening. The most important step of this is not neutralizing your thoughts. You are not to think "this is unlikely".

This was horrible to do in the beginning, and as someone who barely cries - this did the job. That also means that i was abled to cry on command, like an actor lol. The tears stopped after many days of doing this, and it became easier to do. This led to me being abled to handle this fear with way more control. My psychologist compared this to a scary movie. It might be very scary the first time. But if you watch it 30 times, it won't be scary.

3. Physical exposing

This exercise consisted of mostly doing things that simulate different symtoms. One was to wear a tight shirt (thyroid things), one was two run up staris for a couple of minutes (heart palpitations-ish) or to breathe through a straw (difficulty breathing). You can create challenges depending on who you are. I did these different things over and over again until I no longer felt any anxiety connected to this one thing. It worked really well.

These things might not help you, but it really helped me - and if you haven't visited a psychologist because you are too afraid to, do it! It is a big regret that I did not do it earlier.

How did that go?

Hello! 24F here. I have only now had enough energy to seek out help with my health anxiety, because it was something I thought I could "ignore" until I couldn't anymore.

I am struggling with coping, as therapy is expensive and may not be as effective (since I also have a autism diagnose)

I was wondering if anyone here had any tips to cope with the anxiety as it's happening? Especially when it's an all-consuming type of panic attack, I can't get myself out of the spiral and end up worse.

I appreciate any help and tips! ^^

Hi everyone! Health anxiety can feel overwhelming, and sometimes even small steps can make a difference in calming the mind. I’ve come across a few habits that seem to help with the constant worry, and thought it would be great to open up a conversation where we could all share some practical ways we manage it.

For instance, focusing on consistent routines like a steady sleep schedule and eating balanced meals seems to help me feel a bit more grounded. Taking short breaks to do something calming, like listening to music or journaling, also seems to ease my mind a bit.

I’ve also been reading up on wellness tips from a newsletter that shares practical ways to build healthy habits. If anyone’s curious, just let me know, and I’m happy to send a link.

What’s one small thing that’s helped ease your worries, even a little? Let’s build a collection of tips we can all try!

[DISCORD] CLICK HERE To find a support system in our growing health anxiety community.

Welcome to r/HealthAnxiety. Check out our community user flairs, and attach one to your username!

Use this megathread for vents, rants, worries, fixations, DAEs, finding support/advice, finding reassurance, symptom focused content, or the like. If you are mainly focused on your physical symptoms, this would be the thread to use. You may also be redirected here if you choose not to follow rule #3 regarding post titles, if it is categorized as one of the post types above, or if the content is too detailed. Remember this is not a place to give or ask for medical/pharmaceutical/veterinary advice, or promote/sell alternative medicines/therapies/products/subscriptions. Please focus on "Health Anxiety" which is defined here. Please avoid displacing others who are looking for support regarding their health anxiety by using other appropriate subreddits for things that are non-HA related ( r/Anxiety, r/depression, r/AskDocs, r/socialanxiety, r/mentalhealth ). Take the time to comment on each other's entries to show some support while we traverse through HA together.

Only post a standalone thread if it mainly includes the mental aspect of Health Anxiety. Everything else goes in this thread. This megathread is used to prevent any unnecessary distress on somebody who is not mentally prepared to engage with the above content (Imagine scrolling down on your main general feed to relax, but bump into something distressing instead). HA is very unique in which it is very easy for someone to read something/experiences and then come out thinking you may have something after reading it. This is why we take these precautions and use a megathread as navigating through social media is one of the many challenges that our community members face on a daily basis. We are here to accommodate everyone at various stages of their HA. To address visibility concerns the thread is sorted by "New", so that it acts as its own reddit feed. An example of a post would be redirected here:

• "Does anyone else feel like this?" + "Insert Symptoms" -> Use this megathread

Although not required we do encourage the use of: 1) A trigger warning header (TW) which gives warning to redditors of what the comment will be discussing about, and/or 2) Spoiler text which blocks out any details that redditors may accidentally read >!and find distressing.!< You can apply this via two methods:

• a) Desktop: highlight the word/sentence/paragraph and click on the "Diamond exclamation point" icon to apply spoiler text
• b) Mobile: Surround your text with the following symbols like so:

​

>!spoiler text goes here!<

𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬:

• CALM APP offers meditations, and other guided mental health activities.
• STOP GOOGLING SYMPTOMS with the FOREST APP
• Medito App offers mindful guided meditations: Also has breathing exercises, walking meditations, mantra meditations and sessions to help you deal with stress, anxiety, pain and low-mood (100% free, no ads, no sign-up required)
• Check out ASMR. Here's an intro video that explains ASMR for anyone unfamiliar, by Gibi ASMR. If you like it, there's tons more!
• Breathwrk Breathing Exercises app on the App Store
• Sanvello app for anxiety & depression on the App Store
• Anxiety and Depression Association of America is a great resource.
• Freedom From Fear's mission is to positively impact the lives of all those affected by anxiety, depression, and related disorders through advocacy, education, research, and community support. 
• r/HealthAnxiety's "Daily Mental Health Activity" calendar located on the sidebar (for desktop) or in the about section under the rules (for mobile).
• r/HealthAnxiety's Rabbit Holes: 1) Advice and Empowerment 2) Memes & 3) Resources
• Our Wiki has more resources here.

^(UPDATE: The thread is now monthly to accommodate redditors who would post 1-2 hours before the thread would refresh (and basically not get any engagement). Now instead of that happening 4 times a month it will only happen once a month. The thread refreshes on 1st day of each month. To avoid the spam rule, please post as usual as if it was a daily thread.)

The megathread for vents, rants, worries, fixations, DAEs, finding support/advice, finding reassurance, symptom focused content, or the like is located here : http://reddit.com/r/healthanxiety/about/sticky Thank you for using the above thread for the above content as some users may experience distress if they were to unexpectedly read content that they were not mentally prepared to engage with or are just trying to take a breather from.

The average person has 50,000 thoughts per day according to the Cleveland Clinic. Of those thoughts: 95 percent repeat each day and on average, 80 percent of repeated thoughts are negative.

This means that on average, only 20% of our thoughts are positive per day and they are competing for our attention with the other 80%. This 80% has megaphones but you know what, we are not helpless.

• We can help the 20% of our positive thoughts shine brighter and dominate these negative thoughts. This is where "marinating in the positive" and contributing to the daily positivity thread in any way you can comes into play. Attitude is a choice.

Let's fill this thread with some positivity from our daily lives and remind ourselves that positive things are happening while we battle the negative thoughts of health anxiety. Some examples of things you can post include:

• Examples of positive self talk that you use for yourself (which will give others ideas that they can use for themselves regarding positive self talk).
• Ordinary things you are grateful for (ex: your car started today or there is water to drink).
• Small goals & victories you have accomplished.
• Something you witnessed that made you smile, or something you did to make someone else smile.
• Blessings, gratitude, and other positive observations in your life.
• Accomplishments of self-care.
• Something you created today (crafts, art, a meal...).
• Find accountability buddies and report your self progress for some type of challenge.
• Declaration of choosing a predominantly positive attitude in regards to HA or other aspects of life.
• Examples of mental imagery you use for yourself to prepare for situations and/or recover from errors.
• Declaration of acknowledgement and/or acceptance of certain things in your life (ex: emotions, health anxiety, etc).
• Declaration of using a negative experience as a stepping stone in life to improve and get closer to your goals rather than let it interfere with your progress.
• Declaration of living life in the "here and now", without regard to either the past or anticipated future events.
• Declaration of ditching perfectionism and choosing to strive for excellence instead for something in your life (ex: "being perfect" vs "being good enough").

REGARDING "journey updates" standalone post: Some of you may have been redirected here if you are providing an update on your progress via a standalone post. If you would like your standalone post to be approved, please resubmit the "update post" with advice in the text body (such as detailing how you got there, or what motivated you to get to where you are now, etc). This is so redditors can gain something from your post without feeling bad that they are not where you are currently at on their own journey. The reason we do this is that Reddit is another form of social media where many can fall victim to the social comparison trap. We do not want people to feel inadequate by comparing themselves to someone else's health anxiety management journey. This is why we ask redditors to include advice in their progress updates if they want it to be a standalone thread. This way people can gain information for their health anxiety management roadmaps from your post. Feel free to resubmit your post with advice added on if you want it to be a standalone post. Thank you for your cooperation.

Regarding memes: Please post them here as a link and please provide a description so people know what they are clicking on. Like everything on social media something that is seen funny by one person can be triggering for another person. Please keep your subreddit members safe by providing a brief description of the meme you are sharing.

What did it take for you to stop your health anxiety? A doctor? Meditation? Mine is so overwhelming and I’m feeling like I will never find a way out… Even when I try to revert my brain to a different thought or distract myself I can still “feel” my symptom so it doesn’t help

I most recently got so sick of my health anxiety, but still couldn’t fight the urge to check, look up diagnoses, and overall fear the worst.

So I decided to use 4o to break this down into mathematical understandings I could grapple with.

I asked it what was the likelihood of another nuclear war since the 1940s. It gave me a conservative estimate of .5%. On the other hand, the statistical anomaly of you being misdiagnosed or neglected for your suspected medical condition is, conservatively, 0.005%.

This means that, on average, 1000 nuclear wars would have to have passed before you were actually misdiagnosed. The variance within one to two standard deviations does not significantly weigh the severity in either direction either. After all, we have people concerned about a FIRST nuclear war, not the 1000th.

I am not trying to ridicule any of your math abilities, and I implore you to still seek medical attention if you have not done so nor have been cleared of anything extremely concerning. But hopefully this gives you some reassurance into your condition - more specifically, the lack thereof.

Hey everyone! Could you please recommend me some tips, techniques and books for overcoming health anxiety/hypochondria?

Thank you!

Hello. I was wondering if anyone has any success stories on long-term management of HA. I understand that certain strategies such as scheduling a worry time/noting down worries can help, but often these can feel temporary - I guess what I’m hoping for is to find some techniques that can help me overcome this, or at least alleviate it over time. Would appreciate the sharing, thanks!

I want to work in policing but I’m nervous my health anxiety will be the reason I don’t get the job. I know it’s important to be truthful on the mmpi but I was just curious to know if anyone has “extended the truth” when answering and has been successful?

I read that BetterHelp could be a scam because they did something with the data ?

I don’t really want to do in person therapy because social anxiety 🙄

Are there any apps anyone can recommend for this 🤍

I'm determined to put an end to this nonsense, but I'm very confused about where to start with so many routes.. CBT, ACT, Exposure therapy..

I've been to therapy before and have never found it useful, partly because I have a hard time trusting people. Has anyone used any online sources (courses, videos, etc) to successfully treat their HA?

I'm so sick of living like this but I know I'm more likely to persevere if I have something that I can do at my own pace when I'm feeling motivated, rather than having a set time/appointment and just hoping that I'm in the right frame of mind to want to deal with it and talk about it on that particular day

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for advice on how to support a loved one who I believe is struggling with health anxiety. They frequently talk about symptoms and are constantly wanting to get checked out, even after multiple reassurances from medical professionals that nothing is wrong. This has been going on for years, and it’s taken an emotional and financial toll. They haven’t been working and spend most of their time in bed, researching symptoms online and watching videos—habits that I worry are only making things worse. Though they’ve been encouraged to try things like taking walks or meditating, they agree but never follow through.

While I want to remain supportive and understanding, I’m struggling to find the balance between being there for them and setting healthy boundaries. How can I respectfully and firmly steer conversations away from health concerns, especially when they become repetitive? We’ve gently discussed the possibility that this might be a mental health issue, but they seem fixed on the idea that something else is wrong. They’re now planning to travel to get more tests, as local doctors won’t refer them for any additional ones.

I’m not sure if or when I should be more firm in telling them that they likely aren’t physically ill and that the discomfort they feel may be self-induced.

If anyone has been in a similar situation or has suggestions on how to encourage them to seek appropriate help, I’d really appreciate your advice. Thank you!

I’m struggling with this right now, so I’m gonna try and manifest this for all of us who struggle with this kind of thought.

Seeing a post, some news, a poster, hearing a conversation about the illness you are afraid of does NOT mean it’s ‘a sign’ that you are really suffering with this illness.

It’s exactly like when you get a car, and suddenly you start seeing that same make of car everywhere. It’s just self awareness, you’re seeing it out, the stats have not changed.

For example, seeing a lot of posts about ‘The big C’ does not mean it’s some sort of divine sign that you are terminally ill.

These things aren’t prophecies. When things are on your mind, you will find things to do with them. It’s not the heavens above trying to give you some holy warning or some shit.

You are okay. We are okay.

Anytime i mention my concerns, they tell me im being stupid. I am being stupid yes assuming stuff, but is that a good way to help me cope with it? They call it fake, a joke. Idk what to say. Somehow that makes it worse. Are everyone's parents like this with HA? Is this how society percieves HA?

I have been trying different methods to manage may anxiety and come out of an ongoing panic attack specially the peak moments which is super hard.

Unfortunately, I haven't really found something that works really well besides hitting or pinching my arms and legs really hard that sometimes I get covered in bruises.

Please help me out.

What do you do when you have a new symptom and a new fear pops up?

Hey everyone,

I hope you’re all doing well. I’ve been dealing with health anxiety for a while now, and some days are better than others. I find myself constantly worrying about every little symptom, and it can be exhausting!

I wanted to reach out to this community to see how you all manage your health anxiety. What strategies or techniques have helped you find some peace? Whether it’s mindfulness practices, journaling, therapy, or something else entirely, I’d love to hear what works for you.

Also, if you’ve faced any specific challenges or setbacks on your journey, how did you cope? Sharing our experiences might just help someone else who’s struggling.

Thanks for reading, and I’m looking forward to hearing your stories!

They say to never Google your symptoms. Google gives general information where you can kinda create your own narrative. You can convince yourself that a condition can or cannot apply to you. While Reddit, you read about real cases and real situations people are going through, sometimes suffering through stuff you didn't even think about and in my case, I just place myself in their situation or fear that I will end up in their situation or worse and it just makes my anxiety worse.

I mean... seriously, there's gotta be at least one fictional character with health anxiety that isn't just "I have hypochondria and I hate germs, laugh", right? Maybe the media I consume is crap, but I can't really think of a single character with health anxiety that didn't feel like an insult.

If anyone knows of any stories that handle it in an appropriate way, please tell me. I'd love to check it out.

Hey team, one of my best pals has severe health anxiety. It's gotten so bad previously that she ended up in a psych ward. It breaks my heart to see her struggle daily with this. It's truly taken over her life and all I want to do is ensure I am supporting her without making things worse.

If you could give your friends and family advice on how you want them to react when you're having a particularly bad time with it, what would that be?

Also, any other things you wish people knew. Like, triggers that might not be obvious to people not experiencing health anxiety.

Thanks!

I genuinely want to know, when you are experiencing a physical symptom or you have a lump, bump, etc and are concerned, what do you do? Do you go down the rabbit hole ie google or Reddit or do you ignore it and wait it out?? I’m having a lot of little things that cause great panic and leads me down a rabbit hole until the symptom or whatever goes away. I just want to stop the worry. Thanks in advance

I’ve personally had OCD for 8 years and was misdiagnosed with generalized anxiety around health worries multiple times. It’s frustrating because the treatment for anxiety and OCD is NOT the same. In fact, regular CBT can often make OCD symptoms worse.

If you're constantly having intrusive fears but know they’re irrational, and it’s causing you to ruminate a lot or avoid certain situations, it could honestly be OCD. Especially if you tried regular therapy already like I had.

My tips on what worked for me -

• [Definitively the best choice] -> Go see a therapist or psychiatrist who specializes in OCD; they can tell you whether or not you’re in the right place. 
• You can take a YBOCS quiz (one of the clinical scales for measuring severity of OCD) and see if the questions resonate with you. Here’s a link to one I’ve used in the past 
• You can talk to an AI chatbot like this one to ask more questions about OCD and see if you’re symptoms line up.

Since October is OCD Awareness Month, I wanted to share this for anyone who might feel stuck or confused about their mental health. You’re not alone.

PS - If you already know you have OCD and have a similar story of getting the right diagnosis after being misdiagnosed, feel free to share. Your story could help someone else!

I downloaded this app last night at 3 am after being jittery all day, i saw someone on instagram recommended it and figured “why not, it cant get worse”. This is not an ad by the way although it may sound like it 💀 im 19, just turned 19, i have a whole life ahead of me and this health anxiety and general anxiety is trying so hard to ruin it. For a while i let it but now i really got shit to do and im tired of being tired. So far im on lesson 4 of the health anxiety pack, telling my anxiety “whatever” seemed so silly but it actually helped!! Im incredibly stubborn and wont do alot of things tbh i was recommended this app in my 10th grade by my councillor… 5 years later i finally downloaded it. Give it a try. My health anxiety is debilitating to the point where i have mild agoraphobia so im telling you this helps!! There’s also more stuff on there as well. We can heal. We just have to kick ourselves a little 🩷