[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 🩷

My gf is an EMT and one of my biggest fears are getting physically sick and with the winter season coming I’m wondering how I’m going to cope?

As someone who has struggled with health anxiety for years, please trust me when I say this: you cannot overcome this by constantly seeking reassurance from Reddit, google, tik tok or anywhere else online.

I know what it’s like to feel overcome with the fear of illness. I know how it feels to have it take over your life. I have dealt with terrifying symptoms that have lead me convinced that I was dying. I have been there. I know how scary and isolating it feels. I used to feel helpless, like nobody believed me that what I felt was so real. I used to seek reassurance from this forum and others countless of times. I have spent hours scrolling through Reddit, tik tok and google looking for help and answers. So trust me I know what you’re going through.

And you know what I got out of reassurance seeking online? Nothing. Sure maybe I felt better for a short while sometimes, but then I would go right back when a new concern came up. But you know what did help? Getting off Reddit. Deleting tik tok. And stopping googling. The only people that can give you reassurance to your medical concerns are your doctor. And if you don’t feel like you’re being taken seriously even at the doctors, go to a different one. Keep going until you feel you have been heard and taken care of. Because that’s what it took for me. I used to find it very difficult to trust doctors, but you have to remind yourself that they know what they are doing. Demand for testing, labs and scans. Advocate for yourself, don’t let your symptoms be brushed off as anxiety without further testing. Because at least for me the only way I was reassured that everything was ok was to see the physical proof of my labs and scans.

So please if you are reading this and struggling, stop seeking reassurance here and anywhere else online. You will not find the answers to your medical questions here. Im sure that a lot of people do get helpful support here which is different, but if your are here constantly seeking reassurance I suggest to break the pattern.

I obsess over EVERY element of my health, and when I'm fixed on one body part it's impossible to imagine people who don't worry as much as I do. Like... I have some gum recession right now, and I'm obsessively brushing and flossing and rinsing and checking and feeling it and googling stuff about gum grafts. Meanwhile my boyfriend has literal CRACKS in his teeth, has had badly done fillings that have hurt for weeks on end, and he seems totally unphased. If I had something like that I'd be in the EMERGENCY ROOM. HOW ARE YOU SO UNBOTHERED?!

I struggled with HA for over 20 years. However, the last two years I find that I have been doing really well. I have tried many things over the years from Therapy, Meditations, breaking down my thinking patterns, taking my thoughts to court, and cognitive behavior therapy.

Things that I have found worked well:

1. Do not google symptoms, websites are designed to keep you on them... how do you keep engagement? By feeding people's fears. When I had the urge to google, I did a meditation or hard exercise.

2. If my body has a weird symptom, I would give it week to 10 days before I would book a doctors appointment. I became aware that our bodies have sensations and have accepted that these sensations are normal. Try this experiment - Think about your big toe on your right foot. Really focus on it.... do you notice tightness? maybe some slight pain or a funny feeling? Our brains have enormous power, and hyper-fixation does cause physical symptoms.

3. Meditate daily - Even if its only 15 minutes. Use a Montra. I use "I am healthy, negative thoughts are not facts" I say it over and over while beathing in and out deeply.

4. Take your thoughts to court. How many times have you been wrong about your illnesses? Over the years I have convinced myself that I have had over 20 terminal illnesses and many autoimmune conditions. After many medical tests and physicals, I have always been wrong. Its unlikely that you will diagnose yourself correctly by reading and not performing proper diagnostics with no formal training.

• I realized that I was having confirmation bias, I would latch on to the symptoms and make them fit a condition while ignoring the facts that proved me wrong. What's the chance that 4 different doctors would miss something, and all blood labs would be incorrect? Possible but highly unlikely.

5. I now schedule a yearly physical and trust the results. This gives me my baseline health and my doctor can monitor for any changes. Now that I started to believe that I am in good health and try to take care of my body, magically the weird sensations have subsided. Anxiety can cause physical symptoms and it's amazing what you can convince yourself is true.

6. I realized that the worry was destroying the thing I was trying to preserve (life). You want to "catch" the illness to prevent sickness or death, so you are constantly googling, seeking reassurance, go to endless appointments and have endless tests only to start at the beginning. Living in your head is not living life, I was making my life miserable trying to preserve it when all the real evidence was showing me that I was not in health danger. I started to try and really live in the moment, discard of the automatic negative thoughts and take deep breaths. The more I practiced, the pathways and my brain changed, and the anxiety came less often.

I still have the occasional flare/spiral, but they don't last as long, and they don't trigger the same level of anxiety and depression that I have had before.

Feel free to message me if you want to talk more and hoping you can start moving towards recovery.

[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 have a lot of bodily anxieties and am so afraid of pain so I freak out when I feel pain in some body part and start catastrophizing. What helps when you're really anxious and fixated on a body part?

Hi, i wanted to ask if anyone else feels symptoms but then struggles with scheduling an appointment and seeing the doctor about it? I feel almost embarrassed for going and telling them my concerns because i dont want them to label me as crazy. Even though i tell myself they’re doctors they deal with worse, i’m not exactly sure how to go about scheduling an appointment and bringing up my concerns. When they ask why im scheduling i can’t say “hey i feel xyz and i’ve convinced myself that it’s (insert random untreatable horrible disease)” it’s annoying because i feel like my social anxiety stops me from getting help for my health anxiety. Anyways if anyone has experienced the same i would appreciate supportive words or advice