My Health Anxiety & Recovery Part 2
I was on the internet a lot. I found some message boards about anxiety. Reading about the effects of anxiety on others lives made me realize that I wasn't alone. I looked for a web page or message board that was specifically about hypochondria or health anxiety, but there was none. I decided to start my own.
At first I set up a message board and a one page site. At first there was almost no one on the message board. Then it started picking up more and more people. Over and over again, people would say how surprised they were that they were not the only ones who had had irrational fears about their health. That helped me a lot.
After roughly six weeks, I started feeling a little better. I wasn't worrying as much, and I started to be more interested in other things. After weeks of not wanting to leave my house, I decided to go out and see a band at the local dive bar/venue the Casbah. Curiously, I can't remember what band it was, but I do remember how happy my husband was that I felt motivated to do things again. I had printed out a map from the internet and driven to pick him up from work and we were on our way out to dinner before the show, and he couldn't stop smiling. That was the turning point where I really started to get better. The acute outbreak of hypochondria was really hard on my poor husband. He was supportive during the whole thing.
A few weeks after that, I started looking for a job. I still had symptoms, but I worried about them a lot less. Over time they went away. They still flare up when I am stressed out or nervous. The prozac seems to make it easier not to worry. It turns down the volume of the nagging voice that tells me to obsess about my health!
Today I am doing ok. I still stress out over my health sometimes, but I try not to. I am still married. The health anxiety was very hard on my husband, but he was supportive. I have two great cats and an old house with a big garden. I paint and write, and sell things on Ebay. I have been really lucky.
I have been interviewed about health anxiety by NBC Nightly News, Cosmo Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo Internet Life, the BBC and PBS radio. I want to spread the word about this issue and let people know they are not alone.
UPDATE - Now it's almost eight years since I started the site. I still do not have problems with health anxiety though occasionally I get some general anxiety issues. I now live in Syracuse, New York.
I'm an artist - I mostly paint abstract florals and cats. You can see my work here: Melsky's Artwork
