_Morvar_ t1_jdzvyio wrote on March 28, 2023 at 12:32 PM

Also in some cases you may be dealing with health anxiety, where stress and fear causes physical symptoms that can be debilitating but not dangerous. The fear of having a serious disease perpetuates the stress cycle. If you are in a situation where several doctors give you the all clear, it is very likely that anxiety is causing the symptoms. Ideally the doctor should be able to help with that but you can also seek out a mental health professional.

CIsForCorn OP t1_jebkek5 wrote on March 30, 2023 at 8:37 PM

Actually, *as someone that suffers from health anxiety due to bouts in the hospital from very real things that weren’t taken seriously at the time (one ended up leading to MRSA), I don’t entirely disagree with this. I HAVE found that some things I was concerned about were symptoms that I worked through with a mental health professional. HOWEVER, there have absolutely been other instances in my life since then that were dismissed as health anxiety as a result of these earlier experiences, that upon getting further opinions and testing showed that there really was an underlying *physical problem that was being discarded as anxiety.

Wild-Caterpillar76 t1_je09ysr wrote on March 28, 2023 at 2:19 PM

This is not true at all and horrible advice. Have you ever heard of fibromyalgia? For years and even now, doctors have told people nothing is wrong with them and that it’s in their head. This goes for numerous other illnesses including cancer. Trust your body, go to as many doctors as you need, advocate for yourself. To tell people “oh it’s just anxiety” is the worst advice ever.

_Morvar_ t1_je0pb3a wrote on March 28, 2023 at 4:00 PM

I'm sorry I have offended you. I'm sure there are many people who have had awful experiences with doctors dismissing their problems and calling it imagination and whatnot. Maybe you or someone close to you has suffered due to a situation like that, and that is awful and shouldn't happen.

The point I was trying to make was that there is also such a thing as health anxiety, and no amount of clear diagnostic tests can cure it, the only way out is to identify the anxiety and treat that. I'm not disagreeing with OP, I'm just adding this sidenote.

Wild-Caterpillar76 t1_je3uodd wrote on March 29, 2023 at 5:36 AM

I understand your view on your side note but how you worded your response does not indicate that. You’re stating that it’s “most likely” anxiety and not something else. Obviously, I could be anything but but stating most likely, you’re indicating it is that. That is horrible advice. It doesn’t matter if it happened to me or someone I care about. I care about people struggling with their health who are dismissed by shit doctors and people who believe nonsense rhetoric such as it’s anxiety.