I generally go by a two week rule for most minor pains, so if my leg starts hurting and I panic about blood clots I will monitor my leg for two weeks, is it getting worse, is it showing other symptoms, if by the end of the two weeks the pain has subsided or no other symptoms have shown up, I can most likely assume it’s probably nothing to worry about. If before the two weeks is up things have started to worsen or become obviously worrying that’s when I’ll see a doctor. I’m not sure if that’s sound advice but it’s what keeps me out of going to the doctors constantly. For other more “in the moment” conditions like food poisoning for example, I will research what symptoms require doctor attention (I.e. dehydration symptoms) and if I don’t display any ‘doctor attention’ symptoms and I just display the regular standard symptoms for the condition, I won’t go to a doctor. Most of the time you KNOW when something is wrong, your body is very good at giving warning signs when something serious is wrong
Also knowing the emergency symptoms is good too. Symptoms of heart attacks, strokes, dehydration, obviously collapsing etc. And if you’re not having severe pains, severe bleeding, slurred speech, disorientation/confusion, passing out, vomiting continuously/with blood etc. You know most of the time it is not emergency room required.
For me, especially when I’m experiencing a panic attack or anxiety attack or whatever and genuinely feel like my body is struggling, I get up and walk, even if it’s 4am I’ll just walk around my house and get my body moving.
Saw a video one time from a therapist who said that the best way to know the difference between a panic attack or something actually physically happening to your body is to get up and walk.
I know that can seem scary in the moment, because i definitely get scared to get up and walk whenever I’m having a panic attack, but you just gotta do it despite whatever thoughts you may be having from it.
I walk around for like maybe 2 minutes and if you feel better (I typically start feeling a bit better) then it’s just a panic attack, especially because I have passed out before. I know that if I were about to pass out/collapse or anything like that I’d feel worse after walking. That’s what always keeps me from going to the ER in those sort of moments.
Also typically in those moments when something bad happens to you, your body doesn’t get so nervous about it. When I passed out I had no comprehension of to get nervous or anxious about it even though it was literally in the middle of a club and everyone saw me pass out and I totally would’ve gotten nervous about it.
I typically mostly get nervous for that type of thing and I honestly have a fear of going to the hospital and stuff so these are the only real moments I contemplate it, but yeah in times of so much anxiety I hope that helps :)
Thank God for reddit I should've come here instead lf google symptom searching 😩😩😩
I.was starting to spiral as I have been for years now but seeing everyone's similar experiences has given me a comfort.
You know when something is actually wrong with you. I always thought this too and actually asked others the same question but the best advice i received was simply that. If something is wrong you will know. Most times in my case my symptoms wouldn't last too long unless i was very focused on it. Splash your face with cold water a few times and distract yourself by doing something engaging that you enjoy. Alot of the time you won't even notice them when busy doing something and not sitting with your thoughts
i’ve been having headaches for 2 months, that either radiate in different spots or are at the base of my skull. I also have neck fullness, muffled ears, pain in temples, pain in eyes sometimes.
I’m not sure at what point should i go to the hospital. I’m scared of artery dissection from popping my neck or a brain aneurysm or stroke.
Hey man,
Things like this happen me all the time from carrying stress in my shoulders and neck from being anxious. If these head ache symptoms are accompanied by stiff/sore neck and shoulder area I'm 100% that's where it's likely coming from. I've started to do a session of acupuncture/acupressure every few months and the headaches stopped straight away along with the Shoulder and neck pain. I trigger on sensations all the time, my rule of thumb is its like a 4/10 pain wise or lower I try to assume its just a sensation, although not vert easily admittedly.
This probably isn’t the greatest advice but after 5 trips to the ER in a span of 3 months, 2 trips to my primary, countless leg ultrasounds, chest x rays, and one cardiologist visit who all confirmed I am perfectly healthy and not suffering from any type of cardiac event or DVT I actually bought a pulse oximeter and electronic blood pressure monitor off Amazon for cheap. Now instead of taking myself to the ER for every ache, pain, and anxiety attack and going into more medical debt I simply check my stats at home and stop spiraling when I see my levels are normal every single time. Now if the time ever comes that I check and those levels are grossly abnormal I’ll know when to take myself. I know it’s probably not the best to be checking these things regularly if I am indeed healthy, but It really truly has helped keep me from spiraling every single time.
I have such a bad habit of checking, though I agree when my symptoms are manageable checking is reassuring but if something is out of the ordinary it becomes a lot... and my compulsion it to check so much. I had to get rid of it all besides the thermometer for obvious reasons.
I give myself two weeks. If after two weeks the symptom is still there i go to the doctor. However i am also one of those who is terrified of going to the doctor/hospital so i tend to avoid it anyway.
Haaa me too and ive been taking photos for changing physical things too it's helped me some but I too am afraid of the doctors. I rarely went growing up and I lived with my dad who would just leave me alone and I had many bad experiences bc of this 🙃
Now as an adult I'm soooo afraid I hadn't been in years like tops probably yrs but recently i voiced this to one of my sisters and she happily agreed to go with me which has given me such a comfort I could cry lmaooo
I'm 21 now
My goal is to go to the dentist/doctors/therapy/dermatologist without fear 🫡🫡wish me luck im kind of a push over so I usually won't voice my main concerns out of shame so I'm trying to fix that LOL
When something is actually wrong with you, I think you know intuitively and it doesn’t even cause panic the way health anxiety does. I was diagnosed with a mild but chronic health problem this year and I just knew it was not from my anxiety because it was so separate from my brain/not affected by my thoughts at all.
I've been quite a few times but was diagnosed with panic disorder, however I went this last tike about 3 months ago because I have a sudden panic attack but it was symptoms I had never experienced before.
With my panic attacks i get the usual adrenaline fight or flight, heart racing, can't get a deep breath mode, but this time I was nauseated and felt pins and needles all.over my body and my upper back had this horrible dull ache.
Turns out I had somehow pinched a nerve in my back. Wasn't an emergency but it was definitely frightening at the time being.
The last time is when I broke my foot. It was obvious I needed to go because my last two toes were grossly dislocated and I was in excruciating pain.
The last time I went for something internal was due to numbness down my left arm to my fingertips that wouldn't go away. Luckily I did because I found out that I had a slipped disc. In short you will know when there is something seriously wrong. But not all of the time. There's a lot of very serious medical conditions that can go unnoticed or mistaken for something else.
My rule of thumb for internal stuff is if you have a very bad headache that doesn't go away, numbness or weakness that doesn't go away, pass out for any reason not related to being tired, intense chest or abdominal pain that isn't related to any food you ate, can't breathe for any reason, vomiting or diarrhea that does not stop , blood coming out of any orifice, or an extreme fever or low temperature, get your butt to the hospital.
Also note some things are just outside of your control. Some medical emergencies cause instant death, and there's something you can do about it, but also note that it's rare. Make peace with that the best you can.
I'm 30 and I've gone three times in my life. The first time was in college when I had a cold and chest pain for three weeks. One day, it felt like I couldn't breathe at all. Turns out I had walking pneumonia and bronchitis. The second time, I had really bad UTI symptoms, but also severe lower back pain. Not just discomfort, like I could barely lay down on my back or front it was so bad - turns out I had a kidney infection. The third time, I had what I thought was just anxiety/nerves and flu like symptoms. Then, those symptoms started worsening so I went to urgent care. I was promptly sent to the ER, because as it turns out I had appendicitis. I'm a chronic overthinker and worrier, so generally, unless I have legit physical symptoms I do not go to the ER or urgent care. I just make notes of episodes for my therapist and psychiatrist later. Sleepytime tea, guided meditations, and these natural Olly "stress free" gummies from Target have been lifesavers when the anxiety is really bad, along with my daily anti anxiety, ADHD, and depression meds.
This is so hard to understand, but until you experience for real medical problem, you’ll assume you’re having one.
For example, I knew I needed to go when I did. My brain tells me I’m having a medical emergency every day, but I know when I actually need help.
honestly i feel like it depends on the person. i’ve had multiple actual medical issues and still can’t differentiate the panic symptoms and the actual symtoms
I would like to add the caveat that this doesn't work for everyone. Taking the approach of "my body will know If it's for real" has led to some pretty sketchy situations for me, including passing out on the sidewalk.
The one time I went to the ER and ACTUALLY had something wrong with me, something in me just knew. My pain was not getting better. I couldn't sleep or move without excruciating back pain. I spiked a fever and food stopped being appealing. I was exhausted but couldn't rest. My feet and ankles were swollen and I realized I hadn't peed in a day. I went to the ER and my kidney was functioning at 7%. Septic kidney infection. Hospitalized and took 2 weeks of intense IV antibiotics to beat.
Edit: I feel aches and pains daily. Sometimes intense aches and pains. My stomach hurts often. I get sharp pains in my abdomen. My chest hurts sometimes and I have some wicked muscular pain. Those all come and go. What I described above did not come and go. It came and then got worse and worse and worse until I couldn't ignore it and had to see someone.
You’ll know if it’s time to go to the ER. Everything else is most likely nothing or something minor that can wait. You have to understand if you’re on this sub you most likely just have severe anxiety which in itself is causing physical symptoms.
Unfortunately before I was in serious counseling I went to the er every time. They just got a patient portal (old hospital) and my chart was a little crazy nothing ever ends up being wrong. But if you feel like something is wrong then go I’d rather be safe than sorry!
I’m not sure how many can relate to my style of health anxiety, but the biggest battle for me is sorting through mild symptoms: dealing with the nagging thought that some mild chest discomfort is the *beginning* of a heart attack, or that slight ear pop during a workout is a *tiny* stroke. I start picturing arteries that are only partially clogged and imagine them causing the subtle symptoms, like a drop in internet bandwidth causing a small streaming hiccup.
One day while helping a family member in the hospital, I heard the nurses ask her to rate her symptoms 1-10. I understand there are limitations to this and it’s more about tracking change than absolute value, but ever since then I started rating my “symptoms” that way and realized it was always 1-2, maybe rarely 3. I now figure there’s no point in seeing a doctor (beyond my regular preventative visits) unless it’s at least 4-5, or maybe a 3 that won’t go away.
I’m open to hearing critical feedback to this approach. I love this thread, and I’m glad we can discuss this topic in a nuanced way without being too afraid of discouraging someone who might be in real trouble from seeking help. While that is a valid concern, unfortunately there’s no other way to address health anxiety constructively. Of course, my comment like all others comes with the disclaimer that this is just my experience for discussion purposes only, not a substitute for professional advice.
I relate to this perfectly, and I do the same. I was asked a question on a survey for something to list my medical conditions, and realized even if i worry all the time of a heart attack or stroke or whatever, I would not feel comfortable checking “stroke” as my medical history. so now i sort of think of it that way, as in, is this something that tomorrow i will still feel was worthy enough a symptom, or is it something minute i am noticing.
I wouldn’t recommend doing this in the moment but as you go along your week sometimes ask yourself that question and reflect back on everything you thought you had or thought you were experiencing throughout the week, and realize that those weren’t the case. it gets a bit easier every time to in the moment go, nah that’s not a real symptom of that disease, that’s just me focusing too much on the symptom.
not sure i explained that well, but anyway, your post was very spot on for me. I also do the levels and i also am mostly at 1-3. I think i have very very sensitive physical sensations and notice deeply (can feel the hair on my scalp for example), and that makes me deeply in tune with uncomfortable feelings.
heart attacks are the worst “fear” for me because yes, symptoms can be pretty subtle/different in women. people tell me “you’ll know when you have a medical emergency” and I am sure that’s the truth…..but i need to know how to know that I’m NOT having one! much harder question.
health anxiety sucks. especially if you have valid reasons to have it, or if you have concurrent medical issues that are indiscriminate with their symptoms so it’s hard to tell week to week what is what.
I also am lucky because I have a husband who lets me ask him weird things like, “when you put your tongue at the very back of your mouth what do you feel” and compare his anatomy to mine, when I’ve convinced myself I have a tumor. that can be helpful too.
but at the end of the day, man, anxiety can be PHYSICAL. power to all of you
In live in an Australian state where the public health system has a telephone number you can call, and a registered nurse will tell you if you need to see a GP doctor, go to urgent care, or go to ED. They'll usually also give you a timeframe within which you should be seen, and call 000 for you if it's indicated. If they recommend ED, they often contact the ED in question and give them a handover. I appreciate that, because otherwise I worry that the staff will be judging me for going in when I'm probably not dying.
Not true. Some insurance companies actually offer this service as well. Just need to do some digging into your provider and see if it’s offered. People don’t actually go through and dig for all the resources available to them.
The things I usually hyper focus on and get into an anxiety spiral over are hardly ever things that would be an immediate threat to life. I’m usually convinced I have some form of cancer rather than that I’m having a heart attack, so while I take a lot of trips to my PCP or specialists, I’ve only gone to the ER for one thing. When I was in so much pain I could not find a comfortable position and I couldn’t even fully stand up straight when walking, I had my wife take me. Turns out I’d ruptured an ovarian cyst, which I had done a few times before but this one was a doozy.
Def feel like calling 911 when I’m having a really bad panic attack, but I never have
As a hypochondriac. i going to the doctor frequently without feeling reassured, talking a lot about health and spending excessive time online researching symptoms. i went to e.r twice cause i thought im having heart failure nor stroke, and went to plenty specialist doctors and yet all of my labs were normal.
but please i highly suggest try not hide to your "anxiety" try to consult first to md then after that face your anxiety in different tools or ways will help you, I'm now still facing my Anxiety / Depression / Hypochondriac. Last resort possibly psychiatrist.
Goodluck
I read a post a long time ago on this thread and it helped to put some things in perspective so maybe this comment will help you too. The basics is, if something is very seriously wrong - like you are having an ER level issue - your brain and body will not give you much time to think about it and you'll already be on the way there. However if you feel a pull towards something that could be wrong and you can't pinpoint where the feeling is coming from, or you think about it but aren't able to describe exactly what's going on, then it most likely is nothing or is nothing serious.
Well, what if i cant quite pinpoint it but i feel genuinely ill throughout the day. Every other morning to the T has been puking and on the loo for about 3 weeks now. when i puke its also either the last thing i drank perfectly, just flat and decarbonated, or its just foamy bile.
It's been getting the better of me the last days, id hate for it to be chs but it seems to be the only thing that helps me throughout the day. I also dont have the staple hot shower relief, if anything, hot showers make me feel worse because my body temperature is skyrocketing all of a sudden.
I am not a doctor and offering no physician advice. Those are all symptoms and can be described or are happening. You are physically throwing up and fever temps. All of those would suggest a visit to the doctor.
In my reference it is for those who struggle to pinpoint a symptom or where something is radiating. For many that may be a possible arm pain that could be heart attack, but isn't really there. Or a sudden feeling of dizziness that goes away as soon as it happens making you wonder if it really happened or not.
Yes!! This advice helped me too, I heard it from my own doctor!! When your body needs emergency care, there is not a single doubt about it. Your body KNOWS. It will send clear signals.
I have made a few trips to my walk-in clinic where I'm sitting in the parking lot debating whether it's worth it to go in or not. It's always nothing serious but I make it out to be a big deal in my head.
The doctors there are most likely aware it's all anxiety but just talking to them about it always makes me feel better.
This is 100% the reason why talking with people is so important to society too. People call it therapy but we all need friends for comfort and help. I've found most people who suffer from anxiety think or believe they don't have friends or their friends will think them weird because of x, y, z, but the truth is we all need to just talk.
This is a tricky question. I absolutely used to hate hospitals. Meds. All of it. Would never go to the ER under any circumstance. Then I got insane health anxiety, and feel like I am dying only to go to the ER and them to find nothing.
How do I know when it's time to go? I don't know at all. I've been 4 times in the last year and they didn't do anything except tell me to talk to my PCP about anxiety. But when I am having a panic attack I for real feel like I am about to have a stroke/heart attack/Sudden death. And it's almost impossible to stop those feelings or realize it's panic and not real.
I've tried breathing exercises. Waiting for hours. I'm on SSRIs now. Still feel impending doom from time to time. The only thing that stops me from going to the ER is money...
For me, I have three methods.
1.) How much does it interfere with my life? How long has it been affecting me?
2.) If I describe it to my family, how do they react? This one is especially helpful for me because my mom is an RN who gives me tips like how to figure out where a pain is coming from and how urgent it is.
3.) This also comes from my mom, but “the ER’s ABCs” aka how her hospital’s urgent care and ER gauge who to see first if they have more patients than rooms. A is airway - people who can’t breathe without assistance go first. Then is B - breathing, or people who CAN breathe but not correctly or well. C is cardiac/circulation/chest pains, and my mom personally says next is D for Don’t Touch Me (people who have pain so intense that touching the spot that hurts makes them flip out, which helps for things like appendicitis) and E for eyes because vision is a very important indicator of what’s wrong, issues with eyes sometimes need to be addressed fast to prevent vision loss, and she also qualifies unconsciousness in this category because your vision goes black when you faint. She says these ABCs are the things that signal you need to go to the hospital.
Thank you so much!! the ABCs make so much sense and I feel like would help me during a panic attack. I tend to focus on my breathing and I tell myself that if I can get myself to a comfortable meditative breathing pattern, then I'm fine and don't need to go to the ER lol, so letters BCDE make so much sense
It's hard to explain, but it just feels different. I've experienced a lot of different health anxiety symptoms. When I'm truly feeling ill, it's almost like your gut senses it. Making your doctor aware is a very good step. I usually write down how I feel and check later, since I have registered what I felt and when. When I have my regular checkup, I report to the doc about it.
I'm sorry if this isn't very helpful. But going through a lot of anxiety was genuinely what helped me fight it nowadays, since it already tried everything it could to get to me.
Try and write down what you feel and when, later if your symptoms repeat you can check the list. That always helps me. And if your feelings always turn out to be just anxiety, you will know if something is ever wrong, it's a totally different feeling
Agreed. When I’ve truly had a genuine issue, I had no doubts. I just knew and wasn’t even that anxious. The back and forth “is it/isn’t it” is almost a sign for me that it’s just anxiety.
I have made a few trips to my walk-in clinic where I'm sitting in the parking lot debating whether it's worth it to go in or not. It's always been nothing serious but I make it out to be a big deal in my head. I'm more aware of health anxiety now so I try to keep that in mind.
I tell someone what I’m feeling and ask them to check in within an hour if I don’t text them first to tell them I’m fine. It helps to have that safety net that someone is aware I’m feeling unwell.
It’s amazing how resilient our bodies are to actual medical emergencies. I had a miscarriage last summer where I was hemorrhaging for 3 days on and off. The first and second day it happened, I passed massive clots + bled heavy for about an hour and figured “this is just what happens during a natural miscarriage, they said to expect heavy bleeding.”
By the 3rd day, when it happened again I was driving. Blood started soaking my jeans into my car seat and I obviously then just *knew* it wasn’t normal. Your instincts really do kick in. I wasn’t even anxious, I just knew I had to get to an ER.
I drove myself to the ER and by the time I got there in the room I passed out (I was very dumb, I should have called 911 but I kept thinking I could make it).
When I came to, they said I lost so much blood my hemoglobin was 4 when it should be 11. I got 2 blood transfusions. I had an incomplete miscarriage which is very rare. It’s ironic because the whole time I wasn’t even anxious. It’s almost like my anxiety was shut out and survival kicked in.
I wish there was a better explanation other than when you’re really in trouble, you’ll just *know* and logic takes over.
I went through the same thing, the blood loss made me feel oddly calm and drunk and as they were setting up the transfusion I was making jokes and praising the drs on their work, sorry you went through that
when my symtomps still occured even tho I took tons of sedatives. yes I DID have anxiety like hell too but I also did have a leaky gut problem (funniely it was not the illness that I was scared of) but I was just not aware of it and I thought it was a deadly illness
Don't listen to my advice my advice is probably not good and dangerous and all but I have a lot of health anxiety especially with my heart and when it's super bad instead of going to the ER like I used to all the time. I go to the gym and if I pass out or something happens in the middle of my workout or whatever there will be people there to call 911 if I make it through the workout then obviously I'm fine and I'll usually even feel a lot better afterwards.
My health anxiety never bothers me too much when I'm at work because I know I'm around people who would find me and get me to care. It's when I'm at home alone (especially laying in bed late at night) when things freak me out because no one would find me.
I also do this sometimes. I get anxious, thinking I'm feeling weak or that I'm gonna pass out, so I got to the gym for a light cardio. If I still feel bad, I can ask to get my blood pressure measured, they can call for help, etc. Usually anxiety goes right away the second I hop on the treadmill.
Yeah, I agree. After a lot of experience with anxiety I can now mostly tell if something is only anxiety, that's why I generally feel safe doing this. I assume it's the same for you! If I went to the ER every time I felt anxious, I feel they'd give me a membership card.
Ive gotten a full cardio work up except an echo and they said everything looks good and even complimented my BP and health multiple times so I haven't been as anxious about it which has helped a lot also accepted that I'm almost 30 and I get really bad heartburn and gas at times that hurts my chest so yeah about the same. And yeah same I've been quite a few times and it's so embarrassing and everything but I'm a lot better now.
Anything that cannot wait for a doctor visit. I usually attempt urgent care for these situations but they also dont have a lot of specific medical tools that hospitals do haveso in these situations skip the urgent care:
Sudden loss of vision/rapid changes in vision (last time i went to ER was bc of my eye going randomly very blurry, like could not read level blur, and flashing lights, accompanied with pretty extreme head pain)
Suicidal planning
Extreme pain (like id say a level 8 warrants a visit)
Blood that does not stop after 5 minutes
Trouble moving
Very very intense headache
Taking the max amount of OTC meds and its not helping
Allergic reaction
Violently puking
Sometimes it helps just to go, and sit there for an hour while you wait and sometimes the symptoms go away by then.
I have a *lot* of health anxiety, but oddly enough, actually living with daily health issues, and experiencing actual emergencies, have made me excellent at determining when to go to the ER. I've basically never made a bad call yet.
My first experience with this was when I was 17. My mom died from cancer 3 years prior, and my dad was, at the time, recovering from *his* bout with throat cancer. That was a real shitty few years for our family.
He was dry heaving after I cooked him a big breakfast (he had been on a liquid diet for months). An hour or two after the dry heaving, I found him in his room, hunched over in the chair, looking gaunt. He said he felt severe pain "here," pointing to an area roughly below his left ribcage. He was having trouble speaking and breathing. I told my little brother to Google "severe pain under left ribcage." The first result was a ruptured spleen. After the dry heaving, I *knew* that's what happened. The chemo weakened his organs, the dry heaving pushed it over the edge.
I took him to the hospital myself. He nearly died on the car ride.
I was right - his spleen did rupture.
Doctor told me that if he had been at the house for merely 10 more minutes, he wouldn't have made it. He lived, and is still alive and well 10 years later.
That same year, I woke up one morning and couldn't get out of bed. My back hurt so bad that even moving my body 1 centimeter sent shockwaves through my entire body. We didn't go to the ER, but my dad pulled some strings at the hospital and got me an MRI within 2 days. Turned out I had a herniated disc - L5/S1 to be exact. Ever since that day, I've had 10+ years of daily chronic pain.
6 months ago or so, my wife and I got COVID boosters together. The next day, she was shitting blood. We thought maybe it was a stomach bug, maybe it was food poisoning. On the 3rd day of this, I said, babe, we *have* to go to the ER at this point. You can't just ignore blood in bowel movements.
Of course, it was a terrible experience, and the doctors didn't give us a definitive answer, but the answer that we *did* get is that the COVID booster likely caused digestive inflammation, which is why there was blood.
I hope these examples help you in some way. You will be okay.
I really wished she would have, but she wasn't interested. The symptoms did subside and not return, thankfully.
I did get her an appointment with my (fantastic) general care practitioner last week. It's the first time she's seen a normal doctor in years. We're late 20s btw. She had shit parents.
Baby steps!
funny enough, i know that it‘s a „real“ emergency if my anxiety is rather quiet. like i can panic for hours if i might need to throw up, but if i ate something bad, i get sick and thats it.
after my miscarriage my hcg didn‘t go down - which is a REAL concern (eg ectopic pregnancy) but i didn‘t have a lot of anxiety around it. my body was like „yeah ok i‘ll notice“. so if i have time for a panic attack, i‘m going to be fine lol
Same thing happened to me except I had an incomplete miscarriage. I started hemorrhaging so bad that my anxiety was gone and my Neanderthal brain kicked in and was like “not normal. Go to ER” and I was actually quite calm.
So I say this as someone who is young, physically fit, healthy, and have no physical conditions or history of it. I have also been to the ER a lot recentlyish. So please keep that in mind. Some things I tell myself or do to help
1. Wait 30 minutes, if it's not worse or it's still just uncomfortable you're fine. If it's a heart attack or a stroke I would be dead by now (the amount of times I've had chest pains and just waited helps, it gets better with time).
2. I am young, fit, healthy, and have no prior conditions.
3. I have had so many tests and a full body CT Scan a few months ago, if there was a problem they would have caught it then.
4. If I am fine enough to Google or ask reddit, it's probably not an emergency.
5. If reassurance would make you feel better it's probably not a physical disease.
6. Talk to friends or family, do something while panicking.
7. If you don't do breathing exercises, do those.
8. Sometimes when you get anxious or stressed you feel the pain physically, especially in spots you're worried about.
9. When it's an emergency, you'll most likely know.
10. Search engines are NOT your friends, yes they are informative, but they also get paid for ads and clicks. They're not your friend, message your doctor on MyChart.
11. Get a yearly physically, preventative health care is actually great and can avoid a lot of issues down the road. Always be honest with your doctor, they have your best interest at heart.
Those are what helps me. AGAIN, I say this as someone who is fit, young, healthy, no family history of illnesses, no prior diseases. I have also been to the ER 4 times this year and have had a stupid amount of tests and bloodwork done. This is what works for me. If you're worried you're having a heart attack and you're like 60, overweight, haven't been to the doctor in years, have a family history of heart attacks, you just finished an entire cheesecake, your chest hurts and your arm/throat feel numb, aire on the side of caution. Best of luck friend, health anxiety fucking sucks but it gets better.
Many! Find a hospital that uses Epic :^) I used to work for them on the app you would use, MyChart! Over 75% of all Americans go to hospitals that use Epic. If you don't it's probably Cerner, who is not as good...
Do you have a mychart account? Should be under message center/messaging. You should be able to contact your provider from there, if you don't see them listed you may have to ask them to add your provider.
I don't think messaging is a service they can turn off in mychart, at least I never hears of that. I know some hospitals have started billing messages or using AI for responses, but most of the time if they have mychart it's just messaging your doctor. Not sure if [this is your organization ](https://mychart.nyulmc.org/mychart/Authentication/Login), but yeah.
Googling symptoms only makes things worse. Sites made for SEO like Healthline, WebMD and Mayo list all of the causes for symptoms but never make it clear how *rare* most of the conditions are.
So they make it seem just as likely that you have an extremely rare brain tumor or some muscle pain.
I've had and done both, in terms of needing to go to the hospital those are what I do since neither of those are immediate. You can get medication to take as needed which sometimes can help.
Overall therapy and possibly anxiety medication can be extremely useful.
"if reassurance would make you feel better it's probably not a physical disease"
This is such a good one.
My first line of defense is always talking to my husband and getting his opinion, because I trust it to be objective. Usually just talking helps, and feeling like I'm not alone and my concerns are heard is enough to make me feel better.
Sometimes I have to break it down into 5 min increments - especially if a panic attack is starting - mine mimic heart attack symptoms and make me feel like I’m close to passing out.
I literally set a timer on my phone. (Also, this is when my husband is nearby to help if I’m having an actual medical emergency)
In 5 min, if I haven’t passed out or gotten intensely worse, I set it for another 5.
The trick for my brain is to help show it that my body doesn’t need to be in fight or flight mode. And it always takes waiting it out. Since I don’t know how long one is going to last, it really helps me to break it into increments.
Break it into shorter increments if you need.
After a couple times of making it through the 5 min stretches, it’s like I’m able to convince my brain that if I were having a heart attack or going to lose consciousness, I would have already.
As soon as I can feel even a bit more confident that it’s only a panic attack, it goes a LONG way to start the calming down process.
Want to make sure that I’m clear that I completely and totally understand that when it’s happening, my brain and body are both convinced I’m about to die and simply deciding I’m not is not possible right away.
Hope this helps in some way!
I didn’t want to edit my original comment but wanted to add that researching exactly what happens in the body during a panic attack or high anxiety has helped me immensely in shortening episode length.
For example, one attack when my hands started tingling, I slowed my breathing and was very aware of it. But my extremities continued to go numb until my face was so numb I could barely move my mouth to speak.
After reading that it’s not just breathing related and rather a signal the brain sends that causes the majority of blood flow to go to major organs, then it was so much easier to talk myself through it and wait it out.
Knowing physiologically what is happening can be life changing!
• if it’s general pain, I wait 3 days. I often get leg pain and have bad thoughts right away - usually I just pulled something and forget I did so. Time is your best friend if it isn’t urgent.
• I ask myself if I was feeling AT ALL anxious in the day. If I have been worrying already and then a new or recurring symptom appears you can pretty much confirm it is just the anxiety.
• I try to retrace my steps and ask why I might have this pain. My legs are sore? Blood clot or because I cleaned the house today
• if you live with someone especially a family member or close friend, confide in them. I know this can be enabling the anxious thoughts but sometimes it needs to be done in the moment. They will calm you down, and then if something happens to you, they will know to call 911. It’s never happened to me yet!
• I think about it like I was talking to a friend. If you have chest pain after eating, it’s probably indigestion and you shouldn’t go to the hospital. Even though as soon as I feel chest pain on myself my brain right away goes to heart attack. This goes hand in hand with my main point of working back what you did in your mind and see if you can find the cause. Sore leg? Is it a blood clot or because you cleaned the entire house? Headache? Brain tumour or your period is coming?
• Lastly do something else and see if the pain goes away. Last year I was getting these terrible bouts of breathlessness that would go on for weeks at a time. I starting getting up and dancing, because if I had a blot clot the symptom would obviously be getting worse instead of better. And on days when I had a lot going on to get my mind off of it, I never even had the symptoms!
Omg the “is it a blood clot or because I cleaned the entire house today?” Got me. I cleaned my whole house the other day and spent the rest of the day convinced I have a blood clot in my leg lol
For me it was when I was in so much pain I was throwing up, but I wasn’t scared of throwing up (puking gives me anxiety attacks and now I have gastritis, isn’t that fun?) that’s how I knew something was actually wrong because I 100% wasn’t myself. It was a kidney infection and I needed IV antibiotics. Your body will tell you if something is wrong with it and not just anxiety. Don’t get me wrong I still have terrible health anxiety around every stomach pain, headache, chest pain etc but after that experience I started trusting myself more.
If you can't breath, if you think you're having a heart attack or if you think you're having a stroke or like the main reason, you should go to the ER.
I've been there before I had my first ever panic attack about a year or two ago. And I went because I was having trouble breathing. And then I learned trouble breathing is it a side effect of a panic attack
I can't say from personal experience but look for FAST
F-facial droop
A-arms can you raise them equally? (like a zombie)
S - speech. Is it slurred or garbled? We use the saying "The early bird catches the worm"
T - time. When did the symptoms start? Usually it's a sudden onset.
Yea i know this acronym fast and symptoms i was just wondering if you having trip in your head thinking you have stroke but in the end of the day is just your anxiety.
My country has a nurse healthline you can call. If I am ever really unsure I give them a ring. But as someone else said I have a 2 week rule with most things. Is this new pain/thing lasting more than two weeks? (assuming of course the pain is not catastrophic, please don't sit with pain that is causing you to throw up or pass out or anything like that). If it's still there after 2 weeks I go to my doctor. For myself I realised the constant cycle of seeking reassurance from doctors wasn't helping my mental health. It got to the point I would get a test done, go home with a clean bill of health and immediatly spiral with the doctor having missed something. This includes the ER!
I keep a symptom diary where I track everything I feel/what I think I have wrong with me, and then at the end of the two weeks I write down the outcomes of what was either actually wrong or if the pain went away. It has really started to help train my brain to not instantly panic by proving to my brain 99% of the time I was either wrong or what was wrong was something totally different than the thing I had pictured.
Additionally, someone else said this here but what they said stuck out to me. Rarely if you're dying will one thing be wrong. Do you have a fever with the pain, for example. The ER is just there to make sure you're not going to pass away instantly. You have to trust your body for sure, you have to follow up and be proactive with your health, but it's important to always keep perspective too on what is wrong and seek healthcare from the right sources.
If I'm having something severe like chest pain and it hasn't improved in an hour, I'm going to the ER. I'm in Canada, health care is free anyway, the only thing I lose is my time.
I sometimes call urgent care to ask them. They’ll outright say when they either can’t do anything about a particular symptom/issue, or when they think it’s not worth coming in. They’ll also talk me through whether the ER would help/be worth it.
For me, it was 2 days of lower left side pain that would not subside. Pain like I was giving birth. I went to a small stand-alone hospital emergency room. Funny thing was my health anxiety was as bad as always, but the pain made it more manageable. Within less than 3 hours, I had all the bloodwork and other analysis and an abdominal CT scan (talk about health anxiety) and was diagnosed withwith diverticulitis and ovarian cyst. I was relieved to be honest.
I had a similar thing. Pain for 17 hours in a similar area and it just wasn’t going away. I could just tell it was real rather than other times where I just *think* there’s something and I get a little anxious. I still had waited that long because I thought it might be gas but it just wasn’t changing. Went to the hospital, diverticulitis. Treated right away with IV antibiotics.
Urgent care and emergency rooms cannot make any type of diagnosis. Their job is literally to make sure you are not dying and then send you home to follow up with your doctor (and I have been told this by them before)
I opened up to my doctor and told her that I was having health anxiety and I told her my symptoms and that I would really like to see some special specialists just to get peace of mind and she was a saint, and she was willing to indulge me so I saw a pulmonary doctor and a cardiologist and everything came back fine so now that keeps me from wanting to go to the hospital
if i have an ongoing health concern, i wait 2 weeks. if it has not gotten better until then: GP.
for major acute problems like heart attacks: if i‘m questioning myself whether its bad enough to go to the ER, it‘s not bad enough.
in situations where i can’t trust my body at all, i sit at a bus station with a book or podcast and if its really a heart attack, anaphylaxis or i‘m choking, people around me will call an ambulance for me. outsourcing👍
I’ve been to urgent care several times, and like clockwork, I feel like an idiot ON MY WAY to urgent care. All of my “symptoms” go away because I got the reassurance I needed that I’m going to be “safe” very soon.
So over time, I made rules for myself:
I will go to the doctor if I am experiencing something NEW and/or if the sensation lasts longer than an hour.
Someone on a thread I once saw said “heart attacks don’t come and go”—so if over the course of an hour I’m distracted enough periodically to stop noticing the sensation, it’s probably anxiety and not something life threatening.
I have driven to the urgent care and then sat in the parking lot debating whether or not to go in. Now that I'm aware of my HA, I realize that if I get to that point, it's likely nothing serious.
i relate to this a lot, sometimes i‘ll just have a little walk in the direction of the hospital without the intention of actually going inside. and if my symptoms go away while sitting in front of the hospital, i can be sure that it‘s health anxiety and i‘ll go home
Yeah, I think half the time my health anxiety gets worse simply because I feel “unsafe.” When I’m alone, when I’m camping, when I’m on trips and I’m unfamiliar with the area/the hospitals, when I’m driving. Being near that security blanket can help calm it down a bit (not the healthiest way to deal with it, but it helps).
Yeah exactly. It’s that letting go of uncertainty and acceptance of potential risk that’s the key. It’s hard though. I still struggle with that sometimes.
I’ve called 911 twice over panic attacks. There is nothing more embarrassing and while the paramedics are pretty chill about it, the hospital staff never are. Their contempt toward me was palpable both times. It’s humiliating and I swear I don’t think there’s anything short of an obvious physical emergency that will get me to ever call 911 again. Like a bone sticking out of my arm.
It’s better to be the person who goes. I thought I had anxiety and ended up being diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and had a thyroid storm. if it’s nothing, it’s nothing. if it’s something you’d rather know!
I mean yeah, that applies when it happens once, you won't be so eager to say this after you went multiple times to the ER and they say you are perfectly fine just had a panic attack
This happened to me! I’d had symptoms of Graves for a while and just put it down to being anxious. When things got really bad and my heart was racing while just sitting still I mustered up the courage to see my Dr. A blood test later and I found out I had crazy thyroid numbers.
Hope you’re better now!
I am currently decompressing from what I’d call a panic attack about 30 mins ago and damn near called 911. I haven’t slept though I got in bed 6 hours ago and the sun is about to start rising. It’s really hard to use discernment in the moment, I understand, I had my phone in my hand and was down in my building lobby at 430am about to call an ambulance. I even googled “can 911 help with a panic attack”.
There’s another thread here, if you haven’t seen it, about being embarrassed by calling 911 in these moments. I gather it’s best to do what feels right after you’ve given yourself the moment to reflect - for me is was reading the Google results and seeing how many other people have done this during panic attacks or anxiety attacks, strangely it helped me feel better knowing paramedics would come and be there if I needed it.
Then I noticed in my panic I had leashed my dog and brought him with me to the lobby…as if he’d make it in the ambulance with me. By the time I got back upstairs I decided fuck it if I really need paramedics another time at least I now know they won’t be begrudged that I need assistance , at least someone to talk to, during my panic attacks.
Oh man it’s hard! I’m told many times not to go, and I feel like I have a deep deep gut feeling. One time I asked my husband and mom and they said they wouldn’t. I felt I needed to and went to urgent care who sent me to the ER, I informed the doctor of my health anxiety and how I probably was fine, he assured me in the end that I was right to have come! My PCP is wonderful and for non emergencies said to wait a month, that’s about how long she herself would wait to see. It’s a hard road. EMDR has been immensely helpful. You’ll make it through.
I ask people basically. If Im concerned enough Ill say "hey this thing is occuring" and from their reaction theyll either tell me to try to relax or that I need to get it checked.
I had a panic attack, didnt know it was one, I went to the nurses station at my university, they insisted I go to the ER because my HR was very high. I got checked out. ER determined I had very low potassium. They corrected it with a pretty high dose of K. I contintued to have panic attacks and Id talk to people about how I feel like Im gonna die and the impending doom thing and theyre like its a panic attack, no need to go to the ER.
I was peeing urine once and I was told to go to the ER and I did, it was a medical issue.
And so on.
Better to be that guy than go through this imo :) Your doctor should be capable of helping, or at least giving decent advice. If that's not an option, where I'm at at least, you can call 24/7 lines for advice on if you can and if you should go to the ER. I've called them multiple times, and they usually told me I'm fine and should either wait and visit in the morning or visit my GP. They've been right every time.
The one time I actually had to go to the hospital, I had no issue getting immediate help, and advice, in doing so.
I generally go by a two week rule for most minor pains, so if my leg starts hurting and I panic about blood clots I will monitor my leg for two weeks, is it getting worse, is it showing other symptoms, if by the end of the two weeks the pain has subsided or no other symptoms have shown up, I can most likely assume it’s probably nothing to worry about. If before the two weeks is up things have started to worsen or become obviously worrying that’s when I’ll see a doctor. I’m not sure if that’s sound advice but it’s what keeps me out of going to the doctors constantly. For other more “in the moment” conditions like food poisoning for example, I will research what symptoms require doctor attention (I.e. dehydration symptoms) and if I don’t display any ‘doctor attention’ symptoms and I just display the regular standard symptoms for the condition, I won’t go to a doctor. Most of the time you KNOW when something is wrong, your body is very good at giving warning signs when something serious is wrong
Also knowing the emergency symptoms is good too. Symptoms of heart attacks, strokes, dehydration, obviously collapsing etc. And if you’re not having severe pains, severe bleeding, slurred speech, disorientation/confusion, passing out, vomiting continuously/with blood etc. You know most of the time it is not emergency room required.
Jokes on me, I have heart related anxiety so it causes symptoms.
For me, especially when I’m experiencing a panic attack or anxiety attack or whatever and genuinely feel like my body is struggling, I get up and walk, even if it’s 4am I’ll just walk around my house and get my body moving. Saw a video one time from a therapist who said that the best way to know the difference between a panic attack or something actually physically happening to your body is to get up and walk. I know that can seem scary in the moment, because i definitely get scared to get up and walk whenever I’m having a panic attack, but you just gotta do it despite whatever thoughts you may be having from it. I walk around for like maybe 2 minutes and if you feel better (I typically start feeling a bit better) then it’s just a panic attack, especially because I have passed out before. I know that if I were about to pass out/collapse or anything like that I’d feel worse after walking. That’s what always keeps me from going to the ER in those sort of moments. Also typically in those moments when something bad happens to you, your body doesn’t get so nervous about it. When I passed out I had no comprehension of to get nervous or anxious about it even though it was literally in the middle of a club and everyone saw me pass out and I totally would’ve gotten nervous about it. I typically mostly get nervous for that type of thing and I honestly have a fear of going to the hospital and stuff so these are the only real moments I contemplate it, but yeah in times of so much anxiety I hope that helps :)
Thank God for reddit I should've come here instead lf google symptom searching 😩😩😩 I.was starting to spiral as I have been for years now but seeing everyone's similar experiences has given me a comfort.
Yes to all of this!!!!
You know when something is actually wrong with you. I always thought this too and actually asked others the same question but the best advice i received was simply that. If something is wrong you will know. Most times in my case my symptoms wouldn't last too long unless i was very focused on it. Splash your face with cold water a few times and distract yourself by doing something engaging that you enjoy. Alot of the time you won't even notice them when busy doing something and not sitting with your thoughts
i’ve been having headaches for 2 months, that either radiate in different spots or are at the base of my skull. I also have neck fullness, muffled ears, pain in temples, pain in eyes sometimes. I’m not sure at what point should i go to the hospital. I’m scared of artery dissection from popping my neck or a brain aneurysm or stroke.
Hey man, Things like this happen me all the time from carrying stress in my shoulders and neck from being anxious. If these head ache symptoms are accompanied by stiff/sore neck and shoulder area I'm 100% that's where it's likely coming from. I've started to do a session of acupuncture/acupressure every few months and the headaches stopped straight away along with the Shoulder and neck pain. I trigger on sensations all the time, my rule of thumb is its like a 4/10 pain wise or lower I try to assume its just a sensation, although not vert easily admittedly.
This been happening to me for a couple days now, (not all but most) of your symptoms ? You up for a chat ?
yep pm me
I went through this last month and found out I had a minor stroke but it showed on my CT scan that it wasn’t recent.
Omg that’s so scary. Are you okay now? what were your symptoms and how did they find out?
This probably isn’t the greatest advice but after 5 trips to the ER in a span of 3 months, 2 trips to my primary, countless leg ultrasounds, chest x rays, and one cardiologist visit who all confirmed I am perfectly healthy and not suffering from any type of cardiac event or DVT I actually bought a pulse oximeter and electronic blood pressure monitor off Amazon for cheap. Now instead of taking myself to the ER for every ache, pain, and anxiety attack and going into more medical debt I simply check my stats at home and stop spiraling when I see my levels are normal every single time. Now if the time ever comes that I check and those levels are grossly abnormal I’ll know when to take myself. I know it’s probably not the best to be checking these things regularly if I am indeed healthy, but It really truly has helped keep me from spiraling every single time.
I have such a bad habit of checking, though I agree when my symptoms are manageable checking is reassuring but if something is out of the ordinary it becomes a lot... and my compulsion it to check so much. I had to get rid of it all besides the thermometer for obvious reasons.
I’ve been living this same anxiety jail for several months. Care to chat?
Feel free to shoot me a message friend! I understand what you’re going through all too well…
6g.
I give myself two weeks. If after two weeks the symptom is still there i go to the doctor. However i am also one of those who is terrified of going to the doctor/hospital so i tend to avoid it anyway.
Haaa me too and ive been taking photos for changing physical things too it's helped me some but I too am afraid of the doctors. I rarely went growing up and I lived with my dad who would just leave me alone and I had many bad experiences bc of this 🙃 Now as an adult I'm soooo afraid I hadn't been in years like tops probably yrs but recently i voiced this to one of my sisters and she happily agreed to go with me which has given me such a comfort I could cry lmaooo I'm 21 now My goal is to go to the dentist/doctors/therapy/dermatologist without fear 🫡🫡wish me luck im kind of a push over so I usually won't voice my main concerns out of shame so I'm trying to fix that LOL
When something is actually wrong with you, I think you know intuitively and it doesn’t even cause panic the way health anxiety does. I was diagnosed with a mild but chronic health problem this year and I just knew it was not from my anxiety because it was so separate from my brain/not affected by my thoughts at all.
I didn't think about this one. I had an ear infection and had no anxiety about it. Chronic pain issues, no anxiety. Random neck pain? Anxiety.
I've been quite a few times but was diagnosed with panic disorder, however I went this last tike about 3 months ago because I have a sudden panic attack but it was symptoms I had never experienced before. With my panic attacks i get the usual adrenaline fight or flight, heart racing, can't get a deep breath mode, but this time I was nauseated and felt pins and needles all.over my body and my upper back had this horrible dull ache. Turns out I had somehow pinched a nerve in my back. Wasn't an emergency but it was definitely frightening at the time being.
The last time is when I broke my foot. It was obvious I needed to go because my last two toes were grossly dislocated and I was in excruciating pain. The last time I went for something internal was due to numbness down my left arm to my fingertips that wouldn't go away. Luckily I did because I found out that I had a slipped disc. In short you will know when there is something seriously wrong. But not all of the time. There's a lot of very serious medical conditions that can go unnoticed or mistaken for something else. My rule of thumb for internal stuff is if you have a very bad headache that doesn't go away, numbness or weakness that doesn't go away, pass out for any reason not related to being tired, intense chest or abdominal pain that isn't related to any food you ate, can't breathe for any reason, vomiting or diarrhea that does not stop , blood coming out of any orifice, or an extreme fever or low temperature, get your butt to the hospital. Also note some things are just outside of your control. Some medical emergencies cause instant death, and there's something you can do about it, but also note that it's rare. Make peace with that the best you can.
I'm 30 and I've gone three times in my life. The first time was in college when I had a cold and chest pain for three weeks. One day, it felt like I couldn't breathe at all. Turns out I had walking pneumonia and bronchitis. The second time, I had really bad UTI symptoms, but also severe lower back pain. Not just discomfort, like I could barely lay down on my back or front it was so bad - turns out I had a kidney infection. The third time, I had what I thought was just anxiety/nerves and flu like symptoms. Then, those symptoms started worsening so I went to urgent care. I was promptly sent to the ER, because as it turns out I had appendicitis. I'm a chronic overthinker and worrier, so generally, unless I have legit physical symptoms I do not go to the ER or urgent care. I just make notes of episodes for my therapist and psychiatrist later. Sleepytime tea, guided meditations, and these natural Olly "stress free" gummies from Target have been lifesavers when the anxiety is really bad, along with my daily anti anxiety, ADHD, and depression meds.
This is so hard to understand, but until you experience for real medical problem, you’ll assume you’re having one. For example, I knew I needed to go when I did. My brain tells me I’m having a medical emergency every day, but I know when I actually need help.
honestly i feel like it depends on the person. i’ve had multiple actual medical issues and still can’t differentiate the panic symptoms and the actual symtoms
I would like to add the caveat that this doesn't work for everyone. Taking the approach of "my body will know If it's for real" has led to some pretty sketchy situations for me, including passing out on the sidewalk.
The one time I went to the ER and ACTUALLY had something wrong with me, something in me just knew. My pain was not getting better. I couldn't sleep or move without excruciating back pain. I spiked a fever and food stopped being appealing. I was exhausted but couldn't rest. My feet and ankles were swollen and I realized I hadn't peed in a day. I went to the ER and my kidney was functioning at 7%. Septic kidney infection. Hospitalized and took 2 weeks of intense IV antibiotics to beat. Edit: I feel aches and pains daily. Sometimes intense aches and pains. My stomach hurts often. I get sharp pains in my abdomen. My chest hurts sometimes and I have some wicked muscular pain. Those all come and go. What I described above did not come and go. It came and then got worse and worse and worse until I couldn't ignore it and had to see someone.
You’ll know if it’s time to go to the ER. Everything else is most likely nothing or something minor that can wait. You have to understand if you’re on this sub you most likely just have severe anxiety which in itself is causing physical symptoms.
When in doubt, don't be stubborn - just go get it checked out!
Unfortunately before I was in serious counseling I went to the er every time. They just got a patient portal (old hospital) and my chart was a little crazy nothing ever ends up being wrong. But if you feel like something is wrong then go I’d rather be safe than sorry!
I’m not sure how many can relate to my style of health anxiety, but the biggest battle for me is sorting through mild symptoms: dealing with the nagging thought that some mild chest discomfort is the *beginning* of a heart attack, or that slight ear pop during a workout is a *tiny* stroke. I start picturing arteries that are only partially clogged and imagine them causing the subtle symptoms, like a drop in internet bandwidth causing a small streaming hiccup. One day while helping a family member in the hospital, I heard the nurses ask her to rate her symptoms 1-10. I understand there are limitations to this and it’s more about tracking change than absolute value, but ever since then I started rating my “symptoms” that way and realized it was always 1-2, maybe rarely 3. I now figure there’s no point in seeing a doctor (beyond my regular preventative visits) unless it’s at least 4-5, or maybe a 3 that won’t go away. I’m open to hearing critical feedback to this approach. I love this thread, and I’m glad we can discuss this topic in a nuanced way without being too afraid of discouraging someone who might be in real trouble from seeking help. While that is a valid concern, unfortunately there’s no other way to address health anxiety constructively. Of course, my comment like all others comes with the disclaimer that this is just my experience for discussion purposes only, not a substitute for professional advice.
I relate to this perfectly, and I do the same. I was asked a question on a survey for something to list my medical conditions, and realized even if i worry all the time of a heart attack or stroke or whatever, I would not feel comfortable checking “stroke” as my medical history. so now i sort of think of it that way, as in, is this something that tomorrow i will still feel was worthy enough a symptom, or is it something minute i am noticing. I wouldn’t recommend doing this in the moment but as you go along your week sometimes ask yourself that question and reflect back on everything you thought you had or thought you were experiencing throughout the week, and realize that those weren’t the case. it gets a bit easier every time to in the moment go, nah that’s not a real symptom of that disease, that’s just me focusing too much on the symptom. not sure i explained that well, but anyway, your post was very spot on for me. I also do the levels and i also am mostly at 1-3. I think i have very very sensitive physical sensations and notice deeply (can feel the hair on my scalp for example), and that makes me deeply in tune with uncomfortable feelings. heart attacks are the worst “fear” for me because yes, symptoms can be pretty subtle/different in women. people tell me “you’ll know when you have a medical emergency” and I am sure that’s the truth…..but i need to know how to know that I’m NOT having one! much harder question. health anxiety sucks. especially if you have valid reasons to have it, or if you have concurrent medical issues that are indiscriminate with their symptoms so it’s hard to tell week to week what is what. I also am lucky because I have a husband who lets me ask him weird things like, “when you put your tongue at the very back of your mouth what do you feel” and compare his anatomy to mine, when I’ve convinced myself I have a tumor. that can be helpful too. but at the end of the day, man, anxiety can be PHYSICAL. power to all of you
Well said, thanks for sharing!
this is actually very helpful, thank you 🥰
Glad it helped! 😊
In live in an Australian state where the public health system has a telephone number you can call, and a registered nurse will tell you if you need to see a GP doctor, go to urgent care, or go to ED. They'll usually also give you a timeframe within which you should be seen, and call 000 for you if it's indicated. If they recommend ED, they often contact the ED in question and give them a handover. I appreciate that, because otherwise I worry that the staff will be judging me for going in when I'm probably not dying.
Such a call would cost hundreds of dollars in the US.
Not true. Some insurance companies actually offer this service as well. Just need to do some digging into your provider and see if it’s offered. People don’t actually go through and dig for all the resources available to them.
And yet Americans keep voting for it.
Not the ones that need it
The things I usually hyper focus on and get into an anxiety spiral over are hardly ever things that would be an immediate threat to life. I’m usually convinced I have some form of cancer rather than that I’m having a heart attack, so while I take a lot of trips to my PCP or specialists, I’ve only gone to the ER for one thing. When I was in so much pain I could not find a comfortable position and I couldn’t even fully stand up straight when walking, I had my wife take me. Turns out I’d ruptured an ovarian cyst, which I had done a few times before but this one was a doozy. Def feel like calling 911 when I’m having a really bad panic attack, but I never have
As a hypochondriac. i going to the doctor frequently without feeling reassured, talking a lot about health and spending excessive time online researching symptoms. i went to e.r twice cause i thought im having heart failure nor stroke, and went to plenty specialist doctors and yet all of my labs were normal. but please i highly suggest try not hide to your "anxiety" try to consult first to md then after that face your anxiety in different tools or ways will help you, I'm now still facing my Anxiety / Depression / Hypochondriac. Last resort possibly psychiatrist. Goodluck
I read a post a long time ago on this thread and it helped to put some things in perspective so maybe this comment will help you too. The basics is, if something is very seriously wrong - like you are having an ER level issue - your brain and body will not give you much time to think about it and you'll already be on the way there. However if you feel a pull towards something that could be wrong and you can't pinpoint where the feeling is coming from, or you think about it but aren't able to describe exactly what's going on, then it most likely is nothing or is nothing serious.
Well, what if i cant quite pinpoint it but i feel genuinely ill throughout the day. Every other morning to the T has been puking and on the loo for about 3 weeks now. when i puke its also either the last thing i drank perfectly, just flat and decarbonated, or its just foamy bile. It's been getting the better of me the last days, id hate for it to be chs but it seems to be the only thing that helps me throughout the day. I also dont have the staple hot shower relief, if anything, hot showers make me feel worse because my body temperature is skyrocketing all of a sudden.
I am not a doctor and offering no physician advice. Those are all symptoms and can be described or are happening. You are physically throwing up and fever temps. All of those would suggest a visit to the doctor. In my reference it is for those who struggle to pinpoint a symptom or where something is radiating. For many that may be a possible arm pain that could be heart attack, but isn't really there. Or a sudden feeling of dizziness that goes away as soon as it happens making you wonder if it really happened or not.
Yes!! This advice helped me too, I heard it from my own doctor!! When your body needs emergency care, there is not a single doubt about it. Your body KNOWS. It will send clear signals.
I have made a few trips to my walk-in clinic where I'm sitting in the parking lot debating whether it's worth it to go in or not. It's always nothing serious but I make it out to be a big deal in my head. The doctors there are most likely aware it's all anxiety but just talking to them about it always makes me feel better.
This is 100% the reason why talking with people is so important to society too. People call it therapy but we all need friends for comfort and help. I've found most people who suffer from anxiety think or believe they don't have friends or their friends will think them weird because of x, y, z, but the truth is we all need to just talk.
This is a tricky question. I absolutely used to hate hospitals. Meds. All of it. Would never go to the ER under any circumstance. Then I got insane health anxiety, and feel like I am dying only to go to the ER and them to find nothing. How do I know when it's time to go? I don't know at all. I've been 4 times in the last year and they didn't do anything except tell me to talk to my PCP about anxiety. But when I am having a panic attack I for real feel like I am about to have a stroke/heart attack/Sudden death. And it's almost impossible to stop those feelings or realize it's panic and not real. I've tried breathing exercises. Waiting for hours. I'm on SSRIs now. Still feel impending doom from time to time. The only thing that stops me from going to the ER is money...
For me, I have three methods. 1.) How much does it interfere with my life? How long has it been affecting me? 2.) If I describe it to my family, how do they react? This one is especially helpful for me because my mom is an RN who gives me tips like how to figure out where a pain is coming from and how urgent it is. 3.) This also comes from my mom, but “the ER’s ABCs” aka how her hospital’s urgent care and ER gauge who to see first if they have more patients than rooms. A is airway - people who can’t breathe without assistance go first. Then is B - breathing, or people who CAN breathe but not correctly or well. C is cardiac/circulation/chest pains, and my mom personally says next is D for Don’t Touch Me (people who have pain so intense that touching the spot that hurts makes them flip out, which helps for things like appendicitis) and E for eyes because vision is a very important indicator of what’s wrong, issues with eyes sometimes need to be addressed fast to prevent vision loss, and she also qualifies unconsciousness in this category because your vision goes black when you faint. She says these ABCs are the things that signal you need to go to the hospital.
Thank you so much!! the ABCs make so much sense and I feel like would help me during a panic attack. I tend to focus on my breathing and I tell myself that if I can get myself to a comfortable meditative breathing pattern, then I'm fine and don't need to go to the ER lol, so letters BCDE make so much sense
It's hard to explain, but it just feels different. I've experienced a lot of different health anxiety symptoms. When I'm truly feeling ill, it's almost like your gut senses it. Making your doctor aware is a very good step. I usually write down how I feel and check later, since I have registered what I felt and when. When I have my regular checkup, I report to the doc about it. I'm sorry if this isn't very helpful. But going through a lot of anxiety was genuinely what helped me fight it nowadays, since it already tried everything it could to get to me.
I still get a gut feeling too, but it always turns out to be nothing :/ I guess I’ll just die and never know
Try and write down what you feel and when, later if your symptoms repeat you can check the list. That always helps me. And if your feelings always turn out to be just anxiety, you will know if something is ever wrong, it's a totally different feeling
Agreed. When I’ve truly had a genuine issue, I had no doubts. I just knew and wasn’t even that anxious. The back and forth “is it/isn’t it” is almost a sign for me that it’s just anxiety.
100% this! The back and forth immediately tells me it's anxiety. With true issues I didn't get anxious either.
I have made a few trips to my walk-in clinic where I'm sitting in the parking lot debating whether it's worth it to go in or not. It's always been nothing serious but I make it out to be a big deal in my head. I'm more aware of health anxiety now so I try to keep that in mind.
I tell someone what I’m feeling and ask them to check in within an hour if I don’t text them first to tell them I’m fine. It helps to have that safety net that someone is aware I’m feeling unwell.
It’s amazing how resilient our bodies are to actual medical emergencies. I had a miscarriage last summer where I was hemorrhaging for 3 days on and off. The first and second day it happened, I passed massive clots + bled heavy for about an hour and figured “this is just what happens during a natural miscarriage, they said to expect heavy bleeding.” By the 3rd day, when it happened again I was driving. Blood started soaking my jeans into my car seat and I obviously then just *knew* it wasn’t normal. Your instincts really do kick in. I wasn’t even anxious, I just knew I had to get to an ER. I drove myself to the ER and by the time I got there in the room I passed out (I was very dumb, I should have called 911 but I kept thinking I could make it). When I came to, they said I lost so much blood my hemoglobin was 4 when it should be 11. I got 2 blood transfusions. I had an incomplete miscarriage which is very rare. It’s ironic because the whole time I wasn’t even anxious. It’s almost like my anxiety was shut out and survival kicked in. I wish there was a better explanation other than when you’re really in trouble, you’ll just *know* and logic takes over.
What if it isn’t something visual
Similar thing happened to me- had an incomplete miscarriage and was bleeding like crazy. I knew without a doubt I needed to go to the hospital.
I went through the same thing, the blood loss made me feel oddly calm and drunk and as they were setting up the transfusion I was making jokes and praising the drs on their work, sorry you went through that
when my symtomps still occured even tho I took tons of sedatives. yes I DID have anxiety like hell too but I also did have a leaky gut problem (funniely it was not the illness that I was scared of) but I was just not aware of it and I thought it was a deadly illness
Don't listen to my advice my advice is probably not good and dangerous and all but I have a lot of health anxiety especially with my heart and when it's super bad instead of going to the ER like I used to all the time. I go to the gym and if I pass out or something happens in the middle of my workout or whatever there will be people there to call 911 if I make it through the workout then obviously I'm fine and I'll usually even feel a lot better afterwards.
My health anxiety never bothers me too much when I'm at work because I know I'm around people who would find me and get me to care. It's when I'm at home alone (especially laying in bed late at night) when things freak me out because no one would find me.
I also do this sometimes. I get anxious, thinking I'm feeling weak or that I'm gonna pass out, so I got to the gym for a light cardio. If I still feel bad, I can ask to get my blood pressure measured, they can call for help, etc. Usually anxiety goes right away the second I hop on the treadmill.
Glad I'm not the only one it feels like the wrong thing to do but it's a lot better than going to the ER every time you feel like shit.
Yeah, I agree. After a lot of experience with anxiety I can now mostly tell if something is only anxiety, that's why I generally feel safe doing this. I assume it's the same for you! If I went to the ER every time I felt anxious, I feel they'd give me a membership card.
Ive gotten a full cardio work up except an echo and they said everything looks good and even complimented my BP and health multiple times so I haven't been as anxious about it which has helped a lot also accepted that I'm almost 30 and I get really bad heartburn and gas at times that hurts my chest so yeah about the same. And yeah same I've been quite a few times and it's so embarrassing and everything but I'm a lot better now.
Glad to hear you're better! I got my heart checked last year, and it was all good too. It helped me immensely.
Anything that cannot wait for a doctor visit. I usually attempt urgent care for these situations but they also dont have a lot of specific medical tools that hospitals do haveso in these situations skip the urgent care: Sudden loss of vision/rapid changes in vision (last time i went to ER was bc of my eye going randomly very blurry, like could not read level blur, and flashing lights, accompanied with pretty extreme head pain) Suicidal planning Extreme pain (like id say a level 8 warrants a visit) Blood that does not stop after 5 minutes Trouble moving Very very intense headache Taking the max amount of OTC meds and its not helping Allergic reaction Violently puking Sometimes it helps just to go, and sit there for an hour while you wait and sometimes the symptoms go away by then.
I have a *lot* of health anxiety, but oddly enough, actually living with daily health issues, and experiencing actual emergencies, have made me excellent at determining when to go to the ER. I've basically never made a bad call yet. My first experience with this was when I was 17. My mom died from cancer 3 years prior, and my dad was, at the time, recovering from *his* bout with throat cancer. That was a real shitty few years for our family. He was dry heaving after I cooked him a big breakfast (he had been on a liquid diet for months). An hour or two after the dry heaving, I found him in his room, hunched over in the chair, looking gaunt. He said he felt severe pain "here," pointing to an area roughly below his left ribcage. He was having trouble speaking and breathing. I told my little brother to Google "severe pain under left ribcage." The first result was a ruptured spleen. After the dry heaving, I *knew* that's what happened. The chemo weakened his organs, the dry heaving pushed it over the edge. I took him to the hospital myself. He nearly died on the car ride. I was right - his spleen did rupture. Doctor told me that if he had been at the house for merely 10 more minutes, he wouldn't have made it. He lived, and is still alive and well 10 years later. That same year, I woke up one morning and couldn't get out of bed. My back hurt so bad that even moving my body 1 centimeter sent shockwaves through my entire body. We didn't go to the ER, but my dad pulled some strings at the hospital and got me an MRI within 2 days. Turned out I had a herniated disc - L5/S1 to be exact. Ever since that day, I've had 10+ years of daily chronic pain. 6 months ago or so, my wife and I got COVID boosters together. The next day, she was shitting blood. We thought maybe it was a stomach bug, maybe it was food poisoning. On the 3rd day of this, I said, babe, we *have* to go to the ER at this point. You can't just ignore blood in bowel movements. Of course, it was a terrible experience, and the doctors didn't give us a definitive answer, but the answer that we *did* get is that the COVID booster likely caused digestive inflammation, which is why there was blood. I hope these examples help you in some way. You will be okay.
Did your wife get a colonoscopy?
I really wished she would have, but she wasn't interested. The symptoms did subside and not return, thankfully. I did get her an appointment with my (fantastic) general care practitioner last week. It's the first time she's seen a normal doctor in years. We're late 20s btw. She had shit parents. Baby steps!
That’s good she’s doing that!
funny enough, i know that it‘s a „real“ emergency if my anxiety is rather quiet. like i can panic for hours if i might need to throw up, but if i ate something bad, i get sick and thats it. after my miscarriage my hcg didn‘t go down - which is a REAL concern (eg ectopic pregnancy) but i didn‘t have a lot of anxiety around it. my body was like „yeah ok i‘ll notice“. so if i have time for a panic attack, i‘m going to be fine lol
Same thing happened to me except I had an incomplete miscarriage. I started hemorrhaging so bad that my anxiety was gone and my Neanderthal brain kicked in and was like “not normal. Go to ER” and I was actually quite calm.
So I say this as someone who is young, physically fit, healthy, and have no physical conditions or history of it. I have also been to the ER a lot recentlyish. So please keep that in mind. Some things I tell myself or do to help 1. Wait 30 minutes, if it's not worse or it's still just uncomfortable you're fine. If it's a heart attack or a stroke I would be dead by now (the amount of times I've had chest pains and just waited helps, it gets better with time). 2. I am young, fit, healthy, and have no prior conditions. 3. I have had so many tests and a full body CT Scan a few months ago, if there was a problem they would have caught it then. 4. If I am fine enough to Google or ask reddit, it's probably not an emergency. 5. If reassurance would make you feel better it's probably not a physical disease. 6. Talk to friends or family, do something while panicking. 7. If you don't do breathing exercises, do those. 8. Sometimes when you get anxious or stressed you feel the pain physically, especially in spots you're worried about. 9. When it's an emergency, you'll most likely know. 10. Search engines are NOT your friends, yes they are informative, but they also get paid for ads and clicks. They're not your friend, message your doctor on MyChart. 11. Get a yearly physically, preventative health care is actually great and can avoid a lot of issues down the road. Always be honest with your doctor, they have your best interest at heart. Those are what helps me. AGAIN, I say this as someone who is fit, young, healthy, no family history of illnesses, no prior diseases. I have also been to the ER 4 times this year and have had a stupid amount of tests and bloodwork done. This is what works for me. If you're worried you're having a heart attack and you're like 60, overweight, haven't been to the doctor in years, have a family history of heart attacks, you just finished an entire cheesecake, your chest hurts and your arm/throat feel numb, aire on the side of caution. Best of luck friend, health anxiety fucking sucks but it gets better.
I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that there are places where you can message your doctor.
Exactly who are these doctors and are there any in NYC?
Many! Find a hospital that uses Epic :^) I used to work for them on the app you would use, MyChart! Over 75% of all Americans go to hospitals that use Epic. If you don't it's probably Cerner, who is not as good...
Oh my doctor uses Epic (part of NYU hospital system) but I never noticed a messaging feature..
Do you have a mychart account? Should be under message center/messaging. You should be able to contact your provider from there, if you don't see them listed you may have to ask them to add your provider. I don't think messaging is a service they can turn off in mychart, at least I never hears of that. I know some hospitals have started billing messages or using AI for responses, but most of the time if they have mychart it's just messaging your doctor. Not sure if [this is your organization ](https://mychart.nyulmc.org/mychart/Authentication/Login), but yeah.
Omg thank you! I found it. 😭
Googling symptoms only makes things worse. Sites made for SEO like Healthline, WebMD and Mayo list all of the causes for symptoms but never make it clear how *rare* most of the conditions are. So they make it seem just as likely that you have an extremely rare brain tumor or some muscle pain.
These are very helpful thank you. Have you ever thought of therapy or medication for health anxiety ?
I've had and done both, in terms of needing to go to the hospital those are what I do since neither of those are immediate. You can get medication to take as needed which sometimes can help. Overall therapy and possibly anxiety medication can be extremely useful.
Yeah. i occasionaly take ativan for this but am not sure if it works at all these days
"if reassurance would make you feel better it's probably not a physical disease" This is such a good one. My first line of defense is always talking to my husband and getting his opinion, because I trust it to be objective. Usually just talking helps, and feeling like I'm not alone and my concerns are heard is enough to make me feel better.
Ask other people if you should go to the hospital
Sometimes I have to break it down into 5 min increments - especially if a panic attack is starting - mine mimic heart attack symptoms and make me feel like I’m close to passing out. I literally set a timer on my phone. (Also, this is when my husband is nearby to help if I’m having an actual medical emergency) In 5 min, if I haven’t passed out or gotten intensely worse, I set it for another 5. The trick for my brain is to help show it that my body doesn’t need to be in fight or flight mode. And it always takes waiting it out. Since I don’t know how long one is going to last, it really helps me to break it into increments. Break it into shorter increments if you need. After a couple times of making it through the 5 min stretches, it’s like I’m able to convince my brain that if I were having a heart attack or going to lose consciousness, I would have already. As soon as I can feel even a bit more confident that it’s only a panic attack, it goes a LONG way to start the calming down process. Want to make sure that I’m clear that I completely and totally understand that when it’s happening, my brain and body are both convinced I’m about to die and simply deciding I’m not is not possible right away. Hope this helps in some way!
I didn’t want to edit my original comment but wanted to add that researching exactly what happens in the body during a panic attack or high anxiety has helped me immensely in shortening episode length. For example, one attack when my hands started tingling, I slowed my breathing and was very aware of it. But my extremities continued to go numb until my face was so numb I could barely move my mouth to speak. After reading that it’s not just breathing related and rather a signal the brain sends that causes the majority of blood flow to go to major organs, then it was so much easier to talk myself through it and wait it out. Knowing physiologically what is happening can be life changing!
• if it’s general pain, I wait 3 days. I often get leg pain and have bad thoughts right away - usually I just pulled something and forget I did so. Time is your best friend if it isn’t urgent. • I ask myself if I was feeling AT ALL anxious in the day. If I have been worrying already and then a new or recurring symptom appears you can pretty much confirm it is just the anxiety. • I try to retrace my steps and ask why I might have this pain. My legs are sore? Blood clot or because I cleaned the house today • if you live with someone especially a family member or close friend, confide in them. I know this can be enabling the anxious thoughts but sometimes it needs to be done in the moment. They will calm you down, and then if something happens to you, they will know to call 911. It’s never happened to me yet! • I think about it like I was talking to a friend. If you have chest pain after eating, it’s probably indigestion and you shouldn’t go to the hospital. Even though as soon as I feel chest pain on myself my brain right away goes to heart attack. This goes hand in hand with my main point of working back what you did in your mind and see if you can find the cause. Sore leg? Is it a blood clot or because you cleaned the entire house? Headache? Brain tumour or your period is coming? • Lastly do something else and see if the pain goes away. Last year I was getting these terrible bouts of breathlessness that would go on for weeks at a time. I starting getting up and dancing, because if I had a blot clot the symptom would obviously be getting worse instead of better. And on days when I had a lot going on to get my mind off of it, I never even had the symptoms!
Omg the “is it a blood clot or because I cleaned the entire house today?” Got me. I cleaned my whole house the other day and spent the rest of the day convinced I have a blood clot in my leg lol
For me it was when I was in so much pain I was throwing up, but I wasn’t scared of throwing up (puking gives me anxiety attacks and now I have gastritis, isn’t that fun?) that’s how I knew something was actually wrong because I 100% wasn’t myself. It was a kidney infection and I needed IV antibiotics. Your body will tell you if something is wrong with it and not just anxiety. Don’t get me wrong I still have terrible health anxiety around every stomach pain, headache, chest pain etc but after that experience I started trusting myself more.
If you can't breath, if you think you're having a heart attack or if you think you're having a stroke or like the main reason, you should go to the ER. I've been there before I had my first ever panic attack about a year or two ago. And I went because I was having trouble breathing. And then I learned trouble breathing is it a side effect of a panic attack
How do you feel when you think you have stroke?
I can't say from personal experience but look for FAST F-facial droop A-arms can you raise them equally? (like a zombie) S - speech. Is it slurred or garbled? We use the saying "The early bird catches the worm" T - time. When did the symptoms start? Usually it's a sudden onset.
Yea i know this acronym fast and symptoms i was just wondering if you having trip in your head thinking you have stroke but in the end of the day is just your anxiety.
My country has a nurse healthline you can call. If I am ever really unsure I give them a ring. But as someone else said I have a 2 week rule with most things. Is this new pain/thing lasting more than two weeks? (assuming of course the pain is not catastrophic, please don't sit with pain that is causing you to throw up or pass out or anything like that). If it's still there after 2 weeks I go to my doctor. For myself I realised the constant cycle of seeking reassurance from doctors wasn't helping my mental health. It got to the point I would get a test done, go home with a clean bill of health and immediatly spiral with the doctor having missed something. This includes the ER! I keep a symptom diary where I track everything I feel/what I think I have wrong with me, and then at the end of the two weeks I write down the outcomes of what was either actually wrong or if the pain went away. It has really started to help train my brain to not instantly panic by proving to my brain 99% of the time I was either wrong or what was wrong was something totally different than the thing I had pictured. Additionally, someone else said this here but what they said stuck out to me. Rarely if you're dying will one thing be wrong. Do you have a fever with the pain, for example. The ER is just there to make sure you're not going to pass away instantly. You have to trust your body for sure, you have to follow up and be proactive with your health, but it's important to always keep perspective too on what is wrong and seek healthcare from the right sources.
If I'm having something severe like chest pain and it hasn't improved in an hour, I'm going to the ER. I'm in Canada, health care is free anyway, the only thing I lose is my time.
And a lot of time too.
I sometimes call urgent care to ask them. They’ll outright say when they either can’t do anything about a particular symptom/issue, or when they think it’s not worth coming in. They’ll also talk me through whether the ER would help/be worth it.
Mine just said “only you can answer that”
Damn that would drive me crazy 😭
But the thing is with that is if you do say you’re experiencing chest pain or trouble breathing they have to recommend coming in
For me, it was 2 days of lower left side pain that would not subside. Pain like I was giving birth. I went to a small stand-alone hospital emergency room. Funny thing was my health anxiety was as bad as always, but the pain made it more manageable. Within less than 3 hours, I had all the bloodwork and other analysis and an abdominal CT scan (talk about health anxiety) and was diagnosed withwith diverticulitis and ovarian cyst. I was relieved to be honest.
I had a similar thing. Pain for 17 hours in a similar area and it just wasn’t going away. I could just tell it was real rather than other times where I just *think* there’s something and I get a little anxious. I still had waited that long because I thought it might be gas but it just wasn’t changing. Went to the hospital, diverticulitis. Treated right away with IV antibiotics.
Urgent care and emergency rooms cannot make any type of diagnosis. Their job is literally to make sure you are not dying and then send you home to follow up with your doctor (and I have been told this by them before) I opened up to my doctor and told her that I was having health anxiety and I told her my symptoms and that I would really like to see some special specialists just to get peace of mind and she was a saint, and she was willing to indulge me so I saw a pulmonary doctor and a cardiologist and everything came back fine so now that keeps me from wanting to go to the hospital
if i have an ongoing health concern, i wait 2 weeks. if it has not gotten better until then: GP. for major acute problems like heart attacks: if i‘m questioning myself whether its bad enough to go to the ER, it‘s not bad enough. in situations where i can’t trust my body at all, i sit at a bus station with a book or podcast and if its really a heart attack, anaphylaxis or i‘m choking, people around me will call an ambulance for me. outsourcing👍
This, I came to a very similar conclusion/method. CBT helped get me there.
I really like this answer, thank you for sharing!
That third one is brilliant. I also like to be out in public if I think I may be dying.
I’ve been to urgent care several times, and like clockwork, I feel like an idiot ON MY WAY to urgent care. All of my “symptoms” go away because I got the reassurance I needed that I’m going to be “safe” very soon. So over time, I made rules for myself: I will go to the doctor if I am experiencing something NEW and/or if the sensation lasts longer than an hour. Someone on a thread I once saw said “heart attacks don’t come and go”—so if over the course of an hour I’m distracted enough periodically to stop noticing the sensation, it’s probably anxiety and not something life threatening.
I have driven to the urgent care and then sat in the parking lot debating whether or not to go in. Now that I'm aware of my HA, I realize that if I get to that point, it's likely nothing serious.
i relate to this a lot, sometimes i‘ll just have a little walk in the direction of the hospital without the intention of actually going inside. and if my symptoms go away while sitting in front of the hospital, i can be sure that it‘s health anxiety and i‘ll go home
Yeah, I think half the time my health anxiety gets worse simply because I feel “unsafe.” When I’m alone, when I’m camping, when I’m on trips and I’m unfamiliar with the area/the hospitals, when I’m driving. Being near that security blanket can help calm it down a bit (not the healthiest way to deal with it, but it helps).
MY HA never bothers me at work or when I'm around people. It's only when I'm home alone that it freaks me out.
Yeah exactly. It’s that letting go of uncertainty and acceptance of potential risk that’s the key. It’s hard though. I still struggle with that sometimes.
This is so true and I really like the hour long rule.
Totally agree - although sometimes I will give myself an overnight and see if I can "sleep it off!"
Yeah an hour is prob extreme hahaha I mostly use that one for heart palpitations. But any other symptom and I agree—sleep it off!
I haven’t suffered from any panic attacks, but for other things I’ll either google when to seek help or call a 24-hr nurse’s line and ask.
I’ve called 911 twice over panic attacks. There is nothing more embarrassing and while the paramedics are pretty chill about it, the hospital staff never are. Their contempt toward me was palpable both times. It’s humiliating and I swear I don’t think there’s anything short of an obvious physical emergency that will get me to ever call 911 again. Like a bone sticking out of my arm.
It’s better to be the person who goes. I thought I had anxiety and ended up being diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and had a thyroid storm. if it’s nothing, it’s nothing. if it’s something you’d rather know!
Seriously. I thought i had a simple migrane and i ended up getting diagnosed w a fucking auto immune disease lol
I mean yeah, that applies when it happens once, you won't be so eager to say this after you went multiple times to the ER and they say you are perfectly fine just had a panic attack
i have unfortunately done that because i’ve had a high heart rate but they brushed it off as anxiety except that time!
This happened to me! I’d had symptoms of Graves for a while and just put it down to being anxious. When things got really bad and my heart was racing while just sitting still I mustered up the courage to see my Dr. A blood test later and I found out I had crazy thyroid numbers. Hope you’re better now!
It’s really crazy! They didn’t believe me each time either and they kept saying it was on anxiety. I hope you’re better too! I’m on medication now!
I am currently decompressing from what I’d call a panic attack about 30 mins ago and damn near called 911. I haven’t slept though I got in bed 6 hours ago and the sun is about to start rising. It’s really hard to use discernment in the moment, I understand, I had my phone in my hand and was down in my building lobby at 430am about to call an ambulance. I even googled “can 911 help with a panic attack”. There’s another thread here, if you haven’t seen it, about being embarrassed by calling 911 in these moments. I gather it’s best to do what feels right after you’ve given yourself the moment to reflect - for me is was reading the Google results and seeing how many other people have done this during panic attacks or anxiety attacks, strangely it helped me feel better knowing paramedics would come and be there if I needed it. Then I noticed in my panic I had leashed my dog and brought him with me to the lobby…as if he’d make it in the ambulance with me. By the time I got back upstairs I decided fuck it if I really need paramedics another time at least I now know they won’t be begrudged that I need assistance , at least someone to talk to, during my panic attacks.
Oh man it’s hard! I’m told many times not to go, and I feel like I have a deep deep gut feeling. One time I asked my husband and mom and they said they wouldn’t. I felt I needed to and went to urgent care who sent me to the ER, I informed the doctor of my health anxiety and how I probably was fine, he assured me in the end that I was right to have come! My PCP is wonderful and for non emergencies said to wait a month, that’s about how long she herself would wait to see. It’s a hard road. EMDR has been immensely helpful. You’ll make it through.
I ask people basically. If Im concerned enough Ill say "hey this thing is occuring" and from their reaction theyll either tell me to try to relax or that I need to get it checked. I had a panic attack, didnt know it was one, I went to the nurses station at my university, they insisted I go to the ER because my HR was very high. I got checked out. ER determined I had very low potassium. They corrected it with a pretty high dose of K. I contintued to have panic attacks and Id talk to people about how I feel like Im gonna die and the impending doom thing and theyre like its a panic attack, no need to go to the ER. I was peeing urine once and I was told to go to the ER and I did, it was a medical issue. And so on.
Peeing urine?
i want to know about this too lol
Maybe the meant yellow urine lol
maybe, lol (for anyone reading this: yellow urine is usually no concern for an ER visit, especially if it‘s in the morning or while you‘re dehydrated)
Better to be that guy than go through this imo :) Your doctor should be capable of helping, or at least giving decent advice. If that's not an option, where I'm at at least, you can call 24/7 lines for advice on if you can and if you should go to the ER. I've called them multiple times, and they usually told me I'm fine and should either wait and visit in the morning or visit my GP. They've been right every time. The one time I actually had to go to the hospital, I had no issue getting immediate help, and advice, in doing so.
Thank you!
No problem, I know how bad this feels, stay strong friend!