My friends always used to joke about me being a hypochondriac. We just used to laugh it off all the time. However, secretly it used to take over my life and give me bad anxiety and stress. Hypochondria is a serious condition that can hold you back in life. Furthermore, it can prevent you from living a healthy and happy lifestyle.

A hypochondriac is described as a person who is abnormally anxious about their health. They will always think about the worst-case scenarios with their health, and won’t trust doctors. Or, they are afraid even to see a doctor, and will avoid certain activities. They will make themselves so stressed about getting ill and having a serious, life-threatening illness.

I know this all from experience, and I used to Google any and every symptom I thought I had. Then, I would always jump to the worst-case outcome and think I was going to die. It’s a horrible place to be in mentally, and it honestly takes over your life. You can’t enjoy life because you’re stressing so much about getting ill and dying.

What Hypochondria Can Look Like

During lockdown, I had a pain in my side and near my breast. I waited months to go see a doctor. I hated going to them in case I received the worst news. Moreover, I didn’t trust that they were all good at their jobs. Therefore, I kept putting it off and putting it off. Which meant by the time I went to get it checked out, I was convinced they’d find a lump and tell me I had cancer. However, I got checked out, and the doctor said she didn’t know why I had the pain. However, she couldn’t find a lump or anything. So, she gave me some heat cream and sent me on my way.

However, I was still fixated on my side because she didn’t give me an answer about why it was hurting. Therefore, I got more and more anxious as time went on. I then went back to work, and the symptoms seemed to die down, and I felt a bit better about it.

Then the second lockdown came, and sure enough, the pain came back, and this time I was even more worried. I rang the doctor after another few months, stressed, and she said it had been 6 months since the last time I was there. So now I was really panicking because if it was cancer, it would have grown loads. I gave myself a massive panic attack one day in a supermarket. My whole vision went wavy and blurry from stress. So, I got checked out again and was fine. However, she sent me to a specialist just to be sure and lo and behold, I was fine.

It was then that I decided enough was enough. I didn’t want any more sleepless nights, panic attacks, and breakdowns over my health. I started searching for help to get over hypochondria online. However, I couldn’t see anything other than people explaining what it was.

You Are in Control of Your Health

I read The Sedona Method and The Secret, and these books changed my way of thinking. So, I began to rewire my brain to stop overthinking and stressing about my health. I wanted to be free of my hypochondria once and for all. So, I discovered techniques and ways of thinking that have changed my life and my outlook on my body and health.

I realised that I have far more control over my life and my health than I thought. You attract what you put out into the world. Therefore, the more you think about getting ill, the more likely you are to get ill. This will then attract illness into your life. So, the more you focus on being healthy and telling yourself that you are fit and healthy, the more likely you are to remain healthy.

Hypochondria: You Can Give Yourself Physical Symptoms

If you’re a hypochondriac and tell your brain that you feel something in your body, and you fixate on it, then you can create actual physical symptoms in your body.

The more you think about something, the more it’ll grow. Therefore, if you are constantly thinking that something is wrong with you, like my side, then you will focus on that constantly throughout your day. This means that you will feel the “symptoms” more. However, if you take your mind off what you’re stressing about, then the symptoms will eventually go away.

It’s so tough when you’ve been fixated on something for so long. However, if you’ve been checked out and the doctor says you’re fine, you need to learn to accept that. Then, train your mind to think about something else.

If I can do it, anyone can!

Don’t Try to Not Think About it

This might seem counter-productive. However, the more you tell yourself not to think about something, the more you will think about it.

I learned a great technique to start letting go of my hypochondria, which was to allow myself permission to think about the pain in my side. I would acknowledge it, feel it, but then say to myself, “Thank you, brain, for trying to protect me, but these thoughts don’t serve me anymore, and I am fit, healthy, and choose to be positive”.

Every time you think about the symptom or pain, do this process. Then, over time, you will change your mindset around your symptoms and remember that you’re fine and it’s all in your brain.

Remember the Placebo Effect to Help With Your Hypochondria

Whenever I find myself stressing about my health, I like to remember the placebo effect because people can remove their physical symptoms simply by believing that they have a cure. This means that you can eliminate pain and symptoms from your body by just switching your thoughts and believing that you can.

Try Meditation and Hypnosis

I find that guided meditations and hypnosis are really effective in changing my mindset. They help to relieve me of stress and anxiety, not only with my health but in my overall life in general.

I love sleep hypnosis, and you can find free or paid sleep therapy apps on your phone. Using a sleep hypnosis that focuses on fear, calmness, or anxiety makes a huge difference in my stress levels and helps me to remain calm and more in control of my emotions.

You’re Really Afraid of Death and Not Illness

I found that hypochondria is the fear of dying and a lack of control in your life because you feel powerless and helpless when you’re in this state. When I thought about why I was so afraid of going to the doctors or getting a serious illness, it was because I was afraid of dying and not getting ill. Therefore, I decided to get to the root cause and conquer my fear of dying through acceptance, meditation, affirmations, and hypnosis.

I accepted that everyone dies at some point in their lives and that I didn’t want to live my life being afraid of death anymore. I wanted to live my life to the fullest, free from fear.

My fear of death or getting ill used to stop me from sleeping because I would think about dying before I went to sleep at night. However, I taught myself that dying is natural and inevitable. So I would say thank you to my thoughts for trying to protect me again. However, I’m choosing a new way of thinking now, and this negativity and stress don’t serve me anymore.

I would then switch my thoughts to something positive happening the following day, or something that I’m grateful for. A memory that makes me happy, or anything else positive that I could think of.

If you follow this technique every time you think about dying, then you will teach your brain to switch to something positive. This will enable you to accept that death isn’t scary and all you’re afraid of is the unknown and the lack of control.

“I’ve got 99 problems and 86 of them are completely made-up scenarios in my head that I’m stressing about for absolutely no logical reason.”– Unknown

Summary

I find that all these techniques and ways of thinking about my body and my health have changed my life. Moreover, I no longer fixate on my health and stress or worry over it. I’ve learned that the more you focus on something, the more it will intensify. The pain in my side disappeared when I was busy working, but grew when I had all the time in the world to think about it.

I’ve learned not to be afraid of doctors anymore and not to put off going to them if I feel like something is wrong. If you go straight away, get it checked out, and they say you’re fine, then you need to learn to accept what they’re saying and move on with your life.

Don’t second-guess their diagnosis and question whether they’re wrong or not. Simply accept that they know what they’re doing and follow the techniques above to rewire your brain. Take back control of your thoughts, emotions, and health.

If you believe you are fit and healthy and act accordingly, then the chances of you getting ill are a lot lower. However, focusing on your symptoms will just attract more negativity and potential illness to you.

Change your thoughts and you change your world!

“You should get a second opinion on your hypochondria.”– Unknown

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