Advice for hypochondria? Anyone who has healthy mentality for health maintenance?

[charlie cho]

 I don't have a healthy mindset for maintaining health. Any little thing.... I feel like my body will crumble. Michael Angelo had been famous for scoffing at Leonardo Da Vinci's health anxious attitude, yet he was able to live longer and healthier than Leonardo. I often feel like people around me who don't mind their bodies often are healthier than people who are so concerned about their health. Although, I think like this, I am still a hypochondriac. I'm confused whether or not a symptom is real or unreal. Any sort of worry about health seems to be the first step towards hypochondria as I reflect deeply in myself, because worry won't help anyone cure their symptoms, would it? 

1. What are your mindsets in maintaining good health (are you in good health?)

2. If you had experience exaggerating your symptoms unwillingly, how did you cure it? 

[egoeimai]

Accept your thoughts around health maintenance, accept your fears and anxiety. Let go of thoughts. Look for ocd treatment. 

[Mike21]

Do the Isha yoga where you repeat 'I am not the body, I am not even the mind' and give it some time, you will get better automatically

[mandyjw]

My diet and exercise are all motivated not out of fear but because of how they make me feel. I choose healthy foods because of the way they make me feel. Sometimes it takes a little more awareness to notice how diet and exercise effects you in the short term. They key is to switch from being motivated out of fear of negative consequences. Either have positive motivation or just be aware. It takes practice. If you have a fearful thought switch the focus to what you DO want or how you do want to feel.

In my experience hypochondria is very tied to a lack of self care, or a misunderstanding of what self care is. Basically, it comes from a lack of joy in your life. We often think that joy is just something we are entitled to and that arises completely on its own, and while that's true, most of us weren't taught that the paradox is that we have to make a conscious effort to foster joy in our life. When negative fearful thoughts are bothering us, it's a signal to find the opposite of that and focus on joy and inspiration. Joy and health is effortless only when we're not making the extra effort of worrying. 

Make a list of things that make you happy or sound fun to do, start with small things you can fit into your day and make a point to do two or three a day. Try a new food, call a friend, look up your favorite music video from seventh grade, read your favorite web comic, etc. Then when you're in a good mood start writing out bigger desires, for example, a career change, a big trip somewhere, getting a pet, learning to play an instrument, etc. When you're excited and fulfilled by life, even if it's just the little things in life, you won't be worrying about these things. In my case I got hypochondria the worst when I let my social life die almost completely. I fixed that and it went away. It's usually some aspect of self care and doing things for our own happiness that we have overlooked or thought we could just do without. 

Edited January 24, 2021 by mandyjw

[charlie cho]

@mandyjw yo. I'm gonna read the shit out of this post and take the advice. Any more about your hypochondria? Thanks

[mandyjw]

@charlie cho Some of my symptoms were very real, others weren't and they mysteriously disappeared as soon as I stopped giving thought to them. I had a doctor confirm one, send me for a test and then by the time I had the test the problem had almost completely vanished. It was a strange experience. 

This is a key realization, you cannot purposefully forget something. For example, when I was a little kid I used to bury toys in the sandbox so I could find them later. It was no fun unless I had forgotten them. So I'd try to forget. It doesn't work. You can only distract yourself with something you want to do more. Forgetting is not something we can do, but paradoxically just like the buried toys, if we make the intention, we CAN forget by focusing on something else, and only something we really WANT and enjoy focusing on will do. So you need to forget your health problems, which you can't do. I can tell you to just forget it, but you'll find that you cannot do that. 

 It's like a little kid who just put freezie pops in the freezer and wants to stop suffering by being too impatient to wait for them to freeze. So make the intention to find something that you really want to do. Starting small when you have a lot of resistance is key. Then dream big, daringly big. At first you don't feel like watching Bugs Bunny, you want a goddamn freezie pop right now. But pretty soon you get laughing and before you know it, you have a nicely frozen freezie pop AND Bugs Bunny, and then what's next? Dreaming of how to get your first paper route. 

Edited January 25, 2021 by mandyjw

[charlie cho]

@mandyjw Yeah. I think i got my first hypochondriac thoughts when i quit one of the goals I had for myself. I went into a downward spiral for years because I did not have a direction, and those were the years when my hypochondria was out of control. I do have a goal now. And I have to tell you the goal isn't very superficial either. I had thought over it and contemplated over it before setting it up, yet I cannot say my base problem has been solved. I can't say for sure, but I feel if I give up on the goal now, I would immediately go back into that downward spiral. 

But i think, taking your advice, really going deep into myself and knowing who i am is the best course to go. Because if I'm grounded in myself, I will be able to forget the trivia and stop being so paranoid. But is finding out who i am in the truest sense of the word an easy task? Hehe, fuck me, i wanna kill myself.

[mandyjw]

@charlie cho Yeah, just be aware that you love the goal for how it makes you feel now, not as a hope for future salvation dependent upon the success of it. 

54 minutes ago, charlie cho said:

Hehe, fuck me, i wanna kill myself.

Funny how when we are in a funk and can't see clearly we interpret seeing through the illusion and suffering of self as a desire to kill ourselves. ? I know you mean it as a joke here, but what you said is profound. Who wants to kill who? It's the duality, the split, the self judging the self as if there were TWO selves that you want to dissolve, or heal. Healing is complete dissolution of a problem. The desire to heal ourselves and the desire to get rid of ourselves are the same... BUT feel and are interpreted very differently depending on how off track we are from the actual Love and healing that we really are. There already aren't two, so how can we possible judge ourselves, or worry about ourselves? We can't and when we try it feels awful, because we've completely diverted from the truth of what we are. 

It's mysterious how a desire to heal beyond the kind of healing our mind recognizes as possible could come out as hypochondria. And a desire to heal the split between one's true self and one's thoughts of oneself can come out as the desire for suicide, sort of like in the example of Eckhart Tolle. 

[True Friend]

When I was 17, I started smoking a lot of weed, I was a a real shithead, it gave me panic attacks, but at least I felt cool.

Then when I was 19, 20, my new exposed underlying anxiety disorder really took a dark turn, I couldn't go in public without it feeling like I was dying, and of course hypochondriac, and paranoid, I used to think I had cancer, or if I ever had sex, an STD, I used to think I had a huge range of personality disorders, brain damage... anything really,,at one point I thought my roommate was trying to gas my room because I was having difficulty breathing due to anxiety. I dunno why I was so delusional before.

I still am, but my psychology changed, I've matured, I've come to not immediately accept my thoughts as being true, and remembering all times I was wrong

I'm 25 now. Not 100 percent free from hypochondriac thoughts, but miles better.

Therapy helped, YouTube helped, Leo helped.