Should add that the thought of dying from whatever symptoms I have at the moment manifests my brain pretty much every second of every day.

I know how u feel youre not alone im scared to be sick too,as far being a hypocoondriac...If we are ..Then what what youre doing now is youre scared to be one you have to learn to accept it...At the same time its scary when im ina panic I cant accept it,
i know its hard im still strugling with the idea it realy sucks.

Funny thing tho I told this to my therapist yesterday I said damn im in a bad spot I get panic atack plus im a hypo wich makes things worst at leats if I wasent a hypocondriac maybe the attacks ewoulnt be that bad..She ssaid dont worry yuoe not a hypocondriac
seing a therapist helps too ..Its kinda fun its soemne to talk to whos mutual in the hole situation and can bring interesting remarks or obsevation that makes you see things differently.Im bringing up my past as we speak and some things are interesting and who knows maybe linked to the anxiety and panic...Something strated them and they escalated to the fear of dying...She thinks that fear of dying is from that when youre gone youre alone.And maybe somwhere in the past youve been alone.Its interesting you might wana try it..

Mitch, it sounds like you might be a good candidate for .E.M.D.R., it brings the past back, you are their, you release it and it is a heavy duty release, it is not done with medication it is done by knee tapping or finger movement, it has helped people with phobias, post war syndrome, something negative that has happened in the past, I do not know if psychiatrists do it but I do know that some psychologists do it, you might look it up on the internet. I am no Dr. Though but you might want to check it out.

Backhome22, you sound like you have a lot of anxiety and stress built up in you, especially after what your father told you about you having a body of an 80y/o, I am no dr but emdr might help you too, you might check it out on the internet.

Good luck to both of you!

Hey, i'm right there with you guys, so don't feel too bad. Hypochondria (in my opinion, of course) is the result of anxiety--can be any anxiety too, not just anxiety about a real disease. For example...Say you are worried about a hard exam: bam, you have a random (normal) symptom of nothing, but you blow it out of proportion because of your heightened level of stress. It's all just re-direction of anxiety that mostly comes from other sources. It really doesn't help just to say to yourself "golly, i'm a hypochondriac, I should stop worrying," because you don't. Until you deal with the source of the anxiety, it won't go away. Every strange-feeling tissue is a tumor, every funny smell is brain cancer, the funny way your face looks is a pituitary problem...

I am a hypochondriac myself, but not a very bad one. That is, usually i'm not a very bad one! When my dad died, I went off the deep end with it, and if you wanna hear a funny hypochondria story, well, here ya go:

i was so stressed over my dad's death that all the fine muscles around my skull were tight and pulling. However, I imagined that there was something growing inside my nasal cavity, because it felt like my nose was breaking (it wasn't, it was just the facial muscles pulling over the bridge of my nose, causing pressure that felt rather curious). Then, because I also had post-nasal drip (always have), I imagined this thing in my nasal cavity had broken into my brain (i kid you not) and now all this spinal fluid was leaking into my throat. I really thought this. I believed it, and told it to people with tears in my eyes, begging to be taken to the e.R.! It sounds totally ridiculous now, but I was very serious about it then. It just feels so real when your perception is altered because of high anxiety.

It's very possible that bad cases of hypochondria do come from a fear of death--that would cause you to be extra concerned about any old symptom and make you blow it out of proportion. Imo, the best way to deal with the physical problems is to deal with the fear itself. And, in the interim, read a good book that has nothing about ill people in it!

What does e.M.R.D stand for...

Yea my counselor says cognetive is good to help you deal with the right now but dosent untie the knot that has been created in the past and feels that without untiying that knot it could come back one day.She feels anxiety is feelings pushed back from a certain point in life....

I always had panic attacks but I could hang until I a dr sent me to the hopistal with a fats heartbeat,,,that dramatatised me and made my attacks worst...

It's weird...I'm not afraid of dying itself, because I believe in heaven and those sorts of things. I'm just afraid of the effect it will have on people after I die, like I know my mom(who's very emotional and a worrier herself) would never get over it and she'd be in turmoil forever, as well as the other members of my family. I'm also afraid that my husband will be devestated for awhile and I wouldn't ever want him to feel that way, it's making me cry right now even thinking about it, but that he'd then get over me and move on with someone else which is my worst fear ever. The problem with me is that he won't accept it either, like when I tell him I can't breathe and I think something's wrong he just doesn't understand. He just has kind of a "knock it off" attitude, which is frustrating but I can't blame him really cuz he doesn't know how it feels to feel like this. But to me it's like, yeah tell someone with cancer to quit having cancer because you don't know how to deal with it. He doesn't understand that I just can't make it go away on my own, I need help. It does feel great to have the support of other people who are going through it though!