Mental Health Can we talk about Health Anxiety?

[n3ophy7e]

I honestly think a lot of you guys in America suffer from health anxiety due to the fact that getting anything checked out is such a hard thing to justify with the associated cost.

If you have to see a dentist, a podiatrist, a neurologist and an optometrist all at once I don't even want to know what that would set you back. And the fact that you guys can't possibly do it without A) forcing yourselves into debt or B) paying through the roof for insurance really contributes to the issue.

That, as well as the fact that simply seeing a primary health physician is another cost you don't need so understandably you don't get things checked out when you first notice something amiss.

I wish I could offer some kind of solution but in my country people tend to not really stress about this as much due to having a robust public system which can tackle most people's issues, even if there are long wait times. Seeing a GP is free or low cost for everyone, unless you pay for a premium appointment after hours.

I just hope those of you who live in the US eventually get the healthcare that you deserve to have so that you don't have to deal with choosing to address a health concern or putting food on your table/paying for a prescription you need for another medical issue.

My thoughts exactly.

We are so incredibly lucky here in Australia. Australians will whinge about a lot of things but we really have nothing to complain about when it comes to our healthcare system. For example, throughout my entire pregnancy I did not pay a single dollar for ANYTHING, and that includes all blood tests, multiple specialist ultrasounds, emergency induction due to unforeseen and sudden blood pressure issues, extended hospital stay for me after birth, a 5.5 week NICU stay for my baby, 7 different paediatric specialists examining my baby, numerous x-rays, ECGs, EEGs, ultrasounds, hearing and vision testing, all medications, lactation and nutrition consultant, everything, all completely covered by public healthcare. And when my boy gets a bit bigger he'll be getting a minor heart defect surgically repaired which will also be fully covered by our public healthcare system.

Very, very lucky and grateful.

As Eligiu said, I only hope that the US can experience a public healthcare system as good as ours one day.

 

[Eligiu]

My thoughts exactly.

We are so incredibly lucky here in Australia. Australians will whinge about a lot of things but we really have nothing to complain about when it comes to our healthcare system. For example, throughout my entire pregnancy I did not pay a single dollar for ANYTHING, and that includes all blood tests, multiple specialist ultrasounds, emergency induction due to unforeseen and sudden blood pressure issues, extended hospital stay for me after birth, a 5.5 week NICU stay for my baby, 7 different paediatric specialists examining my baby, numerous x-rays, ECGs, EEGs, ultrasounds, hearing and vision testing, all medications, lactation and nutrition consultant, everything, all completely covered by public healthcare. And when my boy gets a bit bigger he'll be getting a minor heart defect surgically repaired which will also be fully covered by our public healthcare system.

Very, very lucky and grateful.

As Eligiu said, I only hope that the US can experience a public healthcare system as good as ours one day.

I've had both elective surgery and emergency surgery. The elective surgery was still partially funded through Medicare and I would have been around $4000 out of pocket with the bulk funded through private insurance.

I got appendicitis in late 2018. Got an uber to the hospital (wee wah wagon costs are my one health system gripe in Australia and my private health under my parents had *just* lapsed by a mere week) but I stayed in the hospital in a private room with an entertainment service, IV antibiotics, painkillers, medical procedures, everything for 4 days while waiting for surgery. I didn't wait for surgery because the system was under strain or anything, it was purely because my appendix hadn't burst yet so I wasn't an urgent surgery case and more urgent cases kept coming in from car accidents and heart attacks and stuff. That's more than fair. No I did have private health because I signed as a private patient in a public hospital to save the taxpayers some money, I just didn't know the ins and outs of my private cover because I never actually used it ever except for that elective surgery. It would have lapsed by my birthday the next year when I turned 25.

Anyway I eventually had surgery, then I walked out and paid $13.50 for an endone prescription.

I cannot imagine what level of anxiety and stress that entire unavoidable situation in the US would have caused. I may have not even have gone to the hospital and that could and would have killed me. But my only real issue was getting there at 3am which was still not much of a problem.

I really, really hope this changes for people living like this. It's just something you learn to take for granted until you're old enough to understand that people in another country pay $20,000+ for emergency surgery and one mishap can financially ruin them.

 

[skipjames]

"How do you cope? '' ten 10 ago I would have told you ''' taking a shitload of oxys and the occasional benzo" but joined Bluelight exactly to stop with the aforementioned "way to cope with anxiety" hence I dunno ! seriously, now when I am anxious I try to cope doing the following in no particular order : I smoke lots of cigs, try to play guitar, write my worries down in order to examine them one by one and not all at once, talk with my gf, pet that asshole of a cat I have, walk up and down rambling, drink tons of chamomile, and if nothing of the above works, I take a benzo, which is a class of drugs I both fear and despise hence I tried to avoid as much as possible but you know how it is....

 

[skipjames]

I've had both elective surgery and emergency surgery. The elective surgery was still partially funded through Medicare and I would have been around $4000 out of pocket with the bulk funded through private insurance.

I got appendicitis in late 2018. Got an uber to the hospital (wee wah wagon costs are my one health system gripe in Australia and my private health under my parents had *just* lapsed by a mere week) but I stayed in the hospital in a private room with an entertainment service, IV antibiotics, painkillers, medical procedures, everything for 4 days while waiting for surgery. I didn't wait for surgery because the system was under strain or anything, it was purely because my appendix hadn't burst yet so I wasn't an urgent surgery case and more urgent cases kept coming in from car accidents and heart attacks and stuff. That's more than fair. No I did have private health because I signed as a private patient in a public hospital to save the taxpayers some money, I just didn't know the ins and outs of my private cover because I never actually used it ever except for that elective surgery. It would have lapsed by my birthday the next year when I turned 25.

Anyway I eventually had surgery, then I walked out and paid $13.50 for an endone prescription.

I cannot imagine what level of anxiety and stress that entire unavoidable situation in the US would have caused. I may have not even have gone to the hospital and that could and would have killed me. But my only real issue was getting there at 3am which was still not much of a problem.

I really, really hope this changes for people living like this. It's just something you learn to take for granted until you're old enough to understand that people in another country pay $20,000+ for emergency surgery and one mishap can financially ruin them.

Totally. I lived in Italy and in the UK before coming to Brazil and in the UK there were times when I was broke as a joke and still got some money coming, got my basic need covered ( i.e. a roof on my head and healthcare) etc, I guess Australia is modeled on the Uk system.While here in the Americas, both North and South ( with the exception maybe of Canada, dunno) if you don´t have money you are FUCKED, period . Down here they even have a Public health system but it sucks balls, hence you have to pay a health insurance, plus they have high taxes and many jobs are underpaid, plus the political instability = Rivotrils down here are sold (and prescribed ) like candies.....

 

[sadmachine]

Health anxiety ruined my life for about a year and a half and sent me the ER for absolutely no reason many times.

After not using meth for 6 years, I relapsed and discovered it was now 1/5th the price. I smoked way, way too much, alone, had a traumatic delusional experience and went into a psychosis. Ever since then I have had heavy health anxiety (fear that something is wrong with my health). For me it was checking my pulse, which is now something i've banned myself from doing. Checking for "blue fingernails" is another one that I still do to this day. Absolutely silly. Googling symptoms is massive no-no. The other day I took 15mg of oxy for the first time in awhile and it sent me nodding harder than I have in a long time (i've never been a big opiate user), I was constantly checking my fingernails to make sure I wasn't dying. Nowadays I've gotten really good at telling myself its just anxiety and to not take it seriously, and when I do some stupid obsessive behaviour like checking my nails even if they did look slightly discoloured (sometimes this just happens when you're cold or its the lighting) I can tell myself it's just anxiety and get over it pretty fast.

It has completely changed weed for me, since 2019 whenever I smoke weed the first 45-1hr is what I call "the hump" where I have really bad anxiety and my heart beats really hard, if I check my pulse or feel my heart its game over and the anxiety/panic attack will get worse. It sounds awful but thankfully I have gotten really skilled at putting up with it and getting through it and I rarely smoke anymore. It got so bad in 2019 that I constantly felt short of breath and like I was going stop breathing when I tried to sleep, leading to me staring at my phone all night being too afraid to fall asleep. I lived on the 2nd floor of University Accomodation and I would often feel like the building was shaking or about to fall over. I once had to get a book from the library on the 6th floor and everytime I went there I would immediately have a panic attack and feel the floor moving beneath my feet. The aisles were extremely narrow and I had to hold my breath, run down the aisle and grab my book then run out (provided no one was looking) lest I feel like I was suffocating. From being constantly in a state of stress, I ended up having some minor derealizaton and ended up in a really bad shape. I constantly felt like the walls were "too tall" and everything about my vision felt as if I was in the onset of an acid trip (everthing just seemed off, visually). To make matters worse when I finally got the courage to see a GP, I got the a really unsympathetic doctor who really didnt understand or care all that much about my situation. She tried to convince me that SSRI's were a magic cure for me and had no side effects (I was terribly anxious about side effects of anything at that point and wouldnt even drink caffeine for fear I might have a heart attack). I refused to take them. She got me a counsellor who was somehow even worse then her. I ended up having to drop a semester of my masters degree. Ultimately, a productive and active lifestyle as well as weightlifting and cardio excercise keeps it very much at bay, if I let myself slip into a lazy unproductive lifestyle I can feel it clawing its way back.

 

[Snafu in the Void]

The worst part of health anxiety is showing up to the doctor anxious and being called a hypochondriac