r/HealthAnxiety • u/ErgoSum8 • Jul 13 '25
Progress Story That Offers Advice for Others A song that helps me cope
Ever since I had a rare, life-threatening illness (twice!) as a child, I’ve been a huge hypochondriac, hyper aware of every sensation in my body and always catastrophizing about what it could possibly be. Over the years, I’ve thought I’ve had everything, from aneurysms to flesh eating bacteria, all because I felt a slight sting in my head or because my skin looked a bit flaky. It got particularly bad in my mid twenties when I started having severe panic attacks—not only did I think I MIGHT die at any minute from some terrible disease, I KNEW I would die, any second now. I stayed up at night for days, constantly monitoring my pulse for any changes. I avoided going to the bathroom for as long as I could because I didn’t want to be found dead on the toilet. And when you spend such a long time KNOWING you’re going to die at any minute, it brings on quite a terrible existential crisis 😓. But that’s for another time. I’ve been better since, and one thing that’s helped me is being able to laugh at myself when my brain starts getting carried away. I wrote this song, which makes me feel better, so I wanted to share it with this community, in the hopes that if any one else has experienced what I have, it makes you feel better too:
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u/EnvironmentalSun9623 Jul 14 '25
Love the song - made me laugh and was so relatable. Thanks for sharing 🩷
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u/Suitable_Parfait6477 Jul 14 '25
This is excellent and oh so very relatable. It’s hard living on this Earth and being out of control of outcomes. Definitely going to save this song for later.
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u/whirlingbervish Jul 13 '25
Bookmarking to listen to later (daughter is using the speaker).
You describe your experience so well. I was plagued by nosebleeds all through my childhood and well into adulthood. Not a life threatening illness but it definitely left me constantly waiting for my body to betray me yet again. It wasn't until fairly recently that I realized "huh that could be part of why I have health anxiety ...".
Congrats on finding some balance and recovery!