u/lamoonly

HA took away 3 years of my life. I dare say that because in these 3 years my life was all about HA, from one illness to another, a never-ending downward spiral. Even though I then believed HA cannot get cured, here I am, 2 years without any HA downfalls. I feel perfectly healthy. In this time, when I had actual medical concerns, I was able to address them calmly, without overthinking and worrying.

The biggest thing that allowed me to cure was halting Googling (or any sort of research). Once I did that, I was also gradually able to start self-soothing vs seeking constant reassurance from my partner.

I am now considering going into health anxiety counselling as a career path because on my own journey I found most therapists were useless with health anxiety. They would try to trace the roots back to control issues, but for me understanding the issue logically did not bring any relief.

I wanted to ask if someone on here really needs support with their HA right now. I’d love to get a feel of what working with HA sufferers can be like and if I’d like to pursue it with formal studies. I’m happy to do a 1:1 chat or a short call, no payment, no need to disclose any personal information. I am not a trained professional and don’t claim to be one. But I can give you my 2 cents from a place of understanding exactly what you are going through, and having overcome this myself.

I dealth with severe health anxiety that took away about 3 years of my life, getting to the point that I was so depressed I didn’t have the will to live anymore. During that time, I tried therapy with no success and only had a breakthrough after working with a health anxiety coach. I found that many traditional therapist don’t understand how to treat health anxiety and give general guidance that still kept me stuck.

It’s been almost 2 years since I recovered from this debilitating patch and I’d like to explore how to help other people going through the same. I am wondering what is the best way to get professional training while staying squarely focused on anxiety and health anxiety in particular.