The what if thinking has always gotten me. My what if thoughts are always ridiculous. I always seem to give them power though. I've never been able to understand why I can think one thing at one place and it doesn't bother me, but I can magically get in my car and think it again and it seems to have value. My what if thoughts are always about my health. I have had so many tests run on me I could be a lab rat. I would have one done and they would tell me everything was fine and I would always think that they were wrong.
I can only think of one or two times that my thoughts were about me going crazy. My thoughts are always physical.

When I get in a car to go somewhere it is always what if my chest hurts again and I get dizzy and run off the road and what happens, I get dizzy and my chest hurts. I never have run off the road though. So tell me how it is that I can think that there and it has power but when I get home and think it it's just another thought without power. I guess I have myself believing that the car is a magic car or something. I don't know I just keep on going and it gets a little easier each time.

-Hopeful

Hi

Yes I too just seem to what if about health.
I've had stomache problems, afraid of not breathing, forgetting how to swallow, and the new ones the chest pain and throat pain, of course i'm thinking cancer.
Well I'm fighting this with everything I have! And I'm not giving up. I will succeed!
I wish you the best of luck with yours! Just keep positive and keep at it.

I know how you feel. I live for my doctors appointment!

I think it's because the feelings of dizziness, sickness and associated pain are so real that we can't accept that there is nothing physically wrong with us.

I too get in the car and think, what if I run off the road etc etc. Today I went to work and had a meeting with someone. All the time we were talking I was thinking' what if i'm sick' 'what if i pass out and die'

You are not alone!

My what if thinking is all about health, too. No other areas in my life that cause me any great anxiety - just that one. And it is constant. I am terrified of doctors, and get nauseous just walking into a clinic. It seems every horrifying moment I've had in my life has been centered around the words coming out of a doctor's mouth. Sure I realize they've helped at times too, but the fear their words have produced far outweighs any comfort or reassurance I've ever received. There have been so many "lightening strikes" in my life (a term my shrink used to describe things that have happened in my life that were against all odds)that I have trouble believing in happy outcomes. It seems safer to prepare for the worse so it doesn't blindsight you when it happens. I don't mean to be so negative. I'm just dealing with several different health issues all at once and am feeling completely overwhelmed. Sorry.

about your thoughts, how do you convince yourself that a scary obsessive thought is just exactly that??? I have let them rob me of such joy and peace, I really need a breakthrough.