OVERTHINKING IS ALWAYS WRONG

My friend Richard complained me that he usually cant sleep because he is worried that he wont wake up. In other words, he is afraid of getting sick and die, especially in sleep. He is focused so much on his potential disease that he doesn’t enjoy his good health. His feeling is that something bad will happen and that he will end up sick and with no hope. Nevertheless, Richard´s story is not the only one….there are millions of people who live with health anxiety and dealing with psychological burden because of it.

Illness anxiety disorder is known usually as health anxiety or more popular hypochondriasis but the cause of problem is the same: permanent concern about health and expectations that some dangerous disease will occur. The people that suffer from this disorder are bothered with any sign of pain or changes on the body or inside, believing that one symptom lead to another and finally to illness and death. This is something that is being checked regularly though the medical examinations and testing but even if those results show no disease, that doesn’t change the feeling of the patient that is sure that testing hasn’t been right operated. They believe in disease even if it doesn’t exist at all.

The tragedy behind this deviation is bigger than we think. Those individuals don’t start with mental questioning and issues but rather orienting on the physical signs of the real and severe disease and according to medical studies:“Many people with health anxiety are often unable to function or enjoy life due to their fears and preoccupations. They become preoccupied with bodily functions (breathing, heartbeat), minor physical abnormalities (skin blemishes), or physical sensations (headaches, stomach aches). They might worry about a specific organ (their heart) or disease in the news or in their office (Zika, HIV/AIDS, diabetes). And many are reluctant to seek mental health treatment because they believe very strongly that their condition really comes from a medical illness.”  

When I talked to Richard, I asked him how he is going through life when he is in fear from death ? His reply has surprised me. Richard admitted that he lives every day like the last day because he is never sure he will wake up again. I guess we can learn something important from Richard and that is how we should more appreciate every single moment of our life because it is river with no turn. But, we should never let fear stop us from being alive and embracing the colours of life. I know it is not easy for people like Richard to accept that some things cant be controlled but there is always a bit of trust in destiny, universe and the symbolic of existence. We are all here with the purpose and we should chose to search for a purpose and not being obsessed with twisted vibes about falling, ending, dying. I remember when one hero of mountain climbing had once said that if he ever thought about risks, he would never reach the top of the mountains and he advised that we should live every day with the new appetite for life.

How we can help Richard and those who share the Richard´s tale ? It is possible to help and it should be done. Those people didn’t pick up to be health worriers and to ruin their joy with dark thoughts. Somehow I think they all started once as over thinkers and the Beast has been suddenly unleashed. I know how bad is overthinking because I try hard to get rid of it. If we would know how powerful is negative thinking we would all switch on positive and give our energy into good feelings, instead feeding the snake in the heart. The snake that will get out your life blood and passion for enjoyment. Every single problem is created with overthinking because we put our energy into the wrong sources and we support the bad side of our mental world. We learn how to successfully project the problems that are event supposed to be ours or at least not in our life. When you look long enough in inferno, it will visit you.

I don’t deny the problem of health anxiety in the world, especially in the last time due to the pandemic of Covid-19. The worst health concern seekers have found the excuse for their life strategies and tried to convince the rest of us that being worried about heath is actually all what we can do. The pandemic has given us another lessons and that is how powerless and irrelevant we are all and how powerful and relevant is the invisible and micro enemy that plays the final move. Being worrier is never a good solution but being a life warrior is everything what we need. The life is battle, beautiful dance and intelligent game. Maybe it is all at once. Being worried about things that arent happened or wont ever happen is like killing innocent child within us that want to jump and play in the mud. You call the shadows and you chase away your own sun. It is no go in life. You can much better than that, Richard and all you who are like Richard. In the age of Internet, health anxiety gets a new form as cuberhondria due to the fact that Dr. Google gives you easy diagnosis and confirms your worst nightmare.

I never said it is easy but it is worth of your try and efforts. It is curable if it is treated but you need to find people you trust and talk to them. You need to be out of your own drawn comfort zone and to dare to provoke your fears and limits. They are only in your head. The body follow the mind. If you convince yourself that you are sick, after some time, your body will protect the disease because it is a perfect system that works very well with networking. Thats why you need to transmit good messages and good vibes and to pick up healthy food for your brain. You need activities, hobbies, side thoughts. I am sorry if I say but people who have so much time to think of every single sings of body are too egoistic. Why? Because they have too much time for such things instead of investing it in beauty of being simply alive and being able to deal with every new day and breathing in. If you dont have hobbies, find them. If you don’t have interests, create them. Just move and talk, dance and act. Chose to defeat the weakness and deliver the courage. You can do it. I know. Been there, done that.