I have the opposite problem. I know what my condition is, but all I can find is how to (supposedly) prevent it. Information on dealing with it thereafter is scant and too basic to be useful.

I find a dose of Occam's Razor is useful in these situations - i.e. "what is the simplest explanation for this symptom?". For a fever, in the absence of other symptoms, it's likely an infection or flu.

My husband has quite a bit of health anxiety and while I don't try to diagnose him, I do try to talk him down by using the above technique. If symptoms don't go away or are a real cause for concern (like if the fever is accompanied by rapid weight loss, weird bleeding etc) then it's doctor time.

Didn't you recently have a baby? Have you considered this might be post-partum depression manifesting as anxiety?

Like altolinguistic said, the anxiety usually is about something else and precedes the health worries. Then, because anxiety without a clear subject is harder to deal with, we add a new story on top of it, such as: cancer!

Yeah, like I said, my anxiety is manifesting as fears about my health. It is most definitely not PPD, it is because of my mom's ALS and watching her die in pretty much the most horrible way I can imagine. But knowing the source of the anxiety does not remove it. I have begun meditating to deal with it.

((((amro)))) You need to practice as much self-care as you can squeeze in these days. Between nubbin-Amro and grandmother-Amro's health, you have a very full plate. Of course you are experiencing painful anxiety. Your world has been knocked twice off of its axis. Down is up and nothing is right. I hope your meditation helps, I hope your anxiety lifts. I hope you figure out a way to stop Dr. Google from sending you down the diagnostic rabbit hole. I hope you are able to steal the moments of beauty and love when they pop up in the middle of a tough day (which will miraculously lift your anxiety, if just for a moment). It's hard. Please take care of yourself. I am sending as much virtual love and support to you as the internet can handle.

Everything is the worst case scenario.

Does it help to remember that, that Dr. Google's generally leaps to the direst possible, most far-fetched interpretation of the symptoms? Because that's true, and it's far more likely that your symptoms have a less dire, more mundane, even boring explanation.

See if this example helps: there was a recurring reek of stale cigarette smoke in my apartment... but no one else could smell it. After a bit, I understood that the smell wasn't in my apartment; it was in my head --- like, literally, I was smelling it inside my own head.

So I googled, trying to figure out what was causing it. Dr. Google's not-at-all-absurd diagnoses:

- of course, OF COURSE, cancer
- non-malignant brain tumor
- the early signs of schizophrenia
- GHOSTS, OBVIOUSLY, YOU BETTER MOVE OUT OF THAT HOUSE HAVEN'T YOU SEEN THE AMITYVILLE HORROR IT'S UNDENIABLE FACT
- demonic possession

It look a lot of targeted searching before I was able to confirm that, yeah, it was probably a symptom of a low-level recurrent sinus infection, and not, y'know, cigarette-smoking ghosts.

My point is, Dr. Google can be really helpful in narrowing down the meanings of symptoms, but only if you can stay calm in the face of ill-informed suggestions of doom. When I don't feel like I can withstand those, I stay away from Dr. Google.

I completely understand what you're saying about the source of your anxiety; I spent a long stretch submerged ina stew of brutal grief and body horror after my dear friend & first partner died of AIDS, and I still sometimes fall into that anxiety again when conditions are grim.

But you can protect yourself from those gnawing anxieties, and you have a right and duty to take excellent emotional care of yourself, and to let those who care about you help. Like us: we care about you. I'm sending hugs and whuffles and caring your way.

*hugs* I've been managing medical anxiety off and on for most of my adult life, set off by childhood trauma. Occam's Razor helps, as well as telling myself I'll wait for a specific amount of time before I seek help if it is for something that I know is anxiety-induced (the symptom always fades away before the time period is up). Exercise helps, as do deep breathing and visualization. Thinking of you.

Thank you for your sympathy and advice. initapplette, I've been trying to do what you suggest about giving it time before racing to the doctor. You are right that often symptoms go away.