Health Anxiety & Hypochondria: How do you deal with it?

Hey everyone. I’m dealing with this massive, paralyzing fear regarding my heart—specifically heart attacks. I’m 29. About a year ago, I went all out and got every cardiac test imaginable, and everything came back perfectly fine. But the anxiety hasn't budged. I used to spend all my time scrolling through health forums, but I actually managed to quit a few months ago because I was feeling better. Now, here we go again. I feel like I need more tests, but at this point, I feel like I'm losing my mind. Everyone tells me it's unnecessary, even my doctor, but what if they're wrong? My neighbor actually had a heart attack two days ago and he's sitting in the hospital right now, which just fuels this whole thing. God help me. If anyone else is stuck in this loop, please reach out.

Lisa Chase90 said:Look, folks...

For my 20th birthday, I was gifted a book titled Cancer and Clinical Oncology (I won't even go there) by some people I worked for; the guy was an oncologist. I'm 23 now.

Basically, ever since then, if anything hurts, I've convinced myself it's cancer.
No matter what weird sensation pops up on my body—even if there are a thousand logical explanations—my first thought is always cancer.
The book was a medical textbook, full of gruesome photos and hyper-detailed descriptions of everything. Before that lovely little gift, I would say I functioned quite normally.
It’s exhausting. It wears you down. I'm constantly living in this irrational state of dread, terrified that I'm going to die a long, painful death and lose a limb or something (depending on which specific "cancer" is on the menu that month). 👎

I know the response is probably going to be "you're being stupid, get a life," but if anyone has actually lived through something similar, I know how draining it is. 😢 I don't really know what I'm looking for here; maybe just someone to share a similar experience with...

Thanks.

hey, I'm in the exact same boat, except for me, it's the constant fear of heart issues. God help us.