Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Psychology of Your Twenties,
Speaker 1: the podcast where we talk through some of the big
Speaker 1: life changes and transitions of our twenties and what they
Speaker 1: mean for our psychology. Hello everybody, Welcome back to the show.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the podcast. New listeners, old listeners. Wherever
Speaker 1: you are in the world, it is so great to
Speaker 1: have you here. Back for another episode as we break
Speaker 1: down the Psychology of our twenties. Today, we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about a topic that I don't think is spoken
Speaker 1: about nearly enough, particularly amongst those in our twenties or
Speaker 1: really at any age, despite it being so much more
Speaker 1: common than I think we recognize, and that is health anxiety,
Speaker 1: the fear or preoccupation with the belief that we are
Speaker 1: currently or our risk of developing a serious illness, that
Speaker 1: our death or some kind of serious harm is either
Speaker 1: inevitable or currently occurring somewhere in our bodies, even if
Speaker 1: we don't have symptoms. We misinterpret normal bodily sensations as dangerous,
Speaker 1: and it's that very fear that we may secretly have
Speaker 1: a condition like cancer, or that we're having a heart
Speaker 1: attack or something else that can actually produce feelings that
Speaker 1: are similar to those conditions that we expect that we
Speaker 1: have because it activates our anxiety and a fear response
Speaker 1: such that we no longer really feel in touch with
Speaker 1: our bodies. This cycle can mean that we need constant
Speaker 1: reassurance from doctors. We're always scheduling appointments, searching for answers
Speaker 1: on the internet, and we are constantly coming up with
Speaker 1: this new explanation for a sensation or feeling that is
Speaker 1: either not that serious or may need you know, may
Speaker 1: not even exist. The thing is, though, is that it's
Speaker 1: our anxiety that triggers our imagination to go to the
Speaker 1: worst possible outcome, and that is where we land, and
Speaker 1: that is where we stay. On a personal note, health
Speaker 1: anxiety is something I've dealt with on and off for
Speaker 1: the greater part of my twenties, I would say even
Speaker 1: my teen years as well before that, and I want
Speaker 1: to really speak about that experience today for others who
Speaker 1: might be able to relate, but also just kind of
Speaker 1: sharing what I've learned and how I have come to
Speaker 1: manage the times real chronic anxiety that something in my
Speaker 1: body is not quite right, but also where this unique
Speaker 1: type of anxiety or set of fears comes from whether
Speaker 1: it is hypervigilant parents, catastrophic thinking, our intolerance for uncertainty,
Speaker 1: fear mongering. There is so much to be said for
Speaker 1: the origins of this kind of unique type of anxiety.
Speaker 1: There is actually a term for the fact that a
Speaker 1: lot of us believe that we have certain conditions because
Speaker 1: of our exposure to the Internet. It's called cyberchondria, where
Speaker 1: we repeatedly google our symptoms and look for examples that
Speaker 1: kind of justify our own explanations to ourselves. Honestly, I
Speaker 1: think talking about this in the aftermath of a global
Speaker 1: pandemic is also so important because I think COVID and
Speaker 1: the changes that brought to the world around us have
Speaker 1: been such a huge catalyst for so many people when
Speaker 1: it comes to health fears and health worries. I think
Speaker 1: when we are in our twenties, we're expected to feel
Speaker 1: very invincible because we are young. This is normally when
Speaker 1: we are our healthiest, our fittest, our immune system is strong.
Speaker 1: We think we're going to live forever. But we also
Speaker 1: have this very instinctual urge to want to stay alive
Speaker 1: for as long as possible, and that means worrying about
Speaker 1: our health, especially if you're an especially anxious person. Our
Speaker 1: minds like to find anything in our environment, external or internal,
Speaker 1: to be hyper vigilant towards, so that we are aware
Speaker 1: of any threats. I remember vividly when the embola virus
Speaker 1: was making like international headlines back in twenty fourteen twenty fifteen,
Speaker 1: and I was so scared. I was terrified that my
Speaker 1: entire family was going to be infected with this rare
Speaker 1: disease and die. I would google survival rates and symptoms.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure I ordered one of those like protective
Speaker 1: suits on Amazon using my mum's credit card. Anytime I
Speaker 1: had a cough, the smallest pain, even the hiccups, I
Speaker 1: would go into a state of panic. And I didn't
Speaker 1: really have a term for what that feeling was. The
Speaker 1: constant googling, the anxiety, the endless doctor's appointments for symptoms
Speaker 1: that would disappear as soon as they told me I
Speaker 1: was fine. But it was when I was in my
Speaker 1: twenties that someone finally said to me, like, hey, look,
Speaker 1: it it's unlikely that you are suffering from every rare
Speaker 1: disease on the planet and that you're still alive. I
Speaker 1: think the underlying condition here is really health anxiety. This
Speaker 1: was after I had been experiencing headaches for a few
Speaker 1: weeks and I had my friend Kate, God bless her,
Speaker 1: an actual angel, but she drove me to get an
Speaker 1: emergency MRI because I was convinced, convinced to the point
Speaker 1: of thinking I would need to write my will that
Speaker 1: I had a serious brain clot or terminal cancer. Spoiler alert,
Speaker 1: it was neither. I had just become so hyper vigilant
Speaker 1: towards any abnormalities and how I was feeling so alert
Speaker 1: to my body, so consumed with my worry and my
Speaker 1: stress that I was experiencing these phantom symptoms, or I
Speaker 1: was applying unreasonable, irrational explanations to things that are just
Speaker 1: normal to experience as a human being that is going
Speaker 1: through life. That explanation actually brought me a lot of peace,
Speaker 1: even if at times I still feel a lot of
Speaker 1: my anxiety spike. I understand it now, I can apply
Speaker 1: logic and understanding to my need to go searching for answers.
Speaker 1: And you know what it really all comes down to.
Speaker 1: It feels terrible to not be in control of your body.
Speaker 1: It is scary to feel like you are out of touch,
Speaker 1: which with what's going on inside of you, and to
Speaker 1: realize and recognize your vulnerability as a human. That is
Speaker 1: the origin of the fear. Understanding that although illness and
Speaker 1: sickness is a part of life, we want to be
Speaker 1: prepared for whatever is possible. We want to be able
Speaker 1: to avoid anything that might happen, so we experience a
Speaker 1: lot of false alarms. I would always rationalize it that
Speaker 1: it was better safe than sorry, but I think I
Speaker 1: actually wasn't being safe. I was just creating more stress
Speaker 1: for myself. So what are some of the roots, the
Speaker 1: root causes of our health anxiety, because I think being
Speaker 1: aware of those first allows us to actually gain the
Speaker 1: control that we feel or sense that we lack. To
Speaker 1: understand health anxiety, we firstly have to really consider our
Speaker 1: evolutionary history and the fact that we all are, at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, just animals, just another species
Speaker 1: whose primary goal is survival. Anxiety is a protective mechanism
Speaker 1: that serves that purpose, and it allows us to scan
Speaker 1: the body for an illness that we might need to
Speaker 1: protect ourselves from. Our ancestors really relied on that keen
Speaker 1: sense of hypervigilance to survive in a hostile environment, one
Speaker 1: that they couldn't always predict, So those of us who
Speaker 1: are more cautious about potential threats were more likely to survive,
Speaker 1: more likely to pass in our genes. Normally, we would
Speaker 1: interpret that as being threats in our environment, like a
Speaker 1: massive tiger coming to eat us or predators, and in
Speaker 1: many ways that is true. That is what ancient hypervigilance
Speaker 1: was normally directed towards outside threats. But as we've evolved
Speaker 1: as a species, this hypervigilance has now turned inward. We
Speaker 1: are now on hilt for science of illness because that
Speaker 1: illness is just as dangerous as something external or in
Speaker 1: our environment, and we now have the knowledge to treat
Speaker 1: and eliminate the threat. Therefore, if we catch something early enough,
Speaker 1: maybe we'll be okay. So we start looking for signs
Speaker 1: that what we are experiencing is a larger problem to
Speaker 1: get that diagnostic care. Another part of our programming or
Speaker 1: I guess, our basic instincts as humans that has made
Speaker 1: us more aware of potential sickness or conditions is the
Speaker 1: innate and automatic prioritization of negative information. This is known
Speaker 1: as a negativity bias. So basically, we are more likely
Speaker 1: to attend to learn from focus on negative information more
Speaker 1: than positive information, and that bias, that tendency has been
Speaker 1: with us since infancy. It's something that is so important
Speaker 1: to our survival that even as children we do it
Speaker 1: because you have to know that if you have a
Speaker 1: beautiful rainbow on one side and a terrible storm on
Speaker 1: the other, prioritizing the storm, thinking about how you're going
Speaker 1: to escape or protect yourself was more likely to mean
Speaker 1: that you would survive. So we focus on that negative
Speaker 1: information when we think about that. In the context of
Speaker 1: health anxiety, this means that we are hardwired to excessively
Speaker 1: focus on the worst possible outcome. We magnify and amplify
Speaker 1: the perceived threat or small minor symptoms into a catastrophic illness.
Speaker 1: That small pain on your side, that's a heart attack,
Speaker 1: that headache, it's a brain tumor. And that catastrophic thinking
Speaker 1: has obviously emerged to help us, but in a modern
Speaker 1: context it actually does more harm than good because we
Speaker 1: can't help but think of an explanation first before there
Speaker 1: is actually a reason to think that, so it reinforces
Speaker 1: our cycle of anxiety. The next thing we need to
Speaker 1: appreciate is that when we are struggling with our health anxiety.
Speaker 1: What we really are struggling with at the end of
Speaker 1: the day is our intolerance of uncertainty. A lot of this,
Speaker 1: if you haven't realized, is once again coming down to
Speaker 1: our innate human nature and our fear of the unknown.
Speaker 1: We don't like it as humans when we don't know
Speaker 1: what's going to happen next, when we don't feel a
Speaker 1: sense of control, when we are just uncertain, that leaves
Speaker 1: room for danger. Uncertainty is obviously a really normal part
Speaker 1: of life. We can never be one hundred percent sure
Speaker 1: about what the future holds, not even fifty percent twenty
Speaker 1: percent good and bad. However, if you already have a
Speaker 1: high baseline or high levels of anxiety, you are more
Speaker 1: likely to want to plan and prepare for everything as
Speaker 1: a way of eliminating ambigunit or uncertainty because we are
Speaker 1: so fearful of it. It's why we like going to
Speaker 1: the same restaurants, where we like watching the same comfort
Speaker 1: TV shows or movies, or only going to parties or
Speaker 1: social events where we know people. It minimizes the things
Speaker 1: that will be out of our control. However, our health
Speaker 1: is not something we can always control and realizing that
Speaker 1: creates further worry. We can become infected with something from
Speaker 1: a thoughtless cough or for pure chance, some genetic mutation
Speaker 1: that has just happened, so we overthink every small thing
Speaker 1: in order to mitigate our sense of stress. At that realization,
Speaker 1: it's where a lot of those symptoms are coming from,
Speaker 1: the fear of uncertainty. There's a lot of reasons why
Speaker 1: we do that, but it normally comes down to two
Speaker 1: main sources. Firstly is our upbringing and past experiences, and
Speaker 1: second is the Internet. We are going to discuss how
Speaker 1: these two things contribute to our health anxiety, but also
Speaker 1: how we can begin to manage these feelings in a
Speaker 1: very healthy, sustainable, helpful way after this show of break.
Speaker 1: When I was a child, I used to get these really,
Speaker 1: really terrible stomach pains, like the worst pain that you
Speaker 1: have ever experienced. It felt like someone was ripping out
Speaker 1: my organs, and I would complain about this to my
Speaker 1: parents all the time. It would come on randomly when
Speaker 1: I was at school, when I was with my friends,
Speaker 1: when I was playing basketball, and my parents would always
Speaker 1: dismiss it. They'd be like, no, you're just overreacting. It
Speaker 1: took over a year for them to realize that something
Speaker 1: was actually wrong, and when we went to the doctor,
Speaker 1: they found out that I had this really random condition,
Speaker 1: especially for people like under the age of forty. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to go into what it is, but basically
Speaker 1: this condition is super super rare unless you're like over
Speaker 1: and you're suffering from obesity and like high blood pressure
Speaker 1: and a poor diet. And it's also really really painful.
Speaker 1: And you know, my parents never could have known that
Speaker 1: this is what was going on, because who is going
Speaker 1: to think that their twelve year old daughter has a
Speaker 1: condition that mostly impacts sedentary, pregnant adult women with high cholesterol.
Speaker 1: That memory, though, of knowing for a while I that
Speaker 1: something was wrong, trying to communicate that not being believed
Speaker 1: that really stuck with me. We think that those memories,
Speaker 1: those childhood experiences aren't important, and we think that we
Speaker 1: don't subliminally learn from them, But those are teachable moments,
Speaker 1: and our brain takes those times when we were in
Speaker 1: pain or experiencing hurt or something damaging and holds onto
Speaker 1: those memories really tightly because they might be useful in
Speaker 1: the future. So I look at that experience as being
Speaker 1: a big origin point for me, because whilst my rational
Speaker 1: brain can see that this was really rare, this was
Speaker 1: really out of the blue, it wasn't life threatening, it
Speaker 1: was managed. All that that situation taught me was just
Speaker 1: how little control that we have, how little we know
Speaker 1: about what our bodies are doing. And I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to use that example to like fearmonger. I'm just more
Speaker 1: so using it to illustrate my point that childhood experiences
Speaker 1: and moments from our upbringing play a really pivotal role
Speaker 1: in the development of health anxiety. Individuals who maybe experienced
Speaker 1: frequent illness when they were children or had a significant
Speaker 1: loss in childhood, grow up associating health related issues with
Speaker 1: deep emotional pain. These unresolved emotions can resurface in the
Speaker 1: form of this health anxiety, where the fear of illness
Speaker 1: becomes intertwined with this unresolved trauma. Further to that, some
Speaker 1: of us have also been raised with parents or family
Speaker 1: mene members who themselves are hypochondriacs, and they project their
Speaker 1: fears onto us as a way of coping with their
Speaker 1: own personal anxiety. It might have been a mother who
Speaker 1: was always sanitizing things, taking you to the doctor, keeping
Speaker 1: you home from school. These experiences imprint on us. They
Speaker 1: stay with us. We begin to mimic it through observation
Speaker 1: or learning, and then when we become adults who have
Speaker 1: been raised in this way, where those behaviors we thought
Speaker 1: kept us safe and provided a sense of false sense
Speaker 1: of security, we begin to take those on ourselves. It
Speaker 1: may also be that someone in your family has unfortunately
Speaker 1: suffered from a really terrible disease or condition, and so
Speaker 1: you know firsthand what that looks like and you want
Speaker 1: to avoid it at all costs. A family member with
Speaker 1: a condition also creates a predisposition, which may give you
Speaker 1: more reason and justification for your excess of worry, because
Speaker 1: now you feel more at risk, you feel more in danger.
Speaker 1: It also creates what we call a frequency illusion or
Speaker 1: a frequency bias, where we tend to notice something more
Speaker 1: after we notice it for the first time, leading to
Speaker 1: the belief that it is more common than it is.
Speaker 1: An example is that if your family member has Parkinson's,
Speaker 1: the more you're going to start seeing Parkinson's in the
Speaker 1: news in the media overhearing it on the street in conversations,
Speaker 1: leading to the belief that you should actually be more
Speaker 1: afraid when really It's just an illusion created by where
Speaker 1: your brain is deciding to direct attention. This is really
Speaker 1: only aided by the fact that most of us belong
Speaker 1: to the first ever generation that grew up on the Internet,
Speaker 1: and we know that the Internet loves fear mongering. It
Speaker 1: loves clickbait novel stories that capture our attention, that get
Speaker 1: more likes, that get more views, because people are naturally
Speaker 1: drawn to information that is more emotionally charged. So those
Speaker 1: stories of cancer, patience and rare diseases and infections, they
Speaker 1: become more salient, especially once again in the minds of
Speaker 1: anxious people who are already on high alert for this information.
Speaker 1: The Internet is very quick to give you the worst
Speaker 1: possible answer to any question that you ask it. I
Speaker 1: think this is a common experience to be like googling
Speaker 1: your minors stomach pains at two am, and the first
Speaker 1: response is that you have some uncurable infection and you'll
Speaker 1: be like dead in three weeks. That is what we
Speaker 1: were talking about before hypochondria. Even if we are googling
Speaker 1: our symptoms in the first place as a way to
Speaker 1: seek reassurance, suddenly you're given this like unexpected answer and
Speaker 1: you're thinking, oh yeah, I fit the profile for all
Speaker 1: of these things because you have this bias, right, you
Speaker 1: want to meet this profile. You've been told the answer,
Speaker 1: so you want to make sure that you are part
Speaker 1: of the answer because doctor Google has told you so,
Speaker 1: and you trust that information. So how do we counteract
Speaker 1: that if we know we have this tendency, if it
Speaker 1: is creating concern for us, meaning that we are in
Speaker 1: that constant state of panic. What are our strategies here?
Speaker 1: Because I think the most important thing to remember is
Speaker 1: that when you have anxiety of any sort, your thoughts
Speaker 1: are still within your control. They originate from you, Your anxieties,
Speaker 1: your worries, they come from you. They can be controlled
Speaker 1: by you, even if it seems hard. So there's three
Speaker 1: main strategies here that I want to talk about. Firstly,
Speaker 1: get comfortable with uncomfortable feelings. A lot of our health
Speaker 1: anxiety comes from feeling disconnected with our bodies and experiencing
Speaker 1: phantom symptoms which we know are actually the result of
Speaker 1: our anxiety. These feelings make us very aware of our
Speaker 1: bodies and also very aware of the stress response that
Speaker 1: we're going through. And so if we're not comfortable with
Speaker 1: that discomfort and cannot identify the true origin, which is
Speaker 1: a false alarm or a fear response. We're going to
Speaker 1: read further into that, and the next thing you know,
Speaker 1: we're in the doctor's office. If you think about it,
Speaker 1: a lot of the symptoms of anxiety also mimic a
Speaker 1: lot of the symptoms of more serious illnesses, so we
Speaker 1: can't tell the difference, and we're not we don't feel
Speaker 1: safe in those feelings. A lot of these sensations we
Speaker 1: can actually bring back into our control using methods associated
Speaker 1: with this idea called biofeedback. So biofeedback is this idea
Speaker 1: in psychology that we can actually train our minds to
Speaker 1: influence what we typically see is automatic bodily functions as
Speaker 1: a way to restore a sense of mental stability. There's
Speaker 1: the things like using like breathing patterns to control heart
Speaker 1: rate or meditation to control racing thoughts. The easiest way
Speaker 1: to tell whether your racing heartbeat is a heart attack
Speaker 1: or just anxiety is to stop for a second, take
Speaker 1: eight really deep breaths, let your arms float, lie down flat,
Speaker 1: continue to breathe, and I want you to think of
Speaker 1: your anxiety as a bubble slowly flowing past you, or
Speaker 1: like a shell in the waves that are slowly getting
Speaker 1: swept out. Picture the most beautiful place you've ever been.
Speaker 1: Focus on that anxiety floating away, moving out of your
Speaker 1: line of sight, and start focusing on the environment that
Speaker 1: you're imagining around you. Identify five things you can see
Speaker 1: in that place. What are you smelling, what are you hearing,
Speaker 1: what are you feeling? And has your heart rate dropped?
Speaker 1: Is your breathing more in your control? That is a
Speaker 1: sign that this is a symptom of anxiety, not a
Speaker 1: real illness. I also do this thing where, when I'm
Speaker 1: like getting those racing thoughts that we all are so
Speaker 1: so so familiar with, I visualize all of my anxiety
Speaker 1: resting in the palm of my hand, and I concentrate
Speaker 1: all of my worries onto that area. They're just in
Speaker 1: my hand. They're not anywhere else in my body. I
Speaker 1: hold onto them tightly and then slowly I let them go,
Speaker 1: but only when I'm ready to, And until that point
Speaker 1: they stay right there in the palm of my hand.
Speaker 1: They're not in my mind, They're not anywhere else in
Speaker 1: my body. I can see them. I know where they're
Speaker 1: going to go, and they're not going to hurt me,
Speaker 1: and I slowly release them. That is a really important
Speaker 1: tactic for me because it stops me from feeling like
Speaker 1: my anxiety is this thing that has control over me,
Speaker 1: and I actually have control of it. Yet I also
Speaker 1: would say begin to notice when you experience it's these
Speaker 1: phantom symptoms as a way to rationalize them and better
Speaker 1: understand your triggers. Is it that you often start to
Speaker 1: feel like you have a sickness or an illness or
Speaker 1: a condition during periods of really high stress, after you've
Speaker 1: had a really tough conversation with your partner, when you've
Speaker 1: had a really busy day. Often there is an environmental catalyst,
Speaker 1: and our health. Anxiety is really just us projecting a
Speaker 1: sense of uncertainty in our lives onto uncertainty around our
Speaker 1: health because that feels more serious and valid to worry about.
Speaker 1: That's okay. Sometimes our mind does what it needs to
Speaker 1: do to compartmentalize our stress, but it is about being
Speaker 1: aware of that. Secondly, invest in your health as a
Speaker 1: way to build your confidence instead of googling or instead
Speaker 1: of searching for answers. At the end of the day,
Speaker 1: our health is really precious. Health is wealth. It's so
Speaker 1: important That is why we are so pritive of it
Speaker 1: and so hyper vigilant towards things that might be going wrong.
Speaker 1: But we have to remember that our health anxiety is
Speaker 1: really just us unconsciously trying to do what's right by ourselves.
Speaker 1: By being overly cautious, our brain just doesn't realize when
Speaker 1: it's maybe gone too far. Flip the narrative. Instead of
Speaker 1: looking for illness, look for ways to promote wellness. Let
Speaker 1: me explain this a little bit more. If you feel healthy,
Speaker 1: if you feel well, if you know that you are fit,
Speaker 1: taking care of yourself, that entire bodily sensation is going
Speaker 1: to give you peace of mind and a much deeper
Speaker 1: sense of confidence that you are in fact totally fine.
Speaker 1: You're okay. So instead of overthinking and googling, go for
Speaker 1: a walk instead, prioritize exercise, eat foods that make you
Speaker 1: feel good, Go and get your regular checkups, take your vitamins,
Speaker 1: get eight hours of sleep, Make that your focus instead
Speaker 1: of your worries. It's going to have two effects. Number one,
Speaker 1: you're just going to feel a lot better, and your
Speaker 1: anxiety will actually just be lessened because you're adopting these
Speaker 1: healthy habits and Secondly, it brings that sense of control
Speaker 1: back into your life. You feel like the control that
Speaker 1: you're giving up when you worry about your health, you
Speaker 1: are reclaiming by prioritizing your health. If that doesn't work,
Speaker 1: you can always challenge these unhelpful thoughts. Anxiety is irrational.
Speaker 1: Helpful thoughts are logical. What are the actual prevalence rates
Speaker 1: of what you're worried about here? How common is it really?
Speaker 1: What are your chances of surviving? How would doctors treat
Speaker 1: you if this was to happen? Is there a more
Speaker 1: rational explanation for your symptoms? You've got to realize that
Speaker 1: if something was really wrong, your body is going to
Speaker 1: tell you in ways that are very of you would
Speaker 1: not have any doubts, and worst case scenario, you would
Speaker 1: still be okay. I promise you you are going to
Speaker 1: be okay. Our medical system is so far advanced often
Speaker 1: we forget that. We feel like we have to do
Speaker 1: all the work to keep ourselves safe when there are
Speaker 1: people who have trained for years to do that for us.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we think that our anxious thoughts are the only
Speaker 1: things protecting us, Like if I can I can outthink
Speaker 1: my anxiety, or if I overthink something enough, I'll jinx
Speaker 1: it and it can't possibly come true. But your anxiety
Speaker 1: is lying to you. Your nervous system has developed a
Speaker 1: fight or flight response, and sometimes it means it misfires
Speaker 1: our health. Anxiety is an instant of that. So my
Speaker 1: final tip when you can't escape this spiral or your
Speaker 1: thoughts are just really loud today, is to talk it
Speaker 1: out with your friends. And I find this really helpful
Speaker 1: for two reasons. Firstly, when you verbalize something, you often
Speaker 1: realize how silly it sounds. And secondly, you'll be surprised
Speaker 1: how many other people out there have similar thoughts to
Speaker 1: you at some time or another. I remember so clearly
Speaker 1: sitting down with my friend Kate when she was about
Speaker 1: to take me to get that MRI, and just hearing
Speaker 1: from her how she felt the same way. Obviously, I
Speaker 1: knew how hard it was, so it wasn't like a
Speaker 1: pleasure to hear. It wasn't like happy. But I believe
Speaker 1: that seeing our experiences reflected back on us is one
Speaker 1: of the most calming, reassuring things we can feel. It
Speaker 1: makes you realize that no one, no feeling that we
Speaker 1: experience is felt alone, No human experience is completely unique
Speaker 1: or experienced. In solitude, we operate in the same way
Speaker 1: as humans our quirks, our anxieties, our insecurities. That is
Speaker 1: a good feeling, that is a comforting feeling. Talk about
Speaker 1: it openly, discuss it with your friends and your family,
Speaker 1: and they can kind of act as a voice of
Speaker 1: reason in those situations when your logic is failing you.
Speaker 1: They are kind of the rational voice that you need,
Speaker 1: because once again, in those moments, your brain is just
Speaker 1: looking for a source of fear. It is fear mongering.
Speaker 1: It wants answers, it wants certainty, so it's gonna find
Speaker 1: whatever explanation is going to bring it comfort and peace,
Speaker 1: even if it's not the right one, even if it's
Speaker 1: totally off the mark. I really do have a lot
Speaker 1: of sympathy. I feel like, if you can't tell it,
Speaker 1: this is part of my reality, and sometimes it's really
Speaker 1: really hard. I've been like traveling a lot recently, and
Speaker 1: I think that's a big trigger for me where I
Speaker 1: get really worried that I'll get sick when I'm oversee
Speaker 1: so I start becoming really hyper vigilant to like any
Speaker 1: small thing as like a reason not to go or
Speaker 1: as like a reason to go to the doctor. So
Speaker 1: it's definitely been on my mind, and I want you
Speaker 1: to know that you are not alone. Obviously, as I
Speaker 1: was saying that about talking to friends and being reassured
Speaker 1: by other people's experiences, I hope you can hear my
Speaker 1: experience and realize that you are not the only one
Speaker 1: who was conscious of this, who was conscious of these
Speaker 1: worries and these anxieties. You are going to be completely fine.
Speaker 1: You are going to be so okay. I'm really rooting
Speaker 1: for you. I know it can be hard to feel
Speaker 1: like you are not in control of your body because
Speaker 1: of whatever experience in the past, scared for your future,
Speaker 1: the future of your health and your well being. But
Speaker 1: I'm right there with you, and I really get it.
Speaker 1: So I hope this episode has been of some help.
Speaker 1: I hope these strategies have been helpful. They personally are
Speaker 1: amazing for me. I really do hope you enjoyed this
Speaker 1: episode or at least got something out of it. As always,
Speaker 1: if there is someone who needs to hear this, please
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