Is this OCD or Health Anxiety?

[Kit3]

Hi there,

I’ve struggled with OCD most of my life with a few bad periods here and there. I haven’t been on this forum in a couple of years. My son died 2 years ago and it was a very traumatic time and I had post traumatic stress for many months after. Since then I have all kinds of obsessions over my health. I’ve had twitching all over my body for months and convinced myself I had MND. I went to the doctor and she reassured me it was stress related.  The twitching eventually stopped and I felt relief for a bit. Now my worries have turned to cancer. I am constantly checking my body for lumps etc. Any little pain or lump and I’m straight away acting like I’m dying. I try so hard to reason with myself but I’m exhausted with it all. I’ve found a small lump on the floor of my mouth and now I think I either have mouth cancer or lymphoma. I’ve spent hours on google looking at symptoms and this only makes me feel 10 times worse. I have young children and I am terrified of not being around to see them grow up. It’s on my mind all the time. I’ve booked an appointment with my dentist and a full health check with bloods etc. I’m so afraid ALL THE TIME and I feel at times I would be better off dead. I don’t want to suffer anymore. Is this OCD or Health anxiety? Does it matter? And would treatment be the same?

[PolarBear]

It's OCD. Can you read your post and pick out the compulsions?

Googling, checking for lumps, going to the doctor, going to the dentist, blood work... all compulsions.

You said it yourself, that all that Googling just made things ten times worse. So why keep doing it?

Cancel your dental visit and the blood work. Wotk hard to stop the Googling and checking your body for lumps. These are things you can learn to control.

[paradoxer]

Thank God for 'bad cops' here. They're needed sometimes.