Currently I have multiple issues with my health, among other things, that I am waiting on. Sometimes that is the worst situation to be in. I am having tests done today and will spend the next week or so waiting anxiously for the results. I also have appointments coming up where I need to make decisions that I cannot yet make without speaking with my doctors, which can tend to raise my anxiety. I have many aspects of my life where I find I am simply waiting for an answer.
This is anxiety at its highest. Sometimes this state of not knowing is the most frustrating. For those who deal with chronic pain, this is very common. Many times we go in for tests and wait for results, or we wait to find out if insurance will approve surgeries, procedures or tests.
There are a lot of giant question marks when it comes to living with chronic pain. So, how do we best deal with the unknown?
Personally, I find it best to make a list of all the things I am most worried about. I list the things I am waiting for answers on. I often will follow up that list with what could go right and wrong with the decisions. For example: If I am waiting for the tests results for test A to come back and the results are normal, all is fine. If the test results are abnormal, what are my next steps? What are the problems that could arise from that?
Although listing the complications of a situation that has not yet come about can be seen as jumping to a conclusion, sometimes the act of getting a worry out of your head and onto paper can help ease your worries. At the same time, I find it important to remind myself that when dealing with the big question marks involving my health, to not allow myself to go from healthy to the operating table before I have any reason to believe anything is even wrong with me. When we are anxious and waiting, we tend to jump to conclusions. In doing so, we tend to hope for the best, but let’s be honest, in our minds we have already assumed the tests will come back abnormal and we will have to have to the most extreme of surgeries.
Anxiety can bring about the boogy man under the bed faster anything, but it is important to try and keep health concerns in check. What do you do to keep your health worries in check?
