Anxiety Symptoms – Should I Go For More Medical Tests?

Anxiety Symptoms - Should I Go For More Medical Tests?

Complete Question

I’ve been to numerous doctors and all have agreed my symptoms are related to anxiety. But I can’t stop worrying I might have a serious medical condition that they are missing. Should I go for further testing?

Answer

It’s important to see your doctor about new, changing, persistent, and returning symptoms.

But if you’ve done that and your doctor has attributed your symptoms solely to anxiety, you can feel confident that your doctor’s assessment is correct.

If you aren’t confident in your doctor’s diagnosis, you may want to seek a second and even third opinion.

If all opinions agree that your symptoms are solely caused by anxiety, however, you can feel confident that your symptoms are caused solely by anxiety and not by some other medical condition.

While doctors can make mistakes since they are human, most doctors do a good job of correctly differentiating anxiety symptoms from symptoms caused by medical conditions.

Because other medical conditions generally have symptoms unique unto themselves and unlike that of anxiety alone, most good doctors can spot the difference easily.

Again, if you've had two or three "second opinions," you can feel confident your symptoms are being caused by anxiety and nothing else.

While further testing could help to alleviate your fears, if the doctors don't think they are necessary, it’s probably wise to not waste your time and money when the outcome most likely won’t change.

Again, symptoms solely caused from anxiety are easy to recognize. Doctors are well trained to spot the difference between anxiety-caused symptoms and symptoms caused by other medical conditions.

Once you have the evidence that no other medical condition is causing your symptoms, it’s your job to contain your worry.

Successfully containing worry is an important part of recovery and of maintaining normal health once it is attained. It’s a skill worth the time and effort to learn.

If you don’t know how to contain your fears and worries, you may want to seek the help of an experienced anxiety disorder therapist.

We explain containment in detail in many areas in the Recovery Support area of our website.