Advice regarding excessive anxiety.

[Hypochondriac17]

Hi sir/ma'am, hope you have a great day!
I cannot thank all the staff here at Scarleteen enough, for managing such a great project and helping so many of us out there. We really appreciate and love your efforts.

I really need some advice regarding an issue. I'm not quite sure whether this is the right forum to ask this question, sorry; Please do redirect me if I'm wrong.

I have an anxiety issue in general. I get stressed out too easily, and burn myself out worrying. However, most of it is about my health. As you can see from my username, I'm a humungous hypochondriac. I worry about contracting every small illness in the world- every little boil and prick. The funny part about this is, I'm 16 and I start my first year of med school (MBBS) in about 9-10 months. Yes, a hypochondriac who's an aspiring oncosurgeon. My anxiety regarding my health has magnified only recently, and due to that, its making me worry about my choice of career too, especially in a country like India where being a med student means being exposed to diseases like dengue, MDR TB, etc on a daily basis.
I've been trying to deal with this in many ways- meditation, counselling, etc- Nothing works. I can't let go of this anxiety. I really wish I could; I don't want to question my interest or my abilities to cope in a field I'm really passionate about just because I couldn't get over my fears.

Also, not only the hypochondria, but my stressful attitude towards everything else in life in general, is slowly but surely killing me. Its not letting me find beauty or meaning in life and its not letting me function.

Can you please, please guide me with respect to what I should do and how I should deal with this, sir/ma'am? Thank You.

[Heather]

Thanks for such a lovely thank you!

Alas, Scarleteen is an organization and service focused on sexuality, sexual health and relationships information and education, not mental health issues. This simply is outside our education, expertise and capabilities.

What I'd suggest you do is talk to your current counselor/therapist about where you're at with this, and you feeling like nothing has given you any results so far. A qualified mental healthcare professional, as you likely know being a medical student, is the right person to talk to about this and to ask what other steps you can take that you have not yet tried, or how you can perhaps try new things together in your therapy (or medications, if that's not a road you have yet explored), or participate differently in your therapy than you have already.

[Hypochondriac17]

Okay, Thank You so much for the prompt response, it really means a lot! I'll try to talk with my counsellor and other people around me and try to improve on this situation.

[Heather]

I'm sorry you're struggling with this so much, I hope you find some solutions!