Is Health Anxiety Common in Asperger's?

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Hello everyone. I've been recently diagnosed with Asperger's and have been dealing with other issues that I've known about for much longer then I have known about my Asperger's. Anyway, I've lately been suffering pretty badly with anxiety due to a mistake I made with my anxiety medication where I accidentally took one extra pill then was prescribed. The day that happened, I went to the ER and despite the insistence of both the doctors that treated me that day, the GP I followed up with and countless other doctors I've spoken to that my foggy symptoms are all in my head due to severe anxiety, I feel like utter crap mentally, as I can't remember as well, have more trouble focusing and can barely think too. I want to know if Aspies tend to suffer from health anxiety to the point where it mimics symptoms of a real condition? Apparently, this issue is known as somatic disorder.

A lot of aspies experience anxiety, and a lot of people with anxiety get worried about health issues, yes sometimes to the point of generating somatic symptoms.

Anxiety is not surprising for aspies, since every minute of every day we face a world that doesn't really understand us. We always wonder if we're doing the right thing, etc. It is nervewracking and scary, you know?

Feeling foggy all the time might be a sign that your brain is redlining, that you're under so much stress all the time (flooded with cortisol, adrenaline, etc) that your body and mind are freaking out and shutting down. Nothing seems like it redlines your brain as much as anxiety, but I know from personal experience that stopping worrying is far from easy.

Breathing issues are very anxiety related. /VERY/ anxiety related.

Anxiety is fear, and extreme anxiety/fear produces a highly excited "fight or flight" type of state, which causes all the muscles in the body to tense up in preparation for, like, fighting a tiger or climbing a tree or something. Unfortunately, this includes the muscles around your rib cage, so it makes it really really hard to breath.

The good news is that its very hard to /not/ breath. Your body is physiologically wired to try to breath really really hard, so even as your muscles are locked down, your body is going to FORCE you to breath. I know it probably feels like you're the one forcing your body to breath, but when you're having trouble breathing, maybe give this a try: see what happens if you don't try to breath.

Just like, check out and be like "fine body, you want to stop breathing? you the boss, have fun, curiousbutdepressed OUT".

If you wait it out, your body will gasp for breath on its own. Even if you fight it a little and actively try NOT to breath. And then, on the other side of the breath (breathing out) try holding your breath, don't order yourself to exhale. Similarly, eventually your body will override you and you'll forcefully exhale.

If you do this excercise over and over, you might become aware that breathing is super automatic. Maybe we have influence over it? But we don't control it. Remember: your body will breath on its own even if you're unconscious (in fact, it'll probably breath better, d'oh!)

Test it and you might find that if you try NOT to exhale, your body will force you to. That might be comforting.

What you're going through sounds very very stressful, I'm so sorry this is happening to you.

I have my share of general health concerns, but some are less real than others; as an example, I recently had a blood pressure test that scored better than the healthy average, probably because I run almost every day. But I do go through bouts of anxiety over my heart, which I worry has an irregular beat, or that I'm about to suffer a heart attack. At least it's made me well-informed of actual heart attack symptoms: useful knowledge. I focus on this issue a lot because of the high-risk stats: being female, history of depression, family history of high cholesterol and heart attack deaths. When it all adds up like that I can almost feel my heart stuttering: anxiety has a lot to answer for!

I just hope that the doctors are right and that all I'm enduring is a somatic disorder, like I said. What's happened to me is very bizarre and it doesn't seem rational that I could have actually become that ill from one extra pill. I mean, it was 20 milligrams vs 10.

Yes I think someone can be so afraid they have a condition they actually start to have the actual symptoms and I think it's the brain's way to tell the person they are not imagining it and this is all real as a coping mechanism for anxiety so the person will stop worrying about it. Just my speculation.


I for once used to worry about I was getting schizophrenia when I was in high school and I was scared I was getting the symptoms and situations would keep happening where it would make me think I just hallucinated or just had a delusion because I misunderstood something I heard or because I noticed a sound others didn't notice or because I remembered something differently than someone else. But I didn't have the actual symptoms of schizophrenia. It was all in my head. But that was the only time I was ever worried about having a disorder I didn't even have and I thought I was ret*d too for a while because I was told for so many years by other kids I was and no one could convince me I was not. That is what abuse can do to someone, they start to believe it after while and then no one can convince them they aren't. I only got convinced I wasn't when I saw my IQ scores from 5th grade. It's very very hard to get convinced something isn't true you were told after hearing it over and over. I still feel that way sometimes and wonder if those scores were just a mistake but that is probably just the damage from my childhood.