Latest news with #healthanxiety
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Anne Nolan, 74, admits she has 'anxiety about dying' after her breast cancer battle as she gives health update: 'I don't want to die, I love being here'
Anne Nolan has admitted she has 'anxiety about dying' as she discussed her battle with breast cancer. The Irish singer, 74, was first diagnosed with cancer in 2000 and then two decades later revealed she had been diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. Cancer has significantly affected the Nolan family after they lost Bernie in 2013 and Linda in January of this year, while Coleen and Brian have both battled the disease. Giving an update on her health, Anne revealed she is officially cancer-free and is feeling 'really well' but told how the disease still has a massive impact on her life. Anne said she still struggles with health anxiety and is always fearful about her cancer returning as she discussed the emotional toll it has on her. 'When you have cancer, it's one of those things that you kind of live with it for the rest of your life,' she told The Mirror. 'You could kind of get a little bruise or a lump somewhere and you think, ''Oh my god, is that cancer?'' It can always come back.' Anne was diagnosed with breast cancer during Covid and was put on anti-anxiety medication because of how the 'horrendous' time - when she had to be hospitalised alone due to social distancing restrictions - affected her. 'I still have anxiety but it's not as bad, I have anxieties about dying, it is about the cancer coming back as well,' she admitted. 'I don't want to die, I love being alive, I love being here.' Five years on from her 2020 cancer battle and Anne received a letter with her latest test results, but she pushed the letter to one side after being consumed by fear. She said she didn't know how she would 'handle' any bad news, but thankfully, after finding the strength to read the letter, Anne found out she was officially cancer-free. Anne admitted she cried after reading the news and was overwhelmed with relief, though her emotions were conflicted as she couldn't help but think about her late siblings Bernie and Linda. Anne still deals with some neuropathy - where nerves are damaged - in her feet her chemotherapy but is no longer taking any medication, apart from occasional anti-anxiety tablets. Giving an update on her health, Anne revealed she is officially cancer-free and is feeling 'really well' but told how the disease still has a massive impact on her life as she deals with anxiety She said she is now able to do most things and is now focusing on spending time with her children Amy, 44, and Alex, 37, and three grandchildren Vinny, 15, Ryder, 13, and Navaeh, 10. Anne's cancer update comes just days after her brother Brian revealed he was given the all-clear amid his prostate cancer battle. Brian, 70, was diagnosed with stage two prostate cancer just three days after his sister Linda died on January 15, 2025, following a 20-year breast cancer battle. He became the fifth of the Nolan siblings to battle the disease, and he shared during an appearance on Loose Women that he was given the all-clear in a positive update. Brian underwent surgery for the cancer, which involved doctors removing his prostate gland, and he gave fans his health update during a live TV appearance earlier this month. 'There have been developments. I'll start at the beginning. So I had the operation, it's called a RALP, which means it's a robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy,' he explained. 'To make a long story short, my cancer was in the prostate gland, so they offered me a radical operation, which drew the whole cancer out. 'I was basically in the hospital for 18 hours and I got the all clear last Tuesday that the cancer is completely gone and my bloods are back to normal.' His sister Coleen, 60, appeared on the Loose Women panel alongside him as he shared the news and she has now praised his strength for speaking on live TV about his health. 'I'm so proud of him, because, since being diagnosed, he's done so much to raise awareness of the condition,' she wrote in her Mirror column. 'Brian, I'm in awe of you and so impressed that you can go on live telly and talk so calmly and eloquently about this important subject.' Brian initially went to his doctor after noticing he was needing to use the toilet a lot more, which started affecting his sleep and day-to-day life. After blood tests he was told his PSA levels had risen, and he was then sent for an MRI scan before being told that they had found something. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, measured in nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL), are a blood test used to screen for prostate cancer, with higher levels potentially indicating prostate problems, though not necessarily cancer. Brian initially kept his diagnosis a secret from his sisters because they were grieving the loss of their sibling Linda. Amid his own struggles, he spent 28 hours sitting by Linda's bedside in her final days. Appearing on Loose Women in March, Coleen shared: 'He went through all of this, none of us knew, at the same time organising everything for Linda. 'Brian and Annie took control of the whole thing. At not one moment did I think something was up with Brian.' While Brian added: 'It was a conscious decision, we'd been through too much with Linda and Bernadette. 'We've been through so much with cancer. I left it three or four days and I told you [his siblings] all individually.' Brian described his diagnosis as 'like being hit by a train' and said he thought the worst when he was first diagnosed. 'I just want cancer to leave us alone,' Brian heartbreakingly told The Mirror. 'You start plunging into the abyss of: ''I'm going to die''.' Brian's sisters have a history of cancer, with Coleen and Anne both receiving diagnoses as well as Bernie and Linda passing away from the disease. Bernie Nolan, the second youngest of the family and lead vocalist in the Nolans group, tragically died in 2013 at just 52 years old after battling breast cancer. Linda was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer in 2005 before getting the all-clear in 2006 - but in 2017 she was diagnosed with a form of incurable secondary cancer in her hip, which spread to her liver in 2020. Three years later, she shared the news that the cancer had spread to her brain, with two tumours discovered on the left side of her brain which left her struggling with her speech and balance. Linda tragically passed away on January 15, 2025, aged 65 following a 20-year breast cancer battle and suffering from double pneumonia. Coleen was told she had skin cancer in 2023 while Anne has also battled the disease twice. WHAT IS PROSTATE CANCER? How many people does it kill? More than 11,800 men a year - or one every 45 minutes - are killed by the disease in Britain, compared with about 11,400 women dying of breast cancer. It means prostate cancer is behind only lung and bowel in terms of how many people it kills in Britain. In the US, the disease kills 26,000 men each year. Despite this, it receives less than half the research funding of breast cancer and treatments for the disease are trailing at least a decade behind. How many men are diagnosed annually? Every year, upwards of 52,300 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in the UK - more than 140 every day. How quickly does it develop? Prostate cancer usually develops slowly, so there may be no signs someone has it for many years, according to the NHS. If the cancer is at an early stage and not causing symptoms, a policy of 'watchful waiting' or 'active surveillance' may be adopted. Some patients can be cured if the disease is treated in the early stages. But if it is diagnosed at a later stage, when it has spread, then it becomes terminal and treatment revolves around relieving symptoms. Thousands of men are put off seeking a diagnosis because of the known side effects from treatment, including erectile dysfunction. Tests and treatment Tests for prostate cancer are haphazard, with accurate tools only just beginning to emerge. There is no national prostate screening programme as for years the tests have been too inaccurate. Doctors struggle to distinguish between aggressive and less serious tumours, making it hard to decide on treatment. Men over 50 are eligible for a 'PSA' blood test which gives doctors a rough idea of whether a patient is at risk. But it is unreliable. Patients who get a positive result are usually given a biopsy which is also not fool-proof. Scientists are unsure as to what causes prostate cancer, but age, obesity and a lack of exercise are known risks.
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
My Boss Asked Me to Examine Various Moles on His Body. It Doesn't Stop There!
Good Job is Slate's advice column on work. Dear Good Job, My boss is an epic hypochondriac. He is forever obsessing over his latest ache or pain. Now that we've all returned to working at the office post-COVID, he wears an N95 mask all day long. He will describe symptoms he thinks he is experiencing and has even asked me to look at various moles on his body (thankfully in non-intimate places) to ask if I think he should have them removed. He has me chasing down information online about the latest malady he thinks he has daily, and it's affecting my ability to get my actual work done. I'm not the only one he assigns these 'research duties' to, and we are all sick of it. The human resources department at our company is beyond useless, so going to them would be a waste of time. Any suggestions? —Involuntary Infectious Disease Researcher Dear Involuntary Infectious Disease Researcher, Your boss does seem to have a real illness, but it has nothing to do with moles. I can't diagnose him through a letter, but you might be right that he has hypochondria. Also known as intense health anxiety, it is a form of mental illness that can be disruptive and dangerous, but treatable. Two main syndromes are defined in psychiatry's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: illness anxiety disorder, or excessive fear of developing a medical condition, and somatic symptom disorder, which involves excessive concern about physical symptoms. The COVID pandemic exacerbated many people's health anxiety. (Masking at work isn't necessarily a sign of hypochondria, though; dangerous respiratory diseases are still circulating.) The availability of Dr. Google has created a new twist on hypochondria called 'cyberchondria,' or excessive searching for medical information. You aren't your boss's psychiatrist, and this (among other things!) is definitely not your job, but you or one of your colleagues could tell him that intense worry about health is getting more medical attention as a common and treatable problem—and potentially nudge him toward seeking help. If nobody on staff feels comfortable having this conversation, there are other ways to get out of being his unwilling physician assistant. You could tell him that you're simply too busy with your actual work to help search for medical information. You could say that it's inefficient for you to do these searches since you aren't experiencing the symptoms yourself and wouldn't know what to follow up on. Or try the privacy approach: His perceived symptoms might lead to a diagnosis he wouldn't want to share, and out of respect for his privacy, you don't think it's appropriate for you to dig into the medical literature. There's also the 'this is too serious for me' option: 'I don't feel qualified to evaluate and discuss information about health conditions, but the doctors covered by our employer's insurance can help.' Laura Helmuth and Doree Shafrir want to help you navigate your social dynamics at work. Does your colleague constantly bug you after hours? Has an ill-advised work romance gone awry? Ask us your question here! Dear Good Job, I work for a company that is going out of business at the end of the year. I have been told I'll receive a severance package, but I've had a few potential employers express interest in me. I don't want to leave my already understaffed store without the help they need, but I know I need to protect myself in an uncertain job market. Nothing has been offered directly to me yet, but I'm very tempted by one potential employer. The employer I'm interested in knows my current employer well, and I'm scared my current employer will find out I'm on the hunt and fire me preemptively. He's known for making snap decisions. How do I know when/if to jump ship? —Should I Stay, or Should I Go Now? Dear Should I Stay, or Should I Go Now, Your current employer did the right thing by admitting that the company is going out of business. And they are right to offer severance to reward people who stay until the end. Did they tell you how much severance? If it's, say, three months' worth of your salary or more, it would probably make financial sense to stay. You could use the severance-funded time to do a thorough job search, and maybe take some time off between jobs. But if they're being vague about the amount, or if you're worried the severance could disappear when the company does, don't let it tie you to a doomed employer. Companies fire people all the time for their own reasons; you have every right to quit for yours. It sounds like you need more information, and I think it's worth the risk to have honest-ish conversations with both your current and potential employers. I suggest you start with the latter. Tell them you feel a sense of loyalty to your existing team. (Taking your job seriously makes you even more attractive as a potential hire.) Follow up by saying that you admire the future employer's work and are intrigued by the possibility of joining them. It's usually a good idea in a job interview (or pre-interview) to express enthusiasm for the future employer, which explains why you're talking with them despite your loyalty to your current job. Say explicitly that you would like to keep this conversation confidential for now since you're not actively looking for work. A potential employer should never share hiring conversations, period, but people are lousy at secrets, and it's reasonable to confirm that they won't mention it elsewhere. The potential employer's response will tell you a lot about whether you want to work there: Do they respect your privacy? Are they open about their timeline for hiring you? If they do make an offer and want you to start right away, you could use your dilemma during negotiations. Mention that you would be giving up a severance package if you leave your other job before the end of the year … but if there's room to increase their salary offer, that would make your decision easier. If you decide to stay in your current job, you could use these overtures to push for more information or opportunities. Tell your boss you appreciate his honesty about the company going out of business. Say you'd like to stay to the end, and you have not been looking for a job, but you have been approached by potential future employers. If Mr. Snap Decisions looks like he's about to blow a gasket, backtrack by telling him you just thought he deserved to know that competitors are taking an interest in his employees, and cut the conversation short. But assuming your current employer doesn't want to lose you, this would be a natural time to ask for more information about the severance package, and to get it in writing. The company is understaffed, and closing down a business is complicated, so there might be opportunities for you to take on interesting new responsibilities and develop different skills. Tell your boss you're hoping to make the most of the next few months in the job and you'd like to find out more about what you can contribute. You might even be able to get a new title by the end that could help you get a job at the next level, wherever you land next. Slate Plus members get more Good Job every week. Sign up now to read Laura Helmuth's additional column this week. Dear Good Job, I've finally managed to escape a toxic and dangerous work environment that caused a lot of overall stress and harm to my overall well-being. I was offered a new job, and I am two weeks in. It is in the realm of what I want to be doing. My stress levels aren't as high, and I don't fear working in an unsafe environment. However, there's a downside. I am struggling with feeling as though I've become a babysitter to the older residents who are residing there while receiving medical care. That is not part of the job description. They have aides, they are just not always present in the areas where I am assigned, but the aides should be around at all times due to the fall risks of some of the residents. Well, the inevitable happened. An unmonitored resident fell while I was leading a program. I felt awful. They couldn't speak to answer questions, which made matters worse. English is also not their first language. I spent my entire day off ruminating on what happened and thinking about whether I should be working here. I never received a reply or feedback from my supervisor after I messaged them about what happened. Any advice? I know looking for another workplace is a great solution, but it took me a year to land this job. —What to Do? Dear What to Do, Congratulations on getting out of your terrible last job and finding this new one. The learning curve for any new job can be steep and unsettling. It's natural to ruminate on work problems, especially at the start. Give yourself time to understand the workplace better, and give yourself grace to know you're doing your best in an imperfect environment. Be patient with yourself and your co-workers as you learn this new job while still recovering from the trauma of the old one. As a new hire, you'll naturally have a lot of questions. Ask your supervisor for a check-in after your first few weeks. Don't mention their lack of response to your message; your supervisor might have too many messages to monitor, and you don't want to set them up to be defensive. Instead, say you want to make sure you understand your responsibilities and proper procedures. Among other things, you want to know how you can help protect the residents if they're unaccompanied. (Avoid the word 'babysitter,' which sounds disrespectful.) If their aides aren't present, should you alert your supervisor? Or the aides' supervisor? Go seek the aides out yourself? Or should you monitor residents when they're participating in one of your programs? If this responsibility wasn't in your job description, well, job descriptions are often incomplete, and you need to know what's really expected of you before you make any decisions about whether to stay, go, or stay and fix it. If the residents aren't being cared for properly, the problem could be a poor policy, imperfect enforcement of good policies, or a lack of awareness about the policies. In any of these cases, you might be noticing problems with your fresh eyes that long-time employees overlook. —Laura We rented a beach house for a week and invited our neighbors, 'Glen and Gina,' across the way to spend a day or two with us since they mentioned they didn't have the funds for a vacation this year. Our two kids and their three kids are around the same age. They get along and have had sleepovers before. It was fine the first day, but on the second, Gina and I took the kids down to the water and there was an ice cream truck.
Daily Mail
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Pregnant Shaughna Phillips admits she's been an 'anxious wreck' and hints at her due date after confirming she is expecting second child with jailed boyfriend Billy Webb
Shaughna Phillips revealed she was an 'anxious wreck' at the beginning of her second pregnancy after grappling with health anxieties. The Love Island star, 31, confirmed she was expecting her second child with her jailed boyfriend Billy Webb earlier this week. They already share daughter Lucia, two. Speaking to The Mirror on Thursday, Shaughna revealed she got pregnant the very first time her ovulation period had coincided with jailed Billy visiting her at home. Now, Shaughna has opened up about the difficulties in the first few weeks of her pregnancy in a series of 'diaries' shared to Instagram on Friday. The TV personality recorded the video when she was 'five and a bit weeks pregnant' and detailed her 'health anxiety' as she shared her fears. She also revealed she is due to welcome her second child in November and told how she was 'trying' to conceive with Billy when she fell pregnant. In the video, Shaughna said: 'I've got an early scan booked for the 24th of March. I'll be about seven weeks then, which is still like two weeks away. 'I don't understand how I'm gonna survive until then, because I just need to know everything's okay. 'I have health anxiety, I had crippling postpartum anxiety, which I now think is kind of morphed into health anxiety. 'So this pregnancy I've been a very anxious wreck. 'I've been really quiet on my socials, because I just feel like I have nothing else going on in my life, apart from me trying to remain okay, because I just wanna know everything's okay.' Shaughna also detailed the early days of her pregnancy and admitted she was 'very lucky' to have fallen pregnant after her first attempts to conceive with Billy. 'I've known literally from like, the hour of conception, mainly because I was trying to conceive,' she went on. 'It was literally the first attempt at trying to conceive, and it worked, and I'm very, very blessed, very lucky. March the 11th? 12th? 'I'm due, I believe early November-ish, and I'm planning on doing a pregnancy diaries. 'I feel like it's weird with the second one, because with the first one, you don't know how much you love your child. Like you know obviously that you're gonna love your baby, whereas with the second one, you know exactly what to expect. You know the love. 'And then you also have the added effect of how on earth am I going to love this child as much as I love Lucia? And I know it comes and I'm not worried about it coming, but just right now I just can't fathom it. 'Have I ruined her life, Lucia's life? Or will she never remember a time when it was just me and her? 'Obviously I will, and it's been the greatest two years of my life, but she will never remember it, and is that gonna be sad for her? Like, I remember being an only child. It was great.' 'I felt like I was nauseous the day I found out, but I feel like it's, not placebo effects, but it was only because I was aware that I was pregnant, and then started thinking, ''oh, I've got morning sickness… cramps…'' but yeah. In the Instagram caption, Shaughna continued: 'I've been making these videos ever since I found out I was pregnant, so weird watching them back now! 'I also can't believe I thought it was dragging in the beginning, now it feels like someone is constantly pressing the fast forward button, and if someone could just press pause for a minute that would be fab! 'Anyway welcome to the pregnancy diaries!' Then, she added, 'P.s have I mentioned how much I love my lips these days?!' referring to her recent decision to dissolve her lip fillers. Following the birth of Lucia in April 2023, Billy, 29, was sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply 4.5kg of cocaine worth at least £360,000. Due to being in a Category D prison, Billy has been allowed home visits for 'a few days' each month - and Shaughna revealed how she planned her pregnancy under the circumstances. 'It was the first time that my ovulation window coincided with Billy being home,' Shaughna told The Mirror. 'I was like, ''You know what? Why not? Let's just see'' - and literally, the next day, I said to Billy, 'I think I'm pregnant'.' She went on to hint that Billy is set for early release and will be here for the birth. She said: 'I know the date that he's due to be home, but I'm not saying it just because anything could happen - but hopefully he will be fully home before my baby is due.' An insider added: 'Billy has been in a Category D prison, which means he has been able to spend a fair bit of time with Shaughna. 'He even managed to be home over Christmas, which meant a lot to her and, of course, Lucia. He hasn't been released as many people thought, but he has a lot of privileges.' In Category D prisons, inmates have minimal security and those deemed 'low risk' inmates are allowed to leave the site to work, 'resettle' or attend education during the day.
News.com.au
27-06-2025
- Health
- News.com.au
Health anxiety is the 3am curse plaguing Aussie mums
It was a tiny, crescent-shaped birthmark on the inside of my five-month-old's thigh that started it all. Until that point, new motherhood had for me, mostly been the kind of oxytocin-fuelled, soft-lit montage of bliss you see in Huggies ads. I had a 'good' sleeper, a great support network and a new parents group who got together for champagne brunches. We were killing it, my baby and I. Then the birthmark. Surely it had been there since he was born, but for whatever reason, I noticed it one morning and couldn't stop fixating on what it meant. Convinced it was a sign of some sinister illness, I followed the Reddit-Mumsnet-Web MD rabbit hole down to the most obscure depths of Dr Google. By nightfall I'd diagnosed him with a serious, degenerative neurodevelopmental disorder. My mother was staying with us at the time; she found me in the bathtub with my baby, sobbing and panicked while he stared up at me, bewildered by the fuss. A GP visit, ostensibly booked to confirm my baby's diagnosis, morphed into a referral to a psychologist and a diagnosis of health anxiety. Health anxiety, also known as illness anxiety disorder or hypochondria, is a form of anxiety that manifests as intense fear of having or developing an illness, even when there is little evidence to support the belief. Except rather than worrying about my own health, I was fixated on that of my baby. 'It's called health anxiety by proxy,' explains psychologist Anoushka Dowling, of the lesser-known condition. 'And it is the same fear and preoccupation, but this time directed at the health of your children. It is fearing the worst from minor symptoms, for example: 'what if this headache is actually a brain tumour?' According to Dowling, there are several telltale signs a person might be experiencing health anxiety by proxy. 'They will likely be constantly thinking about or talking about a particular illness or health related worry,' she says. 'They also may be checking for signs and symptoms, and usually turning to online sources to find more information. A person with health anxiety may either repeatedly seek assurance from health professionals, (oftentimes more than once because of a fear of signs being missed) OR they will avoid health professionals altogether out of fear that their worries will be validated.' Dowling says that while worrying about your child's health is, to some extent, a normal part of parenthood, fixating to the point that it causes you distress or is without evidence means there could be a problem. The advent of 'Dr Google' (where every headache is a tumour and every bruise is leukaemia) has exacerbated things she says, as has, more recently, Covid. It all sounds very familiar. While that first acute episode of health anxiety by proxy was by far the worst, there have been other periods in my nine years as a mother where it has raised its ugly head. And while therapy has helped mostly overcome the 3am curse that would keep me awake, googling in a cold sweat, it's also been a numbers game: the sheer volume of times I've assumed the worst, only to be proven wrong. On the surface, some of my more dramatic moments have been laughable, were it not for the real panic underpinning them. The time I took my second newborn to the child health nurse over concerns she yawned too much, for example. Or the ultrasound I demanded of my son's skull because I was sure it was 'too bumpy'. And yes, Covid, with all its uncertainty and hand-washing and invisible threat, left me grappling for a time with a rising dread every time a runny nose or a fever spiked. It's an experience borne out in the numbers: studies clearly show that health anxiety has increased in the past decade (with a decent boost delivered by the pandemic), and while, as a relatively new condition, there aren't a lot of epidemiological data on health anxiety by proxy, experts say anecdotally they're encountering it more frequently as well. 'The sheer volume of information on the internet means that we can find something to confirm almost any fear we have,' explains Dowling. 'Increased feelings of anxiety can inhibit our brain's ability to critically analyse information and increase our tendency to look for information that confirms our fears rather than alleviates them. The internet is great for many things, but self-diagnosis is not one of them! We're way too biased about ourselves, and particularly about our children to gather and interpret information effectively.' Instead, Dowling suggests reaching out to speak to your GP or a psychologist if you suspect you might be suffering from health anxiety by proxy. 'Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is generally the most effective form of treatment for health anxiety, as it involves identifying distorted thinking and uses evidence-based reasoning to challenge the thoughts,' she explains. 'It will also include relaxation techniques, exposure therapy and behavioural activation to ensure that a person is still able to fully participate in life, because one of the major impacts of leaving health anxiety or healthy anxiety by proxy untreated is the risk of disengaging from everyday activities. 'You may stop socialising, take your child out of school or daycare, or simply stop engaging in activities that once bought you or your child joy, out of fear of serious illness. The excessive worry and preoccupation about illness makes it challenging to enjoy life - which is something that it is definitely possible to treat.'
The Independent
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Ricky Gervais reveals he constantly googles health symptoms
Ricky Gervais, 63, discussed his health anxieties on Jimmy Kimmel Live, joking about avoiding doctors and self-diagnosing via Google. Gervais admitted to experiencing more aches and pains as he gets older, comparing his morning walks to having "stiff pirate legs." He shared that he often consults his partner, Jane Fallon, about potential health issues and frequently resorts to Googling symptoms, which leads to anxiety about serious illnesses like cancer. Gervais recounted a story about cutting off a skin tag on his eyelid with nail scissors, prompting concern from Fallon about potential sepsis. Gervais humorously recalled a past doctor's visit where he was told his jeans were too tight, and the article notes that health anxiety is now a recognised condition that can be treated with therapy or medication.
