Hiya Hutchinson,
Obsessing over things and searching the internet for answers - come see me I know all about how u feel...
No doubt you are an intelligent person like me and get frustrated with people telling you are obsessing over things
p jenniferpa hehehe) because obvisouly you feel like you have a good reason for this obsessing - something is driving you to be this concerned....
Seeing doctors...yes this is a good thing to do...but also beware that they will also often treat you like an idiot who is obsessing over things and quickly dismiss your concerns or start going down the path of diagnosing you with depression because as I've found it...doctors (and in my country they are not qualified psychologists so I don't think they have any right to diagnose anyone in a 15minute question and answer session with depression and start prescribing anti-depressants, but they do it - even if you know the correct answers to give if u want to avoid such a diagnosis <roll eyes>) think that anyone that is obsessing about illnesses is looney tunes.
What I would suggest is try a doctor, see if they can reassure you...if you get a good one, they might but many are idiots. If they don't reassure you then try other doctors until u find one who can. If you are still not satisfied consider your current mental state...I do believe worrying about your own health can occur because you have had several traumatic events take place in your life...
this can also cause depression but it can also simply cause the normal human reaction of believing 'that cant happen to me' to be switched off...u no longer have faith that bad things can't happen...so if u start to see signs of things going wrong you start to expect the worst. This is why everyone else thinks you are obsessing but you know, unlike the rest of them BAD SH%# HAPPENS!!!!!
For example me:
Over a period of 10yrs I had -
1. Raped;
2. Long term partner had an affair got another girl pregnant, everything turned to sh$%;
3. Kept having panic attacks when intimate thought it was due to the rape then found out from my sister that my uncle was a pedophile and I had possibly been molested as a very young child as she had been...but I had no memory of it;
4. My father got diagnosed with this terminal illness - early onset dementia;
5. I got diagnosed with pre-cancerous cells in my cervix and had to have a small operation to remove them - this came with a knowledge that my mother had had cervical cancer and 5 of my fathers siblings had all died of cancer, some of them during this same period;
6. I got glandular fever that gives you all sorts of exhaustion symptoms and doctors can't really tell you how long it will last;
7. I had all sorts of classic physical tangible cancer symptoms that caused doctors to send me to specialists but they could find nothing and could give me no answers as to why I was doing things like bleeding for no good reason;
8. I developed all sorts of large lumps in my back that the doctors again had to test...but they were non-cancerous;
9. I too had memory problems, I would get this feeling of almost fainting/falling over that would only last a few seconds but enough to worry me and I would forget people's names, I even had one incident when I was in a bathroom and could not remember where I was...in a house, or at work, or where the door would open up to..
10. My mum suffered a mini-stroke where she lost her memory for a day (at the time I didn't know that she would regain it)
11. I suffered for about 9months of last year with acute painful head pains that would have me crying with pain (doctors finally decided they were what is known as cluster headaches)
So for a period of 10yrs I had real bad things happen and then I had other things that my body was doing that really made me feel out of control and no doubt the stress of all these things happening were also combining to make more bad things happen to my body...all the while having to put up with people thinking I was over obsessing - but what choice did I have??
So what you need to do, if the doctors can't help you is keep a diary of what you think your symptoms are...wait a decent period...and if the problems don't get worse, start to consider that maybe the doctors got lucky and were right and nothing is wrong that can't simply be explained by your body reacting to your stress levels...i.e. high stress can cause hormones to be released that affect your memory, can cause you to not sleep well that also affect your memory).If the symptoms do get worse or continue to be bad enough to affect your ability to do things in your daily life, go back to the doctor and try again.
For me, in the end I think that my various illnesses have been due to the stresses that resulted from a lot of bad personal experiences...and also I was shift working and that caused problems with insomnia and also can mess up your hormones. Also I had some genuine illnesses that in turn caused my stress levels to be raised..creating a vicious circle.
So my point is, try not to stress (easier said than done I know) its amazing how this can make your symptoms worse, be aware of factors that may be increasing your stress about your symptoms - i.e. like i have had both cancer and brain diseases in my family that made me worry more that I was susceptible to similar diseases and I was truly familiar with the knowledge that BAD SH#$ happens!, don't accept a diagnosis of depression if you truly feel that you are not depressed and you are not in danger due to suicidal feelings because the anti-depressants also can affect your hormones that can also then cause you to develop symptoms that you would not have otherwise had. Also be aware that people will think you are obsessive and worrying about nothing and try not to let this stress you out as well - that nobody is hearing you.
Lastly beware of internet diagnoses...unless the description exactly matches your symptoms and I mean EXACTLY...try to take them with a grain of salt. Also be aware of the fact that doctors will often immediately think you are looney tunes or depressed if they know you have been using the internet to self-diagnose.
Good luck - I hope your symptoms go away and prove to be nothing...if they persist but don't get better...also be aware that there is a lot of freaky stuff that your body does as you get older that although strange and not yet explainable by science...are only insignificant glitches in your system (a bit like the odd errors you get on your computer) but are not necessarily a sign of something truly horrible (i.e. they are not fatal errors in your system)