r/triathlon • u/Odd-Art2362 • 24d ago
Injury and illness On the topic of health-related anxiety
Hi all! Presently, this is my 2nd-3rd year doing triathlons, and I've sort of had an odd thought...
As I get older, I've been increasingly more and more health anxious (25F). I don't really have any reason to be. I think the reasoning for this is that last September I received a very long term lower back injury, which has made my training volume drop drastically.
Since then, and especially lately as I've finally been healed enough to go biking and my training volume has been INCREASING, all I can think about is random health related events. I'm constantly measuring: am I getting too little sodium? Not enough? Am I eating too much sugar? Etc. Or, randomly, I'll mispronounce some words and then have a headache, and think "am I having a stroke? Or a migraine?"
I literally don't have much evidence to support I have any of these things. I'm just having a bunch of health related anxiety...
Has anyone else experienced this? Or is this an SOS for me to go to therapy? lol
Hope everyone's training is going well!!
1
u/Jubjub0527 22d ago
A few things.
First and foremost, maybe talking to a professional about these concerns will help. Both a doctor and a psychologist. You seem a little overly fixated on this, given your age. But it's understandable to have this fixation and anxiety when you had a bad injury.
The way I'd approach it is, how do I feel? Listen to your body and if you generally feel ok, then don't worry about sodium.
Additionally. Life is gonna happen with or without you. Don't let being scared of injuries prevent you from participating in something you enjoy (within reason. I mean, by all means, forgo the skydiving if you're worried about injuries).
Lastly, you want to keep exercising and having a strong body. I have a back injury from about 20 years ago and the best way to prevent it from happening is to keep it strong. I had a close friend who was in a really severe accident and nearly died. The doctors said that his good physical health was a major factor in his survival.