***\[Trigger warning: I mention heart anxiety/breathing anxiety and talk of cancer and cancer anxiety\]*** 

**TLDR at the bottom.**

I know this might be quite an unpopular view, and I don't want to sh\*t on CBT, just because it didn't work for me, as I know it helps a lot of people. I've had quite bad health anxiety since I was around 5 years old (or maybe even before), and have always been an anxious kid on top of that. I tried CBT a few years ago and I found it incredibly patronising and just did not really work for me. Is it because of how longstanding my anxiety is? Is it because I can't identify as specific trigger? Is it because of how my anxiety manifests?

**My health anxiety now:**

Every day (sometimes every hour) I have periods of feeling like today is going to be my last day, I am going to die in the next minute or hour because of my physical symptoms. If I swallow differently it is a trigger leading me to think 'am I going to choke?', my breathing is a trigger leading to me thinking 'am I breathing right?' or 'I don't feel like I can breath properly' and it feels like I'm gasping, or my hands go numb or I get a new \*physical\* symptom that seems worse than the next, convincing me I am on the cusp of death. Before hand, it used to be intrusive and recurring thoughts about cancer, and fear being given 6 months to live (like what happened to a family member), and it was easier to suppress these thoughts because the health anxiety didn't manifest physically (bar the reassurance seeking, body checking etc). My anxiety used to be contained mentally, but now it's taking it's toll on my body due to the manifestation of physical symptoms e.g numbness, palpitations, changes in breathing. I'm so lost as to what therapy to try. My doctor said I can't go on anti-anxiety meds at the moment, so I am trying everything I can.

**TLDR: I don't even know what else to try, because I had hope for CBT, and it just flopped because my health anxiety seems so ingrained in me. Anyone else had the same experience with CBT? If so, what else did you try? Anyone else able to improve their health anxiety that was equally**