Hi everyone,

I'm (45M) new to Reddit, so I'll try my best to describe what's going on and hope to get some discussion going. 

I've always been quite anxious and think have had hypochondria all my life (which I now believe is called health anxiety?). For example, as a young man (e.g., early 20's) in the dating scene, whenever I would score a one-night with a girl (which were not many, by the way), next day I would pretty much feel convinced that I had HIV. To be clear though, these one-nights were with normal girls and using condoms. Still, these irrational fears would hold me hostage until I would take an HIV test. 

The HIV example is just one disease (or example), but at different times in my life, other irrational fears regarding disease have found their way into my psyche: ALS, CKD, cancer and heart disease to name a few. 

The thing is, one way or another, I would go through these 'health crises' and resolve them by going to the doctor and getting testing/analyses. So, all in all, I've led a pretty normal life; having a fulfilling job and relationships (both marriage and friendships). 

Now, here's the thing: ever since my son was born (he's 4 now), I've noticed that all my health anxiety has been projected onto him. For example, during the last couple of years, I've had 'health crises' which I was convinced he had sarcoma, uveal melanoma, diabetes, autism, to name a few. As you can imagine, this is quite exhausting, as instead of enjoying my precious time with my son, I am constantly looking if he is coming down with some horrible disease. It's worth noting that since my son came to our life, I haven't had any 'health crisis' centered on myself; only on my son. In addition, my wife has been quite supportive but I can see this also takes a toll on her. 

I am quite aware of my anxiety 'problem' and many months ago have started therapy to try to deal with this issue. In addition, I've been taking an SSRI (Prozac, 20 mg/d) for years now, which I guess helps somewhat. 

My questions for this /r/ are the following:

1) Has anyone ever had to deal with something like this? I feel quite lonely in that sense, as besides my wife, I don't have any support group (no family close by). 

2) My therapist recommended trying CBT, as it seems to be quite effective. What is the consensus for CBT around here?

3) Has anyone considered more exotic therapeutic modalities? I've been reading some publications on ketamine and it seems to be quite effective. In addition, has anyone considered psilocybin? From what I gather, the latter is under review where I live (Canada), but massively effective.

Thanks everyone, please let me know if you need any more information/clarification.