Dealing with crippling hypochondria.?

I am bipolar type-1 and take 40mg paxil daily, lithium and trazadone to deal with my condition. I feel this regimen is satisfactory in controlling my mood but I still suffer from severe hypochondria anxiety. It is highly specific, centered around the false belief that I will get HIV even though I am not sexually active for religious reasons. In fact I'm about as low risk as they come. But whenever I cut myself or someone's saliva hits me in the eye I panic. I constantly dwell on "what if's" and it has become so severe that it is literally ruining an otherwise happy life. I have worked with a psychologist to no avail and am now at the point where I need to pursue a drug treatment through to control this anxiety or I no longer be able to function. Has anyone had luck overcoming this level of hypochondria with the help of therapy and medication? I am also worried about dependency and anti-anxiety drugs. Thanks for your input.

Treatment
In part because it is so difficult to diagnose and treat hypochondriasis, it's been difficult to find effective therapies. Traditional Freudian psychoanalysis has had mixed results. In general, experts say that people with hypochondria who can function fairly well and who do not suffer from depression have the best chance of shaking the condition. The longer a person has been plagued with hypochondria, the more difficult treatment is.

Columbia's Fallon has had success treating hypochondriasis with clomipramine (Anafranil). Clomipramine is a serotonin uptake inhibitor, which normalizes the brain's balance of serotonin. "We used to think that hypochondriasis was a form of masked depression. But a sizable number of hypochondriacs who are treated for depression or anxiety do not get better. Now I think it's pretty widely appreciated that the same medications that help OCD help hypochondriasis," Fallon told HealthGate in a phone interview.

Some psychologists have found success in treating hypochondriacs with cognitive behavior therapy. In such therapy, hypochondriacs learn how to recognize when and how they misinterpret "symptoms" and how to temper their reactions.

As a treatment success story, Carla Cantor was able to end her book by reporting that she is no longer a prisoner of hypochondria. "The real mark of success may come when you least expect it," she writes. "[Like] wishing you could live forever, not because you're afraid but because you're so happy."

EFT ... Emotional Freedom Technique may help. Have a look at this site: http://www.emofree.com

your symptoms are part of your anxiety associated with depression and you can get help and resolve it. get a good CBT therapist to help you or see your doctor to get referred to a good one

Reading your statement makes me think you need to roll back to zero. Be safe be simple and be without meds for a while.

HI THERE I AM SORRY TO HEAR OF YOUR CONDITION ,YOU MAY BE REASSURED TO KNOW THAT YOUR SYMPTOMS ARE COMMON FOR SOMEONE THAT SUFFERS FROM ANXIETY, INFACT SOME MEDICATIONS CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THESE PATTERNS OF THOUGHT YOU ARE NOT ALONE AND FINNALY THROUGH TRIAL AND ERROR WITH THERAPY I AM SURE YOU WILL BE HELPED TO OVERCOME THIS FEAR ALSO YOU COULD TRY HYPNOTHERAPY THIS HELPS SOME PEOPLE HOPEFULLY YOU!!!

have you looked into regression therapy to find out what happened to you in a past life? sounds to me like you brought over a lot of crap that needed to be dealt with in previous lifetime, but you brought it here to deal with.

those drugs you are taking will never come out of your body. once they're in there , they don't leave - no matter how much you detoxify you will always have those chemicals in there. chemicals get into the blood, passing thru every tissue and muscle leaving little pieces all over. eventually, with all the meds you're on, you will get lactic acid buildup in certain areas in your body causing what feels like sore muscles. you won't be able to move freely, hence causinig more physical and therefor emotional problems.

these are real problems in this life. please get your entire self checked out so you can be happy.

My thought is that with good CBT (cognitive behavorial therapy), perhaps meds for OCD and maybe a mild anti-anxiety med for a while you can over-come this. Xanax is pretty addictive with long-term use, but you can have a doctor switch that with something else after a short spell without becoming dependent on either. (Like Xanax for a few weeks, then Ativan.)

Maybe it will help to study on HIV as well, so you can concentrate on the risks you DON'T have & such. (Knowledge is powerful!) It wouldn't hurt to be tested regularly either, just for reassurance--but that gets expensive.

Best of luck to you!