Hello.

I'm a 19 year old male. I would regard myself as generally healthy, I go out walks most days, try to go out a run 2-3 times a week, generally eat a good diet and eat plenty of fruit/veg in my diet. I do drink a lot (5-10 units a week in one sitting normally)

The problem is, I have severe health anxiety and I genuinely feel it is taking over my whole life :( 

Last September, I moved out, away from my parents and up into university accommodation. About a week after I moved, I developed an anal fissure, which causes minor bleeding out of my rectum. This caused me to have a major panic attack and I was unable to eat or sleep that night as, after researching this symptom, I was alerted that it may, in fact, be a symptom of bowel cancer.

Ever since this point, I've been terrified of cancer. I end up convincing myself that I've got it (I convinced myself I had bowel cancer after the bleed, I convince myself I have skin cancer whenever I develop a mole, I convince myself I have lung cancer if I get a cough, and right now I'm terrified I have oral cancer as I have a painful mouth ulcer which doesn't seem to be going anywhere).

I feel this fear of cancer is becoming obsessive. I can't stop thinking about it, it's sometimes affecting my day-to-day activities (for instance, I was too scared to go a walk out in the sun the other week as I was afraid that exposure to the sun for my skin would lead to me developing skin cancer, so I had to hide in my car). 

At least once a month when I develop a new symptom, I convince myself I have a new form of cancer. It's really taking over my life and making me feel very anxious, worried and quite depressed at times. I often feel worse as I research these symptoms on google, I research cancer statistics online, and I read stories of young people catching terminal cancer and I struggle to sleep or think about anything else out of my fear of this.

Can anyone give me tips for what to do? Just so scared about this, and I'm struggling to convince myself otherwise every time (right now I'm really afraid I have oral cancer due to a mouth ulcer on my gum which is really sore, I got it last week and it's still not any better, so I'm very worried.

sorry, and thank you.