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Melanoma anxiety

TealTurtle
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I suffer from health anxiety and severe OCD, and I can't stop worrying about the fact I could have melanoma. I'm a 14 year old female, and I have many moles (over 50). Most of them are regular and healthy, but there has been one I've been anxious about for a while and I recently found out when I visited the dermatologist in March, it was a benign congenital nevus. According to Google, my chances are 1% of developing melanoma.

I keep repeatedly checking my lymph nodes and moles and have noticed two black spots have appeared in the mole, possibly other changes have occured, and while this can be normal, it can also be a sign of melanoma. 

This morning, I also noticed I had a small skin coloured bump, with a surrounding red area located near the mole. I'm sure it's nothing, but my OCD is scaring me into thinking I could already have melanoma.

My health anxiety is creating symptoms so much, I can't even tell if I'm genuinely ill or not.

As I said, I last visited the dermatologist in March, who told me it was benign but I can't stop worrying that she could have missed something, or melanoma has developed since then. Is it worth going back so quickly or would it just be wasting their time?

I know this is silly, especially given my age, but if anyone could just write something small I would appreciate it so much. 

Thanks so much in advance x

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    Hi there,

    Sorry to hear you're struggling with health anxiety - trust me, I know what that's like. So first of all, you're completely right - moles can sometimes change normally due to a number of factors, especially through age (I noticed you said you're 14, and moles can go through normal changes during this period of your life). Melanoma is also a relatively rare form of skin cancer and it more commonly affects people who are older. So while it's still important to be mindful of moles and changes, please keep this in mind to give some perspective; the odds are highly in your favour!

    That said, you're not wasting anyone's time by getting yourself checked. If a dermatologist has told you it's benign, that's reassuring, but you can explain that you've noticed a change since then that's concerned you. This is what the dermatologust is there for, after all! It's one of those things where it's good that you're aware of your moles and checking yourself regularly, but if it's causing you constant anxiety and getting in the way of your ability to enjoy life, it might be worth mentioning this to someone like a GP. Thinking that a doctor has missed something is a very common symptom of health anxiety.

    NHS have a really good page for how to deal with health anxiety, so I will direct you there also: www.nhs.uk/.../

    As someone with health anxiety, the problem is often understanding when something is actually wrong vs when my mind is tricking me into thinking something is wrong. I hope you're able to find some comfort and relief from the worry. Try not to get too stressed, but please do still get any changes checked out as you would normally, you're not wasting anyone's time.

     

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