// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
I thought I was dying but it was health anxiety - here's how to recognise the signs
Hollie Sharman spent hours searching symptoms, feeling panicked and isolated
Hollie Sharman was convinced she was dying. She would go to hospital "four to five times a week" complaining of excruciating chest pain.
"I think the longest I spent in A&E was 13 hours," says the 25-year-old. But despite numerous tests, doctors could never find anything wrong.
Sharman says she had "always worried" about her health as a child and remembers "making up any excuse" to get sent home from school and get into bed.
Her 22nd birthday meal was spent in the restaurant toilets "having the worst panic attack I've ever had".
That triggered years of health anxiety, with hours spent searching symptoms, feeling panicked and isolated.
"I was constantly Googling and using ChatGPT, every source I could get that could tell me what was wrong," she says.
"I spent so long in the hospital. They'd tell me it's nothing, they'd check everything.
"I'd go home, but then my legs would feel weak, so I'd Google that and then it would say it's a sign of heart failure. So I'd go back, it was literally a constant cycle."
At its worst, she "completely disconnected from everyone" and wouldn't reply to messages from family to avoid repetitive conversations.