Anxiety Support Group
Anxiety is a physical condition marked by intense and persistent feelings of distress, fear, angst or dread. General anxiety caused by routine day-to-day stresses usually passes quickly and is experienced by almost everyone at one time or another. However, such feelings that linger over time and are very difficult to cope with, and which lack a clear cause, may indicate...
Hi, I'm 20 years old and i have been dealing with a pretty intense Health Anxiety. I have gone through multiple fears but currently I'm terrified of contracting meningitis. There is always this commercial on TV thats scary about some boy who's at a party shares a drink with someone a spoon or fork with another and kisses some girl then ends up covered in sweat in his bathroom a couple hours later where his mom finds him as he's is rushed to the hospital with Meningitis B. It's a vaccine commercial, after watching this mutiple times on tv, my friend telling me she got vaccinated and then having a burning headache whie ago i did some research then let it be seeing it was very rare. This year my health anxiety got pretty bad when I contracted the flu, the first time i had ever felt so sick and had a fever consantly. Thats when my germ fear happened. Now After this commerical playing , remembering the past, taking a biopsych class In college that mentioned meningitis and remembering my friend say she got vacinnated with against the B strain its gotten vey scary. Let me mention that i went to get a tattoo a couple weeks ago, a very small one on my hip and thought i would get hep c and researched horror stories about tattoos, where i saw a young italian girl died a day after a tattoo. The article was from a while ago so i did some more research and dound of her autopsy and it was in a different langauge, italian, I ACTUALLY GOOGLE TRANSALETED IT and thats where it said that it was actual Meningitis that killed her, i believe this was a trigger amongst other things while I was relieved that the tattoo wasn't the cause since i had an appointment but , i started getting paranoid slighty and then increasingly. After seeing the meningits commericla AGAIN as a youtube ad. I made the MISTAKE of researching meningitis. I have learned way more than I want to know. Firstly, I Believe I was vaccinated in middle schools years, but I never recieved the booster or the one that protects against Meningitis B that you get before you leave for college, Since I do not live in a dorm. I read that it is most common up to 23 and in teens because we share things. and THAT 5-25 PERCENT OF people carry the virus without symptoms and never get sick BUT CAN STILL PASS IT TO OTHERS. I was happy at first because most of the risks other than age did not apply to me directly. but my boyfriend is in summer school currently in a dorm in san diego, I'm so scared. I am scared he may be carrying it and then give it to me, I saw him today when he came to visit. We did not kiss because I told him that I'm fearful, he knows I am this way because I was this way when I had the flu since he was the one that gave it to me. Today he sneezed right next to me, and spit a little and it landed on my lip. I went to bathroom and cleaned my lip with soap;. We were intimate today and close to eachothers faces but just did not kiss. He told me he doesn't share anything with anyone and he barely sees his roomates ever, and I know he has his own cups and plates that are paper and does not party. He does go to the gym all the time though and he does not wash his hands often. I KNOW I SOUND CRAZY, But I'm sitting here thinking since he sneezed around me and a spit flew on mouth while he said something to me today and i actually felt it land on my lips so it was a big dropelt and we were around eachothers faces i am going to get it cause he may one of these carriers. Now I feel like i have to wait for the next few days and see if im gonna get meningitis. The whole silent carrier thing is super scary. And it also did not help that I watched videos on survivors and them losing parts of their body and some dying and going deaf. PLEASE HELP ME STOP THESE THOUGHTS
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I haven't written in my diary on my computer since May because I thought that my computer was dying. I got away from writing but my computer is hanging in there. I think that I will start writing in it again. It's so therapeutic.
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First, I hope everyone is doing well, and continuing to fight that good fight! Keep up the great work on yourselves; I'm rooting for all of you!So, I started doing therapy at the beginning of the year, when I was in my most depressed state, but with my therapist, I made big changes and steps in the right direction. But, over a month ago, she couldn't take my insurance anymore, and I had to stop...
When I find myself lost in obsessive thought loops, I work to take the focus off the subject and simplify ^it^ to the fact that I am obsessing. I can obsess about the price of burqas in Persia as easily as I can obsess about health concerns, celebrity suicides, breakfast bars or whatever.
When I am obsessing about advertisements, news reports, etc., a media break is my most effective tool. I believe the random chaos of mainstream media, (internet, tv, magazines, etc.) scrambles my brain circuits and triggers my OCD. Taking a break from it helps clear out the loop-de-loops.
But that is me. . .
Gentle support while you figure out what ^it^ is for you. Welcome aboard.
That go me interested in learning about it. What I found is this - Unless you are spending a lot of time with the very poor in central Africa, you have virtually no risk of contracting.
Arfie’s Advice on shutting down the loop is wise. I just wanted to weigh in on the actual infection.
Take care.
P
When, decades ago, my brother took HS biology, they looked at a drop of water under a microscope. He obsessed beyond belief. No salads as ingredients were rinsed, same with fruit, then moved on to bathing and hygiene. At that point, my parents had to intervene, and think the doctor helped him through the worst of it.
My PCP has told me to stay away from looking things up medical stuff on the internet. You are not alone. Lots of posts here have replies that include tools that have helped others through anxiety attacks, such as Arfie did. Read away and try out the tools others have used.
In the meantime, healing and calming hugs.