Sickness worries

Last year, I dealt with horrid panic attacks constantly worrying I had HIV. A test disproved that and with therapy and the test results I managed to calm. Now again, the same time as last year, another disease drives me insane. Rabies. I haven’t even had contact with possibly rabid animals. I feed a stray but he is obviously not rabid nor do I touch him. I worry a bat unknowingly bit me and now I have rabies and I’m dying. I’m hyper aware of my body. The worry comes and goes but I’m having panic attacks all over again and constantly having to look at reasons why I don’t have it. I don’t even have bats in my house to my knowledge I’ve never even seen one but I’m becoming exhausted. My throat feels tight , I’m tired, I panic nightly, I observe my body so much, every sensation. I’m miserable. I need help and support badly.

Username: AnonymousAnonymous

Date posted: 18w ago

Lol me too thoughts had cáncer went to hospital times they we're like no

Username: AnonymousAnonymous

Date posted: 18w ago

Ive had this same ocd type I think I had like 3 hiv tests done before I finally just made myself believe they were correct & then I thought I had cancer and oh geez it was so bad. I always tried to remind my self im wasting time thinking about these things that aren’t or maybe aren’t even real when I could be doing so much better things with my time like spending it with my family or hobbies something like that.

Username: AnonymousAnonymous

Date posted: 18w ago

Im also going through this and it's impacting my life because I don't sit outside during the sunset when bats come out, I don't go to a friends house who took in a stray cat until they get it rabies shots, I avoid animals at every friends house because I don't trust that they vaccinate them regularly, I don't touch my moms indoor cats because they aren't vaccinated (they only go on the balcony in the condo), I don't walk on the grass without looking at my feet in case there is a bat I don't see that bites me, I make my husband go back to check where we walked go make sure there aren't any bats I accidentally walked past, I don't ever go into any wooded areas, anything that is sitting outside that I can't see inside of (a closed slide, a shoe, a garbage can, a shed) I will not touch because what if a bat flies out. However, I do see bats in our neighborhood and have seen them plenty of times in a lot of other cities. They seem like birds when they fly but they have much faster wing speed and don't fly in a straight line.

Username: madzprt2madzprt2

Date posted: 18w ago

@Anonymous Well the good news is is that there’s a lot of not necessarily true ‘facts ‘ about rabies. You might hear that you won’t detect it until it’s too late but that isn’t true. An infected bite would be gross and nasty, and painful and tingly, very noticeable. Bats even rabid are scared of you, this is proven. Imagine you’re sick, are you going to approach or try to attack a giant human as a little creature? No their bites aren’t unseen they are painful and if infected swell turn red and look infected . People who get rabies from bats pick them up typically and get bitten. And if a rabid bat were in your house unseen truth is he’s hiding, staying away from you and trying to die alone. The probability of a bat unknowingly biting you and giving you rabies is not there. I tell myself this when I worry to calm me down.

Username: madzprt2madzprt2

Date posted: 18w ago

@Anonymous Oh, and if a dead bat were in your house imagine how stinky that would be. You’d know for sure. And rabies has warning signs in the body, it isn’t just ‘ randomly infected now you’re dead’ there’s other signs that I won’t say because I know me personally I will start to panic and imagine I’m having the symptoms . Unknowingly catching it doesn’t happen. You might hear it does, but lord it doesn’t. There’s always an obvious way of infection

Username: CoVAho

Date posted: 25w ago

Obsessing over pain

I had an intense discomfort in my upper abdomen/lower chest (couldn’t really tell) for most of the day, and I have spent hours thinking I’m going to have a heart attack (despite being a decently healthy 18 yo) because of my moderate maybe chest pain combined with back/neck soreness and a headache (which I think was caused by the stress). I took some antiacids + neutralizers and the pain mostly went away, but everytime my head hurts or I breathe in too deep and feel a crook in my chest I immediately jump to heart attack. I’m scared to fall asleep because I think I’ll die in my sleep. I might go waste money at urgent care just because I need to hear from a professional that it’ll be okay. This similar feeling happened 3 weeks when I thought I had a brain aneurysm, I feel so scared

Health Concern OCD

Username: patrickstar2000

Date posted: 22w ago

hypochondria / hypochondriac

what helps you guys cope with thinking you’re sick and you’re going to die any second? i can’t help but look something up on my phone when i feel something slightly unusual. once i see some condition or whatever, i stick with it until i experience something new, and the cycle goes on. i’ve always felt that if there was something wrong with me i wouldn’t want to know and would rather die. i’m not suicidal but i don’t want to live in a world where im sick or feel doom because there’s nothing to do about it. i’ve gone to the doctor plenty of times and i recently got a lot of blood tests. they said nothing was wrong with me other than the fact i have depression and anxiety. so every time i feel worried about something, i just refer back to that and tell myself im healthy, which i am. at the moment, i keep getting worried im going to have a stroke. although i am a teenager, it’s still possible. just now i felt left sided pain in my jaw that went to the rest of my face so i started to get anxious which made everything seem more intense. then i reminded myself that i have impacted wisdom teeth that are growing in which could cause that type of pain. last night my leg cramped up and it felt painful to move. it felt exactly like when your leg falls asleep and you get that paralyzed feeling (if that makes sense). then i figured that happened because i just had a week of band camp and my leg muscles were pretty sore, especially that leg. my family doesn’t have any history of health issues which doesn’t mean that im invincible but it also reduces the risk. all of this really picked up after band camp from last year (2023) im guessing its my body having enough of it being overworked.

Username: c_s_123

Date posted: 22w ago

Obsessing over illness

Hi, I’ve never shared on here before so please forgive me if this is too much or is upsetting. I’m currently struggling and don’t know what to do/need to vent. Since I was a kid, I can remember asking my mom things like “if I touch this and then touch my mouth, will I get sick?” Or the same question but with “will I die?” at the end. I’ve been afraid of illness, especially stomach illnesses for pretty much my whole life. I’ve gotten very sick in the past after not properly washing my hands and then eating, and it has scared me ever since. Now I’m 25 and constantly wash my hands and use hand sanitizer. If I’m at home I’ll wash my hands in the bathroom, then wash my hands in the kitchen, and then use hand sanitizer. This cycle is driving me insane, but if I don’t do it I’ll have panic attacks, convinced that I’ll get sick. Today, when I was getting up to get ready for work I opened my trash can and saw maggots. I’m home alone right now and had to do all the clean up myself. I’m very afraid of getting sick from this, and called my boyfriend sobbing because of how gross the situation was, and because I was so afraid. He assured me that this happens when flies get in the house in the summer time, but I still can’t get past it. I’m so stressed out about cleaning the entire house. I’ve already showered once and washed my hair, but can’t bring myself to eat or drink because I’m afraid something bad will happen. I’ve been dealing with health anxiety for almost 20 years, and the fact that I spend almost every second of every day worrying about getting sick or dying is a painful reality. I have a difficult time being social, going to work, and being intimate. I don’t know what to do anymore. I feel completely hopeless and trapped in my mind. Has anyone dealt with this before? I really need to get help, but I don’t have health insurance right now and am trying to avoid going to the hospital (even though I think I might need to).

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