Do you see 'signs' everywhere to back up the thought that your ill

[Gem]

As anyone will know who read my last post, i have a huge fear of lymphoma right now, it is consuming me ever since i started playing with 1 node i've always been able to feel, now it has swollen up after a few days of playing with it and its making me panic like crazy.
This next part is gonna make me sound totally bananas, but hopefully some people can relate.
As i think i have cancer, i think i will have chemo which in turn makes your hair fall out, today i went to the shops with my mum and some guy stopped me ( selling hair products ) and somehow talked me into buying an expensive pair of straightners, and asked me to go back every so often as his hair model. So now i believe i am DOOMED, obviously buying these and having someone say i have nice hair, is just tempting fate. The whole time i was thinking, yea well i doubt i'll have it in a few months so this  is all pointless.
Irrational maybe but to me it feels so so real. Like now if i open a magazine and see an article on cancer i will presume its aimed at me, it is a sign. Does anyone else do this??? I done the same with MS but this is even worse. In fact give me back my MS worries any day, can't believe i was thinking how lucky i was a while back to not be a big C worrier.
I feel insane 

[scaredpeeps]

yes yes yes this is me down to a t apart mine is ms! everywhere i look everything i watch i see or hear the words ms, When i very first started twitching for a short period i thought i had als, i brought a bikini for a holiday and when i got there the name of the bikini was als, i neally had a fit and would not wear it infact i spent the whole holiday stressing that it was a sign. I can laugh now but at the time it totally ruined mine and my familys holiday. So no you definatley are not insaine  

[MissBoo]

Yes.  I always worry about breast cancer.  Especially because it was just October, I saw pink and pink ribbons every single place I went.  Just this morning going to work the person in front of me had two ribbons on her car and it just feels like it follows me all around.

Just strange cause before my hypo started I used to go to the breast cancer walk every year and not think twice about it.

[daisy232627]

Yes, its kinda like when you get a new car and all of the sudden you notice them everywhere.

[Gem]

Apparently there is a close link between MS and lymphoma? brilliant.

[lovejah75]

I do things like that all the time. Once I opened a book to a random page and the first word I saw was "death" so I KNEW it was a sign for sure. That was a LONG time ago. It happens to me all the time. Im sick right now and my family was talking about "next Halloween" and Im thinking "I probably wont be around". Crazy.

[worrierbynature]

I am new here on the boards. I am 41 yrs old and this is totally me!! I think the same thing - why do we do this to ourselves?

[idreamofskiba]

I done the same with MS but this is even worse. In fact give me back my MS worries any day, can't believe i was thinking how lucky i was a while back to not be a big C worrier.

I think that all the time.  I'd much rather go back to worrying about MS than my current fears.  

Sometimes it makes me nervous when my dog hangs around me more than usual.  After a really bad ankle sprain I was worrying about DVT and she started sleeping with her head on my ankle, so I took that as a sign I had a blood clot.  And sometimes I think she 'knows' I have cancer if she starts getting all snugly with me.

When I was going through the MS scare, I'd see ads all the time about MS treatments and it would freak me out, thinking it was a sign.  It was actually just behavioral targeted advertising due to me constantly looking at MS websites, but I didn't know about that back then.

[AnxiousMatt]

The media and advertising constantly "sensationalizes" diseases and tragedy, because why?

It gets good ratings, and makes people want to go to the doctor. Dont think that the medical industry isnt a business...They make everything that is remotely abnormal such as dizziness, or chest tightness seem like a dire situation...Why? To get people like us to go to the doctor so they can make money...

Ever notice the evening news...Stay tuned at 11pm so you can find out what may be killing you without even knowing it!!

The media will take any study it can find that will promise people will pay attention...even when there are 50 other studies that show no link between "taking X" and "disease Y"...My doctor was telling me a funny story about him in med school...He got the classic medical student syndrome where he thought he had every disease he was reading about...And he said it was terrible faulty thinking at the time, because he soon realized that he didnt have the experience to know the difference between what was a "real" disease and a common everyday symptom that everyone gets...Doctors can tell when something is wrong from EXPERIENCE, which we lack...we think we know more than the doctor sometimes, and that is in itself, a huge irrational thought pattern that gets in the way of our recovery

[justanothernervousgirl]

Idreamofskiba, I've done the same thing with my cats and dog. Every so often they get a lot more cuddly and won't leave my side, and I've taken it as a sign that I was dying. I've even taken them curling up around my ankle as a sign of a blood clot, too.

I've come to find that usually when they get more cuddly, they're running low on food or water, getting sick, or sometimes, just wanting love. I make a point to remind myself of that now.

Sometimes it makes me nervous when my dog hangs around me more than usual.  After a really bad ankle sprain I was worrying about DVT and she started sleeping with her head on my ankle, so I took that as a sign I had a blood clot.  And sometimes I think she 'knows' I have cancer if she starts getting all snugly with me.

[diana66]

This is the first I have heard that others get a little paranoid when their dog gives them attention!

I noticed an article once about dogs who can sniff cancer - STUPIDLY read it (I normally avoid health-related reading due to my irrational fears).  Of course, now every time my dog smells me I think it means I have cancer.  It got to the point where I was avoiding our poor Golden Retrieve because she raised my anxiety level.

I am doing better now - anxiety on the decrease - but glad to hear I am not the only one who ever had this thought.  And hearing others say it aloud makes me realize how silly it is!

[AnxiouSteve]

Re: Do you see 'signs'  everywhere to back up the thought that your ill

What you describe is somatization.

I think we ALL do that, and I think an important step is to understand that, or at least tell yourself that not everything needs to be explained (like hiccups), and not everything is a terminal illness.

[worrierbynature]

OMG! Speaking about this I just noticed on another post that the ads on the bottom provided by google are for cervical cancer, ovarian cancer - one of my fears!! As I was done typing my post and i scrolled down i noticed the ads!! AHHHH!
I am glad that I am not the only that has this problem!

[daisy232627]

Well said Matt, I completely agree with you!

[Katya]

Yes, I have done this before. At this point it's more frustrating to me than triggering. Completely unrelated things I don't even have to go looking for. For goodness sake, once my German teacher was trying to explain to us what a particular word meant in context, and of course, what does he use as an example? Brain tumor.  I wasn't so triggered by it as much as just incredulous: "really? REALLY?"