question

[angela52884]

Hey everyone! I was wondering if you all ever feel that reading everyones posts ever makes your anxiety worse?? I love it here b/c I can relate to everyone on here, but sometimes I will read a post and then worry about, " what if I have that?" or I wonder if I should go a neuro and stuff like that. Does anyone ever think stuff like that?

[jenny649]

Hm actually no I haven't really had that problem. I usually find that once I read someones post and reassure them that they;ll be fine, it makes me think that I should probably take my own advice. So usually it feels better for me, but I can understand reading someones symptoms and what they think they have, and then if you have the symptoms you'll end up thinking you have them too. So far that hasn't happened to me though.

[kiwi]

Yup!!!

Most definitely. Sometimes I'm not sure if I should log on or not, because--for example--I hadn't worried about MS or ALS for a long, long time and then I started reading posts about it, symptoms, etc, and now--I've started obsessing over it again! Of course, I'm not blaming anyone at all, it's just my poor mind spinning things out of control. Of course, sometimes someone has REALLY helped calm me down, so it's a toss up--maybe it's a bad idea to scroll around certain messages if you're feeling vulnerable. Anyway, I do relate.

Take care,

Kiwi
 

[isabelpwc]

Yep!  I learned about fibromylagia and ovarian cancer on this forum.  But, all in all, it is more helpful than harmful.

[AlwaysWorried]

Usually it makes me feel better. I find that I can relate to most people here. It seems all of us on this board "have" MS, how likely is that? Stuff like that, just makes me feel better!! :)

[lisa828]

Yes, I do feel like if I start reading too many symptoms and diseases that I will just add them to my list and then start to worry.  But I also feel like I am not that nuts reading them to think that other people worry constantly about their health too so it works both ways for me.  I often sit at my computer and analyze why all of us think the worst and think that we have all of these diseases.  One of my problems is that someone will say that so and so has this disease or I will watch something on tv and then I will worry that I have it too.  It stinks, I do have anxiety and think that it relates to that with the worry, I also think that its a defense mechanism and that if I worry about all of these diseases that i won't get them or that if I do then I won't be taken by surprise.  Who knows, its gets so old that I just can't relax.  I think it makes me even more mad that other people have real problems and I am sitting here worrying about things that haven't even happened to me.