First Experiences with Health Anxiety

[Elmer P]

Hi there, I thought I would try and share my experiences with health anxiety, partly in the hope that people here may have had similar experiences and good advice, and also simply that I think it might help for me to put it down in writing, hope you'll give it a read if it sounds at all familiar, apologies if it is a bit rambling!

It all began upon returning from university at the start of summer, when I remembered a series of marks I found on my leg following a holiday about 2 years ago, suffice to say I decided they were bat bites and became convinced I was going to become a victim of a bizarrely long-incubating form of rabies. (Or rather the European equivalent, European Bat Lyssavirus).

Whilst it quickly became apparent to me just how ludicrous this was, the rabies worries refused to go away, and this one was replaced with a memory of having slept in a box room adjacent to my attic a similarly long time ago, and therefore I became convinced that this was when I had been exposed to rabies, and that it was again only a matter of time till I was dead.

I eventually managed to shake this off armed with the knowledge that the only species of bat in Britain to carry the virus does not roost in attics, and I went on holiday to Brittany a couple of weeks ago and was having a great time. Until, of course, I noticed more suspicious marks, this time on my wrist, a spot/puncture mark with a sort of scrape, complete with flap of skin, about a cm away from it.

Despite having no memory of encountering a bat or really any idea how bat teeth could create a puncture on one side and a totally different wound on the other side, the fact that I had seen bats in the sky around the house I was in, and had sat in the dark to watch stars whilst slightly drunk a few nights before, was enough to convince me, yet again, that I had been bitten by a bat lurking on the armrest of an outdoor chair, and was going to develop EBLV.

Thinking no way was I going to leave this to fester as a worry for the next two years, I went to the GP upon my return, who was very helpful and contacted the Liverpool School of Tropical medicine, and told me he was assured by the two local experts on rabies that given the region I was in and the fact I saw and felt nothing, the chances of me having been bitten by a EBLV-positive bat without knowing was almost zero, and that I had nothing to worry about and no need for shots, and gave me advice about anxiety.

For a few days this helped and I got on with things, but the worry is back again, and despite the evidence to the contrary, the possibility of me becoming the 3rd EBLV victim recorded in Western Europe, and the first ever without a definite bite, seems strangely real. A quick google showed that rabies is a pretty big issue with hypochondriacs and OCD sufferers of all kinds, so I was wondering if anyone here has had similar anxieties?

[plomeli]

Sorry I haven't had that kind of anxiety but i think that most anxiety is based on some type of ocd and it just all manifests different. I worry about my health others worry that they will touch a door knob and get Aids so in a way its all related. Maybe you should see a psychologist that specializes in cbt cognative behavioral therapy. It seems a lot of peoplewith anxiety benefit from that! Good luck to you.