Scared again!

[JaneS]

Help - please!

I'm fixating again on my little toe nail. I haven't bothered with it for ages and decided to check it again today, there is a small brown/yellow area on the outer side of it and every time I look it freaks me out, worrying that it is something sinister. I have asked two separate doctors about it when I went for a recent 'mole' check and about a different issue - one said that it is 'trauma' and the other looked at it with a magnifying glass and said it was fine. Even my podiatrist isn't concerned. I do have other toe nails that are clearly affected by fungal nail and they don't worry me but this little toe nail! Think it all comes from a Facebook post that I saw of a finger nail with a dark line down the middle with a warning message attached - why do people share these things - it's not good for our HA!
Photos attached if anyone can bear to look! Ignore the fungal one next to it as I know that's what it is, it's just the edge of the little toe nail.

[JaneS]

Feeling sad that nobody has offered support here, I know you’re probably thinking I’m being ridiculous but isn’t that the case when u suffer with extreme irrational and anxious thoughts. Just wanted to be told there’s no need to go back to the doctor again, always sounds better from someone else and my brain accepts it that way. On a further note I am undergoing CBT at the moment so am trying hard to conquer this, guess we all have blips!

[tmckenzie-orr]

Hey yeah I saw that Facebook post of the black line on the nail I didn’t even know could get it there, do you know how rare it really is tho, it’s super duper rare so don’t worry you have had it seen and they said nothing to worry about so don’t worry I know sometimes easier said than done

[JaneS]

Thanks for taking the time to reply, I appreciate that. When I saw the Facebook post it freaked me out and of course I started checking all my nails and that’s when I saw this slightly darker area on my little toe nail, hadn’t even noticed it before then! So many things can trigger my HA, I avoid reading or watching anything health related, which my therapist says is the wrong thing to do and that I have to face the fear until it subsides, really difficult to do. I even took photos of the nail back in August and it looks no worse, in fact my daughter said it looked better but even that’s not enough to stop the worry, I have to keep reminding myself that it’s irrational, you’ve been told by 3 healthcare professionals it’s nothing, it’s rare... just goes over and over in my mind. I am sure it will get better and I must stop the checking as that just raises the anxiety and I must learn to trust the doctors...

[tmckenzie-orr]

Of course things like that are a huge trigger, especially anything such as skin cancer etc as we hear the horror stories and then our brains make us scan our body’s for abnormal things that shouldn’t be on our bodies and then we always find something that we think that shouldn’t be there or like that and we panic and go into panic mode , don’t worry at all seriously if we cannot trust the doctors and professionals who can we trust so try think rationally and dismiss it completely just say you won’t look at it again for another 2 months chances are be gone or smaller or the same it won’t have got worse because it’s super rare