so scared of lung cancer

[majdle]

Hi everyone, I am here to ask for help, as I am freaking out. I have been having a very persistent cough for three weeks, googled and bang: lung cancer, heart failure...and all that jazz. I have never smoked and I am thirty. I will go to my gp on thursday, but i am just freaking out big time. I can't sleep and I shake like crazy anytime I think about it. I am getting married next September and I can't help but think that one person cannot just have so much luck and happiness like I've had in my life and now, something really bad is gonna happen. The nights are the worse. My sweetheart is travelling at the moment, so i am here all alone and scared to death...any words of reassurance? I would be very thankful.

[Annie0904]

Never google!! It always gives worse case scenarios. A cough lasting 3 weeks is not unusual at all. When ever I get a cough it always lasts a long time. I am sure your GP will reassure on Thursday. At the worst you may have a chest infection and need antibiotics but if it is more of a dry cough then I think that is just what it is...a dry cough and it will go soon :hugs:

[Andria24]

Calm down. You'll be fine. It's the time of year for bugs and the sharing of them, and upper respiratory infections are common.

When you visit your doctor to see if you need anti biotics or not, have a good talk about your anxiety disorder. You need to get it under control then start treatment in order to recover from it.

Other than that, I hope you're feeling better the now :hugs:

[majdle]

Thank you so much for your kind words. I am a bit better now, although still shaky. I think I am always expecting some kind of a horror scenario, because I have had so much luck and happiness in my life: my job, my friends, living my dreams, my wonderful man...I mean, do i even deserve it? And won´t I need to pay for it with some terrible thing happening to me? So anytime something like this comes, I freak out, because I think: ok, now that´s it. Isn´t it how all the tabloid magazines cover stories start? Pretty and happy bride diagnosed with a nasty disease on her wedding days and things like that?

[cpe1978]

If you have lung cancer then not only will I eat my hat, but I will run the streets of my local town naked singing the German National Anthem.

You have classic, I have it all therefore I must lose it all anxiety. I have exactly the same issue. If when I was 18 I had sketched out my future - this would have been it. Now if I were being picky I would have been a bit better looking and played premier league football, but on balance I haven't done too bad. Therefore my health must destroy it!

In CBT terms it is classic catastrophising. 30 year old smokers virtually never get lung cancer so it is a virtual never event that you would.

:)

[emlica]

It's totally that time of year. Every morning when I get on my bus half the people on there have a cough of some sort. You get some sort of viral infection, your throat gets irritated/inflamed, maybe you've got bunged up sinuses so you're getting mucus down your throat as well making it worse, then you start coughing and so it takes longer for the irritation to go away. Sensible to go to the GP though just in case (s)he thinks it might be bacterial and you need antibiotics. Doubt it is, though, really...

The only reason I can't make the same wager as cpe1978 is because I don't know the words to the German National Anthem... :D