Fearing the impossible

[ryangreen]

Why do we as people with health anxiety always fear the rare or next to impossible.

Here are so example just from today that I worried about:

Cheats pain meant heart attack or full blown cardiac arrest

Sharp pain in my head meant definite brain tumour or worse.

Pain in my leg meant a deadly blood clot

And that's just TODAY

Why don't we fear the more common things like the flu or the cold or any other common ailments that we are almost sure to get? It just doesn't make sense

[JITTERBUG1]

These are the exact fears I face every time I leave the house. I also fear the flu too. I am always positive that I will be part of the small percent that die from the flu. I am afraid to get a flu shot though.

[Shelly06]

I don't know why we fear the worst case scenario but I hate feeling this way.

It gave me a shiver when you reeled off those things you're worried about:

'Cheats pain meant heart attack or full blown cardiac arrest
I've been having this worry all week now on and off after a bout of acid reflux which started me off again with the worry. I have had chest pains off and on all my life almost though, but in my mind when the fear sets in it's always heart related. The other night when I woke up I was so scared I was having one and yesterday as well.

Sharp pain in my head meant definite brain tumour or worse.
We took our dog to the vets last night and then for a short walk afterwards, I had a pain in my head on the right side all the way along the walk and I was worried about what it could be, worst case. It's still sort of there today.` Plus I have been feeling dizzy a lot lately too.

Pain in my leg meant a deadly blood clot'
This one is always ongoing with me. I do have real varicose veins and get legs pains all the time anyway, but when I'm all anxious anyway it's always something really bad like a blood clot. Some have said if it was my leg would be swollen and much more painful, but it still doesn't stop my thoughts thinking about it. A year ago I banged my leg quite badly and could barely move, of course I thought that was it for me, even wrote goodbye notes to my family:blush: In the end I phoned 111 and spoke to a nurse, told her I was worried about blood clots, but she said unless my leg was swelling badly and very deep red as I had trauma to my leg then it was nothing to worry about.

In the past two weeks I've thought I've had about 10 serious things wrong with me including the ones above. I know that logically I can't really have every single one of them but the fear at the time of the pain is still very scary to think about.