The media makes it worse..

[Rainboww]

So in the last 2 days I have read 2 articles, one about a girl who has bowel cancer at 25 and her doctors told her she was too young to have it but was diagnosed 9 months later...
Another about a young girl who died from pancreatic cancer...

Articles like these make my HA so much worse!
I wish I could avoid health news but I'm a student nurse so its important for me to know whats going on in the health world. It makes me so frightened...
I don't know how to process it in my head so it doesn't make me think 'what if I haven't got IBS and its bowel cancer?'

:( I don't mean to upset anyone talking about the content of the articles... I don't want anyone else to feel how I do after reading them...

[ScaredCaz]

Hi Rainbow

I know exactly what you mean I get up in the morning and put good morning Britain on and it's full of health stories and scary stories I know these are in the public interest and should be reported about and I am sure they help hundreds of people it make me feel guilty and selfish when I want to switch channel and not watch it

Know exactly how you feel :-(

[eevee]

I don't even watch medical drama... too scary :(

[Rainboww]

I have to put my nursing-head on and tell myself these instances are isolated and very very rare.
It still doesn't stop me from googling my symptoms and checking for lumps every five minutes though...

My boyfriend has gone away from the weekend and I also can't stop worrying about him and whether he is safe. Its ruining my life.

[Annie0904]

These things do happen in life but as you said they are rare. From the minute we are born we are dying and not one of us knows when so we need to enjoy the life we have to its full. One of my neighbours is a bowel cancer survivor and she used to be anxious but now isn't..her motto is to get out and enjoy life and fit in as much as you can.
I know it isn't easy to do that when you are a worrier but if you could fast forward to the future and look back you would be saying "I wish I hadn't spent all those years worrying about things that have never happened!"

[ankietyjoe]

I try to balance it out by reading about people who die in their 80s

Yep, really :huh:

[Annie0904]

I try to balance it out by reading about people who die in their 80s

Yep, really :huh:

My parents are both 83. My dad has suffered from anxiety most of his life and has convinced himself he has all sorts of serious illnesses in the past. The reality is he has only spent a few days in hospital in his life and that was in his 20's when he had pneumonia. Now he says he wishes he hadn't spent his days worrying.

[unsure_about_this]

Yes I fell back in the trap of medical articles (I have seen 3 articles about bowel cancer of people under 30 in the last two weeks) so know which article you are talking about.

I thought I had problems last year with my abdominal pain thinking at 29 I could have bowel cancer. I had a lot of scans and camera up my backside to proof nothing was wrong with me.

I know these things are rare in young people and does happen.

I know it important to make people aware of symptoms which could be cancer or something less serious which still could need treatment/scans.

[Masqued]

I just don't read it anymore!

[Fishmanpa]

There's an old story/joke about the man who went to the doctor and said:

"Doc, it hurts when I do this" (lifting his arm in an awkward way).

The doc said: "Don't do that"

Because of my medical/physical issues, there are things I can't do as it would cause me pain and be detrimental to me. The same logic applies. Because of your anxiety issues, reading articles like you mentioned should be avoided as it's obviously detrimental to you. It truly is that simple :doh:

Positive thoughts

[Lanesra]

I'm so glad someone has posted this.

I had what I thought was a stomach bug a couple of weeks ago but since then have experienced constipation, vomiting and a lot of trapped wind and stomach pain. Bowel cancer was on my mind but that Daily Mail article made it 100 times worse and now I feel like I should have the tests done to rule it out but doc is reluctant to do a blood test let alone anything else - he just put it down to IBS and constipation and sent me away with laxatives!