does anyone else

[MRS STRESS ED]

Does anyone else do this I was talking to a family member she told me someone we no has a brain tumor omg instead of me saying oh the poor girl how is she will she be okay ,no my HA mind kicked in what symtoms has she got as she told me ,I said I have that ,Ive got that to the point were she said this isnt about you :blush:but I just kept on and on now its left me thinking I have the same omg I hate the way my head thinks does anyone else do this xxxx

what really frustrates me Ive been doing so well xxxx

[TheHusband]

My wife does this. Can you guess which disease she "suddenly realised she had" in the same week as:
a) her aunt finally told her she had been treated for breast cancer
b) a friend's mum was diagnosed with altzheimers
c) a TV soap opera showed someone with skin cancer
d) a school acquaintance talked about a child with leukemia
Life isn't quite that strong on coincidences.

The main error I think anxiety sufferers fall into is thinking that one symptom equates to one disease. It is not true. Even if you have three particular symptoms, these can correspond to ten or more different outcomes (some as dull as "you ate too many beans", and others no more exciting than "lots of people get this as they age, you need to take a pill").

There are so many stories in the media about how a person just as ordinary as you suddenly had the world's worst disease and the only way they found out was because they noticed [insert something mundane and ordinary here]. Stories like that sell newspapers. Unlike "Bob had been feeling pains in his gut for 2 years, and the doctors found out he had IBS" which isn't really going to make the front cover of Hello! The 'exciting' stories are rare and over-hyped, but we all hear about them via the pervasiveness of world media, to the point that we think these sort of things are happening all the time, and we start to think we need to be aware of these everyday symptoms in case we are the second world-famous case. Stop believing the hype and the lies it is mixed with.

If you say you have been "doing so well" then that is great news; it means we know you can get back to doing well again. Sadly the fight against anxiety seems to include these setbacks again and again. Be aware there may be more times in the future...but overall you can improve and always regain the good times. Don't lose heart.

[MRS STRESS ED]

TheHusband thankyou for a lovely post its really lifted me and your right I can go back to where I was I feel more positive today ,but like your wife I have had all them illnesses and more lol strange im still here with the same anxiety :doh: and your wife is so lucky to have such a supportive understanding caring man like you thankyou again xx

[swgrl09]

Mrs Stress ed, I do this a lot. If I hear somebody describe an illness, instead of feeling empathy, I automatically do a quick inner scan to see if I have had any of the same symptoms. I get a choking feeling and freak if god forbid there are any similarities. It's really hard to break the habit sometimes, but like TheHusband said, we only hear about the crazy rare stories. We don't hear all the positives where people didn't have anything wrong with them.

[RoseEve]

I do that too!

[Stressed32]

Guilty! I do the exact same thing!

[MRS STRESS ED]

Thankyou all it helps me to no im not the only one I suppose its just another part of our anxiety guys xx thanks again xx