Medical news today is evil

[Leah88]

I like to follow medical news today and science daily to see what breakthroughs they make in medicine. (Hoping that this will improve my anxiety about getting an illness). One of today's articles however was how bipolar OCD and mental illness in general signify short telemere length and reduced longevity.

Way to make the anxious more anxious.

How are you supposed to read anything these days objectively ( if you suffer anxiety)without spiralling into depression or a panic attack?

It's hard to take things with a grain of salt when there seems to be some science to back it up.

Thoughts?

[Hypomean]

I was told by my doctors to avoid any form of "medical media" shows, magazines,...
It just feeds the anxiety.

[MyNameIsTerry]

And avoiding it out of fear will do the same. But exposure therapy is constructive rather than driven by fear.

Remember trends don't necessarily imply causation. People with mental health problems are more likely to have poor quality diets, lack exercise, etc just as people who live the same way do.

[Leah88]

Remember trends don't necessarily imply causation. People with mental health problems are more likely to have poor quality diets, lack exercise, etc just as people who live the same way do.[/QUOTE]

This is interesting... I did consider the same thing, as in chicken/egg etc.
Maybe it has to do with the effect of the illness rather than the neurological pathway itself. Iif it can be modified with lifestyle factors maybe it wouldn't be
The illness itself but rather the toll it takes.

Thanks for bouncing this idea.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Another consideration is stress. We are told too much of it is a bad thing. Well anxiety is far harder to deal with than mere stress so it makes sense we need to pay attention to helping our bodies to be healthy to offset this.

Statistics can be very misleading and even medical professionals are not adverse to making them fit their narrative.

Look at the studies on benzodiazepines more recently trying to link them to dementia. The numbers can back it up but looking at numbers doesn't mean any actual investigation has been conducted hence you get a statement on the end about how they can't rule out all the people on them had dementia starting and the drugs were to combat symptoms in undiagnosed cases.

So, it's a just a stat to say there may be something worth investigating inside it.

[Leah88]

Yeah, and I guess unless you were to study each individual pretty much from birth to the point of genome testing ( in this instance) you'd never be able to tell causation right?. I sometimes need to hear this out loud from other people as I don't trust my Anxious brain.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Yes, they would have to rule out genetic causes for a start. And then look at the years leading up to the event to see if there were environmental factors involved. Take out all the self medicators with alcohol & drugs, and bearing in mind any substance misuers who were also addicts too which will overlap greatly into this area, then look at the eating disorders overlapping, etc.

The list goes on really.

It's a useful way to learn to reframe your thoughts about a trigger. They do it in therapy with various tools e.g. Thought Records, and you learn to do it yourself. It can be easier with others at first as they are outside of your biased thinking.

[OCDme]

Yeah I agree that it's better to not read medical news because they'll always be negative theories/articles as well as positive articles. And a lot of stuff in medicine are just unproven theories, so don't worry too much about that.

[Deadkndys420]

If you react like that you should read less of it.