Scared I was exposed to asbestos...

[juju_1]

The house I grew up was built in 1924. When I was young (22 now), the bathroom ceiling had a leak from the roof above. The cause was found and the tile has sagged for as long as I can remember. It is water stained as well.

I never paid attention until my new apartment had a leak in the ceiling with a crack and for some reason, I started thinking of asbestos. This made me think back to my old house that I lived in for probably 15 years with a broken ceiling tile. I'm now scared I have been breathing in these fibers for years and not even knowing. I just moved and don't want my first apportionment with a new doctor to make me come off as crazy when I start panicking about asbestos but now I'm terrified about this (possible) exposure for years and don't know what to do besides panic for years until I get lung cancer.

[au Lait]

I'm terrified about this (possible) exposure for years and don't know what to do besides panic for years until I get lung cancer.

This is black and white thinking. You have other options besides panicking for years about an illness that you likely don’t have. When you see your new dr discuss your anxiety with them. They can recommend various treatment options.
You don’t have to go on being a victim to your anxiety.

A good way to tell if a fear that you have is anxiety or reality based is to assess how the fear began. If it starts at random because you happened to remember some event from years ago, read an article about a certain disease in the news, etc, then there’s a good chance (pretty much 100%) that the fear is anxiety based.

You don’t mention having any symptoms, so it seems that you were thinking about a past event and your mind made an erroneous connection to a loosely related affliction, and now health anxiety has convinced you that’s what you have and you’re going to die. Can you see how that’s anxiety based thinking and not reality based?

[ckelley116]

The house I live in was built in 1900. There’s asbestos everywhere - the siding, insulation in the basement, and the kitchen floor tiles. When we were buying it the inspector said we had nothing to worry about - Its only dangerous when considerable amounts are loosely floating around all the time. In fact you’ll sometimes see on home improvement shows the removal of asbestos popcorn ceilings. Guess what they do for safety? They wet it before scraping. You’ll be fine :)