View Full Version : Fear of Meningitis Continues
I've had health anxiety for quite sometime now. I got really bad when I contracted the Flu Strain B this year and heard many people were dying from it while I was the sickest I had ever been. I'm 20 now and constantly see meningitis b vaccine commercial on TV, which is terrifying by the way. I also toke a Biopsych class that touched on meningitis and my friend told me she was getting the vaccine. I don't live in dorm but my boyfriend currently does, after seeing this commercial 1000 thousand times and once convincing my self after a horrible headache that I had meningitis a couple years back, I decided to look into MENINGITIS some more..BIG MISTAKE. I've learned more than I ever wanted to know. I don't want to be around my boyfriend when he gets back for college now because I'VE LEARNED 25 PERCENT OF PEOPLE CAN CARRY THE MENINGITIS BACTERIA IN THERE NOSE AND THROAT WITHOUT SYMPTOMS. My boyfriend not being exactly the epitome of germs has shared drinks and bongs with people. and I was expressing this to my best friend today when she freaked out and told me her stoner bf has been vaccinated 5 months ago but has all the symptoms. Stiff neck, clammy, on and off fever, lack if appetite. for 4-3 days. I told her not worry because it is rapid then I learned you can have symptoms that mimic the flu for days before meningitis symptoms.We called him and he confirmed he has been feeling ill and will be going to doctor tomorrow if he is worse. Now I'm scared that if her boyfriend carries it and has no symptoms really because he is vaccinated and she kisses him obviously she can also be a carrier without symptoms for now if ever as well and has given it to me because she was talking to me and some spit was flying that I can see visibly by sunlight in her car. PLZ HELP ME. I'M SO PARANOID. I believe I was vaccinated for the A,C,W,Y strains in middle school but I don't remember ever getting the booster at teenage years and I DON'T have the Meningitis B Strain vaccine one that you get in college, because I was scared thinking about it the last few days of possibly being a carrier myself and activating the virus when I get the vaccine. PLEASE HELP ME with any advice, now im here waiting and PRAYINg that I Don't get meningitis since I know the incubation period is 1-2 days up to 10 days or 2 weeks. :weep:
Why don’t you call your doctor and ask which vaccine you had?
Then, please try and stop panicking. I’m sure you are fine, and so are your friends. Do you know how to calm your anxiety?
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I had the mandatory meningitis vaccine for middle schoolers I'm pretty sure but thats all. I never had a booster for that vaccine or the meningitis b vaccine people get before uni. I'm afraid because Meningitis is most common between ages 16-23 and because you die within 24 hours of having it. They have to cut off your limbs and you might go brain dead.its really scary. I take a low dose of Xanax everyday and I also see a psychologist, her area of training is not health anxiety or ocd so she isn't a great help with these topics. Thanks so much for the reply, I'm so scared I need as much reassurance that I can get from anyone. Im terrified i'm gonna wake up with stiff neck and fever
You’ve gone from 0-60 and you’re not stopping to think this through.
You need to stop this negative worry spiral that you’re on. You do realise that this came about because you read about it?
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You were triggered by a commercial and created this frankly unimaginable fantasy. I'm sorry you're in such a spiral but reassurance doesn't work in these instances. Do a search for meningitis and you'll see 25 pages worth of threads. No cases that I've seen :shrug:
Positive thoughts
Yes I do, but now its hard for me to convince my self I'm not going to get it. I wish I Never read it. The part about its being the most common in my age group and that 25% of people carry it in throat and nose with our symptoms and remain healthy but still can pass it to others really freaked me out. Since my friends BF was in jail a while back and he is always with his friends partying I let my mind spiral into this thinking based on these facts on the internet from the meningitis website, thinking to my self since he is vaccinated and my friend is too what if she is the 25% carrying this and she just gave it to me and i'm going to contract it. It's like Half of me knows I sound ridiculous but the other half thinks well its a fact based on all the meningitis websites and all the youtube stories you watched about meningitis and survivors that possibly got it from healthy people at college. :( I'm fearful
---------- Post added at 16:11 ---------- Previous post was at 16:05 ----------
Thank you, the commercial defiantly did trigger it. I toke two years of constantly seeing it on my tv and then on youtube commercials to for it to really trigger me to look into it. If reassurance doesn't help than what do you suggest? I've had this health anxiety before with other things and reassurance online unfortunately was the only thing that calmed my anxiety and eventually once I didn't get worst outcome the fear desensitized!
There are a lot of viruses and bacteria that large percentages of populations are "silent carriers" of. Also, you worry about your friends being those carriers but if that 25% is correct, that means there's a 25% chance YOU are a non-affected carrier already anyways.
It's easier said than done of course, but what will really help is to STOP trying to convince yourself that you won't get meningitis. It is impossible to forcibly stop yourself from thinking about a thing. All you are doing is keeping the thoughts active in your mind. At best, reassurance will only calm you down this time. The way to really slay the dragonis to not need reassurance for whatever disease is worrying you. (again easier said than done, my struggle too!)
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Yes I know I thought about that. I thought to my self maybe I should get the meningitis B vaccine and maybe that will help stop these worries since most or all people did not have the vaccine that contracted it and since my boyfriend will be living in the dorm this summer until the end of july or mid august. I want to be able to kiss him without feeling insane., these thoughts are so bad that I actually thought to my self if me myself is a carrier already what if by getting the vaccine I activate the virus and get it a chance to thrive. Researching stuff sucks, some boy said he had gotten a spider bite at college which he believes activated the meningitis B he thinks he already carried in his nose to be activated, he was in a wheel chair lost his legs and some fingers. Then on the other hand, I think of my dad. He never received a meningitis B vaccine since its only been on the market since 2014, lived with a lot of his buddies, lived in dorm and partied frequently. Never contracted a thing. It's like two sides of me going at war, the logical side and the one that takes facts from the internet and doctors and applies it to my life a possibility. Ugh I am so exhausted.I want the vaccine but then my Health Anxiety goes to that outcome of activating things from getting the vaccine.. its like can I win? is there any solution here?
its like can I win? is there any solution here?
I've said this on the forum several times. My daughter suffers from anxiety and depression. She's got to be around your age since you mentioned a boyfriend in college.
She came to me when she was 18 and told me what was going on. I, along with her mother made sure she got help. She's been in therapy for the last 6 years (varying times) and takes meds. She has her moments and she's going through a rough patch now as her meds stopped working and she's doing a cross taper to Prozac. Regardless, she works hard at therapy, takes her meds, wades through the rough patches and is doing well. That's the solution. Real Life Professional Help.
I saw someone mention this in a post... sorry I can't remember your name! Great point! It said that so many people here seem to run to the doctor at the drop of a hat for any physical symptom yet very few actually go to the doctor that could help them :shrug:
Positive thoughts
I too take my medication, You are right I think I need a new psychologist. She is nice to talk to but I need One who really can help with health anxiety and ocd. My problems are not fixable with just the listening approach I need someone who is trained to challenge this thoughts and who can give me the tools to use when they come for. This is no way to live. I'm 20, I don't want to even consider avoiding all my friends and my boyfriend because I'm scared of contracting Meningitis. It's ridiculous.
---------- Post added at 18:52 ---------- Previous post was at 17:29 ----------
I too take my medication, You are right I think I need a new psychologist. She is nice to talk to but I need One who really can help with health anxiety and ocd. My problems are not fixable with just the listening approach I need someone who is trained to challenge this thoughts and who can give me the tools to use when they come for. This is no way to live. I'm 20, I don't want to even consider avoiding all my friends and my boyfriend because I'm scared of contracting Meningitis. It's ridiculous.
Hi, I'm 20 years old and i have been dealing with a pretty intense Health Anxiety. I have gone through multiple fears but currently I'm terrified of contracting meningitis. There is always this commercial on TV thats scary about some boy who's at a party shares a drink with someone a spoon or fork with another and kisses some girl then ends up covered in sweat in his bathroom a couple hours later where his mom finds him as he's is rushed to the hospital with Meningitis B. It's a vaccine commercial, after watching this mutiple times on tv, my friend telling me she got vaccinated and then having a burning headache whie ago i did some research then let it be seeing it was very rare. This year my health anxiety got pretty bad when I contracted the flu, the first time i had ever felt so sick and had a fever consantly. Thats when my germ fear happened. Now After this commerical playing , remembering the past, taking a biopsych class In college that mentioned meningitis and remembering my friend say she got vacinnated with against the B strain its gotten vey scary. Let me mention that i went to get a tattoo a couple weeks ago, a very small one on my hip and thought i would get hep c and researched horror stories about tattoos, where i saw a young italian girl died a day after a tattoo. The article was from a while ago so i did some more research and dound of her autopsy and it was in a different langauge, italian, I ACTUALLY GOOGLE TRANSALETED IT and thats where it said that it was actual Meningitis that killed her, i believe this was a trigger amongst other things while I was relieved that the tattoo wasn't the cause since i had an appointment but , i started getting paranoid slighty and then increasingly. After seeing the meningits commericla AGAIN as a youtube ad. I made the MISTAKE of researching meningitis. I have learned way more than I want to know. Firstly, I Believe I was vaccinated in middle schools years, but I never recieved the booster or the one that protects against Meningitis B that you get before you leave for college, Since I do not live in a dorm. I read that it is most common up to 23 and in teens because we share things. and THAT 5-25 PERCENT OF people carry the virus without symptoms and never get sick BUT CAN STILL PASS IT TO OTHERS. I was happy at first because most of the risks other than age did not apply to me directly. but my boyfriend is in summer school currently in a dorm in san diego, I'm so scared. I am scared he may be carrying it and then give it to me, I saw him today when he came to visit. We did not kiss because I told him that I'm fearful, he knows I am this way because I was this way when I had the flu since he was the one that gave it to me. Today he sneezed right next to me, and spit a little and it landed on my lip. I went to bathroom and cleaned my lip with soap;. We were intimate today and close to eachothers faces but just did not kiss. He told me he doesn't share anything with anyone and he barely sees his roomates ever, and I know he has his own cups and plates that are paper and does not party. He does go to the gym all the time though and he does not wash his hands often. I KNOW I SOUND CRAZY, But I'm sitting here thinking since he sneezed around me and a spit flew on mouth while he said something to me today and i actually felt it land on my lips so it was a big dropelt and we were around eachothers faces i am going to get it cause he may one of these carriers. Now I feel like i have to wait for the next few days and see if im gonna get meningitis. The whole silent carrier thing is super scary. And it also did not help that I watched videos on survivors and them losing parts of their body and some dying and going deaf. PLEASE HELP ME STOP THESE THOUGHTS A couple people saw what I posted last and helped me with some advice
Hi
This is just a courtesy reply to let you know that your thread was merged with another of your threads.
Please when posting on similar topics add it onto your previous post rather than starting a new one.
It is nothing personal it is just to make it easier for people to follow your story and to give you advice as a whole.
Elen
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