Head in the sand approach

[squiddy]

When it comes to breast cancer, I know the standard advice for doing a self examination is every month, but I just can't bring myself to do it. For a long time I'd constantly be checking myself for all kinds of symptoms for all kinds of illness... It was ruining my life. Constantly fearing I was dying, most commonly from BC.

Then I swung around to the more 'head in the sand' approach. Just don't check anything. Try not to think about it at all. Assume anything that happens is nothing. Not a great coping mechanism, since self examinations SHOULD be done one in a while, and my absence of checking is still fuelled by fear, but it at least lets me have control of my life again.

I do worry that this is going to be what does me in. My paranoia tells me my constant checking is what was going to keep me alive. That going a few months without examining myself, maybe a year, I'll finally check and there'll be something awful and it was too late. I have no idea how long BC actually takes to go from 'the start of a problem' to 'a deadly problem' either, which doesn't help. Feels like I might be doomed within no time at all, for all I know. I'm 29 so I know I'm not in a high risk area yet or anything, but things can happen... It's irrational of me, but the feeling persists.

Sorry, this kind of ended up just being a rant. I felt like I needed to write this somewhere.

[WiredIncorrectly]

When it comes to breast cancer, I know the standard advice for doing a self examination is every month, but I just can't bring myself to do it. For a long time I'd constantly be checking myself for all kinds of symptoms for all kinds of illness... It was ruining my life. Constantly fearing I was dying, most commonly from BC.

Then I swung around to the more 'head in the sand' approach. Just don't check anything. Try not to think about it at all. Assume anything that happens is nothing. Not a great coping mechanism, since self examinations SHOULD be done one in a while, and my absence of checking is still fuelled by fear, but it at least lets me have control of my life again.

I do worry that this is going to be what does me in. My paranoia tells me my constant checking is what was going to keep me alive. That going a few months without examining myself, maybe a year, I'll finally check and there'll be something awful and it was too late. I have no idea how long BC actually takes to go from 'the start of a problem' to 'a deadly problem' either, which doesn't help. Feels like I might be doomed within no time at all, for all I know. I'm 29 so I know I'm not in a high risk area yet or anything, but things can happen... It's irrational of me, but the feeling persists.

Sorry, this kind of ended up just being a rant. I felt like I needed to write this somewhere.

I check my testicle every time I'm in the bath. I only have 1 left, Cancer took the other one. It's not something we should have to worry about so young (I'm around your age, slightly older). Cancer is rare in the young, especially breast Cancer.

Provided you're checking every now and then and not obsessing over it I think it's perfectly normal and reasonable to check for oddities.

Cancer takes a long time to grow into tumors that you can feel so if you've felt nothing you shouldn't need to check for at least another month. For me it's a habit to have a quick check as I'm washing. Kill 2 birds with 1 stone so to speak.

I have Cancer fears, but oddly it's not a testicle cancer fear. Irrational brain.