What must it be like to NOT have HA?

[glassgirlw]

I ask myself this question all the time. How much more free time would I have? What would it be like to read an article and not question whether you have the same thing, or are coming down with the same thing? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to google symptoms and not automatically jump to the worst case scenario?

For example - I caught my husbands cold on Christmas Day. I get a cold every year, that inevitably goes to my chest, so this is nothing new for me lol. Had a couple rough feeling days, super low grade fever, just enough to make me feel crappy. Started getting better, but developed sinus pressure. Again, no biggie - been there before. Cough has been a pain, mostly productive but an annoyance. Now this morning, cough feels tighter. Still productive, but tighter. So my rational mind is trying to say that the bronchial passages are irritated and inflamed from all the coughing. But then I read a random article on my Facebook feed of a woman in my area that had the flu that went to pneumonia and now is in ICU :scared15:

First off, I don’t think I even had the flu :doh: and my fever has not come back since the initial couple days. Sinus pressure is mostly gone, just a runny nose now. No fatigue or body aches, I know I don’t need to worry, but that article is just forever in the back of my mind, nagging me and causing annoying butterflies in my stomach. HA and negative thinking are serious pains in the rear. Off to take some Mucinex and get on with my day - time to find a distraction!! :roflmao:

[ankietyjoe]

Did you also read about the 1000 women in your area that had the flu that DIDN'T end up in ICU?

[glassgirlw]

Did you also read about the 1000 women in your area that had the flu that DIDN'T end up in ICU?

:yesyes: This is so true!!!! The percentage of people that do end up in ICU is so minute compared to those that don’t!!! Sadly our HA brain doesn’t automatically go to the positive statistic. Just wants to focus on the negative. So, I continue to try and retrain my mind and hope that one day, it comes naturally!

[ankietyjoe]

If you have a HA brain, don't read news. From any source. It'll speed up your recovery.

[glassgirlw]

If you have a HA brain, don't read news. From any source. It'll speed up your recovery.

I don’t know though. For me it’s kind of like immersion therapy. Forces me to tackle things that I know are triggers in the hopes that eventually I’ll be able to look at those things and not react at all. I agree if it was making me debilitatingly anxious and sent me into a spiral then it would be best to avoid, but as long as I’m strong enough to battle back the anxiety into something tolerable then I feel like it’s actually not too harmful for me to expose myself to some of these things. I could be hindering more than helping though - who knows :roflmao:

[ankietyjoe]

It's not therapeutic because you are reading about things that aren't happening to you that you can't do anything about. All you are doing is triggering your fight or flight response without being able to remove the abstract nature of what you're reading.

There are plenty of tangible things you could be tackling head on that don't involve sitting indoors and staring at a screen.

[glassgirlw]

There are plenty of tangible things you could be tackling head on that don't involve sitting indoors and staring at a screen.

Oh I definitely agree. I’m currently at work and NMP, Facebook, etc gives me something to scroll through while I’m out on break. The majority of news articles don’t phase me really. Just every now and then you come across that one that you can relate to, and we’re off and running lol. That’s why I mean it’s been good for me. It forces me to fight the anxiety and my hope is eventually, they won’t trigger me at all. Again - not recommending this method for everyone, we’re all at different places in our recovery. This is just the method that works for me. :yesyes:

[Pamplemousse]

But what if you have a bank of stuff stored in your head, like I do? Can't exactly switch that off or erase it.

[glassgirlw]

But what if you have a bank of stuff stored in your head, like I do? Can't exactly switch that off or erase it.

no, you can’t erase it. My hope for myself is that I can use those things I’ve read to my advantage. It forces me to fight off the anxious feelings by finding the more rational thought process. Instead of immediately jumping to the worst case scenarios, I find the ones that are much more likely. In my case with my current chest cold, rather than giving in to the fear that I’m developing pneumonia because of some chest congestion, I tell myself that statistically it’s highly unlikely I have pneumonia as a result of the flu that I don’t think I had. I had a cold, and plugged sinuses. Every year, this goes into my chest. Every year, I deal with some discomfort and a cough for a couple weeks and then I get better. So I keep telling myself I’ve been here before and this is no different than years past. Positive thinking :winks: I know this doesn’t work for everyone. But for me, I want to expose myself to these triggers so that eventually they won’t be so panic inducing :shrug: