Question for the Admin(s), and many thanks as well

[Lana]

After reading yesterday a post about issues with belly button and how apparently there is some nodule that forms in your belly button after your cancer spreads everywhere, I had panic attack, and was scared to death to look at my belly button.

I just wanted to ask the Admins on the Forum whether it would be appropriate to warn all of us that we should not share easily symptoms of actual cancers, because, obviously, most of us here have severe OCD and classic symptoms of high health anxiety ( like reading about a symptom and then " having " it).

I would also like to apologize profusely if I ever did the same thing to other people ( which I for sure did, at least a couple of time). If I want to post, in the future, I will never ever talk about true cancer ( or any other illness) symptoms.

I am very grateful for the site, I think this is extremely helpful , compassionate and useful Forum and I would try to never do anything to put myself in danger of being banned. I am grateful to the Admins and "senior" members, who helped me so so many times, and I am sure, to many others.

THis is just my 2 cents . Thank you again for the Forum and great people who run it.

[Fishmanpa]

Lana, I'll let Admin speak for themselves but being a survivor, I often have shared my symptoms as it's actually reassurance for those fearing it. Those that post those fears actually in no way, shape or form have truly concerning symptoms. Bumps and lumps that come and go, a "swollen" node (that's not actually swollen) for years etc. are not cancer. There was even someone that posted they were afraid a lump that resolved leaked cancer!

So I'll personally continue to post my experience as I believe it inserts some reality and rationality into the irrational thoughts of the sufferer. Perhaps being more selective as to what you read would be in order?

Positive thoughts

[nomorepanic]

Hi Lana

It is a hard one to moderate in some ways as people with extreme cancer fears do a lot of research on Google and then panic and post on here.

Most of those posts will go in the Health Anxiety forum so you could maybe ignore that forum? Not sure if that would help you or not.

People can also help by putting a "trigger warning" on a post title so those who are scared of reading such things know to ignore it.

Just some thoughts anyway.

[Lana]

Fishamnpa, You are one of the most helpful people on the Forum, and actually, none of your posts ever scared me - on the contrary, your posts always cheered me up, made me feel so much better. So - this was absolutely not regarding you , again, on the contrary: you help all of us so much. Your posts are always voice of reason, and putting things into perspective.

Nicola - thank you very much, and yes, trigger warning is excellent " feature", I myself shall use it more often if needed. And you are both right : I should not read every single post. Ultimately, it all comes down to us being responsible for ourselves.

What I mean is more about posts that sometimes go like this ( just an example): My friends mother died form ( such and such illness), and these are the symptoms she had.... I think it would benefit us who suffer to say, in such cases: My friend's mother died form such and such illness, and her symptom were completely different" - or something along these lines. I just thought it is not very helpful to single out exact symptoms of someone who actually died from any illness.

In any case, I will be very considerate when posting. Thank you very much for giving me the chance to be part of the community.