Tungatankar
03-07-21, 10:35
Hello everyone. I am new around here and have just introduced myself in the appropriate sub forum. Like I said there, I suffer from anxiety (mostly health related, but not linked to current symptoms - rather related to things that could hurt me or the ones I love) and probably OCD ad well. I've learned to manage the "flare ups" and can usually relax quickly after a scare. However, I deal VERY badly with unexpected events if I have any reason to believe they might affect my health.
I moved into a new apartment like 2 weeks ago. Things were fine, until I found strange silver stains in the carrier I used to take my new kitten home. I got some al over my hands when cleaning the carrier after the kitten released his bladder inside of it. The carrier is old, my logical brain knew it was probably just older paint peeling off the plastic, yet my anxiety brain thought *mercury*, *lead*, *random toxic paint *. The fear went over after a day thankfully. Then, as I was cleaning the bathtub, a metal part just crumbled under my wet sponge, and my brain went *lead*, which led to another 24h freakout.
I was mostly reassured going into the next day - yesterday - when a technician was set to come to my apartment to link the optical fiber from the building to my flat. Things were supposed to be simple : he was to use existing passages to get the cable from point A to B. Except it didn't work out that way : the tech had to drill holes through the wall between my apartment and the common corridor, and through the wall between my hallway and the living room.
My building was built in the 70s, though. It dawned on me after cleaning up : what if the walls had had asbestos in the cement and/or the concrete? The concrete blocks were literally pulverized and spewed fine dust all over the corridor and part of my hallway (neither has windows), while the cement was easily broken through with a hammer and a screwdriver and left larger pieces of debris and some dust in my hallway and the entrance to my living room. However, now I am terrified that there is asbestos all over my one room apartment, my hallway and in the corridor. I did the cleaning with wet paper towels thankfully, because I didn't want to put dust all over my broom, but that doesn't mean I'm freaking out any less. I've been all over Google and everyone is like "Asbestos is fine unless you drill through it or disturb it with power tools". Which is not helping, especially in combination with "one fiber may kill you" (which I understand is silly because we're all already breathing some fibers just by walking down the street), and the fact that so many fibers can exist in tiny amounts of asbestos-containing materials and their capacity to stick on surfaces and release in the air when disturbed.
The previous fears I've had in the past days were disturbing but objectively silly, though mostly I feel they've paved an uncomfortable way to this more realistic fear, because I am tired, haven't been eating well and my brain has been on overdrive for days now. I think I could use some advice about my asbestos situation as well as ways to cope with my anxiety right now. Deep breathing feels like a terrible idea when scared to breathe in asbestos fibers :doh:. My current state of mind is also sending the OCD in overdrive, which is a pain to deal with.
Feel free to move my post to another section if this is located in the wrong part of the forum.
I moved into a new apartment like 2 weeks ago. Things were fine, until I found strange silver stains in the carrier I used to take my new kitten home. I got some al over my hands when cleaning the carrier after the kitten released his bladder inside of it. The carrier is old, my logical brain knew it was probably just older paint peeling off the plastic, yet my anxiety brain thought *mercury*, *lead*, *random toxic paint *. The fear went over after a day thankfully. Then, as I was cleaning the bathtub, a metal part just crumbled under my wet sponge, and my brain went *lead*, which led to another 24h freakout.
I was mostly reassured going into the next day - yesterday - when a technician was set to come to my apartment to link the optical fiber from the building to my flat. Things were supposed to be simple : he was to use existing passages to get the cable from point A to B. Except it didn't work out that way : the tech had to drill holes through the wall between my apartment and the common corridor, and through the wall between my hallway and the living room.
My building was built in the 70s, though. It dawned on me after cleaning up : what if the walls had had asbestos in the cement and/or the concrete? The concrete blocks were literally pulverized and spewed fine dust all over the corridor and part of my hallway (neither has windows), while the cement was easily broken through with a hammer and a screwdriver and left larger pieces of debris and some dust in my hallway and the entrance to my living room. However, now I am terrified that there is asbestos all over my one room apartment, my hallway and in the corridor. I did the cleaning with wet paper towels thankfully, because I didn't want to put dust all over my broom, but that doesn't mean I'm freaking out any less. I've been all over Google and everyone is like "Asbestos is fine unless you drill through it or disturb it with power tools". Which is not helping, especially in combination with "one fiber may kill you" (which I understand is silly because we're all already breathing some fibers just by walking down the street), and the fact that so many fibers can exist in tiny amounts of asbestos-containing materials and their capacity to stick on surfaces and release in the air when disturbed.
The previous fears I've had in the past days were disturbing but objectively silly, though mostly I feel they've paved an uncomfortable way to this more realistic fear, because I am tired, haven't been eating well and my brain has been on overdrive for days now. I think I could use some advice about my asbestos situation as well as ways to cope with my anxiety right now. Deep breathing feels like a terrible idea when scared to breathe in asbestos fibers :doh:. My current state of mind is also sending the OCD in overdrive, which is a pain to deal with.
Feel free to move my post to another section if this is located in the wrong part of the forum.