havent posted in a long while but need help.

[gabes]

I haven't posted in a while but over the last 2 weeks a number of symptoms have started to pop up. I went to the ENT because I've had this throat clearing issue that won’t go away. He didn't see anything wrong other than my existing acid reflux and put me on a new medication. But then he says "you should probably get an upper GI just to make sure." I say "make sure of what?" He says Barrets Esophogus, and proceeds to explain that it’s something that could be pre-cancerous. That did it for me. I was terrified to Google it so I called my sister and had her do it for me. She did, and said I'm crazy if I think I have that, as the pre-cancerous part of it is one of the rarest cancers in the western world. But I'm still obsessing about it! And now I have this tingling on the right side of my scalp! I've succeeded in convincing myself that I have a brain tumor too! I went to dinner with a friend and we have a mutual acquaintance in our industry who has Lou Gherig's disease. He was telling me how badly he has been declining. I couldn’t even listen to it!

I have been very stressed lately, my 1.5 year old had pneumonia, my mothers health is failing, money is always an issue, and on...........

I just wish I could use the energy I spend obsessing about my health, on solving or improving some other areas of my life. But it just takes over and paralyzes me.

Has anyone else experienced the tingling? I’m really worried about it.

[Farrell]

I'm really trying to come to terms with the fact that I can't rationalise myself out of my worries. Like you, I can just hear some random little factoid, or read a couple of sentences in the paper, and even if I KNOW it's a silly thing to obsess about I suddenly become this nervous wreck and can't think about anything else.

I remember reading somewhere that humans base their perception of risk on how easily they can imagine something happening rather than the odds. So even if something you're worrying about is very rare, the fact that you can easily imagine yourself getting it makes it more likely in your mind. I've done it many times myself, thought 'well, someone has to get it. I'm not special, so why shoudn't it be me?'.

It's like the lottery in reverse - the companies that run national lotteries make it really easy for us all to imagine ourselves winning by parading previous winners and talking about the size of the jackpot, so it's easy to think along the same lines - someone has to win, so why not me? When actually the odds of winning are so small as to be practically zero.

As for the tingling scalp, I'm no expert but surely if it's on your scalp rather than inside your head it won't have anything to do with your brain? Sorry I can't be more help, but I really know how you feel with the anxiety.

[Janieb]

I get tingeling A LOT so much so I have been to A&E and all sorts of places. I experiance a lot of tightness in the sculp and funny pains and sensations in my head which in turn has a knock on effect to my eyes. The trick is to assure yourself you are fine. That sounds harder than it actually is I know!

The brain does funny things when you panic, look at it this way, you don't have cancer so thats good. Your baby and mom need you so you need to be strong for them, you need to fight this sensation away if you can! I kept telling myself nothing was wrong and eventally it went after a couple of weeks...heh I hope you have better luck!

take care,
Jane