Fear of Meningitis

[Musicman]

Looking for words of reassurance (again)! Thanks to a TV news story, I now have a fear of meningitis. I am 23 and have had the vaccinations from the schools programme. I can't seem to get this out of my head and I am constantly googling to find out as much information as I can (bad, I know). Any words of wisdom are welcome.

[willtheconk1998]

Hi Musicman,

Try not to let your worries and fears about meningitis control your thoughts.

You have to try not to let this consume you.
By thinking about it all the time and googling the symptoms you are making it more real to yourself and just feeding the anxiety when there is no need.

Try not to google all your fears because that will make everything seem so much worse. Rather than google a symptom you should email a friend or come here and speak to all the others that are here to help you.

Google is not a friend to us when it comes to symptom checking, it just fuels the fanxiety fire, try hard to stay away from that habit and you will feel better.

Don't let the anxiety control you....take control yourself and stop feeding it.

[lauren6]

If you can touch your chin to your chest without very bad pain, you most likely don't have meningitis. You would feel very sick also!

[Notator]

I can vouch for the "you would feel very sick also" comment - I had meningitis in June this year... trust me on this one, you dont think "I wonder if.." you KNOW!!

Despite what many people think it is eminently treatable as long as it is diagnosed early enough - and being hyper-aware of your health means you're unlikely to "try and soldier on" unnecessarily...hope that's some reassurance for you.

[Notator]

PS... I'm sat next to a photgrapher friend of mine atm who happens to be a retired GP, he said to tell you the vaccinations are very effective and the risk factors VERY low!