fear of contracting the hiv virus

[stressed2000]

Ever since I had a surgical operation and the surgon talking about the hiv virus as I was being put to sleep for the surgery I have the dread, fear, anxiety, and phobia of getting this illness. To me sometimes its everywhere and lately its hard for me even shakes someones hand. I also have had some wierd situations that has really spiked the fear up in that past few week. I am on meds for gad and anxiety, I also been seeing a physcologist for a few weeks and its not getting better yet.

Is there anyone who would like to chat sometime just to talk or have any helpful ideas.

Thanks

[Stressed32]

Hi there- do u know why the surgeon would say this? Have you asked? I know that they test bloods before surgury so that if u have it, they know what they are dealing with.
As far as it being everywhere, that is because you are looking for it! You are scared of it and so your mind sees it when it normally would not. This is what happened to me. Then I started thinking...it is a sign...someone is trying to tell me I have HIV....LOL. How realistic is that? Not at all!
You can NOT get HIV from shaking hands with people. It is a bloodborn disease that lives in blood. So unless you shake hands with someone who
1. has the virus
2. is bleeding a great deal from their hands
and 3. u have a cut on your hands
then this is impossible. What you have is GAD spiked with a little health anxiety. My advice to you is to stay off google! If you continue to let your anxiety grow, you will begin to have physical symptoms and u will google them and u will see HIV. Stress causes your body to make a hormone called cortisol. Over time, lots of cortisol in your body begins to weaken your immune system (just like hiv would) and u will have symptoms similar to those of hiv. So try to relax and educate yourself about the realities of this disease. If you search for HIV in the forums, there are others just like us and there are also some great links for you to read about the risk of the disease. Good luck and welcome...u r among friends.