pesticides and cancer

[vic003]

Hi guys,

I have been suffering from health anxiety for 10 years now. I am currently pregnant and I feel that since the pregnancy my anxiety has tripled. :( my current worry is this. I was thinking about strawberries and how when I was little i used to eat the strawberries at my auntie's strawberry farm. Anyway, the thought popped into my head that we didn't rinse the strawberries from pesticides. I'm feeling soooo worried bout this causing cancer in the future and i am having difficulty getting rid of this thought. I spoke to my doctor (who is also helping me with cognitive behaviour therapy) and he said that he could not predict what will happen in the future. I need some help overcoming the thought as i don't want to spend the rest of my life worrying that i may get cancer some day. soooo frustrated with myself... :weep: Please please help!!!!!!

[anthrokid]

Hey, a fellow Aussie! :)

It's normal for anxiety to increase with pregnancy, anxiety triples in many 'normal' poeple with pregnancy so for those of us who suffer from severe anxiety already it unfortunately means that it's more than likely to get worse.

Regarding the strawberries I just wanted to say don't worry :) I have never washed a piece of fruit in my life before eating it, and neither has my mother who is one of the healthiest women in the world! Unfortunately the future cannot be predicited, I can however, tell you that eating strawberries with pesticides that long ago won't cause you cancer.

I understand what it's like trying to overcome a thought that you just cant get by. I have a phobia of developing an anaphylactic reaction to one of my many allergies and it can really get in the way. I used to worry about it a lot more but I'm going through a bit of a blip today because I have an 'intolerance' to milk and was told it couldn't be an allergy, but saw on tv last night that some kid was anaphylactic to milk. Terrible night for me!

Just remember, although it is tough to battle, the worries are only thoughts caused by our silly anxiety. In reality it's so unlikely that these things would happen. Everyone worries about the same things we do like cancer from pesticides and allergies, the difference is that they can shrug it off and forget about it whereas we obsessively think about it because our anxiety makes us fear it so much.

[vic003]

Hi Aimee,

Your reponse really made me feel better!! I know that our anxiety 'inflates' every negative thought. When I told my brother he shrugged it off like it was nothing and then proceeded to eat strawberries from my fridge without washing it!!! I do agree that non-anxious people can just shrug it off!! Wish I could do that!! It helps to know that other people don't wash their fruit. That proves I'm not the only one in the world that does it. I also thought that there are many people in the world that smoke- they don't care about the risk of cancer!! So I shouldn't worry about this. I guess I am so scared of the unknown that I feel I will never feel completely happy again!! But I keep telling myself I cant worry about this for the rest of my life.. so forget about it... (it's so hard to though)! Thank so much for your reply. And don't worry about your allergies. As long as you follow doctors orders and be vigilant (not anxious) you will be fine. Remember what is the worst that could happen? You might get a reaction but u must have an epi-pen near you at all times right? Just think of the positive and how you might deal with he worst case (hard as it may be!!!) Best wishes and take care!!!