Severe Fear of Flesh Eating Disease since someone at my place of work was diagnosed

[Lilly13]

Hi everyone,

I was doing so well with my anxiety, I am busy applying to grad schools and trying to live a wonderful "normal" life. When this awful fear crept in.

So Wednesday when I came into work, ( I work at a group home.) I was told that one of our residents had a rash and some weird boil and was sent to the hospital, so I had to clean out her room. I put on a full smock, mask and gloves to do this job. However, I spent a great deal of time in the room. I was worried immediately as I feared it could be contagious ( whatever it was...) Then I received an email from my boss stating the resident has flesh eating disease... TERRIFYING. From what I have read it is not contagious, unless you are in direct contact with puss of a wound and even then it is not that contagious. However, I obviously can't get this fear out of my brain. I have a little scab from a burn I got last week and I am convinced that is infected with a flesh eating disease because it is pink around the outside. I am also experiencing pain in this hand ...now... since obsessing about it.

I really hope someone can calm me down cause I can feel the beginning of an OCD spiral beginning.


THANK YOU

Very best wishes,

Lilly

[WorryWortAgain]

I'm so sorry this is happening! I understand your fears and I'd probably feel the same way because I have HA too BUT...like you said it's not that contagious and your took precautions. What I would do is call your doctor and have them reassure you but also tell you what you should be looking out for. I'm sure everything is fine though!

[luxxinterior]

Hi...WOW!! I think I would be the exact same as you! Logically though... you have already taken precaution and it is your anxiety which is making you feel bad. I am fairly positive you haven't caught this terrible disease, now you just have to convince your anxiety too... I am sure you will be fine

[Lilly13]

Hi,

Thank you for your reply, my family and boyfriend and even some co-workers are rolling their eyes at me! It sucks, some of my co-workers changed this person's bandaids!!! and they aren't even freaking out as much as I am... how is this possible? LOL I was trying to avoid the hypochondria - going to a doctor for reassurance thing- but i think it is necessary... even if the doctor simply tell me that my scab is not infected, that might make me feel better. I am taking this really hard....

[luxxinterior]

funny how people have different reactions to the same stimulus. Your reaction is different to theirs only because they see the same situation differently. Ask them why they are not freaked out... then you may adopt their way of looking at it, and you may feel less anxious

[Lilly13]

I just texted one of my co-workers to ask, I guess it is because they know it is not really contagious and we all wore gloves so there isn't really a way for the bacteria to get into our skin. I guess I am extra freaked out because of coarse I had a scab when this shit happened. UGH. I didn't even know what this disease was....

[luxxinterior]

Well it is admirable the work you do, and not without risk. Just imagine if the anxious were dealing with the Ebola outbreak of recent times?? .. A true understanding of what you deal with gives you perspective and keeps the anxiety at bay.. I am sure that is the case whatever the situation. But.. On the other hand.. Your fears are totally understandable. And I am sure the fear will subside once you see that you are not at risk

[Lilly13]

Thanks for your replies... its nice to be understood. I do love my job, but the risk is something that I am not made for. My goal is to be a clinical social worker. So all of this stuff that nurses would typically have to put up with is driving me nuts, as I am not the right person for that type of job. Something that keeps helping me, is to think about nurses and how they protect themselves from things like flesh eating disease, they would take the same precautions as I did. Atleast I am anxious enough to take precaution. YAY anxiety.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Why don't they react like you? Because you have an anxiety disorder and you are concerned about health issues. This means you have all the Cognitive Distortions of someone with this disorder...they don't.

But something to consider is that everybody gets anxious and theirs doesn't progress to such intensity and they have a non skewed view of situations. I don't have HA, but I will worry about my health at times in a normal range of anxiety as a non sufferer would. If I worked with you, then yes it would enter my mind but I would automatically start to deal with it and it wouldn't go any further.

With contamination issues, whether this one or HIV/AIDS or anything else, all that matters is the facts. There are clear facts about how virus & disease are transmitted. This won't stop you being anxious but it would stop someone without a disorder (as long as they don't have some other personality trait that could latch onto it) but you need to work a lot harder because your subconscious triggers certain processes aimed at getting a conscious react. The conscious reaction is fear/panic/anxiety/worry and all the negatives that go with that like the CD's I mentioned earlier. This is why CBT works on this reaction point because the more you starve your subconscious of the negative reactions (and emotions, the stronger negatives the better) it will learn not to bother asking the conscious for a reply as it will build new associations between neutral or positive thoughts about the scenario.

[Lilly13]

HI Terry,

I guess thats kind of what I'm struggling with, they don't really know what causes flesh eating disease and or how it spreads. So therefore, I can't talk myself down the way I do about Hep c- which I also deal with at the group home. Its uncertainty I guess, which is something anxiety does not cope well with. I use CBT often and I think I have done well to counter allot of fears, health anxiety is hard because once you read symptoms you will start feeling them. This makes my mind a mess, as I am often thinking "is this sensation real? or is it just anxiety?"

Thank you for your help, I am going to the doctor today to ensure that I take all necessary precautions ie. taking a round of antibiotics and such. As of now nothing too scary has happened, with the exception of my stomach being mildly upset (this could be related to being a nervous wreck?)