Rabies- Bat bite without knowing

[Blue sky221]

A few days ago I was visiting my mother's place and while I was there I noticed a pair of what look like small bite marks and scratches on the side of my neck. The night before I was sleeping in the living room by myself that night and I know this sounds ridiculous but I am afraid that somehow a bat bit me while sleeping. I did cut my hair the day before and did cut some hair around my neck and back of neck but I am not sure if I cut myself or not on accident because I don't really remember it and I feel like I would have if I did. I told my family members about what happened and they all just think I am being ridiculous and that they have never seen any bats in or around the house. I did not see a bat at all when inside the house when I woke up or during the next 2 days while I stayed there but I have read that bats can fit through really small spaces and bites while sleeping can go unseen or unfelt so maybe it bit me and left the house without being seen or there are some in the attic that have gone unnoticed or I got bit somewhere else without knowing. I don't know what to do because I am afraid I am going to end up getting rabies and dying and my anxiety has been so high I can barely sleep and hardly have a appetite. I know it's highly unlikely and there are only 2 cases a year of rabies in the US but I just feel like I am going to be one those 1 or 2 cases a year and die a horrible death from it. I don't want to go to the doctor because they will probably think I am crazy or something for asking for rabies shots because my story does not sound convincing enough for shots at all. Whenever I think about it logically it seems so ridiculous but I can't shake this feeling that I am going to end up dying from rabies within a few weeks and I can't stop thinking about being bitten. I am undiagnosed but I know have been suffering from OCD and Health anxiety for a few years now that I have not gotten help for because I am afraid of the stigma that comes with it so I am pretty sure I am just overreacting but I don't know what to do.

[Fishmanpa]

I am pretty sure I am just overreacting but I don't know what to do.

The 'ol "bat snuck in, bit me and escaped" scenario has been around here on the boards for a while. You know you're being irrational so that's a positive

Real life professional help is the answer. To hell with what anyone thinks, your mental well being is more important!

Positive thoughts

[paranoid-viking]

Rabies has been done to death in here so I post a link to a thread I started:

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=206420

[NervUs]

I want to let you know, I have been going through this too!! About a week and a half ago now, my daughter woke up with redness on her nose (I think it was chapstick) and weird marks, like two red dots. I have never seen a bat in my house, I see no evidence of bat in my house, but my mind went immediately to BAT BITE, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I am about 90% over it, but still wonder about what was on her nose everyday. I still check the house for bats everyday. I am dreading the moment she catches a cold, and all I hear around me is sniffling, so I am sure it is coming soon. I am not obsessive about it at all and my thoughts of it are now fleeting, but I will be happy 6 months from now which is my line in the sand for when we are out of the woods.

Yes, the fear of bat when you didn't see a bat is an irrational fantastical thought. Even so, I called around, my doctor said call the ER, I got the Ask LIne, and they said protocol was to give shots ONLY IF you saw a bat in the house and couldn't know for sure if you were bitten or not. That did not apply to us, so I resisted that part of me that wanted the shots. The shots are nontrivial and also cost about 10,000 smackers in the US, insurance might or might not cover it, so I also didnt want to do that for my imagination on steroids. On some level, I knew it had to be imagination because the few days before I had been googling about wildlife trappers (I thought I heard animals in the attic, but checked, and there are none). I read all about bats invading homes and how to trap them, and then two days later I saw this weirdness and obviously my mind was predisposed to bats. I will DIE if she develops rabies, though, as I do know there is the slimmest of chances that a bat could come in undetected.

HOw do I know this? My incessant "research" at the time of this incident. What I learned was actually pretty reassuring. There have been 17 cases of bats causing rabies without a memory of bite, and just about all of them knew that there had been a bat in the house, they actually saw it, captured, and killed or released. Some people actually picked these Fers up and let them climb up their arm, shudder!!!!!! I tracked down case studies, and it was pretty easy to find news clippings about each situation. Just 3 of them have no recollection of an exposure to a bat at all. But, in some of the 3 cases, it was parents who were remembering in the case of their child, and maybe their kids did not tell. I think all this points to IF WE DID NOT SEE A BAT, THERE IS JUST ABOUT NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT. THere is not an epidemic of bats slyly crawling into homes, biting, then leaving quietly. Most people in this seriously unfortunate situation are aware that a bat got in, lather, rinse, repeat.

I know none of this really helps that much. Rabies fear is in a class of its own, IME. I have been down this road before, unfortunately, and probably will again until the day comes I can live in a cement hermetically sealed bunker somewhere far away from the natural world, lol. Unfortunately, this is one you just have to ride out until your mind lets you see the situation clearly, like in an authentic way, not because people laugh at you or tell you you're crazy or irational or whatever. It just feels so real.

One other piece of reading I did was some doctoral dissertation about rabies throughout history. People have known about rabies for thousands of years and it has made them SH*T their pants for the same amount of time, lol. EVen Aristotle talked about rabies and rabies fear. Apparently, there is something called hysterical rabies. At times when there was no vax for rabies, hysterical rabies was VERY common. Aristotle actually believed rabies was not fatal b/c (the historians guess) he was witnessing so many cases of hysterical rabies, when the patients would get symptoms but get better-- that was PURE anxiety, something I'm sure many of us have experienced!!!