Fear of brain eating amoeba

[HelloPanda23]

So, I'm nearly 100% sure this fear is super irrational, but it'd like to make sure of it once and for all. This Tuesday, or 5 days ago, I was swimming in my pool and I ended up snorting a tiny bit of water by accident. My pool is chlorinated, but I don't know what levels it is at, and it also is salt water. I will make sure with my parents and ask them the levels of chlorine in the water to completely relax over this stupid fear. This fear began today, and I have had no symptoms of this disease, but I was looking through these forums and I thought, "I'm honestly getting tired of this ALS fear and so let's see if focusing my fear on something else will completely redirect me away from this ALS nonsense." If it did, then that would mean that I truly do have HA and that I'm just indulging myself with stupid fears. I'd previously assumed I'd never fear any other disease other than ALS, and so that must mean I truly will get ALS in the future. After looking in the forums, of course, the one disease I see is brain eating amoeba, and after reading about how someone gets it, I could find myself relating with that. I read a bit more and apparently, this bacteria can't live in chlorinated or salt water pools. Since mine is both, then I logically can't get it. I relax and I'm like, see? Your fear redirected to brain eating amoeba because you have HA and nothing else, and so I go on with my day without fear at all. Then, my mind constantly starts thinking about this brain eating amoeba, and so I research and research, and bam, back to the same HA loop that got me into my ALS fears in the first place. Only difference is, I fear brain eating amoeba more than I fear ALS, and so I'm kind of stuck. Any help, advice? Please!

[jray23]

Yes. Stop Googling. It's like rule #1 for us HA peeps!

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[paranoid-viking]

You are right. People here gets influenced by each other. When I first saw this post I was thinking GOSH, NOT ANOTHER ONE. But I see it is a reflection of this, sorry the expression, crazyness. Thsi June has seen a record on posts about brain eating amoebas. It is now more posts about BEA on NMP than there have been cases of this in the entire history of mankind.

[Bigboyuk]

Hi I think you have answered your own question As you switch between ALS and BEA fears, and you have serious HA and that's irrespective of what physical conditions you presume you have (which you haven't) How long have you been using the pool for now? And as another poster rightly says Dr Google is a no no for HA'ers and will not help you one bit. You fears on both counts are 100% irrational time to get help for your HA ATB

[paranoid-viking]

Hi I think you have answered your own question As you switch between ALS and BEA fears, and you have serious HA and that's irrespective of what physical conditions you presume you have (which you haven't) How long have you been using the pool for now? And as another poster rightly says Dr Google is a no no for HA'ers and will not help you one bit. You fears on both counts are 100% irrational time to get help for your HA ATB

But I must say; there has never been this many BEA amoeba post in the history of this forum as it has been the last months. Someone blame stories in the US media in the summer but; hey; it cant be that much coverage of such sub-mariginal phenonomens; I dont believe it. I believe more that it is a snowball effect; that people get triggered by other posters HERE. On THIS forum. You see; hypocondriacs coming here for support of their fear, then they read a post about something they never heard of(seriously, WHO heard of brain eating amoebas?),do the "forbidden" thing, doo a google search....and BINGO...now they are convinced they have it too because they got water up their nose last time they showered or something.

[Bigboyuk]

But I must say; there has never been this many BEA amoeba post in the history of this forum as it has been the last months. Someone blame stories in the US media in the summer but; hey; it cant be that much coverage of such sub-mariginal phenonomens; I dont believe it. I believe more that it is a snowball effect; that people get triggered by other posters HERE. On THIS forum. You see; hypocondriacs coming here for support of their fear, then they read a post about something they never heard of(seriously, WHO heard of brain eating amoebas?),do the "forbidden" thing, doo a google search....and BINGO...now they are convinced they have it too because they got water up their nose last time they showered or something.

You Are absolutely correct on this there has been a huge rise in this phenonomen on here in recent months so to some members they can see a rise in this and think hell this is me too I must have BEA, and people who join here cause they have had water up their nose from either a swimming pool or shower head are definitely triggered by other members posts And Dr Google is huge trigger too which only feeds the cycle many times over. Yet the truth behind it is it's extremely rare just like rocking horse poop go figure thx for your comments ATB

[MyNameIsTerry]

But I must say; there has never been this many BEA amoeba post in the history of this forum as it has been the last months. Someone blame stories in the US media in the summer but; hey; it cant be that much coverage of such sub-mariginal phenonomens; I dont believe it. I believe more that it is a snowball effect; that people get triggered by other posters HERE. On THIS forum. You see; hypocondriacs coming here for support of their fear, then they read a post about something they never heard of(seriously, WHO heard of brain eating amoebas?),do the "forbidden" thing, doo a google search....and BINGO...now they are convinced they have it too because they got water up their nose last time they showered or something.

But this is a UK forum and look how the members raising this all seem to be in the US. Why not UK members?

That tells me it's not about NMP.

[Bigboyuk]

But this is a UK forum and look how the members raising this all seem to be in the US. Why not UK members?

That tells me it's not about NMP.

True but saying that, isn't that where most of the very rare cases come from in the USA? Not sure why no uk members have joined this forum re BEA from the uk guess there's never been a single case of a uk person contracting the illness ever. That's the only reason I can think of. ATB

[Scass]

[QUOTE=Thsi June has seen a record on posts about brain eating amoebas. It is now more posts about BEA on NMP than there have been cases of this in the entire history of mankind.[/QUOTE]


That really made me chuckle. But then it made me think. There must be something in the news in whichever country the fears are coming from maybe?


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[MyNameIsTerry]

True but saying that, isn't that where most of the very rare cases come from in the USA? Not sure why no uk members have joined this forum re BEA from the uk guess there's never been a single case of a uk person contracting the illness ever. That's the only reason I can think of. ATB

Yeah but fear doesn't always work like that. Look how many rabies posts we've had for the UK and it's very rare here.

It would seem logical to suggest it's more likely for Americans but if you look at the history of these threads they are rare before this year so whilst it might look like a snowball effect now how did it start when you could barely find a thread about it? And if you Google this my money is many sites popping up a long time before NMP in the results.

It points to an external factor for me. New people coming here after they've read it elsewhere.

And why no other countries? That's another reason I think it's more likely a media thing e.g. articles about swimming in lakes and amoebas in traditional Daily Mail fashion. Maybe our American members can tell us?