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Thread: Rabies worry help

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
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    Re: Rabies worry help

    Quote Originally Posted by Scottyboy View Post
    So on Sunday night I went to the emergency room to tell them I was potentially bite by something but I’m not sure what. The doctor told me to go play the lottery when I told him about my concern that it was a bat.
    Smart Doctor! Sorry, but that's pretty much what everyone is telling you

    Positive thoughts
    __________________
    "Eat. Drink. Enjoy the work you do. Be thankful for the blessings God gives you in this life. Live, love and seek out the things that bring your heart joy. The rest is meaningless... Like chasing the wind." King Solomon

    The best help is the help you give yourself! http://cbt4panic.org/

  2. #12

    Re: Rabies worry help

    Could anyone recommend steps for dealing with the urge to entertain that worry when it arises?

    I am really trying to put some space between myself and that thought.

    At the moment I have a sentence or two that says I noticed I’m worried, my brains just trying to look out for me.

  3. #13

    Re: Rabies worry help

    I completely understand your fears; I'm currently in therapy over rabies fears that are plaguing my life. What helps me most when I start worrying is to remember I brought my concerns up to a doctor (actually to a doctor, an ER, a veterinarian, and the state health center), and all of them have said I do not need to worry about my fears. The thing I try to remind myself when I start getting really worked up is that none of these people would tell me that if there were ANY doubts. It helps calm me down; but I am still not able to remove these fears from my daily life. Therapy has helped tremendously so far and I've only been in it for a few weeks. Before therapy I was hardly able to function because my body was so stressed.

    Also, keep a diary of your thoughts. It might sound silly, but it really helps because you can look back and see how your thoughts have progressed or stayed the same. This especially helps if you have any symptom related problems.

    I wish you the best!

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    24,667

    Re: Rabies worry help

    Quote Originally Posted by Crevan View Post
    I completely understand your fears; I'm currently in therapy over rabies fears that are plaguing my life. What helps me most when I start worrying is to remember I brought my concerns up to a doctor (actually to a doctor, an ER, a veterinarian, and the state health center), and all of them have said I do not need to worry about my fears. The thing I try to remind myself when I start getting really worked up is that none of these people would tell me that if there were ANY doubts. It helps calm me down; but I am still not able to remove these fears from my daily life. Therapy has helped tremendously so far and I've only been in it for a few weeks. Before therapy I was hardly able to function because my body was so stressed.

    Also, keep a diary of your thoughts. It might sound silly, but it really helps because you can look back and see how your thoughts have progressed or stayed the same. This especially helps if you have any symptom related problems.

    I wish you the best!
    Excellent advice!

    Positive thoughts
    __________________
    "Eat. Drink. Enjoy the work you do. Be thankful for the blessings God gives you in this life. Live, love and seek out the things that bring your heart joy. The rest is meaningless... Like chasing the wind." King Solomon

    The best help is the help you give yourself! http://cbt4panic.org/

  5. #15

    Re: Rabies worry help

    I want to thank everyone for their helpful comments.

    I have a pretty good script going at the moment I thought that I’d like to share:

    “I notice I am having the thought that...

    I am aware that I am having the feeling that...

    I notice I am having that sensation that...

    I notice I am having the memory that...”

    ... I have been using this every time the urge to worry about R comes up. It’s tough, it lurks in the background, my brain keeps trying to say “what if it really was a bat? You’ll neve know”. This script has helped buy me some time, putting space between myself and the thought. I hope that it’ll help me with the next few weeks as I know I will continue to worry until a decent amount of time has passed.

  6. #16

    Re: Rabies worry help

    Well it has been a good and not so good week with this fear. On one hand, I have been pretty good at not falling into the spiral of worry about my foot/ankle (it keeps coming up in my brain). However what I can’t seem to shake is that my foot feels so sensitive and irritated. Like my shoe and sock touching it makes it feel irritated and stinging. It’s not on the injury site but close by maybe 5cm (the bite has completely healed). Of course my beak keeps focussing in on the irritation: “I’ve never felt this sensation in my foot before”, “these aren’t new shoes so why are they bugging me”.

    So what gives? Did my mind fabricate these symptoms in my foot. Is it possible that reading all of the crap online about rabies made my mind imagine these sensations in my foot? Now my ankle feels hyper sensitive to everything including my sock etc.

    It’s funny because I have come to terms with what happened but now my mind seems to be tuned into my foot nonstop checking for feelings and sensations. Did the focus on my foot make it feel hypersensitive? Am I going crazy?

  7. #17

    Re: Rabies worry help

    You can 100% feel symptoms that aren't actually there. I recently had a similar scare where I found 2 bite looking marks on my foot and whenever I think about it, my foot suddenly starts feeling itchy/numb/painful, but I don't notice it at all when I am busy doing other things. If it were truly a bite, it would have hurt when walking and such, I'm sure! Though it will start to hurt after I've poked at it several times trying to see if it hurts LOL I'm causing the irritation myself, have you been doing similar?

    Even if you think you've come to terms with it, your subconscious will continue to say that you need to be afraid.

    I am speaking from such a very similar feeling at the moment, I'm having a rough time as well. While it's easy to tell others that they are fine, I 100% understand the feeling since I think I'm not fine! As much as I would never wish for anyone to suffer from health anxiety (especially over something so ridiculous, as we both know it is ridiculous!), it is comforting to see that I'm not alone in this, especially considering our current situations are very similar.

  8. #18

    Re: Rabies worry help

    Thanks for the comment. Yep, 100% the same for me. If I’m bored at work or not challenged during the day my mind will focus on that worry. However if I’m out enjoying myself and I’m busy I don’t even notice it. It’s crazy.

    Ah yes I was poking myself a lot as well. I actually caused a bruise on my foot!

  9. #19

    Re: Rabies worry help

    Yep, I've caused bruises on other marks/spots that I was worried about with this concern. (I'm up to 4 spots that I still will focus on from time to time).

  10. #20

    Re: Rabies worry help

    Hi Everyone,

    Just an update: I have been getting treated for OCD with a therapist, using a combination of ACT and ERP.

    Things are improving in that I'm no longer obsessed with Rabies but it still rears it's head once in a while in very irrational ways. I recently cut my finger on a bottle opener when I was opening wine. I was not even outside (it was a bottle opener from the kitchen) and my mind keeps going back to rabies - trying to get me to ruminate about it and to reflect on whether there was animal saliva on the opener (which is IMPOSSIBLE). It tries to get me to imagine saliva on all sorts of things (door handles, kitchen items, blankets, etc). In short, the irrational worry has morphed to the fantastical - almost delusional. At this point I've learned to not even entertain it and to ignore it, but it's still frustrating. I know that cutting my finger on a bottle opener is a 0% chance of rabies infection but my mind still keeps trying to force me to worry about it. It's extremely frustrating.

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