one thing after the other....

[cofo]

well it's back to anxiety land.
i was in my son's bathroom, and noticed the shower pipe looked dusty, so i wiped it off.
we have a shower in there that has a diverter. so, you can use the handheld(which you can keep in place or take off and use), or you can divert water up the pipe and use the rain shower head.
my son doesn't ever use the rain shower head.
so, i wiped it off . then i realized there was a silicone cover on the rain head, and it comes off for cleaning. so, i thought oh i'll clean this off while i'm at it. when i pulled the silicone cover partway off, water came out!
so, now i'm freaking out because who knows how long that water had been trapped in the shower head? weeks? months? years?
i'm scared we could get legionnairres or something from it? that shower steams up alot. and although it wouldn't be coming from the rain head, steam is still in the shower when my son uses it.
i don't google, but i want to know if it's ok for me to clean it off myself. and i want to know that we haven't been exposing our son to legionnaires this whole time.

this is just another thing...i didn't ask for.

[nomorepanic]

You are posting a lot about the same issues over and over. You need to treat the real problem here of anxiety.

Please keep to one thread and post all your worries on there.

[lofwyr]

If that were the case, some of my plumbing adventures surely would have killed me. Waist deep in septic fluids, elbow deep in toilet water. I am sure you are fine.

[cofo]

You are posting a lot about the same issues over and over. You need to treat the real problem here of anxiety.

Please keep to one thread and post all your worries on there.

this isn't the same issue. i've actually never had this issue.
i mean, yes, of course, it's the same...as in it causes me anxiety.
maybe i'm using this board wrong. and maybe it should just be used to seek help about how to handle the anxiety....not reassurance.
but mainly i came on to ask people with anxiety if they know anything about showerheads that don't get used often, and the consequences they may have on our health, instead of googling, i came here. so that i can get some info. that's the beauty of having a forum. it's like minded people(anxious, in this case)coming together to help us get through our life's issues, knowing that we all have the same underlying problem.



as i said, i've been having issues that i just don't know anything about lately...weird crap. like battery acid and plumbing

i did take off the silicone, and cleaned it and the shower head. it had some little black specks on it here and there but i couldn't really tell if it was mold. they looked like tiny bits of pepper. tiny.
anyway...thanks

[cofo]

i did decide i was fine to clean it, and fine that the water got on me. no worries there.
i'm just concerned that it steams up when my son takes a shower, and apparently, steam is what can carry legionnairres. (even though the water is coming from a different shower head, it still steams up in there.)

[nomorepanic]

NO it can't - you are overthinking this

[ankietyjoe]

this is just another thing...i didn't ask for.

This isn't one thing, it's nothing. You're just creating a problem that doesn't exist.

[cofo]

This isn't one thing, it's nothing. You're just creating a problem that doesn't exist.

i like this. getting me thinking....
here's the thing, how do i know it's nothing? that is the problem. standing water, mold, steam....mixed together, they CAN be hazardous, but in what context. that's what i wondered.
but then, back to your statement...i do like that. i need to think about that when i feel the anxiety, am i creating a problem that doesn't exist?
but, on the contrary, i really don't think i do that.
latest worries...
water came out of showerhead that's rarely used. i didn't just make up that water came out. or that it's rarely used.
my tooth/gums bled. then i worried about abscess. i didn't just wonder if my tooth bled, it really did.
battery acid. i didn't just imagine the battery was damaged, it was.


that sums up pretty much my whole world.
i don't just pull crap out of the blue...things happen then i worry.
and that's the problem. i don't know when it's nothing, or when it's not.

[ankietyjoe]

i like this. getting me thinking....
here's the thing, how do i know it's nothing? that is the problem. standing water, mold, steam....mixed together, they CAN be hazardous, but in what context. that's what i wondered.
but then, back to your statement...i do like that. i need to think about that when i feel the anxiety, am i creating a problem that doesn't exist?
that sums up pretty much my whole world.

You don't know, but without any evidence that you HAVE been infected with something unlikely, what's the point in worrying?

You could die crossing the road or driving your car. There has to be a point where you just let life waft you along a little bit and stop worrying about every, single, solitary 'potential' danger.

I've found that it's best to worry about something when it happens, rather than worrying about the possibility. At the moment you are literally creating scenarios in your mind that don't exist. You are playing through a scenario in your mind that hasn't happened, and is unlikely to happen.

In essence, you are torturing yourself.

Next time you feel the need to worry, stand up and say "no". Walk away, go and do something else. You have to retrain your brain to stop worrying about abstract, imaginary scenarios.

[AMomentofClarity]

this isn't the same issue. i've actually never had this issue

The thing is, whether you realize it or not, all of your issues are IDENTICAL. It’s a combination of health anxiety + contamination ocd. Whether it’s contaminated food, contaminated water, or batteries contaminated with acid, you’re repeating the same pattern again and again and again.

Your issue is overall anxiety, not every issue du jour. Treat the root cause.