CBT help pleeeeeeeaaase!

[randomworry]

hi hope everyone is doing good

i have been very depressed lately due to accidently touching my face with a glove contaminated with radioactive material in my uni laboratory. Because of this I got really panicky and depressed and ended up eating and drinking etc before washing my face!

im really terrified that I will get cancer in the near future now!!

anyone know of any CBT tips to help me out

thank you all so much in advance

[KK77]

I haven't got the time to go trawling through all your old posts but I'm sure you've posted this question before.

What was the radioactive material? Iodine? Who knows what the consequences will be in the future but I would have thought that it would be remote that you'd get cancer from this single occasion, unless you make a habit of it.

Don't you have health and safety rules at your uni?

[randomworry]

thanx melanoncholia but what i meant was does anyone know actual cbt techniques to help me with this thinking so i can recover?

[SleeplessFog]

You have to accept that you are worrying about it and let go of the worry. Acceptance is a big part of CBT for me. Some parts of CBT have you rationalize the situation because our worry is very irrational at times. Anytime I am worried about an action or feeling I have to write down how I feel about it, and then rate my anxiety about it. Then I write down all of the possible effects of the action or feeling and the percentage chance they will actually occur. Then I rerate my anxiety again.

I have gotten to the point where I don't write it down anymore, I can do it in my head when anxiety or illness occurs. Just remember that acceptance does not = avoidance.

[messianictalmud]

Hi randomworry I think it's fair to say that people get different things from CBT as we are all individuals, so what works for one wont always work for someone else.
If this is really making you feel down etc then maybe you should make an appointment with either your doctor or surely the UNI should have some welfare counselling service you could approach. All the best.