im not sure if this is ocd or if im just being anxious but i learned what prion disease is (mad cow disease/cjd) but im very nervous, and my head is hurting and that’s scary
to add on im pretty sure i had a mcdonalds cheeseburger which is cow meat and i had an upset stomach after (not sure if its from the burger or my anxiety). i also shared a tiny bit with my cat and now his tummy is upset but i’m not sure if that could be from us switching his food for a day. i’m just scared
@luelleiie mainly scared because once you get prions disease theres nothing you can do but sit and wait to die.
as someone on the outside, this definitely sounds like health OCD to me.
@Anonymous could you give me a little more insight on your perspective from the outside? i’m not sure if it’s health ocd or health anxiety .. i’m sure health anxiety is just being anxious right? and health ocd is actually obsessing and then reassuring yourself? it’s hard to distinguish and i’m not sure, but this is seriously making my head hurt and i even feel like i have lost coordination, which is a symptom of prions disease. i’m just really scared
Call it what you will, health anxiety or health OCD, it’s the same thing and the exact nature of the anxiety/fear doesn’t matter. What matters is that you don’t do compulsions (anything that relieves the distress) so no reassurance seeking, googling, reading medical articles. The only way to break free from the OCD cycle which you are stuck in right now is to be willing to be uncertain. I know it’s scary and feels totally irresponsible but it’s the only way to get over this. Ethan Smith (a wonderful OCD advocate) talks about health anxiety and our scariest thoughts in this podcast. It was very helpful to me. Take care. https://www.youtube.com/live/nUh6Ju6ZUlA?si=-gOGSjOpZVRkv4jr
@VGH thank you, it’s really dreadful to accept uncertainty when it comes to my health but i know i have to do it. i’ll check out the link, thank you!!
Hang in there, it does get easier with practice❤️
Hey! Idk if this will help at all but it helped me when I was going through the same thing, and it was my ocd being super hyper vigilant and like latching into things I normally wouldn’t be worried about, i ended up doing a lot of research on it cause I was so stressed and anxious and the incubation period for prions disease is about 10 years, so that’s when symptoms would start to surface, I’ve been through the exact same thing and it’s super stressful and I’m really sorry you’re going through it now, let me know if this helps at all :)
@Jess U the symptoms taking 10 years to surface scares me :( it’s the same w/ rabies; how with some humans it laid dormant for years before showing up and then they died. how would i even go about getting tested? idk. im just scared i have it, dont know i have it, then its too late when i realize
@luelleiie Just to add this is why you don’t seek reassurance, unfortunately it never works. I know it’s hard, but you need to let this go ❤️
Anybody get ocd about their health ? Like I'm scared I'm going to have a brain aneurysm or something. I'm terrified and have convinced myself something is wrong .
Man, this is killing me. I’ve had very form of ocd I think from POcD, false memory, socd, hocd, perfectionism, contamination, existential and the one that trips me up the most is health ocd. All the stress OCD gives me causes me to feel some pretty weird sensations in my head and lots of depersonalization. I constantly think I’m developing Alzheimer’s, brain cancer, or really just anything else. BUT these fears get a hold of me so well, I actually become forgetful, stutter, experience blurry vision, painful migraines……. And so I get symptoms of the diseases I fear. Any advice this is killing me?🥺
I never realized this was OCD, but i constantly check my bp and i always have my fingers to my neck checking my pulse. I am terrified to die and Im scared to go to sleep at night because I feel like I won’t wake up. I also get really bad headache and feel like it’s a tumor. I feel like I’m going crazy
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