- Date posted
- 5y
- Date posted
- 5y
Hey I’m 17 too and I had a cyst that I thought was breast cancer. I would not stop checking or looking up things on the internet which doesn’t help. Just know that your doctor has a lot more experience then certain online blogs and if they thought it was more serious there would have been more of a rush to do a biopsy. Doctors just like certainty and proving that something is benign is usually what they want. Barely anyone under the age of 30 has had breast cancer and since your growing, benign changes will occur. Everyone experiences them. Try to do something you enjoy and just stick to your normal routine!
- Date posted
- 5y
they thought mine was a cyst at first too but after an ultrasound they saw it was a solid mass. i had such a bad panic attack that i passed out in the office and dry heaved then the doctor told me about the biopsy. but i’ve had this lump for about 3-4 months so i would think that if it was anything concerning i would know by now just from other side effects? idk i have all the symptoms of fibroadenomas but my ocd is just telling me it’s cancer even though i’m only 17
- Date posted
- 5y
@mktropeano Exactly! If doctors think it’s serious they are going to want to do something right away. They’re not going to make any patient suspected to have cancer to wait this long. I know doctors appointments are scary, and even people with ocd get anxious over nothing. I’ve had 2 ultrasounds for my heart that scared me shitless to make sure nothing was structurally wrong with my heart even though doctors were 99% sure there wasn’t!? And guess what! They were right. It’s just precaution. Try and watch something you enjoy or maybe drawing. This will be over so soon! And you might even get to miss school :)
- Date posted
- 5y
@maddiepop28 thank you so much it really means a lot. it’s nice to know that i’m not just crazy and other people our age deal with stuff like this too!! thank you so so much
- Date posted
- 5y
One thing I can tell you is to STAY OFF OF THE INTERENT and do not go down the block hole that is webmd. It is so much easier said than done, but you just have to tell yourself that you cannot worry now, unless you are given a reason to be worried. If you stress yourself out now and it turns out to be something more serious, then you have essentially gone through the anxiety twice. Sending love and light to you and keep us posted ❤️
- Date posted
- 5y
Agree! From someone who had this the easiest but worst thing you end up doing is looking it up online. Do not do this. I know it’s hard but that’s how I was able to break free. Now I suffer with contamination which is a different story.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 23w
hello. i have been going through health scare obsessions for at least 5 years now and it terrifies me. i mainly fear of cancer. i have no reason to fear of cancer because it is not a predominant condition in my family. i have been to check ups for skin cancer and been told it was nothing which relieves me for a short period of time but then i start thinking of other cancer possibilities :( it doesn’t help that im a smoker to deal with the stress of adhd and ocd which just fuels the obsession of lung cancer. i know it would help my fear to stop smoking but thats easier said than done. i have only been a smoker for 3 years and its the only thing that helps right now. on top of this, my brain makes me believe that every intrusive thought i have WILL MANIFEST into existence just from thinking about it! this has scared me so much in the last 5 years and once i told my mum about it and she said "if you ever got cancer we would deal with it, its okay" but that didnt help it just made it worse and the possibility become more scarier! please help me.
- Date posted
- 21w
content warning: MRI results I got prescribed MRIs done on my lumbar and cervical spine over the weekend, and several things came back abnormal in the report. I started to google when I saw a word ending in -oma, got a basic definition of this particular kind of t*mor (probably benign/non-cancerous), realized that googling in this case was for sure a compulsion, caught myself and put my phone away. I told myself, "I have an appointment with my specialist in 2 days. I trust this doctor, so I will delay/not do my own reading until after I talk to her, and only if she recommends further self-education." I stuck to it and I was proud of myself. Cut to the appointmet today. I got lost in the building where her office is and arrived 14 mins late. The receptionist said there's a 15 minute grace period, so I would have to reschedule. No availability for 2 MONTHS, even for telehealth. First of all, I am so ashamed of being late (that's another trigger for me), and so hurt and rejected that they wouldn't talk to me, even very briefly. Now the urge to google is so extreme. There are objectively concerning things in my report, based on what she said ahead of time that we were looking for, and what would affect treatment. I also have a LOT of c*ncer in my family history; 3/4 grandparents, an aunt on each side, and 1.5 bio parents (1 was skin c*ncer, 1 was prec*ncerous polyps removed but considered high future risk to be monitored), so "-oma" and "t*mor" are big red flags in my minds. So while normally I am actually pretty good about living and making peace with my chronic conditions, and health ocd is really only like 5 on my hierarchy, I know that I actually do have to be vigilant about c*ncer in some ways. My balanced solution is sticking to recommended observation scheduling, and then entrusting the research and checking to my trusted providers, so that I am not being negligent nor being compulsive. But now what? I hate waiting. Idk if/when I'll hear from her. Chronic pain in those regions due to curvature and degenerative discs are the reasons I have to get MRIs every couple of years, and now I am so somatically, obsessively aware of that pain and wondering what's going on. This post is a vent, and is my choice to express the anxiety without giving into the desire to google. I'm not seeking reassurance on whether I/my test results are going to be ok. Still, I think just some understanding and/or advice on holding myself accountable for not compulsing would be deeply appreciated. Thanks.
- Date posted
- 9w
I'm going to try and be coherent because I know that sometimes during these moments I tend to babble in fear. I have a mole on the left side of my chest that I've had since I was a kid. Been there for as long as I remember. And I never paid attention to it; it was just a part of my body. I even felt a little sad considering that I might not have it anymore whenever I get top surgery. Yesterday I went down a rabbit hole and landed on Melanoma. Which, of course, prompted me to look at my mole again. And again. And again. It's large, bigger than my other moles. Always has been, at least to my knowledge. I always thought it was cute whenever it crossed my mind. Now...now I'm just scared... I'm not asking for reassurance. None of us on here are medical experts (unless youre an actual doctor) (also insert OCD joke here). I sent a picture to my doctor, and she said that if it hasnt changed size that's a good sign. But she also suggested a follow-up with a dermatologist. And that's what scares me the most. All of this started yesterday, but I sent the message to my doctor this morning. And ever since then...I havent been okay. I can barely eat, and every time I try to I can barely swallow. I've isolated myself in the guest bedroom of my parents house. I cant move. I cant think straight. And...let's just say my thoughts havent been good. Like I said, I'm not asking for reassurance or medical advice. I just...I need help to not feel like I'm dying. I didnt mention that yesterday, in the midst of going down the rabbit hole, I realized how badly I didnt want to be afraid, and yet I also felt like I needed to be afraid. And I realized that that's what ERP is (at least for me in case it's different for everyone). I really did naivietely think that it was just going to be about avoiding compulsions. I didnt realize that accepting uncertainty would feel like a death sentence. And now this has happened. I just...I'm scared. And I dont want to be. I dont want to live in this reality where I'm sick and dying. I dont want to have to tell my family. I dont want to live in that world, but it feels like I'm already in it. My body is just preparing me for it. I dont know. I dont know why I'm even making this post. No one can help me, can they?
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