Health ocd!! 🤒

I would say not to worry about rabies as symptoms would have already occurred in your pets. As long as the bite is healing well you should not be too concerned! I’m sorry your brain is telling you that you have rabies, that’s such a scary disease and is thankfully incredibly rare.

i know exactly how you're feeling!! i went to pet a neighborhood outdoor cat that i've pet a million times before and it nipped at me and i had to call a friend in vet school to promise me i wasnt going to get rabies, and even then i couldn't stop thinking about potentially having rabies for MONTHS!!! but really, if the cat wasn't very noticeably different when it bit you (like VERY different, not just little barely different) or if it was friendly at all or approaching you like it wanted to say hi, there's like no chance it's rabies. so if it's been a week and you're fine and the cats don't seem radically different, you're totally good!! you've passed the time period where rabies would be a concern (and if it's any consolation, it's been 3 years since i got bit by a stray neighborhood cat and i never ended up with rabies!!) also, don't most vets give pets rabies vaccinations anyway? so if your cat has regularly been to the vet, it's likely vaccinated anyway.

I completely understand what you mean about the “what if my brain is telling me this because I actually have it?” thought. That kind of thought can make the uncertainty feel even scarier, because then the OCD starts making the thought itself feel like evidence. I’ve been learning that when my OCD does this, trying to prove whether the thought is true or false can actually keep me stuck in the cycle. At the same time, because you actually had a bite, I wouldn't try to diagnose the situation through OCD reassurance. It might be better to tell your mom and ask a doctor or other healthcare professional about the actual exposure, then let the medical advice be the medical advice instead of repeatedly checking and researching it. And the fact that you only became intensely worried after seeing videos and then kept getting reminded of rabies really does sound like the kind of trigger-and-rumination cycle OCD can latch onto. I deal with that kind of “what if?” loop too. I hope you're doing okay. ❤️