- Date posted
- 4y ago
- Date posted
- 4y ago
At 18 you can make your own doctor's appt, you know. Best to quit googling and ruminating, though. Being that you feel weird about asking family for reassurance about this one, maybe you could use it as a good opportunity for response prevention? Discovering that even if you don't panic and see a Dr, you don't actually drop dead, and the cyst/ingrown hair goes away, can be a powerful experience.
- Date posted
- 4y ago
I’ve always relied on my mother as moral support for when I’m too scared to make appointments or go in myself. I get too nervous by myself. I’ll try and do response prevention, and it seems to be working a bit but I’m still convinced I’m going to die.
- Date posted
- 4y ago
Ugh I'm so sorry. For me, everything is covid 19 so I understand your fear and brain constantly jumping to worst case scenarios. My husband likes to tell me to focus on what's probable and sometimes that helps calm me down. For you, I would say ingrown hairs are much much more probable. I think you should wait this one out. Give it a week or two. I remember having what I thought was a cyst down there was just a really deep ingrown hair that came to the surface after a couple of weeks. Sorry for the tmi but I've just been in this scenario and am trying to explain that it wasn't a day or so to resolve. These things take time. I remember also being a teen finding a lump in my breast. I freaked out, told my mom and she said wait a cycle because your memory gland tissue can change in a cycle. Sure enough it did. Our bodies process lots of things and do weird stuff. Give your body a chance to process.
- Date posted
- 4y ago
It’s been almost two weeks already, so I’m quite nervous about it. I don’t think it’s an ingrown hair though since it’s so under the surface— could be a cyst but it’s the size of about a penny, maybe a bit smaller. My mind has already jumped to cancer though as usual. I’ll try to wait it out maybe a month, I suppose?
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@worryqueen Wait longer. Seriously I've had bad deep ones before. Sorry again for tmi but yes these things take time. I really thought the suggestion if making a plan for yourself was great. I have great fears of covid and I have plans for myself around getting tested. My brain really makes me truly think I'm sick all the time even though me and my partner work from home and dont go anywhere. I tell myself to give myself x amount of time and monitor symptoms. If they get worse I got for a test. More often than not they get better. That it I go for a test. It's good to start building trust with your body. Knowing yourself and learning what's a real emergency and what's not
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@catattak Idk it just seems in a weird place and idk if that’s what it really is or not which makes me nervous. I’ve been there with COVID, too, and still am a bit, but I got tested negative. We can both make it through this, I believe. I just hope there’s nothing seriously wrong with me and I react too late 🙁 should I bring up where it is specifically, or would that be too tmi for a therapist?
- Date posted
- 4y ago
I also say wait it out as well. I have the same problem right now and convinced I have some serious thing with my ovaries. You can create a plan, like say - okay I’ll wait X days or X weeks before I call a doctor. And you can even run the plan by your parent or someone you trust to double check that it sounds reasonable and also so you don’t give in to constantly calling the doctor for appointments/reassurance (you’ll find that giving in to making constant appointments etc provides relief in the short term but not the long term. Soon, an appointment won’t be enough because you’ll just keep thinking oh the doctor missed this, or maybe I should get an ultrasound or a second opinion. Basically, it jus breeds more compulsions or calling the doctor, if not for your vulva, for other minor health sensations/issues). It also helps to let your doctor know about your hypochondria if she doesn’t already. While you wait, it’ll be a good exposure practice to say to yourself “I accept the uncertainty of this situation” when the anxiety arises. Maybe the anxiety will go up for a little or a lot but with repetition it should eventually go down. Then you’ll grow stronger over time with these fears, and overall hopefully be able to more reasonably assess your health/when to seek medical attention. I say all this because I’m going through this same exact process rn and forcing myself pushing through to follow these protocols even if it’s painful at first. I know the long term result will be worth it. My therapist said something recently to me like you’re having these OCD worries probably because you’re afraid of not living, which means you REALLY want to LIVE. But then ironically, what’s the point of living if you’re constantly suffering and not able to enjoy it bc of hypochondria/other anxieties? Hope this is helpful but we got this❤️ I believe in us
- Date posted
- 4y ago
I talked with my therapist about it and she told me the same thing— that it’ll lead to one thing after the other and that I need to sit with the uncertainty right now. I didn’t tell her where the lump was out of embarrassment and am not sure if I should mention it to her... but I’m glad you can understand what I’m going through. It’s so difficult to deal with and I hate it. Thank you for the help ❤️
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@worryqueen Of course! And great! I’m glad you brought it up with your therapist. And better believe I’m experiencing the same worry with my own symptoms but diff areas/disease concerns lol but we are doing great so far starting to change our patterns and getting help :)❤️
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@CocoCurl Yes, it’s nice to get help. I’m just nervous cause it seems like my therapist doesn’t take it as a real health concern when it could be.
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@worryqueen Yea I understand that, I feel that way about literally anyone who I tell about my health issues often - from my sister to my mom to my therapist . Even the doctor at points. But our therapists/loved ones care about our health. But they want us to monitor it in a healthy way, not an obsessive way. And so it may seem like they aren’t taking it seriously bc the way we are currently monitoring our health is v diff (obsessive) from how a typical person would. So to us it may feel crazy or like they’re ignoring serious symptoms. But really we’re kinda drawing premature conclusions about our symptoms and we’re constantly looking for 100% certainty at all times about what our symptoms are, which isn’t possible. And so I’ve been learning that at the heart of it is having to learn how to tolerate some reasonable degree of uncertainty. And that’s what the therapy helps us with! also you can always create a plan with your therapist about when/if you should seek medical attention (like maybe after however many days, weeks, OR if symptoms get worse etc)
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@CocoCurl Thank you, that make sense. I alwyays just assume they don’t care about me, which doesn’t help much. My brain says it’s urgent and I need to get checked out right away, and I guess when others don’t have the same response it make it seem like they’re the ones being unreasonable. But I see what you mean, and it makes a lot of sense. I think I’ll discuss a health plan with my therapist and see what she says. Thank you so much ❤️ I hope I can overcome this and stay healthy in the process!
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@worryqueen Yes yes I so understand, we have really similar journeys based on what you’ve told me! But that’s a great plan and we got this :)❤️
Related posts
- Date posted
- 25w ago
My mind keeps telling me “something is wrong with you. the weird feeling you are feeling or the weird tingling you are feeling or there is a weird mark on your body. Those are actually a severe symptom and by ignoring it you could die!” Or especially the constant, “go to the emergency room because this impending doom you are feeling, yeah that’s because your gonna die shortly” It doesn’t help whenever people say “well if something was wrong your body would tell you” because my mind keeps telling me that what I’m feeling is proof something is wrong and I need to get it checked out. That I actually am severely sick and that I need to get it checked out as soon as possible, that if I get one more test than I’ll be okay because it will prove nothing is wrong. How do I tell my mind that it’s just anxiety whenever my mind keeps telling me “well if you keep saying that you could be ignoring something more serious.” Or “the doctors are just brushing you off..something is wrong with you” It’s hard to live with my thoughts whenever they are constantly coming up with ways to challenge me and challenge logic. New reasons on why I need to get this checked out because “I’m just being ignored” or “no one is listening to me so I’ll just end up dying” My symptoms range from weak and shaking legs and body to dizzy and unbalanced and dissociated. Recently I’ve been getting this tingling feeling inside my head and on the back of my neck. And my temples have pressure on them. My body keeps coming up with new symptoms I need to worry about, whenever most of them are probably caused by severe and constant anxiety. So severe I can’t even leave the house because I constantly worry about whether this is severe and something will happen if I leave the house. I need immediate ways to start fixing this because it’s especially horrible whenever my period comes around and my anxiety/depression is already higher than usual. I’ve even started considering taking medication (Zoloft, 25mg) which is another trigger for me, I worry about the symptoms I might get from taking it. That’s how you know it’s gotten pretty bad whenever I’ve come to taking something that I’ve been actively avoiding. What are your thoughts? Do I take the medication? What are ways I can deal with my symptoms that seem so severe in the moment but pass by once I’m not anxious? What are ways my thoughts can ease and I stop taking every symptom as something serious, because at the end of the day my anxiety is most likely the reason I have these horrible symptoms. I’ve always been extremely healthy and everytime I go to the doctors they express how healthy I am with all the tests I’ve had.
- Date posted
- 15w ago
Sometimes I think " do I like kids?" "Would i get aroused if I saw content with kids?""What if I'm a pedo and cant accept it?" "What if I'm ok with these thoughts?" "What if I'm not distressed enough " "What if I enjoy these thoughts?" , i avoid kids as much as i can, i cant look at them bc I'm scared I'm gonna have some groin like response. I keep testing if I'd get turned on or if I'd have some groinal response to sexual scenarios with kids. Sometimes I think that if I took my life this would be over and i wouldn't have to think about this and i wish i doubted something else instead of things like this. I had similar situations just with different topics such as if i loved or found sexually appealing a guy while in a relationship and i kept asking myself those questions for months and i avoided going to school for weeks and when I went I'd cry and have anxiety attacks. I had it with past actions i obessed over and felt the need to exploit every detail and be honest because otherwise i was being a fraud. I had it for sexual things that happened when i was a child. Im not diagnosed with ocd but should i tell this to my local counselor? Can someone help? Give me advice or tell me anything?
- Date posted
- 11w ago
I’m on my period and o think my ocd feels a little worse today… I feel anxious and like something bad is about to happen, like I can’t move or talk cause I’ll freak out or snap and do something. Also I had a gronial response about an SA topic and I feel horrible, I’ve noticed that I do have these gronials as if I’m actually into that but idk if it can happen that you have the gronial and think “oh I’m horny, not about this but I am” is that possible? Idk how to say it… also I think I just want reassurance but I’m also scared…
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