Dh has a fever and a cough and we are afraid of coronavirus - need to talk

[Flyingfish2019]

Hello,
Just need to talk. Dh has combat ptsd and has been very afraid of the coronavirus ever since this started.
None of us has left the house much and dh works from home and only left the house after nightfall to go jogging (alone) because he was afraid of meeting other people.

Now dh has a fever and a cough. The rest of us are okay. Dh is self isolating now and very afraid and to be honest I feel a bit afraid too.

He doesn’t want to see a gp because he is afraid of catching the coronavirus if he doesn’t already have it.

He has a fever and a cough but NO loss of smell or taste.

I agree, regardless of it being CV he needs help and support and he needs it NOW. It won’t just go away and could escalate.

He can access free online CBT from his local IAPT (NHS talking therapies provision). At assessment he will need to discuss his PTSD diagnosis (and will be asked anyway). they should assign a therapist with good experience of T-CBT (trauma focussed Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and hopefully EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing), both these are the first line evidence-based treatment for PTSD, and they may be able to help him with his health anxiety in the meantime (obviously in the context of his PTSD). His guilty and depressed statements are very typical of the kind of thoughts people dealing with trauma have and one of the helpful elements of trauma focussed therapy is learning a more self-compassionate approach. He can probably access online one to one CBT/EMDR through one of the charities listed above so he doesn’t need to speak in a group.

Feel free to PM me OP and I’ll have a go at finding what’s in your area (I’m a CBT therapist) but right now online provision has expanded who it’s possible to connect with so there is a lot of choice. It would really pay him to tackle this sooner rather than later but it does need to be with someone who has specific training in trauma.

He really needs to access CBT and EMDR thro veteran organisations as standard NH therapists don’t necessarily have the relevant experience.

Well done on getting him tested, OP. I can appreciate the difficulty and the strain.

I know it's hard to hear when people are feeling anxious, and not their most rational selves, but it could just as easily be a Summer cough. Very normal this time of year. And more likely to be that than corona, especially as he's barely been anywhere to catch it.

That being said, get him a test, and at least it'll help put his mind at rest, one way or the other.

So he tested negative for corona. Nevertheless he had a small nervous breakdown. He is okay now.
This is all so stressful. I really don’t like 2020 so far.